How Much Is Too Much? Obama Renews Commitment To US Automakers

Maybe not the first car. But the US did make the car widely available to the masses.

— t_sotello (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 12:36:01 PM | | Votes: 5   

Karl Benz (Mercedes Benz) generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile back in 1885.

Oldsmobile was the first auto company to go at full scale production in 1902 followed by Ford in 1914.

— iLexus (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 12:36:53 PM | | Votes: 7   

That means France or German (depending how you look at it) has to bailout the Big 3! They can't walk away! LOL

— monkeyrun (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 8:44:05 PM | | Votes: 1   

I just dont like Obamas policies. His administration is more " big brother " Crap

— bfghemicuda (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:15:47 PM | | Votes: -4   

Big brother is what's going to save our sorry greedy irresponsible capitalists arsses right now, so get use to it. I guess you prefer all those CEOs who robbed the world dry to get us out this mess they created instead?

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 2:17:57 AM | | Votes: 1   

Badgewhore. NO I DONT WANT BIG BROTHER TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO. Its people like you that think Government is the solution. BIG GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM. And its not corporate greed ITS HUMAN GREED. Government cant fix that. You can have all the rules you want. The greedy will find a way around it. The bigger the government The LESS FREEDOM we have. YOUR MENTALITY IS THE PROBLEM

— bfghemicuda (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 10:46:03 AM | | Votes: -3   

Hate to break it to you, but BIG BROTHER HAS BEEN TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO since you were born. Most likely had something to do with your parents getting together to pump you out so BIG BROTHER can continue to have someone to pimp. BIG BROTHER OWNS YOU, without BIG BROTHER you'd be someone elses little Bitch. You should be greatful, especially when his name is OBAMA and not Bush/Cheney. But if you don't like it, leave the planet and you won't have to deal with HUMAN GREED or my mentality and we won't have to deal with YOURS.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 2/27/2009 5:16:33 AM | | Votes: 1   

Badgewhore... It would be better if you could keep your comments to an adult level. You are what is called a Government puppet. Defined as those that cant make decissions by and for themselves. Also those that cant take responsibility for themselves. You will fit fine in this administration.

— bfghemicuda (View Profile)

Posted on 2/28/2009 8:30:43 PM | | Votes: 1   

we'll soon be enjoying economic growth and leading the world again. instead of watching the germans, japanese and south koreans rule the automotive world

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 3:02:05 PM | | Votes: 1   

Dinamor, how is the American automotive industry going to accomplish that when numerous interest groups and bureaucrats in DC are tring to run the company?

— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 3:32:15 PM | | Votes: 0   

Dont worry, the Pelosi is coming. List of cars from Toyota that will not exist anymore:

Tundra, Tacoma, Sequoia, LX, GX, RX, LS, GS, Sienna, Land Cruiser, Camry, ES, Avalon, etc.

Unless they're all powered by some electic power nonsense.

Just in Toyota's case (and I use them b/c the media thinks they are the Jesus of fuel economy), there will be:

Prius, iQ, maybe Corolla, and MAYBE the IS100 (doesnt exist...yet).

God, here comes the CO2 nonsense... Tell me this, how much does air quality go down every time California has forest fires? You can see the smog from outer space.... If this BS CO2 passes (like it will), then Michigan/Ohio/Illinois should be allowed to press lawsuits against California for forest fires. $1billion/day of major forest fires.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 7:14:57 PM | | Votes: 2   

forest fires are carbon neutral. the plants eventually turn to co2 upon decomposition. fossil fuels don't turn to co2 when left in the ground.

— 1995e34 (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 7:21:17 PM | | Votes: 0   

35mpg by 2011. nothing to cry about. the technology is here.

— 1995e34 (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 8:03:46 PM | | Votes: 2   

Oh im not really all too upset by 35mpg (even though it really is ridiculous, but that's another discussion), Im worried about Komrades Pelosi & Waxman whimsidaisical "environmental" ideas. Quite frankly, this "Green" movement really is a crock of shit (no Lutz jokes please).

I AM an environmentalist, but within reason. I ask why don't we have a nationwide can deposit for all aluminum cans? It would save a precious natural resource and would drive commodities down in price.

Why don't we have a 10cent deposit on all plastic bottles (except essentials like water & Milk)? Why hasn't there been any talk about cleaning up the north pacific ocean from all the plastic waste that is there (arguably 2x the size of the continental USA, 10 meters deep)?

Why don't we be reasonable and conscience of all the players involved. You say that burning the trees is "carbon neutral", well in fact, petroleum was at one point, living matter, mostly plant matter which absorbed CO2 millions of years ago.

In any event, if the trees don't burn, then that CO2, particulates, smog, etc isn't released into the environment and the jet stream doesnt take the emissions to the mid-west (playing devil's advocate here).

All I am saying is, a REASONABLE fuel economy standard is no problem, 20/30mpg, trucks/cars average. It is just like safety regulations, it levels the playing field. After that, the consumer is up to making their own decision. CO2 isn't a poisonous gas, sorry folks. I've been exhaling CO2 for my entire life and I have yet to develop cancer.

If I want to have an inefficient vehicle, and I can afford it, it's not Nanci Pelosi or the Sierra Club's decision what I should have. If I meet safety & harmful emissions regulations, then everyone else can keep their mouths shut. MY MONEY, MY DECISIONS.

Now I don't actually have a big truck or SUV, I'm a cheap ass who doesn't feel the need to waste gas needlessly. BUT, if I want to have a boat, and want to buy a truck to tow that boat on the weekend, etc, why should I have to spend more than $50,000 just because Waxman/Pelosi/Feinstein/Moore/Obama say it needs to be an underpowered, 3cylinder bio-diesel, 2-mode hybrid, with DPF, urea injectors, acceleration limiters, annual guzzler taxes, etc.

ITS BULLSHIT, plain and simple. Goodbye GM, goodbye Chrylser, Goodbye Ford, Goodbye Mercedes, Goodbye BMW, Goodbye Nissan, etc etc, etc.

There's one way to get detroit out of this mess. Lend them money, let them finish their financial restructuring, cut the oil speculators OUT of the game, no more regulations on the auto industry.

Let up a little bit on diesel emissions, they are killing sales, BIGTIME (just go look up GM's duramsx sales, 2006 vs 2008, pre-DPF vs DPF). GIve automakers time to perfect the technology before it's just throw onto vehicle.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 8:42:21 PM | | Votes: 0   

YAWN...lemme guess HS, government is the problem, we need less government, less regulation...ROFL you clowns never learn. Good luck with that ideology, repubs will lose every election as long as they keep believing and saying that.

And I'll take the Pelosi over the Bush that gets less than 10 mpg while were giving $Billions of tax cuts and route-protection money and giveaways to the Big Oil while killing alternative energy.

The Pelosi will rule. hahaha: ))

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:34:08 PM | | Votes: 2   

"The Pelosi will rule. hahaha: ))"

Is there a way of keeping stupid teenagers off this site (DinamoR)?

Name me one socialist style car that did well....

Lada-no, Yugo-no, anything-no.

Yea, socialist style automobile industry... because the soviet union was RENOWN for its superb environmental record.

Dumbass. You wait until every state that actually builds things gets fed up with these shinanigans. Congress goes to the republicans....just like under clinton.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 10:01:46 PM | | Votes: 1   

Actually DinamoR, if you had done your Homework, you'd know that it was under Bill Clinton that most biodiesel and algae-based fuel research was halted. Back in the good-ol days (1990's), no one cared and Clinton decided it would be smart to cut those programs.

Get your facts together, son. Oh yea, who de-regulated oil speculation.... well last I checked, in December of 2000, BILL CLINTON signed the bill to destabilize energy markets.

Gosh, you make it so easy. I like debating with 16 yr olds.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 10:04:23 PM | | Votes: 1   

"MY MONEY, MY DECISIONS."

thats what got us in this mess. the notion that individuals should be able to do whatever they can afford. thats very juvenile.

unfettered individualism works great, in a vacuum. we are a nation of hundreds of millions. as long as we belong to a society, we give up some of our individual freedoms. heck, i can't even walk down the street naked.

it sucks that pelosi HAS to lay down the law, but somebody must. the fact is, enough people chose to exercise their freedom of wallet and buy inefficient cars. so down the line, when someone else is in the market for a powerful vehicle, its no longer available.

do you get mad at the bank if your spouse spends all your money, and you can no longer buy the essentials?

it is our fellow consumers, each one of us (myself included) that have brought this upon ourselves.

pelosi is the messenger. she is the bartender shutting us off after we barfed allover the dance floor.

— 1995e34 (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 4:20:45 PM | | Votes: 2   

No, what got us into this mess was cheap gas, cheap credit and a bunch of sissies running our government who hid from the very idea of stable energy/finance markets.

You mean to tell me, after all the education & hard work that i've done and will probably continue doing until Im 85yrs old, Nanci Pelosi needs to dictate what I drive.

Give me a break. The liberal line... "I drive a Prius and its good for the environment, so Im going to force everyone else to do it too". "I don't like SUVs so I'm going to whine about pollution even though I've never done any real testing and have no idea of how an automobiles' emissions system works".

So you think it's OK for some asswipe politician to tell you what to drive eh.... How about the size of your house? How about the size of your family? How about how many TVs you can have? How about what TV shows you can watch?

You make it seem as if there's a limited supply of powerful vehicles out there. There isn't. If there is a demand, the manufacturers build, plain and simple. Now Pelosi and the rest of the League of Communists want to put automakers between a rock and a super hard place.

"Here's financial aid, now produce things that aren't desired and/or profitable, and oh yeah, you have to be viable"

Tell me why is it that GM sold tens of thousands of 1/2 ton trucks in January, but only sold 7 (yes, seven) of the 2-mode hybrid trucks? Oh yeah, because no one wants them. Gas is cheap and the technology is expensive.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 4:47:09 PM | | Votes: 0   

pelosi may not need to dictate what YOU drive, but may have to dictate what others drive. i get the impression you may make reasonable decisions when it comes to consumption. unfortunately, far too many haven't made the right decisions.

until we grow mature as a society, yes politicians will need to tell us what to do. don't take it personally. it's the jerks that surround us that got us here. our friend, our families, our neighbors.

— 1995e34 (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 5:05:58 PM | | Votes: 1   

Yes, while as a nation, most of us were very irresponsible about our vehicle purchases, at the same time, most people could afford the cars they bought.

In any event, the LAST people who should be telling a technical, scientific, industrial sector of the economy should be the politicians. The jackasses in california pushed all these diesel emissions regulations starting in 2007 and guess what.... 2008 diesel truck sales were a tiny fraction of what they were in 2006. After speaking with various diesel operators, they've indicated to me that they just dont want to deal with extra costs, complexity and fuel economy losses. Theyd rather put up with the price of gasoline vehicles.

Politicians would like to take a 2yr old and toss them into a shark-infested ocean in an attempt to teach the child to learn how to swim.

Telling automakers they have to add things to cars (seatbelts, catalytic converters, etc) isnt too big a deal, so long as it is reasonable. CO2 BS is just that... absolute bullshit. No one wants little microcars or Priuses, especially when work has to get done.

Now, if politicians want to get people to make better decisions about what they drive, a REASONABLE gas tax would be more than acceptable. Take Italy, Spain or Greece for example.... there are 2 reasons why people buy small cars. 1) Everything is extremely crowded. 2) Most importantly, gas is expensive.

Summer 2008, we saw gas to go $4/gallon and people moved in mass to small cars. So what do we do... charge automakers with politicians' cowardly behavior towards a stable energy policy.

Nice conversing with you though.. I don't necessarily agree with you but it's always nice to get someone who can go back & forth without resorting to irrational ranting like others on this site.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/26/2009 10:59:19 PM | | Votes: 0   

i COMPLETELY agree that a gas tax would have solved this issue a decade ago. i think it still could be a viable solution.

— 1995e34 (View Profile)

Posted on 2/27/2009 1:39:41 PM | | Votes: 1   

that's what he meant. big deal. you give a speech like that without a single smallest mistake, then you can judge him

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 3:03:04 PM | | Votes: 2   

DinamoR spends an incredible amount of time apologizing or making excuses for the fool. Someone had to write the words in the teleprompter... God knows Obama didn't come up with them. If you want to know what he thinks, listen to his unscripted stuff... uuuhhh, ummmm, ya know, uhhhh blah blah blah

— cantaffordone (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 10:31:07 PM | | Votes: 1   

Wall Street did a spectacular of destroying it themselves.

— theoptimisticpessimist (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 7:31:47 PM | | Votes: 3   

Yes, Wall st did, but only because Washington DC let them.

If you drive down an open stretch of highway, and there are no speed limits or police, how fast do you go?

Congress said (during clinton/Bush yrs), "hey, we're removing speed limits and cutting all police forces" (which would be awesome in reality). Then Wall st. (highway drivers) drove like mad men.

We're all at fault too, no one ever said we needed 4000sqft homes when we make $40,000/yr.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 8:46:55 PM | | Votes: 3   

Neutral --

Well yes the congress did castrate the Glass-Steagall Act, but Wall Street act like a drunken sailor in a whore house. There is a matter of personal responsibility that investment banker of Wall Street lacked. While I do hold the government somewhat responsible (lack of vision, history repeating itself, etc…) I don’t think they’re Wall Streets pimp. Wall Street acted in amoral fashion thinking about next quarter’s bonus not the next twenty years of the economy. Don’t get me started on the mortgage industry (I concur completely with the 4000 sq ft comment.). If all the speed limits were removed we are still responsible for our and others safety, just look at how well the Autobahn works.

— theoptimisticpessimist (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:14:23 PM | | Votes: 1   

yea but how many soccer moms in Toyota Sequoias, talking on their cell-phones while tying little billies' shoes are driving on the autobahn?

Remember, Americans were aghast not too long ago at the fact that German cars had no cupholders ;)

Also, the autobahn DOES have some speed limits. While I'm only using the highway analogy as.... an analogy, the finance/investment scheme of our economy MUST be regulated in a fair, prudent and balanced manner. If we (and by we, i mean California/Eco-whackos) regulated the finance industry the way we over-regulate autos, alcohol or guns, then there wouldn't have been this problem.

One could say that the reason why all automakers built big, gas thirsty SUVs is b/c of a lack of regulation... but it's a different situation. It's the government's job to appropriately level a tax on fuel, like in every other civilized nation on the earth. As much as I hate taxes (mostly b/c its usually wasted), a $1/gallon tax, phased in from 1995-2005 would most likely have staved off the oil crisis we just had, all the while not hurting people who need trucks/vans/SUVs.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:28:13 PM | | Votes: 0   

Well I hope you like the depression that ensues, and the weakened 2nd world nation that America becomes afterwards.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 8:48:45 PM | | Votes: 0   

AMEN TO THAT

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:08:31 PM | | Votes: -1   

I take it back, I ONLY say "amen" to the 35hrspwr Pelosi GT-R. If anything, the UAW is the auto industry's (asians/europeans included) only hope of fending off California's whacko-jacko rules.

Aside from that, Obama isn't going to make life easy for the Big3, but at least he recognizes the strategic importance. It'd be nice if he stopped badmouthing Detroit though, everytime the politicians open their mouths, Detroit looses about 50,000 sales.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:20:19 PM | | Votes: 0   

of course he was gonna help them. because that will make our country stronger. Bush slowed down alternative energy while giving billions to big oil and killed the middle class as much as he could. those days are O-V-E-R. the real america is back now. and you clowns can cry me a river. YOU LOST! haha and you will continue losing after the economy bounces back next year

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:35:56 PM | | Votes: 2   

yeah those wacko california rules. I mean why would people want clean air? a 20,000,000 resident metro area that on often has a green cloud of smog above it and has higher rates of every illness from asthma to cancer because of it...oh and the middle east getting our money for gas thing....Wow you right wing losers are not even wacko. you're BEYOND wacko. you have to be brain dead to hold your beliefs.....LOL but it's over, you lost, and you're finished.

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:38:05 PM | | Votes: -1   

Yea, you talk smack now, but as I recall, it was YOUR FATHER who went out and bought a big-bad, bas guzzling SUV...

http://www.autospies.com/news/2010-Chrysler-300-and-Jeep-Grand-Cherokee-unveiled-in-viability-plan-41145/

Don't even talk about smog. Smog--from what I ask!! Considering that automobiles have had catalytic converters for over 30 years and no one drives diesel (thanks to CARB), quit your nonsense. I have bad asthma... but i live in out on the outskirts of a big city... so let me guess, all that "smog" got into my lungs all these past 30 years and caused my asthma.

You are such a dumbass, you want to talk about Asthma/caner? HOW ABOUT TALK ABOUT CIGARETTES!! For the love of God.... 99% of tailpipe emissions from any car bought in the past 20 yrs is CO2, O2, N2 & H20.

As for the 20million people, you mean to tell me that the latino/black/asian immigrant population is all upset about pollution? Yea... right. A few uppity, spoiled white people in California are forcing their views on everyone else.

like ive said millions of times before, harmful emissions = bad, and theyre already regulated (over-regulated for diesel).

CO2 - natural gas, if you want to decrease it, do logical things. Better highways, less traffic, Build solar/wind plants, better manage electrical grids,etc etc etc. All without bothering the auto industry.

Now go back and drive your daddy's SUV and "pollute" that precious air... Hypocrite.

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/25/2009 9:57:13 PM | | Votes: 0   

I like how you're thinking!!

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 2/27/2009 1:48:34 PM | | Votes: 2