A Note To The Big Three...And Others

So I was listening to The Laura Ingram Show the other day, which if you don't know Laura Ingram don't start listening to her. Listening to her is like listening to some paranoid schizophrenic homeless guy on the sidewalk. Of all the conservative talk radio hosts she is by far the most paranoid. But that is beside the point.

The point being that Laura Ingram is also a sell out idiot. Of all the conservative talk radio hosts she has to do the most commercials. And she won't just cut to break to do them, she will do them right there in her show. I understand that being a radio host probably isn't the most lucrative career in the world, so naturally she has to do ads to make real money, but she does so many of them it is so annoying.

But anywhoo. I was listening to Laura Ingram the other day and she had the stupidest commercial I think I have ever heard. Now I can't quote it because I couldn't find that specific show online, or I would just post the actuall commercial on here, but this is the basics of it.

Blah Blah the economy is in real bad shape. Blah Blah we here at GM know that everyone is hurting. Blah Blah that is why we are here to offer a special deal on The Hummer. Blah Blah If you buy a Hummer and you loose your job we will make your payments for so long blah blah, and if you don't get another job we will take back the car no questions asked blah blah.

Yeah Laura Inngram, thats a great idea. The economy is crashing to the ground. Banks are failing all around us everyday. Gas prices are slowly rising everyday. the stock market is at an all time low. You should go out to your local GM dealer and finance yourself a Hummer, one of the most expensive, least costeffective vehicles on the market!!! Are you mental!?! Only a total idiot would go out and make that deal. Esspecially if you are in a career where there is a real possibility of loosing your job. And only a real idiot, or a sell out with a radio show, would hear that from their ad people and think "Yeah, thats a good idea. Thats somthing I want to promote to the American people".

So this got me to thinking about cars. And then I was lucky enough to catch "Click and Clack", the hosts of NPR's "Car Talk", doing a special NOVA on PBS last night about cars of the future. It was a good program, they traveled all around the world looking at how alternative forms of energy are impacting the auto industry. But there are some things I just don't get.

They started out at the detroit car show, looking at all the concept cars due out in the next five years or so. All the big three auto makers had their nice electric concept cars, that were going to cost around fiftey thousand dollars. And it made me mad.

And they spoke to reps that were talking about how they had to make electric cars apealing to the american people so that it would sell. At one point Ray from car talk was asking why they are focusing on making high horse power gas guzzlers when they had technology to make electric cars, asking, When you have a car like that (pointing at the Chevy Volt) why do you make such shit (pointing at the new Ford Mustang).

They also interviewed the owner of Tesla Motors, one of the first all electric car companies. They currently have two cars, the Roadster, and the Model S (due out in 2011). The roadster is a sleek stylish sportscar that can go from 0-60 in less than 4 seconds, and go about 300 miles per charge. The Model S is a family style sedan that seats 7 and gets about 300 miles per charge. It is equally as stylish and fancy, and, even though they havn't released options yet, im sure it has a multi disk CD changer, fancy stereo, navigation, DVD, and all the works. The Roadster averages about $100,00.00, the Model S will be about $50,000.00 after a $7,500.00 tax rebate. Watching the interview I couldn't help but see dollar signs in this douch bags eyes the whole time.

Here is my challenge to the big three and the guys at tesla, make an affordable hybrid or all electric vehicle for the masses!! It can be done, but no one will do it. The technology is there, but these people are too focused on how to make money off it instead of giving people an affordable and environmentally friendly way of getting around.

My first car was a 1992 Ford Tempo. I paid $1,000.00 for it in 2002. It was a simple car with a simple design, with simple interior and a simple package. What I want from the big three and tesla motors is a 1992 Ford Tempo that is all electric, or at least a plug in hybrid. And I want it for under $15,000.00.

I don't understand why the car companies are so focused on the idea that they have to make their hybrid and electric vehicles super flashy with all kinds of extras or nobody will buy it. No one can tell me that if there was an all electric car that looked like a cheap car from the 90's but ran like a normal car, and was $10,000.00 they wouldn't buy it. All of those 50 - 100 thousand dollar cars aren't whats going to turn people to electric cars. With out a decent priced all electric or plug in hybrid car for the masses people will not embrace electricity as a form of transportation. If it hadn'e been for the mass production, avaiability and chepaness of the Model T we would all be riding horses still!

Which brings me to availability. We need the car companies to pledge to a mass produced electric or plug in hybrid car. There can't be any more of these concept cars that they make a few hundred of and then no one sees them again because the auto makers say, we made one but we only leased a few hundred of them so there must not be a demand. (see "Who Killed the Electric Car") Hey Wakeup!!!! We can't demand something if it isn't there idiot!!!

With the government passing out bailouts to car comanies like they are goodie bags at an eight year olds birthday party, we as the american people MUST demand that these things happen. We pratically own most of the big three anyway now, shouldn't we have a say in what types of cars we want.

Roll that around in the old noggin.

Love You
Mike