rx8wannahave

Check this out:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060523/.../gm_gas_rebate

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

completely pointless.

GM cars suck anyway, ugly design, suck *** reliabity. (just my experience)

Oh well.

xrider01

i've only owned one GM vehicle, and it is now discontinued. was a nice truck, but my 8 was a lot better

snizzle

You're right. Just your experience.

Talk about pointless..... your post is pointless.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

^^ The old schoola, ya wanna trip? I'll take it to ya!

He's right, though. GM has always been synonymous with poor build quality.

124Spider

It's an interesting program, but it's kind of like trying to hold back the tide. This program will cost GM a lot of money, and people still won't want their gas-guzzling cars, since they'll have to pay full price for gas in a year anyway.

GM enjoyed the SUV craze; now they're not enjoying the high gas price reaction so much.

Rhawb

I think it's pretty smart on GM's part. What better way to get people into their dealerships than by capitalizing on some good old national hysteria?

captain mercury

it completely throws out the concern to conserve gas/environment and goes straight for people's real concern, their wallets.

seems some companies are marketing their cars as environmentally friendly and whatever...but not GM!

dos

It's nothing new. Mitsubishi offered free gas for a year if I remember correctly. It's more of a crappy rebate than anything else. So you save maybe 2 or 3 grand for a year. I'd rather see employee pricing again!!

SSJ 909

I personally want to see these american companies go out of business and have foriegn companies setup shop here.
I am tired of old fat morons who dont know how to run a proper business come up with **** products, and capitalize off of the made in the usa label.
they arent doing anything innovating, yet cry at every turn.
I read in an article, Japanese companies said within 15- 20 years they want to rid their cars dependence of gasoline engines. Thats a pretty bold statement and they are putting the money behind it to make it happen.
What are the american companies doing, nothing.
They sold a zillion trucks, which we can now thank the higher gas prices for, and when they go belly up in a few years, they better not come crying to the tax payers ot bail them out

therm8

GM cars are generally fairly good in the fuel efficiency department. Ignoring hybrids, they lead many classes in the category.

therm8

I do not believe you know what you're talking about. If that's your opinion then fine, but car companies won't cause independence from petroleum alone, it'll take governments to do that. Ford and GM have multiple projects in the works, and though they got caught with their pants down on the hybrid market. Ethanol will be a different story. Ethanol will be viable long before hydrogen, and will be the stepping stone from petrol to H2.

rotary-convert

DING DING DING!!!!!!!!
SSJ909 wins the dumbest opinion of the week award.

therm8 tells is like it is.
People who think the auto industry is responsible for the way we love our gas-guzzlers really don't know their heads from their asses. We Americans are the ones who are craving these SUV's and trucks, the automakers simply give us what we want. GM, Ford and DCX sell very efficient cars over in Europe and the rest of the world, yet those small cars never received any interest (until now) from Americans because we like our cars big and fast. Forcing automakers to make more vehicles with a higher MPG is like telling clothing manufacturers to make smaller pants sizes so people will loose weight.

Look what happened in the late 70's with the oil embargos. If we really learned our lessons we all would still be driving varients of Chevettes, Gremlins, 4 cylinder Mustangs and diesel Buicks.

Japan8

Come live and work in Tokyo for 5-10 years. We'll see what your opinion is after that.

SSJ 909

At the very least the car companies in the last few decades could have furthered the technology to allow cars to get much greater gas mileage then they already are. Instead from the powers that be they have not.
govt leads the way yes, but with the billions the car companies make I dont see why they couldnt try and come up with better alternatives?
and, Ethanol imo is the stupidest thing they could work with.
Instead of feeding people we are going to use corn to fuel cars.
Which incidently I read that even at full production it would only be enough to cover a small % of the fuel needs.

SSJ 909

Because you dont agree its dumb?
Thats a pretty ignorant statement to make.

Japan8

Very true... the LS series engines actually get quite good gas mileage considering their displacement and power.

I've had less issues with reliablity with GM than quality. I've liked very few of their designs and those that I'd consider were too GM... Camaro/Firebird... driving the damn car is like sitting in a hole.. you can just barely see over the dash, much less actually see the hood/front of the car. How the hell are you supposed to do tight maneuvers?! Add to the the unfinished edges on the roof liner and plastic backs on the seats... and the rubbery feel to the radio and other controls... and they put an A/T primarily in EVEYRTHING... even the Vette and Camaro! That's why I won't buy GM.

If you want to talk about both bad reliability and quality... take a look at Chrysler. Yeah... it's gotten better... gone from utter POS to sucks.

Winfree

Seems we are kinda limiting our production if we just look at corn - Now corn liquor is fine but Budweiser seems to do prety good with Barley and rice; The scottish could make alcohol from rye grass and heather honey; potatos make the vodka which is just about pure lighter fluid, and the French take their tired old Champagne and vintages that didn't sell well and recycle them as fuel - Some eccentric suggested that we use enzymes from bacteria that live in termite guts to convert any form of cellulose into sugar - and sugar into alcohol - I'll drink to that!

Japan8

Sugar cane can also be used (see brazil)...

rotary-convert

How so? Please enlighten me.
I really don't think you understand that you can't simply point the fingers at our automakers. (Yes they made some crappy cars but with the help of the Japanese competiton they are starting to put out some very nice products.) We as consumers share most of the responsibility, as does the govt, as does auto makers and not just the domestics, but foreign too.

Why do you ask? We Americans have demanded low fuel prices for years, it's like all our government has to do to appease us is lower gas prices and we,"the mindless masses", are happy. The same government that subsidizes people to live on hazardous zones such as beachfront property and along seismic fault lines, yet when a few hurricanes come and destroy everything who do you think pays for that? We do. All I'm doing is trying to make a point that everyone shares responsibility for their actions and governments since they lead us, should set the standard that doesn't scapegoat specific groups to hide the real problem, our addiction to oil. Where else in the world does a gallon of sweet tea cost more than a gallon of fuel.

therm8

No one's going to starve to produce ethanol. Millions upon millions of acres of land lay fallow every year. Ethanol is a very smart way for the US to go, imo. We have the largest grain production capacity on the planet. As far as current ethanol production not meeting the fuel needs...well...there has to be a demand for supply to increase. Until more vehicles use ethanol, production will not make any astounding growth. Ethanol-electric hybrids make the most sense of all, as required fuel decreases significantly.

From 2001 to 2005, fuel grade ethanol production in the US rose from 2.301 billion gallons to 4.427 billion gallons. As the production and use of flex fuel vehicles has increased dramatically, the supply has nearly doubled. An additional billion gallons of production capacity is anticipated this year.

This isn't an overnight process, more like 50 years.

rx8wannahave

Poor SSJ...taking some heat, but I agree ethonol seems likea good way to start getting rid of oil. But...don't forget the guy in FL who on 4 oz of water drives 100 miles.....

124Spider

Last time I looked into how ethanol is made, it cost more oil to make a gallon of ethanol than it saved. That may have changed, but don't think that making ethanol is free energy.

rx8wannahave

No...not free engergy, but once the money gets invested it should be pretty easy to make and they say that $1 a gallon is very possible.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

If GM makes quaility product, is that the reason why they're reports are like full of Reds ?

In the past few years, they had more than enough time to change their product line to something more user friendly, maybe some better looking/better quality cars, but instead, they still going for "the bigger the better, who gives a crap about anything else"

This is what is happening now. Oh yeah, they deserves it.

and now this program is just stupid. Its more like they want people to clear their stock than anything else. Giving people gas credit ..... sigh.

Look at Ford, they know whats wrong, they learned, and they're doing better now.

GMC, suck ***. As simple as that.