Posts Tagged GM
“Cash for clunkers” is a joke?
There’s a really good article about the new "Cash For Clunkers" program that the government is doing on CarandDriver.com. Cash for clunkers, in case you don’t know, is the program where if you have an old car, the government will give you free money if you trade in that car for a new, more fuel efficient car. All sounds good, right? Well… almost. Check out the article, and let me know what you think. I have to say, while there are some benefits, I’m going to have to agree with Steve Siler, the author. Especially with the quote below:
people driving cheap old beaters are probably doing so because they can’t afford a new car. And $3500 doesn’t go far when the average transaction price of new cars hovers around $24K.
So what do you think? Is the program good, or bad? I don’t think it will help the American auto industry much, seeing as most Americas have the mindset that all the fuel efficient cars are made in Korea or Japan.
Government Motors
Posted by Snowy in Cars, Economy/Business on June 1st, 2009
Yeah, how about that GM? Love me some GM. In fact, I love GM cars so much, I decided to own a piece of them. Oh, and so did you. GM went in for bankruptcy today, and the government has agreed to give some 50 odd billion dollars to keep some 50 thousand jobs. Wait… how many jobs have been lost this recession? 3 Million. So effectively what the government is doing is saying that if you work for a car company, your job is more important than any other job that has not been bailed out. Despicable. If I would have lost my job (which I currently have none), I would be completely outraged by the governments actions. Why bailout a failing automotive company, but not bailout someone that makes an honest living? It just doesn’t make sense. There is no such thing as "too big to fail". That phrase is just an excuse for congress to put their hand in large corporations. Oh, but there’s a bright side right? President Obama has "no interest in running GM"? Yeah right. I wish. You can bet a pretty penny the government is going to have some HEAVY influence on what type of cars GM and Chrysler makes. You don’t think they’re just going to hand them $50 billion on good-will, do you? HA!
I don’t want to sound like some anti-democrat, "this administration is for socialism", kindaguy, but whatever happened to capitalism? People will never learn from their mistakes if you bail them out. Is it not obvious that they’re just going to want another bailout when they run into some more trouble down the line? It’s just preposterous.
Are you taking notes?
Posted by Snowy in Economy/Business on April 7th, 2009
There is no doubt that things are changing in America today. We’ve had one of the worst recessions in decades. Check out Boston.com’s "Scenes from the recession". For better or worse, things are happening in America today. This brings up an interesting question… are you taking notes? What exactly do I mean by this? It’s quite simple really, just write in a journal once every couple of nights regarding the economy. Things like how the stocks are doing, what people are protesting, what Obama’s doing. This recession is one of the worst in history, but writing about it now, and your experiences now, could pay off in the future. You could publish your journal, or perhaps sell it to a historian down the road and make a decent amount of money. Or heck, it would just be really cool to let your grandchildren take it to class one day for a school project.
It’s something to consider, even though it’s not the most joyful thing to talk about.
Outta Money, Outta Time.
Posted by Snowy in Cars, Economy/Business on April 6th, 2009
Well it looks as though it could be the end for GM and Chrysler. Both companies have been struggling eminsly for a long time now and it doesn’t help that the government doesn’t want to bail them out any more. Good idea, bad idea? Many feel that they should have never been bailed out in the first place. Do you think that would be okay? Not to bail out the auto companies? They employ millions of people after all… too big to fail? Perhaps. I really believe in the free market economy, but thinking about all the jobs that would have been lost, it’s almost a lose-lose situation. I don’t believe government should have interacted the way they did with GM and Chrysler, but I sure don’t want to see them go down. After all, if Chrysler went down, how would I get my Dodge Challenger? (I have a plan, I’ll get to that in another blog post ;)) Do you think it’s fair that the government is bailing out the big automakers, but leaving the smaller ones to suffer?
Good questions to ask before you’re for-or-against (another) bailout.
Car Interiors
I love cars. Cars are probably my second love, or passion, next to hockey and graphic design. And on the subject of cars, I think the market is moving in the right direction, in terms of electric and hybrid vehicles. The Chevrolet Volt could potentially put GM ahead of the foreign automakers. Ford and Chrysler are also making significant steps in the right direction in order to better compete into the future. But the electric vehicles and hybrids aren’t want bother me, I like the technology. It’s the interior of them. GM has some real revolutionary technology with the Chvrolet Volt. I mean, it is some really good stuff. But when Chevrolet has some new, awesome technology, what do they do? They put one of the ugliest interiors they could muster up in the car. Seriously, go google "Chevrolet Volt Interior" and you’ll see what I mean. I just don’t get it. Car’s interiors (and exteriors) are suppose to evolve. Not take some "revolutionary" step, then it just looks weird. But it’s not just GM. Ford and Chrysler do it, too. I guess they’re trying to make it look futuristic or something, but somebody forgot to tell them that they’re doing a terrible job, and car interiors have to progress to that stage. 
Hit "read more" to continue reading about the volt and other cars