Maybe It Should Be Called the Chevrolet 'Vote' (Good piece)

Forbes ^ | March 8, 2012 | Patrick Michaels

[jazusamo]

The Chevrolet Volt is everything that is wrong with Washington on four wheels, and investors (that’s you and me) should be furious.

Wrong #1 : The Volt should be re-named the Vote. Who can forget that Super Bowl ad, with the pseudo-assembly line of Volts rolling through Hamtramck, Michigan, and the voice overlay that “this isn’t the car we wanted to build; it’s the car America had to build…from the heart of Detroit to the help [sic] of the country.” How true—corporate welfare on wheels, buying votes in a state vital to the President’s re-election. There is simply no way that GM can kill it.

Wrong #2: Paying workers for not working. Several days before Christmas, production was phased out for the holidays, which in the case of the Volt plant, lasted until February 6. Last Friday, GM announced another shutdown, from March 19 through April 13, or five weeks. That’s right: the Hamtramck plant will produce “the car America had to build” for less than seven out of 18 weeks. When it’s open the plant only runs one ten-hour shift for four days a week. When the plant is shuttered, the 1,300 workers still get paid. Not counting obligations to retirement, the average hourly wage and benefits cost to GM union employees is about $55 per hour. Shareholders ponied up a little more than $30 million in wage costs alone for these 11 weeks of leisure. Nice job if you can get it! Of course, institutional overhead probably tacks on another $15 million or so. All while not one car is produced.

[jazusamo]

Everyone should be contacting their representatives in congress to support Rep. Mike Kelly’s bill to kill the $7,500 tax credit.

This tax credit is for all EV’s that qualify and includes the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf.

[apillar]

And don't forget liberals and the nanny statists don't take no for an answer. Now the public has overwhelmingly rejected the Democrat dream car. I predict that they will move on to their typical response when rejected, trying to force us into them, “After all, they think they know better than we do, so it doesn't bother them to give us a “nudge” when we are going what they think is the wrong direction. I predict through more and more regulation, they will make it harder and more expensive to buy any other vehicle, until most middle class families simply have no choice but to cram their family into the flaming volt deathtraps.

[shooter223]

[jazusamo]

Article by Mark Modica today on the Volt:

GM's Latest 'Crapload' of Chevy Volt Nonsense

[AlanGreenSpam]

And this:

http://jalopnik.com/5870507/report-every-chevy-volt-has-over-250000-in-government-subsidies

Report: Every Chevy Volt has over $250,000 in government subsidies

Report: Every Chevy Volt has over $250,000 in government subsidiesThe total amount of state and federal subsidies for each Chevy Volt sold is as much as $256,824 per vehicle according to a fiscal analysis by Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy. All for a car that only costs $39,828.

To get to this number analyst James Hohman looked at 18 government programs (rebates, grants, loans, tax credits) and divided that number by the amount of Chevy Volts sold thus far. There’s a total of $3 billion in subsidies including $2.3 billion in federal money and $690.4 million offered by the State of Michigan.

Divide into that the 6,000 (or so) Volts sold thus far and you arrive at their number. Or,actually, you arrive at a number closer to $500,000. The math’s a little fuzzy.

(except)

[loveliberty2]

American citizens, for over two hundred years, when faced with a problem, always could depend on some enterprising individual coming up with a solution, having his/her idea patented, and then attracting investors to begin manufacturing and selling the invention.

That was before the so-called "progressives" made such common-sense solutions nearly impossible, with their arrogant assumptions that their ideas must be imposed on the rest of us, which assured the ultimate destruction of the great American dream, innovation, prosperity and plenty.

The Volt is reminiscent of the little car the East Germans were forced to drive, before America's President Reagan boldly insisted that the "wall" which restricted their liberty be torn down. Then, on the Autobahn, suddenly drivers of big cars, buses, trucks, and various other symbols of freedom of individual choice, were annoyed, and sometimes belligerent, as hundreds of happy and free people in their little cars began slowing them down.

Perhaps, somewhere in America's future, a great leader from some other country will demand that the coercive policy "wall" of Obama and the "progressives" be repealed so that "the People" of America may regain their rights to choose which vehicles may be manufactured and promoted.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“I laid off the original story of the Audi head saying Volts were for idiots.”

Even better: “Volts are for dolts”.

[NTHockey]

The redesigned Volt will be called Revolt. After your battery dies after 20 miles, you’ll be mad enough to overthrow the government.

[taildragger]

At least with a Vega or a Corvair you could put a V8 in it and it could burn up the Track, with the Volt, it just burns up...

[SouthTexas]

I’ve called it the Dolt ever since it was announced.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Chevy Smoke

[stephenjohnbanker]

Chevy Smoke

[stephenjohnbanker]

Chevy Smoke

[stephenjohnbanker]

For Dolts......

[GreenHornet]

Chevy Crapload

(Based on their most recent commercial)

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

the Chevrolet 'Vote'

[Impala64ssa]

When the plant is shuttered, the 1,300 workers still get paid. Not counting obligations to retirement, the average hourly wage and benefits cost to GM union employees is about $55 per hour. Shareholders ponied up a little more than $30 million in wage costs alone for these 11 weeks of leisure. Nice job if you can get it! Of course, institutional overhead probably tacks on another $15 million or so. All while not one car is produced.
As Fred Astaire once sang "Nice work if you can get it".

[stephenjohnbanker]

YES!

[grey_whiskers]

Look! It's one of those new Volksfeuers!

Cheers!