When are car companies really gonna wake up?

((This was orginally posted on my Myspace blog))

Ford Fusion Hybrid to get 41 mpg city 36 hwy

This is the newest, most state of the art hybrid that the big automotive companies have built.  It’s 8 mpg better in the city and 2 mpg better on the highway than the Toyota Camry hybrid.  This is not the improvement that the car companies and consumers need.  My 2005 Nissan Altima got 27 mpg city and 33 hwy.  A 14 mpg improvement is not going to help anyone.

Car companies need to change.  They need to change now, and they need to change quickly.  They need to stop selling and producing inefficient vehicles immediately.  They’ve already announced that they’re shutting down for most of January.  Before they resume production, they need to be making new vehicles.  If they don’t, they will die.  They should die.  Another company will take their place.

Companies like Aptera and Tesla Motors.

Aptera is producing 2 versions of it’s 3 wheeled vehicle.  One is all electric, the other is a hybrid that gets more than 100 mpg.

Tesla Motors Makes a roadster that goes from 0-60 in less than 4 seconds.  It can go almost 250 miles on a charge.  That’s right its all electric.

Sam Walton said:

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.


So that’s what I’m gonna do.  I am firing everyone who works for Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Suzuki, Kia, and Mitsubishi.  I’m firing them by not spending my money with them.  From this moment I will not buy a vehicle from one of these companies unless it is more efficient than my moped.  If these companies can’t or won’t change, then I’m going to force them to change, by forcing them out of business.  I hope you join me.

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Update:

So I sent a letter to the editor to the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times.  The Capital Times printed it.  You can read it on their website here.

The Wisconsin State Journal printed it with some edits.  You can read it on their website here.

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Update:
And a few days later someone wrote a letter to the editor in response.

Great, but who can afford it?

A recent letter writer said, “I am firing everyone who works for Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW and the rest. If they can’t or won’t change, I’ll force them to by forcing them out of business. I hope you join me.”

The writer basically says that we should all buy a Tesla roadster which will go from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds or an Aptera, a three-wheeled vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon.

Wonderful, with the exception of a few small items of concern. The base price for a Tesla is $129,000 and the three-wheel Aptera base price is $30,000 for a car that, according to sales information, seats 2.5 people. Since it’s a three-wheeler, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation will probably require a motorcycle license to drive this vehicle and you’ll also need a half-a-carpool-friend to truly make the Aptera the socially- and environmentally-correct vehicle to drive around Madison.

It’s pretty obvious that this winter in Madison has already been way too cold and long.

— Kim Tschudy, New Glarus

Now I never said that everyone should buy a Tesla or Aptera vehicle.  I said that if the major auto manufacturers could not produce efficient cars, then other companies such as Aptera and Tesla would take their place.  I think that’s pretty clear in my original blog.  However since this writer was probably going off of what the WSJ printed in their paper, maybe it wasn’t so clear.

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