Don’t Bail Out US Automakers
November 17, 2008 – 12:41 pm by kimsch#dontgo has a petition up to send to Congress to protest bailing out US automakers.
You can go here to sign it.
CW has it that American car makers don’t make cars that people want to buy. I don’t think that’s the real reason. People want the cars that Detroit builds, otherwise they wouldn’t buy those cars at all. I see so many pickups and SUVs around, especially here in northern Illinois. Often times, the only way to get out of the driveway after the snowplow goes by is with a 4 wheel drive vehicle.
The reason is that people don’t want to spend that $5K-$10K premium per vehicle that is added to the price of the vehicle to cover the unsustainable labor contracts that the Big Three are currently burdened with.
Smaller, more fuel efficient, more eco-friendly vehicles are all well and good, but a Smart car, adorable as it is, can’t carry my family. A Smart car won’t get over the plow sh*t at the end of my driveway. And that’s the stuff that’s the hardest to remove… Icy, watery, heavy crap that the plow leaves along the side of the road. Depending on the accumulation, those piles can be more than a foot high. Easy to traverse with a four wheel drive SUV, impossible with a smaller car.
People also don’t want to pay a premium in the thousands for eco-friendliness (e.g. 2009 Saturn Vue FWD base price $23,745 eMPG 19City/23Hwy vs Hybrid Saturn Vue $28,625 eMPG 25City/32Hwy - a $4,880 difference.) We have one vehicle, an SUV. It handily accommodates our entire family. A sedan could accommodate the three kids and two adults too, but that’s all. We couldn’t take Grandma or a friend, or my sister, her husband, and her daughter with us as we can with our 8 seat vehicle.
And don’t even try a run to Costco or Sam’s Club with family in a small sedan. We once had a 1982 Toyota Corolla Tercel and only two kids at the time. You should have seen it. We had to pack it like a clown car with all the stuff and try not to suffocate two children while doing it.
Since we just have the one vehicle, I have to walk to the elementary school to pick up The Little Guy. It’s a mile there and back. I wear a leg brace and use a cane too. One of those Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) or a Smart Car could work for that, and for the small amount of close-in travel to the Post Office, Dunkin Donuts, the grocery store, etc that I might do during the day, but these little, tiny, eco-friendly vehicles cost about the same as a larger compact car does. And the gas powered car goes much further than the 40 mile range of a plug in electric.
Let’s not bail out the US automakers. Let’s allow them to declare bankruptcy and shed the unsustainable labor contracts. Let’s give the US automakers the same advantages that the foreign automakers here in the US currently enjoy.
Tags: bail outs, US automakers
You know I cannot believe for one minute that you people on the hill can’t give a Bailout to the auto industry but you can to those crooked bankers who got us in this mess in the first place. Auto makers pay people working wages where as banks don’t. Auto makers are what keeps our economy going because they pump funds into consumer hands and banks just rob people blind. I remeber awhile back what happened to a town when an auto plant closed. It completely died. Have you no sense of urgency in this matter? My grandfather worked for gm my father worked for gm my father in law works for gm my sisterinlaw works for gm my brother in law works for gm both my wifes grandmothers worked for gm. Her aunt worked for gm. They took good care of them even after retirement. And while they worked for them. No other company has done that much for people. Gm makes great cars that get better gas mileage than those japanese ones, but all you see is the smoke and mirrors those SOBS put up and believe it, do some research and see. They don’t have to compete with us in Japan because we can’t sell our vehicles over there. but here they are coming into our country pedeling their garbage and we just eat it up. I see honda and toyota building plants here and giving people jobs but they don’t have to pay to build those plants or do they have to pay for the land they are on. We just gave it to them. What about state taxes GM Ford and Chrysler pay them but those Japanese companies don’t. They have an unfair advantage that we don’t have. they build crap and sell it to those in japan at jacked up prices then fix all the faults in the vehicle and turn around and sell it here at a loss that was made up from the prices they charge overseas. It is not like our vehicles aren’t wanted overseas it’s that they are not allowed to be sold and if they say they are they are full of it. They tell us our vehicles have to be inspected by their inspectors before they can be sold but their inspectors let them sit on the docks till the tires rot off of them or they are no longer wanted. Explain this, Why was it that when GM sent the Hummer h3 Which by the way gets better mileage than a toyota that is in the same class, Sold out in Australia? You tell Our auto makers that they don’t make anything people want. Yeah right. Gm has always been inovative but they never stick up for themselves well I will and I have had it with the lies of japanese auto makers. Gm had the first antilock brake system they had the first displacement on demand they had the first hydrogen powered fleet they had the first all electric car that was practical they had the first Displacement on demand engines I could go on and on. And this doesn’t even include chrysler or ford. We use GM, Ford, And chrysler at our base And there is no way in hell a toyota could keep up with them with all the punishment they recieve. I love my GM’s. I believe if it isn’t american it’s garbage. So save our bread and butter save our pride. and start tariffing the crap out of those foriegn cars so our auto makers can survive. and throw them a bone. I can’t imagine a world without an american car company. Our government bailed out chrysler once now fix what you helped to cause and make things right before the middle class suffers anymore. Sorry for being so angry but I cannot take the stupidity anymore.
Oh Lord…The comment overshadowed your post here.How do you handle all this?
I just let it flow. I generally don’t delete comments unless they are full of profanity or ad hominem attacks.
You were stuck in Spam, sorry about that…
Although the post was quiet insightful…i found it to be a bit lenghty.But anyways thanks for the info.Hmm…Transmech seems to be quite angry about the whole thing.