OPINION: Obama Does A Great Thing With New Fuel Economy Standards. But USA Car Companies And Workers Will Become The Sacrificial Lambs.

President Obama just finished announcing his ambitious new plans forcing auto manufacturers to make revolutionary fuel economy improvements.

By 2016, the will all have to be north of 35MPG and the end result is less dependence on foreign oil.

Idealistically, it is a really great and honorable idea and I applaud him for having a great heart for the environment.

But in my opinion there is a HUGE flaw in this plan that will having devastating results on the American car business and American jobs.

And here is why...

The American car companies DO NOT have a strong stable of fuel efficient vehicles that sell in HIGH volume.

To prove it, here is the list of the top selling cars in March 2009:

The top 10 vehicles list.

As you can see there is not even ONE small fuel efficient American car on the list.

So you say, oh, don't worry, they'll get there right?

The answer would be yes if they had 10 years of HUGE cash reserves to develop and market the cars to get to the sales levels they would need to.

And that is assuming what they build would be good and impress people enough, to make them the sales leaders.

And the car they need CAN'T be built here and be profitable.

The Big 3 not only don't know how to build good small cars in the USA, they have NEVER been able to be profitable in that segment.

Remember the Chevette?

Remember how the press said that as soon as GM had a small car to compete with Honda and Toyota, it would be game over for the Japanese?

Well that didn't happen because even though they said they were going to build a small car, they didn't build a GOOD small car.

Well, the American car companies don't have the time OR the money to make it to 2016.

They are month to month with creditors breathing down their necks.

THEY NEED LOTS OF PEOPLE BUYING CARS TODAY!

And no one is.

And they won't be buying anytime soon.

So the writing is on the wall.

If you thought they were in trouble before, this new program will deep six them into oblivion.

BYE BYE GM, Chrysler and maybe Ford.

Oh, they'll still be around in 10 years making sprinter vans and pickups for someone but they will no longer be relevant ever again.

This Obama initiative is the final nail in the coffin for them.

Wonderful idealism by our President, but an impossible business reality that endangers even more American jobs..


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