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• Saturday, December 13, 2008 07:32 AM

  @True2Blue, beg to differ

  Regarding 'older' cars from overseas manufacturers, I know people with Toyota Corollas having 120,000 - 150,000 - 180,000 miles and still running just fine.

  I think yours is a minority view. I have a 2007 Corolla and could sell it tomorrow for 75% of what I paid for it.

  Show me which Big Three auto, purchased two years ago, retains 75% of its resale value? Hummer? Esclade? Cobalt?

  I thought not. GM, Chrysler and Ford are not making cars people want to buy - end of argument.

  Again, I suggest you read this article, for a better view of why the big three do NOT deserve our financial support:

  http://tinyurl.com/6hhzh4

  Buried on the business page of The New York Times (last) Saturday were the details of Detroit's biggest snow job yet--literally as well as figuratively. Turns out that Cerberus CEO John Snow, who spent three-and-a-half lackluster, and some might say lap-doggish, years as President Bush's second Treasury secretary, is leading a who's who of crony capitalists in a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout to "salvage Cerberus' investment in Chrysler."

  That's right. Not to save the jobs of Chrysler employees or America's disappearing manufacturing base, mind you, but to prevent "one of the world's richest and most secretive private investment companies" from having to take a relatively modest financial hit and use some of its own capital to prop up the smallest of the major automakers.

  Of course, Cerberus is sparing no expense to spare their investors any exposure. Together with Chrysler, it has spent $7 million to hire such high-rent lobbyists as Dan Quayle (who runs one of Cerberus' international units), former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and former Bush legislative liaison David Hobbs. Their goal: $7 billion from the auto industry bailout package Congress is working on now and another $8.5 billion in loans from the Energy Department that have already been authorized.

  Nothing is going to change, nothing is going to save the Big Three, the bailout is good money chasing bad...

  —vaporland Read vaporland's other letters
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