Auto bailout - but only to green projects?

[SagaLore]

What if the government gave bailout money to the big car companies, but only to fund alternative fuel / hybrid vehicle manufacturing?

Would some of the people against a bailout change their minds?

 

[Strk]

That's what the $25 billion was for. What they're asking for now is money to save the companies as a whole, sort of, anyways. Ford is just looking for a line of credit it probably won't use. GM is asking for cash to setup funds to take care of legacy costs, for the most part. Cerebrus just won't give Chrysler money.

 

[compuwiz1]

The whole green thing is overrated, IMO.

Hybrid sale are driven by fuel prices, as evidenced by the recent slowdown of one popular model, the Prius. Fuel prices are down, so are sales.

I'm sure there are people who buy hybrids for environmental reasons but I'm still convinced that in the vast majority of those purchases fuel cost weighs heavily.

But we need to be thinking long term and develope alternative fuels and means to power.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
But we need to be thinking long term and develope alternative fuels and means to power.

Hence why the government has the opportunity to push it via a bailout.

 

[winnar111]

Maybe we should stop subsidizing vehicles and let car companies adapt to the market.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: winnar111
Maybe we should stop subsidizing vehicles and let car companies adapt to the market.

I read an article that was talking about the $25 billion (again, this was approved for green projects, so I'm not sure what the "what if" is for). It pointed out that all this does is allow the companies to cut their funding and use it for other things.

 

[Balt]

You can't control what the consumer is going to demand just by forcing the suppliers to build certain products. Trying to force automakers to build green cars that most people may not even want could just contribute to their collapse.

I still think their biggest problem has to do with their reliability and image problems. Even if you improve the reliability, people who bought a lemon from you or know someone who did aren't going to immediately trust you again.

 

[CycloWizard]

You hand them billions to spend on "green" (ugh) research and they will just shuffle around their moneys to spend it on whatever they want. This would, at best, marginally increase the amount that ends up getting spent on this research.

 

[dlx22]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
But we need to be thinking long term and develope alternative fuels and means to power.

Hence why the government has the opportunity to push it via a bailout.

gas prices high=demand for more fuel efficient cars
gas prices low=lower demand for fuel efficient cars

really i think most people are realizing their 00-07 vehicle suits them fine and they don't really need another car.

take me for example...I have a 2000 grand am that just broke 60k miles, I don't really need a new car so i'm not going to buy one

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
What if the government gave bailout money to the big car companies, but only to fund alternative fuel / hybrid vehicle manufacturing?

Would some of the people against a bailout change their minds?

That kind of dictation is exactly why they must get nothing from the government.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: dlx22

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
But we need to be thinking long term and develope alternative fuels and means to power.

Hence why the government has the opportunity to push it via a bailout.

gas prices high=demand for more fuel efficient cars
gas prices low=lower demand for fuel efficient cars

really i think most people are realizing their 00-07 vehicle suits them fine and they don't really need another car.

take me for example...I have a 2000 grand am that just broke 60k miles, I don't really need a new car so i'm not going to buy one

We just had an article in our local paper about how independent auto repair shops are having a huge surge in business. They attribute this to people deciding to hang on to their cars longer. Instead of trading them in, they're fixing them up. To me that says a lot about the economic state we are in.