Chapter 11 Bankruptcy of GM will wipe out the retirement funds of 50% of the Americans with a union pension. Barry O'Bama (I'm Irish so ;P and St. Patrick's day is a week away) won the office by getting vote of the Union supporters. Is he going to alienate those that voted for him? I think not.
My only issue is the volt is a bandaid to our energy issue. Where is my fuelcell power Superduty and Chiver Silverado 2500???? Where is the super high torque fuel cell Ford Police Interceptor using an "ubertorquey" electric motor to eradicate criminals evading arrest? The world is ready for the next generation of car, but DC is not on board.
@cgarison: Where is the fuel cell powered Tundra and Titan? Where is the super high torque fuel cell Volvo Police V70 using an "ubertorquey" electric motor to eradicate criminals evading arrest?
Wait, oh, I remember now! The technology isn't viable yet. No one is dawdling, not even GM.
The ePRS (US Patent No. c11077983) worked all night to distill the press releases. Here is what came up with:
GM:
We would like to thank the Task Force for not making us get on our knees and "perform". We did have strippers located in a side room just in case, proving that we are planning for the future.
Chrysler:
We would also like to thank the Presidential Task Force for coming to visit us. We entertained them with how-to classes on building a bird house -- hosted by Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli -- and an impromptu batting practice -- hosted by Vice Chairman and President Tom LaSorda. Vice Chairman and President Jim Press and Chief Financial Officer Ron Kolka reviewed our mythical...uh...we mean...future product plans with the Task Force.
The meeting was concluded by us saying, in unison, "Can we have more money? Pretty please? Please? Please? Please? With a cherry on top?" in both English and Italian.
@WilliamG.: No, Top Gear is a British program. As far as going out of one's way to disparage electric vehicles in America, well, that's done by the Jalopnik commentariat!
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was starred
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was unstarred
@FromaBuick6: I am truly sorry for anyone who drinks from the Republican Cool Aide container. I thought GM should have declared Bankruptcy a couple of years ago, however, there is no way that GM will survive now if they declare bankruptcy now. Why do I say that? Well, there is simply no bank large enough to do debtor in possession financing. That means, no money to set aside for future warranties, litigation costs, product development, or past obligations (like parts, contracts, or utility payments).
I should remind you all that the average American will not purchase a vehicle with absolutely no warranty, or with no net worth after the initial purchase. Remember Daewoo? When they started selling cars in the US, they undercut a lot of the competition (OK, but they weren't all that bad), but as soon as the Import Holding Company went bankrupt (after GM bought the company) the value of these cars virtually evaporated overnight.
Within the next couple of months, take a look at the residuals for all the GM lines. They are starting to drop drastically now, as are Chrysler products.
Obama's auto task Force of bureaucrats, lobbyists, union lapdogs, natural-born experts, and the beautiful traveling companions will fly to dirty Detroit first class for free in Treasury BJ's (business jets). They'll get picked up by GM limousines at the private gate and whisked to Warren with a police escort, no doubt.
GM's best and prettiest suck-asses will be their to greet 'em and see to their every pleasure. So is the primary objective of the Force to mine and milk this photo-op/dog-and-pony show for all the positive PR and personal political gain possible for their boss's, Obama and themselves? (After all, the bureaucrats' life and death mantra is "never pass up an opportunity to make your boss look good", since that is the ONLY criteria federal employees are evaluated by!!!). Or is it just to force GM to say "pretty please with brown sugar on top"?
There will be a brief technical briefing created for the seventh grade reading level. Finger sandwiches, a few gourmet meals and the infamous all-expenses paid visits to the wonders of Windsor will also likely be equally important tasks for the Force. The whole schmeel of select Force members flyin' out to have a meetin', drive the Volt prototype that runs, and then listenin' to their own voices for the cameras will cost GM, club Fed and the City of dirty Detroit probably a quarter million buckaroos or so (since apparently not all members of the Force will make the trip). Award winning work, bravo!
Hell, if I was a big super important irreplaceable gov't VIP retread with tenure, I'd pay a quarter mil to watch two fish fuck.
@bigblockautoX: Sorry 'bout the double posts. All this freaking bullshit has me seeing red. So sick of the feds that caused all this crap then acting like fucking heros fiddling while Rome burns.
they better put the volt body on a gasoline car so it doesnt run out of electricity during the drive and you can always hide the exhaust pipe by having it exit into the cab.
So if they like the Volt test mule GM gets money? I like this idea. Make a jury of Jalopnik-thinking peoples to take samples of various product from the Detroit "Big" Three in order to decide whether or not the companies deserve bailouts. It will, hopefully, force Chevy and Dodge to start making acceptable cars. I'm looking at you Impala and Caliber. Okay, so the Impala isn't terrible. But Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and nearly every European automaker are offering cars of similar size and price that make said Impala look like complete dog shit.
@Unevol-WINTERGUESSINGGAME!!!: As an engineer who's had to demo prototypes and preproduction units of various types before important people, I can tell you it's important that the appearance of your demo unit match its level of development.
Steel wheels (and probably a few other rough edges) communicate that it's still very much a work in progress. If it had the whole outer facade of a perfect working car, but then had some non-functional bits, it would leave a worse impression.
03/10/09
03/10/09
My only issue is the volt is a bandaid to our energy issue. Where is my fuelcell power Superduty and Chiver Silverado 2500???? Where is the super high torque fuel cell Ford Police Interceptor using an "ubertorquey" electric motor to eradicate criminals evading arrest? The world is ready for the next generation of car, but DC is not on board.
03/10/09
Wait, oh, I remember now! The technology isn't viable yet. No one is dawdling, not even GM.
03/10/09
GM:
We would like to thank the Task Force for not making us get on our knees and "perform". We did have strippers located in a side room just in case, proving that we are planning for the future.
Chrysler:
We would also like to thank the Presidential Task Force for coming to visit us. We entertained them with how-to classes on building a bird house -- hosted by Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli -- and an impromptu batting practice -- hosted by Vice Chairman and President Tom LaSorda. Vice Chairman and President Jim Press and Chief Financial Officer Ron Kolka reviewed our mythical...uh...we mean...future product plans with the Task Force.
The meeting was concluded by us saying, in unison, "Can we have more money? Pretty please? Please? Please? Please? With a cherry on top?" in both English and Italian.
03/10/09
I don't want to get into an idological debate here.
I sometimes agree with McCain. And I very much respect independent stances on issues.
I strongly support Shelby/McPain in this case. What can I say, I'm a fiscal conservative.
03/10/09
03/10/09
And I'm assuming from the lack of the word 'hoon' in the write-up that there was no hoonage to be had. So sad.
03/10/09
03/10/09
03/10/09
Please?
03/10/09
03/10/09
So far as I know, they still have the tooling necessary to create the cars. They just can't legally sell them, so there is no point in doing so.
03/10/09
And despite voting for him, it's very rare that I say that.
03/10/09
I should remind you all that the average American will not purchase a vehicle with absolutely no warranty, or with no net worth after the initial purchase. Remember Daewoo? When they started selling cars in the US, they undercut a lot of the competition (OK, but they weren't all that bad), but as soon as the Import Holding Company went bankrupt (after GM bought the company) the value of these cars virtually evaporated overnight.
Within the next couple of months, take a look at the residuals for all the GM lines. They are starting to drop drastically now, as are Chrysler products.
03/09/09
GM's best and prettiest suck-asses will be their to greet 'em and see to their every pleasure. So is the primary objective of the Force to mine and milk this photo-op/dog-and-pony show for all the positive PR and personal political gain possible for their boss's, Obama and themselves? (After all, the bureaucrats' life and death mantra is "never pass up an opportunity to make your boss look good", since that is the ONLY criteria federal employees are evaluated by!!!). Or is it just to force GM to say "pretty please with brown sugar on top"?
There will be a brief technical briefing created for the seventh grade reading level. Finger sandwiches, a few gourmet meals and the infamous all-expenses paid visits to the wonders of Windsor will also likely be equally important tasks for the Force. The whole schmeel of select Force members flyin' out to have a meetin', drive the Volt prototype that runs, and then listenin' to their own voices for the cameras will cost GM, club Fed and the City of dirty Detroit probably a quarter million buckaroos or so (since apparently not all members of the Force will make the trip). Award winning work, bravo!
Hell, if I was a big super important irreplaceable gov't VIP retread with tenure, I'd pay a quarter mil to watch two fish fuck.
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
(I never liked politicians)
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
03/09/09
"We really want to put a good image forward so we painted the car pretty colors with shiny trim, but we're still getting the important things wrong."
03/09/09
Steel wheels (and probably a few other rough edges) communicate that it's still very much a work in progress. If it had the whole outer facade of a perfect working car, but then had some non-functional bits, it would leave a worse impression.
03/09/09
03/09/09