I can't say it any better than this.....this whole subject of loans might provoke a whole range of reactions.
Get 'yer backgound here!
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/04/news/economy/automakers_Congress/index.htm?postversion=2008090412
Interesting article from USAToday here, about truck sales popping up a little bit.
Looks like when gas dropped $.20 per gallon, interest in trucks spiked up. Further, I wonder, month by month, what the pent-up demand is from the real users of trucks like plumbers and contractors (not like Suburban-Suburban-Moms, who don't really need that big of a rig...), who even though they need new trucks, have just held off out a general sense of dread of high prices. Maybe that pent-up demand is starting to show in the market.
Courtesy of USAToday....
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-09-03-august-auto-sales_N.htm
This article, although the author tried to "dumb it down" for readers like me, is a bit technical, but it does address the issue of "full life cycle" costs of an electric car vs. a gas-powered car.
Excellent issue culled from Winding Road, and excellent online enthusiast magazine. They got it from Salon.com. Thanks to them for this link....
http://www.salon.com/env/ask_pablo/2008/08/25/electric_cars/index.html
Here's a very interesting spin on Chrysler from Mr. Jim Press. It of course hurts to be smaller company, but better a smaller profitable company than a larger one with no money....
Courtesy of Bloomberg....
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atkuIh3p3uws
This video has two spins on it. First, if it's just "saving money" you want, who would be nutty enough to spend an addtional $3000.00 on batteries to move your MPG from 50 to 100 in the backyard version of souping up your Prius? Do the numbers on that and how many years would it take you to recapture that investment?
Second, who'd be even nuttier to spend an additional $21,000.00 to move to lithium ion batteries like the guy in Boulder is suggesting?
See the video...
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/09/02/wilkinson.extreme.hybrid.kusa
...but, the second take is, good 'ol American Ingenuity is already taking hold in the Hybrid world!
:-)
Could this be an end to the Viper as we know it??
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121984483240576415.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
There is a little move afoot to highlight the debt crisis that the United States is in, and we'd all be better off to pay attention to it....
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/21/news/economy/buffett_town_hall.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008082105
Wouldn't it be great if our "leaders" and potential leaders actually paid attention to the business aspect of running the nation? If we ignore the numbers and Social Security crashes, if we ignore the numbers and don't drill for our own oil and keep buying it somewhere else, if we ignore the numbers and let a weak dollar remove us as the "nation of choice" for others to put their money and wealth, if we ignore the numbers and let municipal pensions continue to spiral out of control, if we ignore the numbers and just keep whistling past the graveyard of fiscal irresponsibility, who will buy cars?
All of us here at VRCG are car nuts. But, if you want to really see car nuts, come to the Woodward Avenue area of Metro Detroit this weekend. There's sort of a "self organizing" cruise event that might attract as many as 1.5 million people as onlookers, and upwards of 100,000 classic cars, all driving around looking at each other.
It's not really commercial, and it really doesn't have an "epicenter"...just a sort of love fest for folks who like cars, and the whole car-culture-lifestyle.
Yep, it's a 'you gotta see it to understand it' sort of thing.
But, to get a little taste, take a look at their Website. It takes a bit to load, but...
Wow, if this account is true, could this be a world class version of "gee, I wish I would have done that..."
Very, very disturbing.
Some of the most fabled companies on the planet, reduced to possibly having to resort to bankruptcy...
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/06/news/companies/big_three_woes/index.htm?postversion=2008080610
