1. The company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is time for GM to reorganize.

2. Union contracts are abrogated. New salary structure would be in line with what Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, and Hyundai are paying their American workers.

3. Excess plant capacity is eliminated, with certain brands dissolved. This will mean the laying off of tens of thousands of workers.

4. Management agrees to work for $1 per year until the company is able to return to solvency. Like Lee Iacocca did for Chrysler three decades ago, Wagoner, Lutz, and others should do the same. That shows leadership!

Then, and only then, would I consider lending money to GM for an amount and interest rate based on how seriously they take their current plight.

I think GM should make Volt a new sub-entity, perhaps with a few other strong assets and then spin it off. Vote, divide the company with Chevy carrying the debt and Volt and a few other brands being allowed to continue debt free.

All GM stockholders would receive an equivalent share in the new entity. So Chevy would sink into the sea thanks to the weight around it’s neck (unions), meanwhile this newer splintered off company would rise like a Phoenix out of the ashes. Not bound by the unions, and the debts that have been accrued.

True cost of GAS is $7-8 dollars a gallon.

Read the information on this website.
http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/oil-gas-crude/461

Everyone pays the other $5 a gallon in taxes, through defense spending and other spending/dependence.

At that price, $26k for an electric car is a STEAL.

I also like the idea for the government to revitalize the USA auto industry by giving contracts to the US auto-industry to replace ALL its cars, with newer electric cars. Make a plan to get the US off foreign oil. (As another blog entry, during WWII, the conversion of auto industry to make guns, and bullets.)

This could follow Obama’s plan to revitalize the economy and put people to work. Create a new Green Economy starting with the auto industry. (Just imagine if Bush would have a clue, and would have re-vitalized the country after September 11, when the nation would have been completely behind getting off Foreign Oil. We would have been 6 years into a plan to remove our dependence on foreign oil)

Everyone is complaining about the price of the volt. With gas at $2 a gallon, and 12,000 miles per year, and using you current car at 25 miles to a gallon, you’ll save $700 a year in gasat . (500 gallons at $2/gallon at 25 mpg versus the $1 charge for the Volts 40 miles per charge)

Add to this savings, the $100 a year in Oil Changes.
Add to this savings, the $100 ($50/year) every other year to replace your brakes. (The Volt uses regenerative braking, and the backup breaks should never be used.)
Add to this savings, the tune-up every other year at $100. (50/year)
Add to this all the missing items which are replaced by the maintenance schedule in a gasoline engine. (I agree these will still have to be done, but at a much lower frequency since the gasoline engine is rarely used.)

Add all this up
$700(Gas) + 100(Oil change) + 50(brakes) + 50(tune-up) + 100 (Or more for other maintenance items)
And you get a savings of $1000+ per year, which can be applied to the down payment. Thats $85+ per month in down payment
—>>> this allows you to get a more expensive car in the beginning, so the $32,500 it not so bad.

So your $32,500 car at $440 / month for 60 months is really on $355 month. ($355 is a payment on a $26,000 car.)

So your $40,000 volt is actually $26,000 in todays money with maintenance and gas factored in.

I’d happily pay $26k for 40 MPG equivalent highway/city today.

Maybe GM should start selling the car, using this model of yearly costs, and the saving over your current car.

Here’s the edit:

NPNS!

I swear that the Aptera is looking better every day.

No other EV technology makes the fun of the past possible. Remember the lyrics to Chevrolet’s ads in the ’50’s and ’60’s? Only the VOLT EREV technology makes this possible:

“See the USA in your Chevrolet
America is asking you to call
Drive your Chevrolet through the USA
America’s the greatest land of all

On a highway, or a road along the levy
Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her
Life is completer in a Chevy

So make a date today to see the USA
And see it in your Chevrolet”

Some of those original ads could be shown to the folks in Washington DC when “selling” them about the VOLT. Only VOLT EREV technology will allow drivers to “Drive your Chevrolet through the USA” on vacation while enjoying electric driving at home.