GM's troubles started in 1996

For a thorough exhibition of GM’s corporate stupidity, I encourage everyone to see the DVD “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. GM had a great forward thinking solution in their EV-1 electric vehicle and destroyed it, literally. The recent anouncement by GM that they have “green-lighted” the electrically motivated Volt plug-in hybrid for a 2010 release, after already having produced (and destroyed) a commercially available electric vehicle in 1996, gives me absolutely no reason to feel sorry for them and their current economic troubles. They simply shot themselves in the foot and have the limp to prove it.

Minivans, Big Cars, SUVs and High Gas Prices.

In the early '70s during the oil embargo, I can remember very vividly when I heard the statement: "There is no market for a small car in America". Oops! Enter Honda, Toyota and other innovative automakers whose independent thinking guided them enough to ignore such nonsense. Well, since then gas has risen from $.45 to $4.09 a gallon and here we are again. While the Toyota Prius has a 6 month waiting list, GM and other car manufacturers of large fuel inefficient vehicles are suffering and who's to blame? Advertisers make us believe that if we don't drive a minivan with 50 cup holders and 5 flat screen TVs or a three axle, four door truck or the coolest monster SUV, that we are just not "with it". I don't know about you, but personally I never thought that advertisers were smarter than me to the extent that they know better than I what I really need.