It looks like part of our governments new cherry in spending is coming in the form of 600 Million bucks to buy a fleet of new fuel efficient/hybrid vehicles.
Since the TARP plan and its ridiculous amounts of money we had to pour into the American industry after our government all but bankrupted them in the first place… “we as a people” better be buying American cars.
The friends I speak to keep bringing up the name Prius and describing a new America where government employees drive them but I sincerely hope not. Those fine folks over at Toyota have already significantly delayed the opening of a Prius plant in Mississippi and has opted for instead, the idea to build in China and import them into the American market.
My hope is that our government will spend that money on technology like that of what GM and Chrysler share in the full size hybrid segment. The government loves their big SUV’s and Chevy’s Tahoe, GMC’s Yukon and Cadillac’s Escalade all come in a Hybrid setup. With Dodge’s Durango and Chrysler’s Aspen using the same setup these are great quality viable options. Since most of the spending won’t start until 2010-2011, ideally much of that money can be spent on Chevrolet’s Volt and Saturn’s version of it if they decide to make it. Take about a fuel efficient state commuter car. 40 miles door to door solely using electricity.
Here is a chance for the money that we put into our economy to make a real return and truly help us and help the environment. For anyone reading that feels I may be wrong because you believe that the American manufacturer doesn’t make a good car you really need to go out and drive one. They’re far better than many give them credit for and in many instances they’re quite a bit better than their Japanese and even German counterparts for a fraction of the cost.
I work for GM and support their products but this isn’t a commercial. Our government has ramped itself up to pay all kinds of money for businesses in need. Many people think we should help these companies… I believe we should buy their product. With the 600 Million of new money about to be spent, let it be spent in wise places.
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2 comments:
hey buddy. Long time, no debate. I used to work for Enterprise Rent a Car and, if you didnt know, they are the single largest customer of GM vehicles on Earth. Most of their fleet are GM vehicles. I worked for them for 5 years and have driven all types of cars. I was responsible for oil changes, maintenance (not actually performing them but keeping track of them and other mechanical issues, etc.) To be completely honest, I never had half the problems with the toyotas or even the hyundais in my fleet as I did with the GM cars, specifically chevy's. Now I do have to agree that the US government should only use American cars. Even if the cars are not as reliable, I thing its cheaper in the long run to fix an american car's few issues than to spend alot more on Japanese or Korean cars. I've said this before: US car companies took too long to make a GOOD economy car. Economy rentals were very popular at Enterprise, especially in the city, so i dealt with alot of the GM equivalents to the corolla or the civic or the hyundai accent and none of them came close in fuel efficiency or reliability. Maybe things have changed in the 3 years since I left car rental.
Long time indeed, you ain't "lion". LOL.
The experience you have I can't compare too as the only fleet I've had to care for was my own personal stash.
One thing you mentioned though is how long it's taken the American cars to come up to par. It's true but that wasn't a problem specific to the domestic brands. When Honda and Toyota first started selling cars in the states during the 70's they were rust bucket garbage cars. The were cheap, ugly, not nearly as safe and had names no one understood. 15 years later they finally started making good cars and have since. GM has been making cars much much longer and by the time the Japanese made the superior car, the GM cars were complete garbage. I guess its all part of the cycle.
Last I heard though, since you left Enterprise, GM has strongly tried to get out of the rental industry as they believe it's the biggest contributor to their steeper decline in retail value vs their foreign counterparts.
Since we agree on who should supply the Government with vehicles the big problem is our big government getting in the way of that. With trade laws we are forced to spend X amount of dollars overseas and a big way that we do that is thru the auto industry. Though I'd like to see it happen, I know if we said "we will buy only American" all the countries bound to us with trade agreements would call bloody murder and ultimately would prevent that from happening.
The Government screwed the auto industry with expensive standards they imposed, suffocated them by tying them deeply and unfairly into absurd union and retirement contracts and now would have the nerve to starve them to keep promises with other countries like Japan who don't import even a tiny fraction compared to what we consume from them.
We are the ship we constantly poke holes in while we protect the dingies around us from potentially sinking.
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