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I’ve always been crazy about anything with an engine.
After years of pestering my father, he finally let me drive a car - at nine years of age. At 14 I taught myself to drive stick shifts and then how to ride motorcycles. Later, I also learned to fly and have had my pilot’s license for 22 years. Working on, riding, driving, restoring, photographing and writing about all these wonderful machines has always been my passion. I've been an auto vo-tech and smog test instructor, certified master technician, vehicle inspector, shop foreman, service manager, service director, and shop owner. Over the years I’ve owned about 35 bikes and 50 cars and trucks, a lot of which I wish I had never sold!
Hello out there in Cyberland. I’d like to thank my friend of many years, Robert Patton, for inviting me to be a part of the Turbo Diesel Register. You may have recognized my name from bylines in Trailer Life and MotorHome magazines, or maybe not. Anyway, the esteemed Editor enlisted me because—I speculate—he knew I had opinions about nearly everything and sometimes have periods of lucidity when I can write them down.
This blog is about Dr. Dieter Zetsche, or Dr. Z, the walrus-mustachioed new company spokesman in Daimler-Chrysler commercials. (You may have noticed my last name, which makes it PC to bash the Germans a little bit.) Dr. Z seems like an OK guy and is working hard as the current Chairman of the Board of DaimlerChrysler to regain profitability. He also had a major role in the “merger” of Chrysler with Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler and that’s where the rub is. This was supposed to be a “marriage of equals” but time has shown otherwise, with Chrysler being treated more as the stepchild by the Board of Directors.
After watching his commercials, several things come to mind though. The Germans from Daimler-Chrysler are using a German (who was instrumental in making one of our Big-Three automakers in effect a subsidiary) as a pitchman to get us to buy American. Am I missing something here? What’s wrong with using an American? With roughly 300 million of us, there must be one who is qualified. Do you think the Germans are hiring Americans as pitchmen in Germany to convince buyers to choose a Mercedes? I don’t think so. Also, humor doesn’t translate well from one language or culture to another. And Nissan already had a Dr. Z. Will somebody please tell the “new” Dr. Z that.
I think that the readers of TDR are probably the audience least likely to buy a vehicle because of a cutesy advertisement. You chose Cummins power for its durability, mileage and pulling power and want to know how much torque it has, not whether a mustache is real. Thanks for listening and let us know what you think.
