Posted on 09/16/2008 4:17:53 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Next Bailout May Be for Automakers
McCain, Obama Back Loan Guaranties
By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun |
September 16, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/national/next-bailout-may-be-for-automakers/85937/
WASHINGTON — The beneficiary of the next government bailout may not be Wall Street but Motor City.
The nation's top car manufacturers are pushing Congress to act by the end of this month to guarantee $25 billion in loans to help them invest in the production of fuel-efficient vehicles. The idea is being greeted warmly by both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, who see it as a way to win votes in the swing state of Michigan while also moving America away from dependence on foreign oil.
Backers of the legislation, which include the Democratic leadership in Congress, say it would give a needed boost to a struggling industry and save American manufacturing jobs. But critics have panned it as a taxpayer-funded rescue plan for automakers who have lost out to foreign competitors in the race to build cleaner, more efficient cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Its not Ford that thinks Americans are stupid. It is the Dems and the environmentalist wackos who block diesel vehicles from running around on our roads. They boost the taxes on diesel which really only impacts the costs trucks have to pay since there are so few diesel cars here. Don’t blame Ford, VW and GM have many diesel vehicles that won’t make it over here as well. Taxes on the vehicles make them more expensive as well.
Diesel vehicles generally have much better fuel mileage and are much more efficient than gasoline powered vehicles.
Fight the environmentalist wackos and allow diesel vehicles. Diesel as a fuel requires less processing and today’s diesel engines are are more fuel efficient than most hybrids and produce less fumes or pollution than gasoline vehicles. I grew up driving a diesel car and the technology in the 1970’s with glow plugs that needed to be warmed up before starting (hot or cold) and virtually no torque or power are gone. Today’s diesel cars are fuel efficient, non polluting and just as powerful and fast as gas engines.
Push congress to treat diesels more favorably and don’t blame Ford.
I remember when the small trucks first appeared and Japan started cleaning Detriot’s clock. The automakers lobbied Congress to put a tariff on those imports. Congress obligingly slapped a $500 tariff on the Jap trucks. The automakers immediately raised the prices of their trucks $400 and when some in Congress yelled WTF? the automakers replied they were “just being competitive”.
If these bozos get that $25 billion, you can expect the first bucks will go for bonuses for the CEOs.
The government, via CAFE standards, has mandated the kind of cars Detroit must build. Dump the CAFE and no loans would be needed.
The problem Mr. Jazzy may be you....
If you want one so bad, do like the Dodge Viper Fans did when it was a show car. Send Ford a check for 10 grand, they send it back but it will denote you are serious.
Bringing the Diesel here means testing with the EPA and no changes can be made to the final test Config.
Everytime they have offered Diesels the sales numbers are so small around the margins, It is not worth it.
I don't blame them, in a time when capital is a precious resource a few years ago now they spent 750 million for a CVT transmission for the 500. It didn't meet market acceptance. So you are making these decisions what would you do?
But the 25 billion would give them the Captial to retool quicker.
I hate to sound like the accountant from h@!!, but it about liquidlity and cash flow, they need an influx of capital/cash.
Movie Trailer: Who Killed the Electric Car?
A great film about another sorry episode in the history of America's automobile and energy industry. Set as a "Who-Done-It", the film chronicles how short sighted automakers (especially GM) develop great electric cars in response to the California ZEV mandate only to do everything in their power - from suing the state, making ridiculous ads, creating a red-tape filled lease application process - to kill them. Consumers buy bigger and bigger vehicles (whether they need them or not). Government officials and staffers bow to the pressure of intense auto industry and oil company lobbying, and conflicts of interest. The sad fate of most of the EVs produced during the late '90s to 2002 is revealed.GM, especially, comes off as incredibly vindictive. What automaker ever tracked down every car of any model and crushed them (not the Corvair, Edsel, etc.)? Even after loyal drivers pleaded to keep them, offering to buy the last remaining EV1s with junk titles at lease buyout prices, GM went out of its way to ensure that the EV1 was history.
The passion of GM's EV specialist Chelsea Sexton for the EV1 makes her the star of the movie. One can only imagine what the GM engineers who designed the EV1 felt when their babies were being crushed.
Congress is dependent on BIG industry for mega millions. Senators and representatives line up for campaign bribes and under the table payola. We fought the Revolutionary War because the British Parliament was hopelessly corrupt. Now we are being forced to bear the burden of corrupt industries who bribe our elected representatives in DC.
No more bailouts !
Aluminum Chassis built to aerospace tolerances but was poor in crash ratings.
If someone started tinkering with the wiring you could literally get hurt.
If was in a position of power with GM I'd crush them as well, just like they do with proof of concept and prototypes.
I have seen Vettes and Vipers on trailers (Proto's) running to get the fuel out of them as they take them to a non-descript junk yard in Toledo for Crushing.... Sad site....
Bob Lutz on record has said the Volt is such a game changer that it would make CAFE obsolete. Go Over to Motor-Trend's Website.
Look at the 09/05 story they did on the the EPA giving Chevy grief on how they will test the Volt.
It is a nightmare, tell me are they trying to kill one of the home teams or is it a government organization run amuck.....
Monday’s WSJ reported the Volt will go 40 miles on a charge, then the 4 banger gasoline motor kicks in. They also advise the battery system tends to get really hot, and in other applications, has caught fire.
Yes it is a Series Hybrid.
Check out the 09/05 Motor Trend on line article on how the EPA is busting their chops about it.
But you have to ask yourself, do you think they would bet the farm on this technology and the egg they would get on their face not to mention be out 500 million, if they didn't think they had a shot at fixing the thermal issues of Litium-Ion Batteries?
Just thinking out of the box here.....
The only reason I see that a bailout is needed is because of a do nothing congress in regards to a viable National Energy Plan.
Note they are talking a bailout=negative feedback loop
vs.
What was proposed and stopped from getting to the floor of the House.
H.R.6566
American Energy Act (Introduced in House)
SEC. 218. NEXT GENERATION AUTOMOBILE PRIZE PROGRAM.
The Secretary of Energy shall establish a program to award a prize in the amount of $500,000,000 to the first automobile manufacturer incorporated in the United States to manufacture and sell in the United States 50,000 midsized sedan automobiles which operate on gasoline and can travel 100 miles per gallon
Hope so. But this is the same company that gave us the 4-6-8 Cadillac engine in 80-81 and the “all aluminum diesel” pickup motor that had just about 12 ounces of stump pulling torque.
Ford is already selling a car in Europe that gets 65 mpg, yet they won’t sell it here because they claim it will cost $800 more than the Toyota Prius hybrid.
Anybody besides me think that’s absurd and does not warrant taxpayer dollars to help out the sheer stupidity of such a company ?
Actually, that aluminum Duramax’s problem wasn’t the power it produced, which was actually competitive at the time. The problem was that you couldn’t really mod it much AND it tended to blow headgaskets. And they combined that with a bad gearing selection so the truck was never really in its powerband at any point you needed it to be.
But it had an Allison® transmission! /sarc.
Harley Davidson did much the same thing.
Oddly enough, that chicken is starting to come home to roost now, with the end of easy credit...
I can’t get over the fact that Ford has an EU car that gets 50+ miles to the gallon (on diesel)and could run very well in America, but it does not “fit their present business model.” Why are we going to save them? Ford and Gm have e85 cars in Brazil, but they have a hard time getting them to market in America. What is wrong with that picture? I know that these smart guys are helping to make America a great manufacturing country, but down south, BMW, Hundyi, Toyota and Mercedes etc. etc. are not looking for a handout.
I actually believe that. Our crash and emmission standards are much higher than other countries. The cost of compliance is high indeed.
Higher than Germany, France and all the other holier-than-thou countries that continually lecture us on global warming and emissions ?
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