Obama's small car loser

Henry Payne:
...
Since lecturing Detroit automakers as a candidate in 2007, Obama has fashioned himself an expert on what Americans want in an automobile. His choice of Fiat was inspired by the chance to bring the company’s tiny, 40 mpg 500 to the States. Never mind that gas prices in Europe are $8 a gallon. Or that Americans drive longer distances. Or that Europeans demand smaller cars for narrower streets. 
The One knows autos. 
In March of 2009, Obama initially denied Chrysler bailout funds unless its business plan included more small cars. The president’s auto task force urged the Chrysler-Fiat alliance saying it “has the potential to address some of these problems and provide Chrysler with a path to viability. A Chrysler/Fiat alliance could lead to Chrysler manufacturing fuel-efficient vehicles using Fiat’s technology.” 
Fast forward two years and 500 sales have a flat. Meanwhile, Americans are gobbling up Chrysler SUVs — in defiance of Obama’s Euro-path for the company — and fueling the automaker’s resurgence. 
In October, Chrysler Jeep truck brand sold 35,000 vehicles (with fat $5,000 profit margins) as the company posted a $200 million third-quarter profit. The Fiat 500 sold just 2,000 copies.
...
The Fiat 500 is more evidence that — like Solyndra and windmills — Obama’s fascination with Europe has little to do with facts and everything to do with ideology. Obama is determined to convert Americans to the Green Church, but they aren’t buying.
I wonder why he did not buy one for his family when he leaves office.  At least it would have shown some commitment to his bad ideas.   Actually many much larger gars get that kind of mileage, including several in he Ford fleet as well as the Chevy Cruz.  If you are willing to go for a diesel you can get even better mileage.

As bad as the Fiat fiasco is, the electric car business is even worse.  The glorified golf carts are not selling in volume either.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more