At the height of the Toyota unintended acceleration controversy, the darkest most conspiratorial part of my mind wondered at a connection between government ownership of GM and the widely publicized troubles of GM’s greatest competitor, Toyota.  Toyota was generally portrayed as incompetent, irresponsible, uncaring and…foreign!  At the time I thought it a little odd that there was suddenly so much ill-will being generated against a company that was so popular and had so few other problems.

 

Now the WSJ is reporting that acceleration problem may not be nearly as attributable to Toyota as the original media firestorm claimed.  Common sense would suggest that Toyota was never engaged in an evil plot to rake in the profits while their hapless customers died fiery deaths.  Unfortunately we have seen many instances lately of the power of fickle public opinion combined with an irresponsible media.

 

The problem right now is that government is supposed to perform the function of neutral arbiter of conflict, honest regulator of safety and fairness.  But when government takes a stake in the game, such as ownership of GM, it at least raises the suspicion that they will maniuplate their position of power to further their own interests.  This administration in particular has a heavy interest in “green” jobs and “green” cars, and loves to tout all the jobs it “saved” with its bailout of an otherwise (rightfully) failing auto industry.

 

What does GM have to offer now, the latest brilliant innovation to win over the American car consumer?  The Chevy Volt.  Putting aside for the moment that it is electric (and therefore extremely green, right?), what is it and why should we buy it?  This is perhaps a question GM didn’t bother to ask itself during production.  It gets 40 miles on the electric charge…at which point some sort of gas engine takes over.  At least there’s that, since I would imagine many, many people need to drive more than 40 miles before plugging their car in again.  Other than that the car appears to be essentially a compact sedan.  And what’s the price point?  Only $33,500! (net).  Wait a minute…what’s the (net) mean?  That seems like a new innovation in pricing.  Ah, the Volt is actually $41,000 with a $7,500 tax credit.  Sweet collusion of business and government.  So, a compact sedan for $41,000, and perhaps the peace of mind that you’re saving the planet, one electrically powered drive at a time.

 

To paraphrase Charles Krauthammer, “the Volt will be popular with rich liberals who park it outside their homes and then drive their Cadillac Escalades anyways”.  That sounds about right, and I’m not sure that particular market segment is enough to revitalize GM’s sales.

 

Toyota’s comparable offering?  The Corolla, starting at $15,450.  Sure, you’ll have to suffer the indignity of continuing to destroy the environment with petroleum products, but for a savings of $25,550 I think could handle it.