Foreign automakers felt snubbed by President Obama at Washington Auto Show

President Obama in Chevy Volt at Washington Auto Show.

Representatives of non-US-based automakers Honda, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota are angry that President Obama snubbed them at the Washington Auto Show on Tuesday. According to reports, Obama walked past the cars made by the foreign-based companies, even though they had gone to considerable trouble to bring in their most fuel-efficient vehicles, at the request of the White House, for the occasion. The automakers were told that the president wanted to see “green” cars. Obama reportedly spent most of his half-hour at the show being photographed with American cars such as the Dodge Dart, Fort Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette.

The foreign carmakers’ representatives waited for the president to ask questions about their products, but he didn’t ask any.

The CEO of the Association of Global Automakers, Michael Stanton, was quoted in Automotive News: "Many of our members bent over backwards to meet the request from the White House. We were just terribly disappointed that the president refused to recognize the commitment that our members and others have made to the manufacturing base of the United States.”

That commitment includes an investment of more than $43 billion and more than 80,000 employees in the United States, according to Stanton.

The president of the group that organizes the Washington Auto Show said that he didn’t think the president had deliberately snubbed the foreign automakers. Rather, the president was “checking up on the investment that he made,” a reference to the fact that the Obama administration had provided billions of dollars to bail out the failing US car companies in 2009.

Obama used the occasion to praise the domestic automakers and to score points agains his Republican rival Mitt Romney who opposed the bailout.

“It’s good to remember the fact that there were some folks who were willing to let this industry die. Because of folks coming together we are now in a place where we can compete with any car company in the world,” he said.