Auto Bail Out Poll

[Jorje15]

I posted this because I keep hearing this on the news/radio and we need to stop this from happening. So please join me in this poll.

[Rubystars]

I voted no in your poll. I think money should be spent on a nuke that would hit Mecca rather than bailouts.

[Dnew]

Right on Ruby.
Not so much Mecca - more like Iran.

[Dr. Dan]

yes, it puts the automakers in the hands of the government. The current liberal government believes in global warming..Thereby forcing the autocompanies to create cars that don't use as much gasoline or oil...which funds our enemies.

[Mishmaat]

I completely agree with you Jorje.

This is big government and Socialism at work. Don't you think that all of these bailouts will eventually lead to America becoming a fascist Socialist state? Our government doesn't even have the money to keep bailing out these companies. Let the damn industry fail. Give free market capitalism a chance for a change.

[briann]

Chapter 11 proceedings... end of story.  This amounts to nothing more than a bailout for Unions and corrupt management

[cjd]

I am very uncomfortable with the bailout on many levels. More than I could write about here. I would have liked to see GM and Chrysler restructure and come out smaller but more viable companies. Now they will be under the control of government that can't even run what it should be running let alone a car company. I am glad to see that at least for now Ford took the correct road and has decided to go a bit longer on its own. Government is not going to force the companies to build anything better then they are building now unless they mandate that all cars sold here in America meet the same guidelines. People will simply buy the bigger higher performance cars made by Toyota, Nissan and Honda that are in some cases are far larger that some of the cars made by GM.
The Hybrid car is a joke unless you are driving under exacting conditions that give you full use of the electric motor and battery your running on the gas engine just like any other small car. The Toyota hybrid car is one of the most annoying things to drive it's engine starts and stops as you moving in slow traffic and you actually feel it. In city driving the car may save its owner a buck or two however don't run the heat or AC because that causes the gas engine to stay on canceling any savings.
So exactly what is it that government wants GM and Chrysler to build? They already have a full complement of small cars and GM even has an SUV hybrid.
People need to understand that the global warming liberals don't want people to drive smaller cars they want people not to drive at all. That privilege will be for the rich who can play their carbon credits game something that allows them to pollute and keep a clear conscious about doing  it.
A year ago I would have laughed if someone would have said that the government would try to inject itself into private industry as a part or full owner however I am not laughing anymore. They have now taken control of quite a few big banks and now have a strangle hold on the auto industry. They control what your cash, your home and investments are all worth and soon they will even control your health care system. Whats more they will control the costs and who gets what. I hate to say this but looking at all this buying muslim oil seems to be the least of America's problems right now. We were on the right track in the early spring when the public finally demanded that domestic oil production be brought up to offset imports. That and a roll out of Atomic based power and some of the greener sources would have made a good transition into cleaner more efficient cars and trucks for the future. The free market would have seen to all this. Now we have a bunch of bumbling fools parceling out taxpayers money haphazardly and getting very little results in the process.

[Ben Yehuda]

Perhaps they will give incentives to buy crappy American cars and disincentives to buy Asian cars. At that point it will be financially difficult for Americans to buy better foreign cars. Then the American companies will cut production of all cars that have efficient gas milage while still labeling them as efficient (e.g., hybrid).  I have noted that the so-called hybrid American cars really don't have much better gas efficiency, while many of the Japanese hybrids have significantly increased gas efficiency (e.g., Prius, Insight).

[cjd]

Perhaps they will give incentives to buy crappy American cars and disincentives to buy Asian cars. At that point it will be financially difficult for Americans to buy better foreign cars. Then the American companies will cut production of all cars that have efficient gas milage while still labeling them as efficient (e.g., hybrid).  I have noted that the so-called hybrid American cars really don't have much better gas efficiency, while many of the Japanese hybrids have significantly increased gas efficiency (e.g., Prius, Insight).

I hate to burst your bubble but the Asian car companies are riding on their reputation much as the American companies did in the late 60's The crap they have been producing in the past few years is of lower quality then the domestic cars. Since their cars have become larger and loaded with more options so have the problems. They in most cases cost more to repair then their domestic counter parts. The Prius is a nasty little car. People that are willing to drive a small car like that will get almost as good efficiency from a conventional Focus or Cobalt and not face a 3 to 5 thousand dollar bill to replace the battery if they keep the car longer then the warranty. The Prius and Insight only get better gas mileage then the conventional cars under very limited driving conditions and in most cases the average mileage is not much better than a conventional cars .The American companies have not made a compact hybrid they have concentrated more on the SUV lines and I think one of their larger cars so your comparing apples and oranges. In fact the Ford Escape actually regenerates some power when the brakes are applied or the car is coasting something that the Asian companies have yet to accomplish. People thinking of buying cars like this Asian or domestic need to dig into the issues a bit since they may be quite disappointed when they find the results are way less then they anticipated.

[Ben Yehuda]

It is not my bubble, but a fact. Toyota Prius gets approx. 50 mpg and has fewer problems than say a Chevy Malibu hybrid, which, by the way, gets only 2 mpg better fuel economy than the non- hybrid version. You buy a Ford or a Chevy if you don't see a problem; I'll stick with the foreign cars as long as things remain as they are.