He doesn't get much sympathy in the comments. One "fact" he has wrong. The auto industry wasn't targetted. The Big Three CHOSE to go metric in the early 70's, mostly because of their foreign operations. We drove our suppliers including the steel industry. The steel industry claimed to Congress that the cost of conversion would be astronomical. When GM said they were buying metric sizes, the industry said "what sizes would you like, sir." The rest of us followed in their wake. No other industry supplying us put up much of a fight.
However, I will freely admit that if it really sold more cars, we would be glad to divide the engine displacement by (0.254 dm/in)³. I'm not sure why we prefer liters and the European industry prefers cubic centimeters. I hope the author doesn't think engine displacement is the only thing metric on the car. :) ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010 2:58:54 AM Subject: [USMA:47631] Metric motors in the USA Dear All, This item from USAToday might interst you: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/06/metric-madness-how-automakers-refuse-to-give-it-up/1 Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe.
