By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. Today’s column will be, well, a little different and unexpected, because as long as we’re living in this automotive Twilight Zone between the end of the ICE era and the dawn of the BEV era, things are bound to be more than a little unsettled. Or boring. Or both. It seems like the entire industry is lost in that traditional mindset of “It won’t be long now!” Translation? Give us another year and we’ll be smokin’. In the meantime, have another SUV and you’ll be fine. Or something like that. If the boring and soulless EQE SUV and AMG EQE SUV are the best Mercedes can do for its EV SUV entrants, then we are doomed, and this industry is officially out of ideas. (See them again in this week’s On The Table. -WG) With that in mind then, I have a few questions for you (as inspired by one of my heroes, David Byrne)…
Go ahead and ask yourselfWhat am I doing?Go ahead and ask yourselfAnd what is it for?Go ahead and ask yourselfAm I going where I want to go?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I just running in place? Go ahead and ask yourselfIs this as good as it gets?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I missing something?Go ahead and ask yourselfIs this the life I signed up for?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I going through the motions? Go ahead and ask yourselfAm I spending my time asking why?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I living for why not?Go ahead and ask yourselfDo I have it finally figured out?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I closer to where I started? Go ahead and ask yourselfHave I stopped learning?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr am I better than yesterday?Go ahead and ask yourselfAre my regrets stifling my soul?Go ahead and ask yourselfOr is my past fueling me forward? You may ask yourselfAm I still writing chapters?You may ask yourselfOr is it time for my next act?You may ask yourselfIs this all there is?You may ask yourselfOr am I good right here? You may ask yourselfIs it time to run?You may ask yourselfOr can I run but not hide?You may ask yourselfIs this the best me?You may ask yourselfOr a pathetic facsimile? You may ask yourselfAm I ready for The Future?You may ask yourselfOr am I mired in the way it used to be?You may ask yourselfWill it really be all that new?Or will it be the same as it ever was?
I’ll leave it to The Man himself, Mr. Byrne, to close things out:
You may ask yourselfWhat is that beautiful house?You may ask yourselfWhere does that highway go to?And you may ask yourselfAm I right? Am I wrong?And you may say yourself”My God! What have I done?”
And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.
Editor’s Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on “Next 1 Entries” below. – WG
