Agreed. You wish these people would at least use a modicum of sense and facts. As far as "the death knell for performance" meme, they said that in the 70's when stricter pollution laws essentially made fuel injection and engine control management a requirement. Now look what we have! Horrors! 638hp V8s or 306hp V6s. Oh the human suffering we have experienced.
erd: The government sure did ruin things for us, didn't they?
I just can't understand where all this "government-owned" crap keeps coming from. The government
LOANED GM enough money to make it through the refusal-of-the-banks-to-lend-the-money-that-the-government-
GAVE-to-them-for-the-specific-purpose-of-lending. The government didn't/doesn't
want GM; they want the good-paying jobs that GM provides, both directly and indirectly. The government wants GM to succeed, and they're aware that they don't know anything about running a car company. The one and only concession to political reality that the government made in the whole deal was to oust GM's C.E.O. right at the start...and they knew when they did it that he was doing a great job, but the political right had the public whipped into such a "screw-the-car-companies" frenzy by then that they figured firing the guy was the only way to get everyone to accept the deal.
I thought that GM had completely repaid their loan by now, since Chrysler fully repaid theirs after only 22 months (and at nearly 20% interest!). The taxpayers made out very nicely on their loans to the automakers. Anyone remember how we did on the
ten-times-greater amount that we
GAVE to the banks? I'll tell you: it's long gone...rather than lend it out to get the economy moving again, they spent it on massive bonuses (hey...they deserved it for doing such a great job, right?) and gobbling each other up in hostel take-overs. Before all this happened, they had become "too big to fail"...now, they're "
way-the-hell too big to fail". The auto industry has turned itself around and made huge progress, yet the banking industry is bigger, badder, and worse than ever, and the looming mess that they're leading us into will make this recent (and enduring) unpleasantness seem like a fart on the breeze in comparison...
There is nothing the administration would love more than for GM to buy out the balance of what the Government owns so both can put the bankruptcy behind them. I wish GM would do that instead of putting money in French automakers. What the hell is that about? BTW - if the administration WAS running GM, and they are as anti-car as people say they are, there would be no C7.
