Politics & Power Quote by Freeman Thomas

“Smaller vehicles done in an American way” is a tidy piece of design-world diplomacy: it admits the market is moving toward compactness while refusing to concede the cultural ground that size once owned. Freeman Thomas isn’t just talking about wheelbases; he’s negotiating identity. In the U.S., “small car” has long carried a whiff of compromise - less power, less safety, less status. So the phrase “American way” functions like a protective coating. It promises that downsizing won’t feel like austerity, that you can have thrift without tasting virtue.

The intent is commercial, but the subtext is psychological: persuade buyers to interpret constraint as choice. “Huge opportunity” reframes what might be seen as an external pressure (fuel prices, urban congestion, emissions regulation) into an optimistic, almost entrepreneurial moment. Designers love that move because it turns limits into a brief.

Context matters here. This kind of language spikes when U.S. automakers are trying to catch up to long-standing compact-car expertise elsewhere, especially Europe and Japan. Instead of saying “We need to build smaller cars because everyone else already does,” Thomas pitches it as an American innovation challenge: make compact vehicles that still deliver the familiar domestic cues - bolder stance, comfort-first interiors, tech as reassurance, maybe even a hint of muscle. The line is less a manifesto than a bridge, built to carry American pride across a shrinking footprint.