Detroit welcomes tax breaks for hybrid cars

Treasury Secretary John Snow travels to "motor city" to detail credits for consumers buying cars that pollute less.
Photos: Fueling around at the LA Auto Show

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[Short Circuit]

Corporate Myopia

This article almost seems sympathetic to the self induced meltdown at Ford and GM. PLEASE! Where were these hybrids years ago when Detroit could have led the way for the world to follow. Instead they sat in their cloistered offices convinced that they knew what "we the people" wanted while the reality was that imports have steadily taken market share away for 30 years!

HELLO DETROIT! WAKE UP! You have grown slow and lazy regardless of all your hype. How many times over the past two decades have we heard how reorganizations and consolidations were going to solve the problem.

Here is the problem. Have you noticed that more than 75% of Ford and GM employees come to work in Dockers instead of Levi's? Perhaps the fact that the import companies devote most of their resources to actually building cars might have something to do with their success.

Like the airlines and telecommunications industries you are now going to blame the hourly worker for all your problems. As usual, you will staunchly deny that management could be the problem. Of course you will welcome tax breaks for hybrids - maybe people will buy your cars if the government helps you.

[shashinka]

go diesel with no tax credits but still cheaper?

Diesel cars are better quality, about the same or better efficieny, have more power and last longer. With the correct particulate filters they could be cleaner than most hybrids too!

[dakelley2]

And to make a better diesel...

You're right about the efficiency, Jason. And a hybrid diesel car would be more efficient than a straight diesel car, or a hybrid gasoline car, or a straight gasoline car....

And a hybrid fuel cell car would be more efficient than a straight fuel cell, or a hybrid diesel, or a straight diesel, etc. etc. Its about taking what we have and making it better, then building on that experience to get to the next level.

I have no problem with diesel cars, assuming 1) it is big enough for me to fit into, and 2) it doesn't blow black smoke into the air. Fortunately, some manufacturers are building cleaner diesels that don't pollute like they used to, but occasionally I still get stuck behind newer looking pickup trucks that blow black sludge into the air.

If an American manufacturer were building a decent mid-sized car with a good hybrid diesel system that I could actually get in and out of w/out unnecessary struggle, I would have seriously considered that car. But since that is a fantasy I bought a hybrid gasoline mid-sized car. And you know what, I regularly average 40-44 mpg per tank in the winter months and 47-50 mpg per tank in the spring/summer/fall months. So don't tell me that the improved fuel efficiency is bogus!

And don't use the absurd argument, as some have, that someone else will only use up the fuel Im not using. Thats the most asinine argument Ive heard other people use. That's like saying that I should turn on my water faucets to use "my" water since, if I don't use that water someone else will....

Sure, if saving money was the driving force in my decision to buy a car I could've, instead, kept my old pickup truck with a 400 cubic inch engine that got 6.5 mpg in the summer and 5.5 mpg in the winter (& burned thru I don't know how much oil). Then I could've spent maybe $1000 fixing the transmission and engine so that I could continue to use it. So, compare that $1000 to the $17,000 I paid for a hybrid (after approx. $3000 in tax rebates and write-offs in Colorado) and I'd still have $16,000 available for gasoline, which Id certainly need at some 6 mpg.

Of course, by nursing that truck back to health I'd be sacrificing your health to use that truck (via polluted emissions). Would you be okay with me unnecessarily polluting the air you breathe? That your kids breathe?

I bought a hybrid to save gasoline (& by extension, oil), not to save money, per se. I thought I would be doing you, myself, and everyone else a small bit of a favor by being considerate of other's needs. I can't help it if someone else is so narrow-minded that they would actually choose to burn "my" oil that I saved. I can only do my part to anticipate the needs of your, and my, children and grandchildren.

[shashinka]

buy american?

i would love to buy American but unfortunately they didn't have the options or efficiency i wanted. Wanted a 7 seater SUV but no one had one until later, went with Mitsubishi Montero (lower price than Toyota but of decent quality). Wanted great fuel economy 50 mpg avg city/hwy in a 5 seater sedan, had to go with VW diesel.