Big 3 Bailout..

Being from the midwest with a GM assembly plant in our city, I am sympathetic to the repercussions of a factory closing. However, the auto makers must assume the brunt of the decline in sales. They claim they don't make fuel efficient cars because "It is not what the consumer wants". Well who determines "what we want" anyway? It what we see on TV or what others are driving. All we see in advertising is trucks and suv's. All we see in movies and music videos are BIG vehicles. So I blame the auto companies for not steering the consumer cattle to smaller vehicles with promotional advertising campaigns. The profit margin in a huge vehicle is way more than a small vehicle so it kind of makes sense. And with a failsafe government creating light at the end of a tunnel, why not?

All the auto companies needed to do (about 20 years ago) is start an ad campaign promoting smaller cars and how cool they are. Put a pimped out tiny car in a rap video and there you go. They could call it the "Chevy Bling". Give one to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and it would sell. It would (have been) a long term transition, but the bigwigs are smart, they had to see this coming. They had the inside scoop on how people paid for vehicles and I am sure there are detailed analytics on financing. People have been paying less cash and financing longer. Most people never OWN a vehicle now.

Anyhow, I had a 78 Toyota Corolla that go almost 30 miles a gallon. That was freakin' 30 years ago. Yo can't tell me that technology has stalled. I just think the money went in the wrong direction. And now it is going to be coming out of my pocket... again.