EDITORIAL: Obama: Stop selling pickup trucks

The Washington Times ^ | August 22, 2011 | Editorial

[jazusamo]

President and Government Motors drive consumers into a ditch

The U.S. auto industry wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for President Obama, or so he says. According to the White House, the 2009 $80 billion auto bailout - of which at least $14 billion was lost - not only saved the American auto sector but preserved 1 million jobs. If you believe that one, he has a $45,000 electric Chevy to sell you.

Earlier this month, at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Chicago, Mr. Obama even argued that Ford, which didn’t take a federal handout, had him to thank for its success. “If [Ford‘s] competitors had gone down, they would have taken down a whole bunch of the suppliers you depend on,” he said. “The brand of American autos would have diminished. That would have had severe consequences for Ford, and that’s the challenge we faced when I took office.” This is an audacious claim. It’s also baloney. Had its competitors vanished, Ford’s greatest challenge would have been to see how quickly it could ramp up production to snap up their market share.

In Minnesota last week, Mr. Obama lectured car companies to start investing in smaller cars. “You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” he declared. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.” It’s the height of chutzpah for a wannabe executive with no business experience to think it’s his prerogative to tell carmakers that they need to “understand the market,” especially because it’s obvious Mr. Obama is the one who doesn’t understand consumer behavior.

[vette6387]

Back when I was raising a family, automakers produced “full size” station wagons. But the Federal CAFE fuel economy standards drove them out of the mix because they were not as fuel efficient as the sedans. So the folks, including me, bought a pick up or a Suburban or an Expedition because we needed them. It will be the same story with the econoboxes FUBO thinks we should all drive. Since they don’t meet our needs, no one will buy them. When you drive by a dealer, take a look at what they have in the showroom, Trucks!

[LowOiL]

The last paragraph in the article is the money quote.

[muir_redwoods]

I haven’t heard such uninformed, puerile nonsense since my days as a college freshman. We at least had the excuse of being 18.

[willyd]

You hit the nail on the head...shift the losses to the American Public and even if the loan is collateralized, make up some excuse why they still shouldn’t benefit from the sale.

If we are really going into business with the federal govt to make sure that the largest banks in the world have a softer landing, that money should be earmarked for tax relief only...we should be the new landlords...not some entitlement program.

[liberalh8ter]

But long live the Chrysler 300. It's the Rapper's choice (for commercial endorsement). Of course, Rappers drive real Bentleys but "Homies" can get the 300 Bentley conversion kit. Yay Obama!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I love Fords...

...with the Claymore package.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

You bet he lies! I love these clips of him guaranteeing the warranties.

My daughter was considering buying an HHR from a local used car dealer, about a year before the GM bankrupcy. I told the dealer, a guy I like and respect, that I wouldn't accept a warranty from an outfit like that. I further explained that a warranty from them was worthless in the event of a bankrupcy. He was confident that the government would make good on the warrantees.

Actually, he was right. This is apparently a defect that is not covered by warrantee, but which a healthy company like Toyota or Honda might have remedied for business reasons, in order to maintain their public image. Say what you will about Toyota, they make outstanding products and back them up.

[Ann Archy]

“We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for”. “Oceans will stop rising”....our child president is narcissitic squared.

[tomkat]

FUØ

If my truck makes your communist ilk twitch, I'll drive it til it rusts, then duct tape the rust !
This tyrannical and deliberate destruction of our economy has surely taken a new one out of the question for the foreseeable future !

Listen up you mulatto faggot:
I'm pro almost anything that gets under the thin skins of you traitorous marxist bastards.
Judgement day's a comin' . . .

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

[tomkat]

Duuuuude !

LOVE the claymore hitch plug ! !

[struggle]

Lol, there goes 92% of Mississippi’s automotive market.

[RipSawyer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bfe6CgYbH8

[blaveda]

Seriously, where did you get the claymore? Who on this site would recognize it...Viet Vet?

[DejaJude]

He said something to the effect the other day about drawing out a simple fix for our economic woes on the back of an envelope.

Sounds like he's trying to compare himself to Lincoln again. Some say the Gettysburg address was written on an envelope.

[MountainDad]

Seriously, where did you get the claymore?

My Army son told me about them. I found them at gggaz.com.

About 39 bucks if I remember.

[wita]

Amen Brother, and thanks for your service.

Big is bad.

When you stop to think about it, indirectly it is a slap in the face to people with large families.

[blaveda]

Thanks for the information and thank your son for his service!

[wita]

That’s why you can’t buy a Ford Excursion with a 7.3 diesel any more.

For that matter, you can’t buy a Ford Excursion either. A very popular vehicle for very specific work.

[Texas resident]

Pickups in Texas are like the familiy sedan in the rest of the country. But all over our country, not baraq’s, pickup drivers are plumbers, carpenters, AC repair guys and on and on. Lots of them are union. Wonder if any of them have figured out that their boy is now targeting them.

[Lorianne]

Yes, I know. People don’t want smaller cars now ... so the auto companies should build what people want to buy.

However, people did want smaller more gas efficient cars back in the 70’s oil crisis and the auto companies failed to build them. Japanese cars sold wll and US companies lost out because they did not correctly anticipate the demand for smaller cars. But did they go out of business? NO. We bailed them out.

Same deal today. Auto companies have to know their market (and predict changes in demand if there are any). If they do not, or miss the trends, they should NOT BE BAILED OUT.

My question: How many times are we going to bail out the auto industry?