Well, at least now it’s official. There will NEVER be another GM in my driveway. Bob Lutz (GM Vice Chairman) thinks that the US government should step in and force Americans into smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. He says: “I’d say the best thing the (U.S.) government can do is to raise the gas tax by 10 or 15 cents a year until it reaches European levels.”

He says “In Europe people buy $30,000 Golfs.” “People are willing to pay lots of money for extremely well equipped, fuel-efficient cars.” That’s why manufacturers make them, so they are available. Don’t force us to buy them as a result of not being able to afford anything else.

Yeah, let’s make people’s lives even more financially difficult so they will HAVE to do what we want them to. Yup, that’s the American way. What a f*cking Asshole.

I read an excellent article about GM by Detroit News today in which GM is heavily criticized regarding its gas guzzlers and more. An interesting read at the least. Here is an excerpt:

While GM has stepped up its promotion of alternative fuels, critics say the new gas program is a cynical attempt to keep selling gas hogs without regard to the environment and America’s dependence on foreign oils.

“It says a lot about GM and their dire financial straits that they are so desperate to sell the gas guzzlers that no one wants, that they are paying for the gas to drive them home,” said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s Global Warming Program. “When did you ever hear about a junkie giving up his subsidized fix?”

Influential New York Times columnist Tom Friedman — author of the best-selling book “The World is Flat” — took on GM in a sharply worded column Wednesday.

“Is there a company more dangerous to America’s future than General Motors? Surely, the sooner this company gets taken over by Toyota, the better this country will be,” Friedman wrote, comparing GM to “a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash” by offering the fuel program.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who oversees the automaker’s product development, said in an e-mail that Friedman “is so ‘over the top’ that it borders on psychosis.”

Lutz said his hope “is that the majority of Americans, not being extreme liberals, and harboring a deep-seated distrust toward the media, will see his piece for what it is: the product of an unusual, but not altogether well, mind.”

Opinions anyone?