What the Car Companies Want From Obama

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Still think that improving the MPG on autos is a joke? Read today's news.
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Pamela Rainsong of FL 3:40PM January 26, 2009

RECENTLY ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL WE WATCHED A PROGRAM ABOUT THE COMPLETE SUBWAY THAT LIES UNDER LOS ANGELES. IT WAS PURCHASED IN THE EARLY 1900'S BY GM AND CLOSED DOWN SO THAT PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO BUY MORE CARS FOR TRANSPORTATION AND CONSEQUENTLY GM MAKE MORE MONEY. THE FILM SHOWED THESE CLOSED DOWN TUNNELS WHERE THE SUBWAY USED TO RUN. GM HAS SUFFERED FROM VERY POOR MANAGEMENT DURING THEIR HISTORY AND THOUGHT THAT IF THEY BUILT CARS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WOULD BUY THEM NO MATTER WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE OR WERE AS FAR AS QUALITY. WE HAVE OWNED MANY GM CARS IN OUR 60 YEARS OF DRIVING. NO ONE EVER SENT US A QUESTIONAIRE TO FIND OUT WHAT WE MIGHT WANT ON A CAR OR IF WE WERE SATISFIED. GM ALSO MADE A DECISION 20 YEARS AGO TO GO WITH THE MORE PROFITABLE LARGE SUV'S AND PICKUPS INSTEAD OF WORKING ON MORE FUEL EFFICIENT CARS. NOW WE HAVE TO BAIL OUT THE COMPANYS FOR THEIR POOR DECISIONS AND CAN'T BUT WONDER IF IT IS JUST POURING MONEY DOWN A RAT HOLE. THERE IS NO BAILOUT FOR THE COMMON PERSON WHO HAS WORKED HIS WHOLE LIFE TO PUT A PENSION FUND TO RETIRE ON. WOULD BE NICE IF THE BANKS AND CAR COMPANIES COULD GET OVER THEIR GREED AND DO BUSIESS IN AN HONEST WAY.

ORVIN of CO 3:42PM January 16, 2009

Finally, the CEO of GM gets it! America needs a gas tax (or an oil tax, which is almost the same thing). Europe grew up years ago, and started taxing gas heavily. This greatly reduced their demand for oil over the last couple of decades. I was in Germany over the summer, and paid $9.19 a gallon for fuel. Luckily, my little Mercedes hatchback I was renting got 37-40 mpg. I don't think we need to drive up the price of gas to $9.19, but it should be high enough to get Americans focused on conserving fuel. When OPEC put the squeeze on us in the early 1980's, we responded by cutting oil usage by 30%. We can do the same thing again.
The best tax to have would be a variable oil tax (to replace the current gas tax). When the price of oil is high, the tax would go to zero. When the price of oil is low, the oil tax would go higher. Collect half the difference between a fixed value, like $120/bbl, and the current London Brent crude price. When oil is at $40/bbl, the tax would collect $40/bbl, and drive up the price of gas by about $0.90/gal or so.
This would also be the best foriegn policy we could have. We are the only nation on earth stupid enough to fight both sides of a war. And that's exactly what we did in Iraq. Our wasteful use of oil drove the price of crude up to record levels, giving Iran unprecedented wealth to spend on the Iraqi insurgency. In effect, Americans were paying Iraqi insurgents to kill American troops.
Small-minded dimwits will tell you that any tax is bad, and that the government will find some way to waste your tax dollars. So you'd rather Iran and Russia spend your money? (Even though we don't buy a drop of oil from Iran or Russia, our policy of wasting oil is putting huge amounts of money in their pockets. We are paying for hundreds of nuclear centrifuges a year for Iran, and tanks and warplanes for Russia so they can invade their neighbors. George W. Bush's failure to recognize these simple facts sets him aside as America's most incompetent president in almost a century.

chem e of FL 10:52PM January 15, 2009

What the USA public wants in order to buy American cars are ones that offer value and dependability and pazzaa.
Lets build the fibre cars that cut weight and get 100MPG and offer the big, comfortable cars Americans want. We do not want the little electric cars. We do not want to be forced into this when there is technology that will give us the neat cars we want.
The union and managment has to get its demands right too.

Charles of FL 4:37PM January 14, 2009

all the hype about improving the MPG on automobiles is a joke. Chev. had the Geo, which would get 45 MPG on city driving and they stopped making it!!!! I can't believe that there has been no advances in the engineering of internal cumbusion engines in the past 50 years!!! We should have cars getting over 50 MPG readily avilable, for under $10,000. Some day some one will uncover the consiprity to keep the public burning more gas to generate more gas tax money for the government to spend as they see fit.

of KS 1:11PM January 14, 2009

All the world's automakers agree and have previously stated that the future lies in hydrogen fuel cells and that only a fueling infrastructure is lacking to revitalize the industry. It is folly to pump more money into an industry which knows they must retool very soon to produce fuel cell autos. Fuel cell autos have less parts, easier to assemble, require less personnel, smaller assembly lines, less expertise and greater speed of production. They consist primarily of a power source (fuel cell and fuel tank), drive motor and wiring. No fuel lines, coolants, bulky engine, emissions equipment, drive line, etc... Completely plug & play. We need only a fueling infrastruture with an estimate of $10B for the first 1 million autos and private industry taking over afterward. Sounds like a plan???

Ray Fisher of NM 12:05PM January 14, 2009

The federal government (or states like California) can mandate fuel efficiency standards for cars, but they can't make the public buy those cars. Lots of consumers shifted from cars to lower efficiency SUV's and trucks after the govenrment imposed the first set of CAFE standards.
Most consumers will not pay four or five thousand dollars more for a car that gets 10 MPG more at current fuel prices. Even 4 dollar a gallon gasoline does not provide sufficient incentive for the public to pay the extra cost.
Without higher gasoline proces or incentives to purchase high fuel ecomony cars (such as tax credits) the automotive industry faces difficult times for the next decade. In 2016, several states paln to impose fuel efficiency standards that are about 10 MPG higher than the federal standards will be. Without high fuel prices, this will cause a massive decrease in auto sales and doom the remaining US car industry.
Amazing that our political "leaders" can't understand simple economics.

Bod of TX 2:09PM January 13, 2009