# $6 Gasoline and Why We Can't Let GM Fail



## EVDL Archive (Jul 26, 2007)

Volt owner and president of Accelerated Intelligence says it's a best car he's ever owned and we can't let GM shelve it.

More...


----------



## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

It will be a success if and only if a) GM repays all of the bailout money with interest; b) the Government repays the defrauded Preferred lenders all of their money with accrued interest; c) GM is still financially secure including currently unfunded future pension and benefits obligations.

In other words, probably never.


----------



## kokopelli314 (Oct 14, 2012)

GM had it's chance and blew it. The revolution will not be televised.


----------



## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

What about all the income and property taxes paid by people and businesses in these car towns? If the auto jobs went away, even more government revenue would go away. Plus, you would have to pay unemployment benefits for a few years too. In addition to loading the government pension agency with more people (the taxpayer covers 30% of bankrupt companies pensions).


----------



## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

The old car towns can die, people can move. We won't need less cars. Someone else will make them. 

Once upon a time unemployment benefits did not last for years...


----------



## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

A slow decline is one thing. That can be handled. 

But when 11,000 people out of a town of 65,000 people lose their jobs it is a big problem. Home prices plummet for everyone, city governments can't fund any programs or pay the bills, local businesses dry up, people can't refinance their home because it is worth less than they owe...

And people can't move to Japan, China, or Germany to build cars. There are immigration laws preventing that.

I'm not a huge fan of 99 weeks of unemployment either, I think lots of people were living a lifestyle and not saving enough. Even the ones scraping by weren't saving enough though too.


----------



## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

With all of the manufacturing that GM has moved to China, it should do well, even if the plants close here.


----------



## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

I am confused. In the article, he said that he could plug it in in his garage. When I went to the nissan dealership the other day to scope out the leaf, it had a funky plug on it that did not resemble any plug that I have ever seen in anybodys garage before. When I talked to the salesman, he said it was a j plug, and that the volt had one as well. The leaf needed a thousand dollar adapter to make it compatible with a normal plug. If a manufacturer wants to sell plug in cars, should they not equip it with a plug like the ones in our garages where we plug them in?


----------



## kokopelli314 (Oct 14, 2012)

Let's keep in mind that this is a post-industrial DIY site.


----------



## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

evmetro said:


> I am confused. In the article, he said that he could plug it in in his garage. When I went to the nissan dealership the other day to scope out the leaf, it had a funky plug on it that did not resemble any plug that I have ever seen in anybodys garage before. When I talked to the salesman, he said it was a j plug, and that the volt had one as well. The leaf needed a thousand dollar adapter to make it compatible with a normal plug. If a manufacturer wants to sell plug in cars, should they not equip it with a plug like the ones in our garages where we plug them in?


The Volt comes with an adapter that allows it to be plugged into any standard 110 volt outlet.


----------



## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

Hopefully it is not something that you have to carry around with you like the leaf one. If you left the one for the leaf behind, you would not be able to charge somewhere else. Somebody is going to get stuck short of their destination in one of those leafs without their thousand dollar adapter, and they will be looking at an extension cord in their buddys garage that won't work!


----------



## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

evmetro said:


> Hopefully it is not something that you have to carry around with you like the leaf one. If you left the one for the leaf behind, you would not be able to charge somewhere else. Somebody is going to get stuck short of their destination in one of those leafs without their thousand dollar adapter, and they will be looking at an extension cord in their buddys garage that won't work!


What you are talking about is the home charging station, not an adapter. These are two different things. There are many cheap adapters available that allow these vehicles to be plugged into any standard outlet, and they are easily small enough to be carried in the car at all times. In fact, the one that comes with the Volt is designed to be carried in a spot in the trunk.


----------



## jrod84 (Jan 20, 2011)

What if the gov't had done a good job in influencing and GM had the Chevy Volt built using A123 batteries. Then A123 might not be filing bankruptcy which is more money the government will never see again and even more jobs that could be stabilized in America. Instead, they use LG out of Korea for the battery pack.


----------



## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

A charging station! Holy s#$t! This is not going to work out. Our garages have been charging stations for decades.


----------

