Unfair competition or Government showing favorites?
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
August 3, 2010 1:08am CST
As part of the government bailouts they took control of GM and Chrysler to prevent them from "failing" by going bankrupt. As a result the UAW came out in great shape owning a majority of the two companies and the Stockholders and Bond holders were left with next to nothing, which is not what the Bankruptcy Laws call for. Since then Toyota, the largest Car Company in the world, was investigated and grilled by congress and faced one of the largest recalls for a faulty accelerator problem. It should be noted that GM faced a safety recall during the same time but was not called before congress. A quick Google search shows 20.1 million hits for "GM Recalls" vs 19.3 million hits for "Toyota Recalls". Now it seems that the fault of the Toyota may have been Driver Error and not Toyota's fault according to the NTSB. ( http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-drivers-share-blame-in-toyota-problems/ ).
A short time ago the President visited GM and Chrysler and praised them for their work in saving and creating jobs. He also [promoted the new Volt by GM. Now the Government is talking about tax credits and rebates or grants to consumer who purchase electric cars such as the Volt.
With a vested interest in the company will new Government rules and tax incentives be written to favor GM?
3 responses
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
4 Aug 10
Bob, there is a large difference between the Toyota recall, and the GM recall. When it comes to the Toyota recall, Toyota didn't work with NTSB, and actually fought them at most turns. Only when the Obama administration stepped up and went after them did they actually want to talk to NTSB about this. GM has a long history of working with NTSB.
The tax credit for electric cars has been around long before Obama, or the bailouts. Second, shouldn't the president praise the innovations that are not only made here in this country, but actually BUILT HERE!!! Did you check to see if Bush owned stock in Toyota when they started the tax credits for electric cars under his administration?
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
4 Aug 10
"Second, shouldn't the president praise the innovations that are not only made here in this country, but actually BUILT HERE!!!"
You mean like the Toyota Camry, the most American car according to cars.com? You're a smart enough guy to know that just because it's an American company, doesn't mean the cars are all built here or all use American parts.
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=ami&story=amMade0709
I agree though, he should praise such innovations. Frankly I'm disgusted by the fact that American car companies have been so slow to make hybrids and more fuel efficient cars. That, along with piss poor quality control, is precisely why Toyota and Honda have been mopping the floor with them.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
4 Aug 10
Taskr, the Toyota Camry might be built here in the United States, but all of the profits from this vehicle go back to Japan, not here in the US.
Our problem is that we don't want cars, we want huge monstrous SUV's that are made to go anywhere, and we will NEVER take them anywhere but on a paved road (unless you live in Michigan, where driving on the paved roads are considered off-roading).
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
7 Aug 10
Taskr, if you could write off the cost of that Hummer 100% would you buy one? That is what happened, and that is why you see so many of them on the road.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
3 Aug 10
Yeah, it disgusted me the way they kept blabbing about the Toyota recalls while completely ignoring the hundreds of thousands of GMs that were recalled.
The tax credit thing, to be fair, won't JUST apply to the Volt. I believe the Nissan Leaf will benefit from the same program and in the past there have been tax credits for Ford, Toyota, and Honda hybrids. Those credits I'm pretty sure have all expired though.
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
4 Aug 10
NO, the tax credits are still alive and well. These were started long before the bailouts, and Obama. But, if you really want to look at taxes that benefited American car companies you can look at the "Hummer" business tax credit that Bush pushed into law. This was meant for businesses to heavy duty trucks for their companies, but in the end they were used to purchase high end (limit of $100,000) SUV's like Hummers. This is why you many businesses in this country can't afford to pay their bills, but have a Hummer out front.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
4 Aug 10
Not all the tax credits are alive and well. I clearly remember that back in 2008 when I was looking at the Prius the tax credits for that had expired because they were only good for the first few years that a hybrid was on the market. The Civic hybrid at the time was only 1 year from expiring and the only ones still getting tax credits were SUV hybrids that I had no interest in.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/tax_hybrid.shtml
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
3 Aug 10
Of course...which is why the government needs to stay out of the private sector...but now that htey have soo much money tied up in these companies of course they are going to write laws to favor it so they get a return on their investment.
