200 mph patrol car

TAKE A $360,000 POLICE CAR

ADD AN INCOMPETENT POLICE OFFICER

AND YOU'VE GOT YOURSELF A WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY!

read more:Italian Police Crash Lamborghini Patrol Car(NYT)

Total recall

I'm sure that title has been used a lot lately...

This post is mainly to point out the tiny little add on recall of 8,000 Tacoma Trucks for faulty front drive shafts (bbc). Didn't want it to get missed it having been announced at the end of the week with no one paying attention.

But a big thanks to the media for whipping this thing into a frenzy that will surely score some more taxpayer bucks over at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration so they can get involved in matters like these that have been pretty well handled. Sure, we might like to see Toyota act a bit quicker, but I'd say they've handled it like the pros they are.

And for the most part, this has been a rather risk free recall. We all mourn those who passed, but we also all know the inherent risks in strapping yourself into a box on wheels going around at 65 miles per hour. Its not like Toyota was trying to kill people... If the highly skilled engineers at Toyota didn't see an issue when designing and producing the vehicle, the engineers at NHTSA likely would have also missed it during a total vehicle inspection.

Adding more layers of bureaucratic red tape...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Midwest day of rest for car dealerships

Can anyone fathom why most of the states in the Great Lakes Region have taken the time to write up, debate, and vote on whether or not car dealerships should be allowed to set their own hours? At least Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin have made it illegal for car dealerships to conduct business on Sundays.

I can't imagine the scenario that made this the important issue that had to be dealt with that day...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Cash for clunkers on a grand scale

I was waiting for someone to figure it out. The first calculation I found comes from the Rochester Institute of Technology:

Every vehicle GM sells costs $12,200 of taxpayer money.
Every vehicle Chrysler sells costs $7,600 of taxpayer money.

Meanwhile, for every vehicle Ford sells, they don't expect you and I to pay their expenses. After all, they are a for-profit PRIVATE company. Unlike Chrysler and GM.

Don't get the math wrong, I'm sure there is a bit of forecasting and estimating going into those numbers. Its not like the costs will go up every time they make a sale, in fact, the more they sell, the less per vehicle cost of the tax burden. I just found it shocking that a reasonable estimate sets the cost of producing cars HIGHER than the MSRP!

Government subsidized auto industry...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: Each GM car sold costs taxpayers $12,200, RIT says (RBJ)

My cash, for your clunker

The Senate has approved another $2 BILLION for the CARS program. (read more)

Much like all the other schemes giving away the tax money we all pay to only a select few who qualify, this is getting ridiculous. Lucky are the douchebags who both purchased a shitty gas guzzling vehicle more than a year ago AND can afford to buy a new car now...
I, for one, could afford a new car now, especially with $4,500 of your money, but the piece of junk sable in my driveway, a true clunker, is rated at 19 miles per gallon, so I don't qualify.

For those of you who think we're saving the environment:
1.) In certain circumstances, businesses are getting the credit with as little as a 1 mile per gallon improvement in fuel economy over the traded in vehicle. (read more)
2.) I for one can't wait to find out that the entrepreneurial spirit amongst the car dealerships and scrap yards is alive and well in the U.S. as it is in Germany. They've been running their own Cash for Clunkers program for most of this year. This week, their law enforcement shut down their program after finding containers of 'clunkers' ready to ship to Africa to be re-sold. Rather than getting these clunkers off the road, we're simply putting them on other roads, and allowing the dealerships and scrap yards to double dip the profits. (read more)

For those of you who think we're saving our economy:
1.) Now that dealerships are moving their old inventory under this program, the price of vehicles is going up again, making it harder for most folks that can buy a car to get a great deal.
2.) I don't have facts and figures, but I heard a story on NPR that in Germany, Toyota has outsold all other vehicles in their cash for clunkers program. The statistics in the U.S. aren't yet available, but I'm sure its not all American made cars being sold.

Taking from many, giving to few...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Commercials

So, do you all love the new GM commercials we've created? We're really running the Chevy commercial trying to clear out all '08 and '09 models frequently and that one about gigantic GMC trucks is a hoot!

Hell, I'm just glad we're past the point where GM was blowing sunshine up our asses about how they weren't going out of business, they were getting down to it.

Yes. I realize that it is reasonable and necessary for GM to start running commercials again, especially if we ever want GM to pay the government back for ensuring the livelihood of it as a private enterprise. However, it will be a looong time before I'll stop bitching about everything GM does as a ward of the state.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Buying in

Well... In the end, GM is going to cost us ANOTHER $60 BILLION!!! The Fed will own 60% of it under the current plan.

Model: GM
Cost: About $100 billion
Needs Work! Will not run as-is.
Warranty: As-is.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

GM Strikes Again

I think I know why Wagoner needed to be fired.
I think I know why GM has failed and very possibly might truly fail.

Here's the latest 2010 model GM recently unveiled:
2009 New York Auto Show: 2010 GMC Terrain Makes World Debut(edmunds)
estimated 21 mpg in city driving and 30 mpg on the highway. The EPA has yet to certify those numbers.
[optional] engine is expected to deliver 18 mpg in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway.

A BRAND NEW gigantic SUV released by GM... Your bailout dollars at work!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

The Church of GM

It must have been when we all deposited some of our tax money into the plate GM had set up by the door that GM thought to start modeling itself after a church.

After all, I can't think of anyone else that gets to operate in this country tax-free.

GM lobbies Congress to avoid tax(dn)

I'm also particularly excited that GM is using their bailout to lobby congress for more bailout. Trust me, lobbying don't come cheap. I wonder how many hummers they have to sell to foot the bill? (Of course, if they can't sell anymore hummers, we'll cover it!)

The amount in taxes GM hopes to avoid: $7 BILLION...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Get off my back

Glenn McCoy

The Beast

Oh my. She is a beauty. I'll bet the miles per gallon are pretty low, it's got a full bar, and one can fit a whole bunch of dead hookers in the trunk. It has its own oxygen supply, the tires will still work when flattened, etc. etc.

All in all, far from the worst thing they've done with my taxes...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

How do you spend a bailout?

I know how *I'd* spend it: Fast cars and Hot Women! WOOO HOOOO!!!

Report: GM renews sponsorship with Daytona(fox)

On the SAME DAY Bush announced he was going to bailout the auto industry GM renewed its contract with the Daytona 500. We are to believe that the timing is purely coincidental. (Apparently the plan was that even if they went into bankruptcy, they'd still find a way to sponsor NASCAR)

So. There you go non-NASCAR fans. Thanks for keeping the dream alive.
(How ignorant am I if I ponder the ratio of tax paying non-NASCAR fans to non-tax paying NASCAR fans?)

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Bailing out the automakers... SO worth it!

How else could we realize the dream of having a hybrid that gets 13 MILES PER GALLON? What company other than an American auto maker would be retarded enough to look into their crystal ball and see the need for a hybrid that gets gas mileage worse than most large luxury sedans?

A reader recently posted a comment on my post about whether or not Chrysler even makes a hybrid that they could have taken to DC to beg for my money. She did a bit more research and forwarded an article to me about Chrysler's answer to the fact that it is obviously time to move past gas guzzlers and into alternative fuels.

Chrysler Aspen Hybrid(hc)

The article talks about how this is actually a big step in reducing oil consumption. I don't agree, 13 miles per gallon is 13 miles per gallon. Period.

Saving the car companies so they can pursue the same miles per gallon vehicles that brought them to their knees...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

I wish

Steve Kelley

My take on the auto industry bailout

Like anyone cares about my take, right? I haven't posted much about it, but I'm fully torn on the issue:
Under no circumstances should government money be given to private enterprise unless it is in the form of government contracts that were won under a competitive bidding system. (i.e. if we want to give cash to GM, why don't we have all government agencies drive Chevy Cobalts for a while?)

However, as we learned in the [not so] Great Depression, letting industry collapse is what made what could have been a Pretty Good Depression a Great Depression instead. History teaches, we ought to learn.

One thing, semi-unrelated, that I'd like to point out because I for one was fooled by the propaganda: Your average Big 3 Union employee does NOT, I'll go ahead and repeat, DOES NOT cost around $75 as we've been told by anti union politicians. They only cost that much if you average in the costs of ALL CURRENT AND FORMER employees. In other words: Most of the cost comes from the people that have done their time and retired with a beauty pension all future generations will only read about in history books. The average UAW employee costs $45 per hour. THIS IS ONLY about $5 more per hour than the Toyota Plants down south. THE UNION WAGES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM!!! (Does everyone know that the most verbose opponents of the bailout bill were those senators down south with Toyota plants in their districts? Does everyone realize that the main reason the auto makers bailout bill couldn't pass the senate is because of intense lobbying by Toyota and Honda et al.???? This got SO LITTLE PRESS, its disturbing. I don't like that foreign companies have that much power over our own senate...) Sources for this long and rambling paragraph: Newsweek and NPR. Sorry for not providing links to the stories...

Here's a couple of comics I think sum it up pretty good:

Bail-oot, eh?

Even the Canadians are fans of throwing piles of cash ($3.3 BILLION) into a sinkhole. Though, unlike Bush, I doubt they giggle with glee as it disappears from sight.

Canada to aid car manufacturers(bbc)

THIS is whyCanadianspaytaxes.

Not authorized to use the Car Pool lane either...

This time, when the big 3 CEOs went to grovel for a handout at the collective feet of [those who 'represent'] the nation, they drove.

Of course, they STILL didn't drive together... But they DID take hybrids! (I wonder if it was a prius... Does Chrysler even make a Hybrid?)

Not authorized to use the Jet Pool lane

When the auto industry executives went to Washington to beg on their dusty little knees, they all took their private jets. They couldn't even get together to take the same private jet!

I guess there really isn't much more to say. Even P Diddy realizes its time to let the private jet go when times are tough...

Yet I carpool to work every day...

THIS is whyipaytaxes. (Cause you KNOW we're going to bail them out eventually)