GM - Government Motors

Have you seen the GM ads for the Equinox?

“The all new Equinox - 32 mpg highway - better than CR-V, Rav4, and even Escape Hybrid”

You’d better take that number with a substantial grain of salt. Now that the “government” owns and operates GM (Government Motors) we should expect projected favorable numbers to be skewed as far afield as possible just like their estimates of the finances of any favored program. These cost numbers are usually understated by a factor of two while income or revenue is overstated by the same factor.

Such being the case the Equinox should get about 16 mpg. But just maybe the Government Motors new owners are afraid the motoring public wouldn’t accept their usual highly suspect estimates and didn’t stretch them as far from reality as usual. Such being the case let’s say they only exaggerated a little and the reality is about 24 mpg, still not up to the three vehicles they claim to beat. I’ll wager that’s a bit closer to the truth.

Like the honesty of their statement, “We don’t intend to run GM.” After making this public statement they fired the President and who knows who else, ordered corporate headquarters moved from Warren into the inner city of Detroit, and closed nearly 2,000 dealers (many highly profitable ones and nearly all supporters of Republican candidates). The new Obama auto "CZAR" (or is it Kommisar), basically put the UAW in charge. That sure sounds like running the company to me. They’ll probably do the same excellent job of managing their auto company as they have Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Fannie May, Freddie Mac, the Postal Service, Amtrak, and the list goes on and on. Lots of taxpayer money going down federal rat holes, lots of political payoffs, graft, corruption, and why not? It costs those politicians and bureaucrats not one penny. Mr. Taxpayer Sucker pays for it all as two previously major tax paying companies become major tax consuming companies.

The response of Mr. Average American car buyer to the “Cash for Clunkers” program demonstrates clearly how the public thinks. Overwhelmingly they rejected GM and Chrysler products whose sales dropped far below last year while Ford, the only remaining privately owned American car company, posted substantial gains. Of course, by far the largest sales gain was posted by Toyota. The public knows how poorly any government operated entity is run. I surely wouldn’t buy a new car from such an operation. I seriously doubt either Chrysler or GM will be around for long and I certainly wouldn’t buy any of their stock.

Oh yes, the management and stockholders of Ford want to thank the Obama administration for making them the only remaining privately owned American car company and for giving them such a huge boost in sales.