In case you don’t watch “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” as obsessively as I do, here’s a segment from earlier this week that is relevant to Consumerist readers’ interests. In it, they provide an overview of news coverage of the closing of GM and Chrysler dealerships, and implore the companies to “be a f@#king person!”
automakers
Toyota Posts First Loss In 59 Years
By 5.12.09
Here’s a story that we missed late last week, probably because we were busy having nightmares about snake heads. Toyota lost $7.74 billion this past quarter. That’s more than GM (though less than GM pre-bailout), and much more than predicted. It’s the company’s first annual loss since Elvis was in the Army.
Really Creepy Ads Killed The Electric Car
By 2.4.09
I watched the Who Killed The Electric Car documentary last night and was thunderstruck by the “ad” that GM made when California made them make electric cars against their will. If you want to sell a car, you put a hot person in it and shoot them skidding at high speeds across desert plains. This was like trailer for a sequel to The Ring.
By 1.26.09
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President Obama has ordered the EPA to allow states set their own fuel-efficiency standards (fourteen states had begun the process when President Bush put a stop to it a couple of years ago.) He’s also asked the DOT to “develop higher fuel-efficiency standards automakers would have to follow.” [USA Today]
Washington Considering $25 Billion Loan Handout For U.S. Auto Makers
By 9.9.08
What do you do when your industry starts to go belly up and you can’t make enough revenue to stay afloat? If you’re a short-sighted U.S. auto maker, you beg the government for $25-50 billion in immediate, low-interest loans in order to retool your plants, so you can start producing the hybrid cars you should have been planning years ago.
