Excellent article, link here, in Forbes.com from Jerry Flint, one of my favorite authors regarding the auto industry. Some good paragraphs excerpted here:
It is easy for politicians to make rules and just declare that cars and trucks must get 35 miles per gallon, or 40 or 50. Unfortunately, the people making such proclamations and legislation do not understand what is possible and what is not possible. Nor do they understand whether consumers will buy cars that deliver exceptional mileage but lack all the other attributes that people want in an automobile.
Politicians should also stop using words and phrases that are misguided and misleading. One example: "If we could land a man on the moon, we can build a car that is free of pollution and earth-warming emissions."
Yes, for several billion dollars, the industry could build one such perfect car. That is what Jack Kennedy, NASA, the guys with the Right Stuff and America did: Create the technology to land two men at a time on the moon. They did not build spaceships to take 16 million tourists to the moon each year.
(Later referring to politicians who overuse the words "gas guzzler"...)
Those two silly words mean any vehicle that someone holier-than-thou thinks burns too much fuel. If you need it to carry your four children, it is a gas-guzzler. If you need it to make it through the snowdrifts or rutted farm roads, it is a gas-guzzler. If you need it to tow your trailer with donated goods down to Goodwill, it is a gas-guzzler. Funny, Air Force One, the giant Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) 747 at Obama's disposal, is not a guzzler. Nor is that new presidential limousine that probably weighs about as much as an armored truck.
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The "Big Three" are under bankruptcy watch and begging for more bailout money. President Barack Obama thinks this is a good time to appease his environmental base by weighing Detroit down with a new round of environmental regulations. This is a horrible timing and it will severely damage the ability of the "Big Three" to return to profitability. The first increase in CAFE will take place by the 2011 model year. Detroit is now preparing to launch the 2010 model year in July. Read more here. The "Big Three" are sinking and Barack Obama fires a salvo of torpedoes
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