Don't Make Me Turn This Car Around!

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U.S. auto sales take a nosedive

Posted at 12:48 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Chrysler and General Motors sold 19 percent less automobiles in the U.S. this March than they did last March, according to new sales figures. Ford reported a sales drop of 14 percent in March 2008 compared to March 2007, and even Toyota, which has reported steady sales through other hard times, reported that sales dropped 10 percent. As has been the case for a while, sales of big ol' gas guzzlers (relied upon by American companies) decreased, while sales of smaller, daintier-sipping vehicles were steadier. High gas prices, a weak economy, and the credit crunch are taking their toll, and analysts predict that 2008 may be the worst year for the auto industry in a decade.

sources: NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Not Sure Which Way to Go

For me, it's the "Green Revolution" that makes me not want to buy. With hydrogen cars, electric cards, new hybrids, alcohol cars slated to appear after 2010, who would want to be stuck paying a 5 year loan on a gas car?

Nissan to unveil electric vehicles in U.S. in 2010
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/nissan-unveil-elect ...

With the price of gas as it, having a gas guzzler is literally like getting paid less money than your neighbor for the same amount of work, as you will be out hundreds of thousands of dollars every year paying for gas!

by jabailo at 6:47 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Oh, the problem with brethren!

Did parents actually say that?: "Don't make me turn this car around"?

Fortunately, I, an only child, was just left in the back seat happily playing with my dinosaurs, and did not have to squabble with brethren.

There was indeed that very happy, traumatic moment, when my father was nearly eaten by an alligator in the Everglades, because he hard-headedly refused to heed the nice Park Guard's instruction, "Do not try to feed the alligators!," and once the Guard drove off, insisted on offering a middling-sized but hungry and ambitious alligator a slice of stale bread, while himself standing on a slippery slope.

What a lesson that would have been for him, had he been eaten!

And, what a lesson for all of this, if we could have learned to look deeper, closer to home.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:48 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Learn the lesson

While I do not feel good about americans losing jobs in the auto industry.I do say live and learn that the time for gas gusslers is long past and if the american auto industry can't see that and adapt,then they deserve to lose business to an adaptable Japan,China,India,and Korea.

Why not ask why!?

by usandthem at 6:33 PM on 03 Apr 2008

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