The Chamber of Commerce people (almost all of them very nice people and well intentioned) get to puff up about their ‘new jobs’ and too few media reports or informed parties put out the ACTUAL costs.

FWIW, last night on Hardball, Tom Friedman almost inadvertantly put a huge part of the responsibility for the auto policy dysfunction on the lobbyist nexis in DC that further entrenches existing interests and protects them from pressures to change.

Market, schmarket.

It is worth noting, however, that Shelby’s constituetents won’t be very well able to purchase the cars they make. Guess all the tax-protected will have to buy 4 apiece to even out the numbers.

I think we both seek the same end, I just see the EV-1 as a nightmare, ill conceived, that obstructed the good end.

I was assuming that the Volt was a better EV1, using lessons learned, but I know nothing about the Volt. They may not have learned anything, as the EV1s were taken out into the desert, crushed, and shredded.

Anyway, yes, by all means–I’d love to see Detroit produce incredible cars that beat the pants off foreign manufacturers.

But in the meantime, I’m driving a civic 4 cyl. that transports 4 comfortably and gets 34 mpg overall milage, ulev.

Bankruptcy reorganization, as now permitted for big companies, is just a big stick to use against suppliers, lenders and unions, and which allows management to stay in place unchanged. For the industries most likely to benefit from Hank Paulson’s unquestioning largesse, replacing their managers is probably the first thing needed to improve their prospects and that of their employees.

To me, they never should have produced that car; should have kept prototyping until they had a better vehicle. So I agree that they could have done better in ten years. But, by wasting all those tons of money on producing the thing and subsidizing the leases, GM chased good money after bad. If they had not have fucked around with the EV-1, they might have developed and put out the Volt five years or more earlier than they are. bThat is the tradeoff I see. I think we both seek the same end, I just see the EV-1 as a nightmare, ill conceived, that obstructed the good end.

states the

Proofreader is my friend…Should read

states that house…

There was no aspect of it that was well executed. That electric car needed to be “Killed”. And it was not just that the battery technology was lacking (although it absolutely was), simply everything was crappy. It was like an electric Pinto with crappy batteries.

In other words, it was like everything else GM sold? (except the engine sounded funny…)

bmaz, have you seen the film? It’s rentable via the usual suspects. The people who leased them (GM never sold the car) apparently loved them tremendously–they fought tooth and nail to keep them, and GM nearly had to kidnap the vehicles away from the leasors.

But even with your experience, consider what GM could have done with them over the course of 10 years.