The Government is Destroying the American Auto Industry

With GM and Chrysler both bankrupt and Ford headed for bankruptcy it looks like we could end up with a nationalized auto industry. Chrysler is being bought out by Fiat and the government will relinquish its control over Chrysler, but GM seems to be completely controlled by the government. History has shown that nationalized car companies don't work. British Leyland is known for being a failure and making horrible cars, but when they were founded in 1968 they made some very good cars. The problems began in 1975 when BL was nationalized. Some very good cars like the Jaguar XJ6 and Range Rover were ruined by the cost cutting that destroyed the car. Other cars that could have been good like the Rover SD1, Jaguar XJ-S, and 1980's versions of the Jaguar XJ were ruined because nationalization made the cars horribly built and unreliable.

With GM quality and reliability are already concerns, but governments always want to cut costs and they will with GM. GM will have much less money for engineering, design, parts, and other things important to making cars. The government doesn't know what people want and what they'll buy. I think that leaving much of our auto industry in the hands of the government is a recipe for disaster.

The government is going to horribly damage the auto industry in the U.S. for all companies by introducing the 39 mpg average across fleets by 2016. The idea behind this is to use less oil and pollute less, but that won't be the result of these rules, because our oil consumption is a result of how much we use cars and other machines. The effects of this fuel economy rule will be, much more expensive cars, smaller cars , less safe cars, no more supercars, very slow cars, worse quality, less comfort, and much less space. I think this is the stupidest thing our government has done in decades. Another effect of this will be higher fatality rates, because cars will have lighter weaker structures, less airbags, and less crash avoidance systems. Another problem is that these gas mileage standards will be measured using EPA ratings, which is a system that doesn't work. The EPA ratings give gas mileage rating for the stupid hybrids that are much higher than the cars can actually get and they give diesels the much lower rating than the cars actually get. The EPA ratings for a Volkswagen Jetta TDI are 30mpg city and 41 mpg highway, but the Jetta TDI easily gets 35-38mpg city and 47-50mpg highway. There are lots of people who have families or live and work in places where they need trucks and SUVs, but unless they get 30mpg they won't be allowed. You can't put 3 kids in the back seat of a Honda Insight with luggage for a 600 mile trip and you can't tow a 10,000 pound trailer with an economy car. Governments should quit trying to tell us what to drive, because people will drive what they want and live how they want.