Editor’s note: Mark Kennedy will sign copies of his book, “Life Stories: A Collection of Columns,” 3-5 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble in Hamilton Place mall.

I had cars on my mind last week.

I sold my wife’s 1998 Camry named “Bernard” to a nice college student down the road. As part of the deal, she promised to let Bernard keep his name.

Last week, I was also scanning Web sites for news about the General Motors bankruptcy and the related idling of the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., south of Nashville.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, writer P.J. O’Rourke wrote that the words “bankrupt General Motors” are about as “melodramatic” as “Mom’s nude photos.”

I wouldn’t go that far, but I get the point. For much of the 20th century, mom, apple pie and Chevrolet were indeed American icons.

I grew up in Maury County, home of Spring Hill, and the giddiness that enveloped my home county when GM first opened the import-fighting Saturn plant there in 1990 is eerily similar to the Volkswagen-plant euphoria in Chattanooga today.

It only took 19 years for things to change — dramatically.

GM said it would ice the Spring Hill plant, which now assembles the Chevrolet Traverse, a nice crossover SUV. There’s a chance the plant might reopen later to produce a new, game-changing small car, the company said. (Hmm, sounds like Saturn.)

I started thinking about why car companies ebb and flow.

On the night I sold Bernard, several potential buyers were racing to my house on Signal Mountain to test drive the old Toyota. Most were baby boomers looking for cars for their children or grandchildren.

One fellow, who drove over from Whitwell, Tenn., asked me incredulously, “Tell me something, buddy. Why in the world would you sell a Camry that has only 136,000 miles on it?”

I realized that he had just answered my question about car-company loyalty. Most of the people who called about the old Toyota were baby boomers who have grown up reading consumer magazines and buying import automobiles because of their long-term reliability. Most were looking for a safe, steady car for their young-adult children.

Much as our parents swore by American-made cars, many baby boomers have grown up believing — sometimes erroneously — that import autos are intrinsically superior.

For the last two months, I’ve been writing car reviews for the Times Free Press, and some of the American-made GM and Ford products I’ve driven are amazing vehicles.

Still, it takes sometimes a generation to turn the ship of public opinion. For the sake of thousands of Tennessee families that depend on the Spring Hill plant for their daily bread, I hope GM emerges from bankruptcy and fires up the Maury County plant as soon as possible.

As for Volkswagen, there are encouraging signs that the company may be part of the next wave of consumer popularity. Many of my younger friends drive VW Jettas and seem to have embraced VW as part of their culture. I just drove a new VW Touareg SUV with the company’s “clean diesel” technology and was blown away by its styling and performance.

Still, for car companies that want to endure, product reliability is ultimately more important than performance. That’s a story line that unfolds over decades and gets passed from parents to children.

Thanks for the reminder, Bernard.