Posted on 01/22/2014 6:06:20 AM PST by MichCapCon
DETROIT — My muffled chuckle was not appreciated by the 20-something clipboard carrier hovering around EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy here at the auto show.
I tried to restrain myself as McCarthy emerged from a tiny Chevy Spark tucked along a wall at the General Motors display.
"This is my baby," she said turning back to admire the micro car.
I chuckled.
Her statement was as amusing as it was telling. After all, only a bureaucrat could look at a car that almost no one will buy and beam with pride. The only thing less popular than ultra tiny vehicles in America is Congress.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow wasn't far behind. The Lansing Democrat who famously told The Detroit News editorial board that she could feel global warming when she flies, also kicked the small car’s tires and climbed in to see the fruits of her and her colleagues’ government mandates.
Sanity returned at a Ford Motor Co. press conference nearby. And it came from Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who channeled his inner F.A. Hayek during a question and answer session with reporters and bloggers.
"We’ll always make the cars and trucks that people want," he said. "I think the automobile industry is always going to be driven by economics."
I leaned over to the guy sitting next to me to confirm what I just heard. After all, most of the press conferences and even the question and answer sessions with executives are closely scripted and lack any depth.
He went on: "The most important thing we can do is to continuously improve the internal combustion engine" because it's going to be around "for a long time."
I was stunned. And encouraged.
Despite the best efforts of bureaucrats, the auto market in the United States is largely driven by consumers. That's why the Ford F-150 pickup has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than 30 years. The Dearborn automaker sold more than 760,000 last year.
GM sold more than 418,000 Chevrolet Silverado pickups in 2013; Chrysler sold more than 355,000 Ram trucks. Those were the top three vehicles sold last year and accounted for 1.6 million of the 15.6 million vehicles sold in the United States in 2013.
That translates to jobs and money into local economies across this country. None of that happens with the sale of electric vehicles and clown cars, especially when the sale of them depends on tax breaks and incentives..
Someday bureaucrats and politicians might recognize that fact. Until then, we will unfortunately have to listen to them blindly, and foolishly, push bad policies and promote products that most people don’t want.
I will donate $100 to the DNC if Debbie Stabenow can get her fat ass inside a Chevy Spark..
I wonder what kind of car Debbie drives?
If it isn’t electric or a hybrid, then she’s a hypocrite.
I wonder if she ever thinks about where the electricity that powers an electric car actuallly comes from. I’m convnced that most Lefties think it appears by some some sort of Harry Potter magic.
This is American thinking. Leftists don't think that way.
They think "we should make it a law that people must drive only the cars that we allow them to drive, because we know better".
Not sure that she’s a hypocrite if she truly believes that the masses should drive Sparks
while the ruling class drives around in Lincoln Navigators.
It’s not going to work while the left has the option of additional force.
I want to see her drive her “baby” through Sprinfield exit at 5:10pm on I-95 DC to Richmond.
I have a ute and think it’s too small.
I want to see her drive her “baby” through Sprinfield exit at 5:10pm on I-95 DC to Richmond.
I have a ute and think it’s too small.
I drive a Ford CMax Energi. Love it so far. Great MPG equivalent. The plug-in hybrid is cool. It could be better if it ran on coal. No, I am not a tree-hugger.
“This is my baby,” she said turning back to admire the micro car. “
Until she gets back into her Black Escalade.
That’s ubiquitous in the leftist mindset, and why they love government so much -
“people just won’t do the right thing unless we force them to”
Now we have good looking cars whose lives are limited by the complexity of the electronics. I have had to trash two nice looking cars because the electronic fixes were too expensive and they wouldn't make inspection without them. Planned obsolescence. And corporatist leftists just loooove it.
Same with appliances.
“I tried to restrain myself as McCarthy emerged from a tiny Chevy Spark tucked along a wall at the General Motors display. “
A throwaway car to appease government regulators. Cost of doing business to the car companies. We all get to pay for it in the end.
If your local power plants are coal fired, it is running on coal.
Probably a big old Mercedes sedan... loaded.
"This is my baby," she said turning back to admire the micro car.
I guess we know where it got its looks then.
I looked at one of those and was disappointed by the lack of trunk space.
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