Car For Idiots

Now, I don't know much about cars. I'll gladly admit my ignorance here. But as someone who is recently in the market for a car (my Mercury Sable has broken down for the 133rd time), I dont think I'll be waiting for the Chevy Volt to come out before I go shopping. Why? Well I don't know many people who would be willing to pay the whopping $40,000 for the car when it comes out, nor do I know many people who may be able to afford it. Sure the government may subsidize it or give the buyers some tax credits, but really, is this the best that GM has to offer? Is this the future of the company that will save it from government control? In the end it will just be a novelty car or a status symbol.

"Look how much I care for the environment, honey. I just put us in debt for the rest of our lives."

"That's alright, schnookums. It's not like we can afford the ARM on our house either, but we did it anyway."

I'm all about finding ways around oil. I think it is very important to ween ourselves off of Mideast oil and just let the region sink into conflict and destroy itself without any American participation. But are electric cars really the way to go? As a renter, I wouldn't know where to plug the darned thing in at night. That sure is going to be a long extension cord leading to my bathroom outlet. And somehow I doubt that our aging grid will be able to handle an influx of electric cars on the street when it can't even handle my air-conditioner.

I think at some point, electric cars could be a swell option. Once we can make one that is cheap enough for average joes to buy. But in the mean time why can't we look into natural gas and liquid coal technology? Those are two resources that the U.S. has an abundance of and would be a nice stepping stone before we made the unbelievable jump to mowing our lawns and putting it in the fuel tank.

So GM, I would like to echo the Audi CEO's sentiments (even though he later retracted it). I'm not going to buy your "Car For Idiots." I'm going to look into a nice little Honda Fit instead, avoid the exorbitant premium and buy a car that is actually fuel efficient. Good luck, GM. You're gonna need it.

Read the article HERE.

Audi President Elaborates on Criticism of Volt

“No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a Corolla. So there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”

Those were the words of Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, who recently spoke (quite candidly) to Lawrence Ulrich in MSN Autos about the Chevrolet Volt...