Chrysler Announces Closure of Dealerships

On May 14th, Chrylser announced the closure of hundreds of dealerships nationwide as a part of their bankruptcy efforts to salvage the ailing company.

This further goes to show that government bailouts will not work.  Like I told my father in December when this bailout was being debated, all you are doing is delaying the inevitable.  We have confirmed at least $4 billion was wasted on propping Chrysler up.

Here are the dealerships in SC that will be affected, including:

Dick Smith Motors of Aiken, 4030 BELTLINE BLVD, Columbia, SC
EDWARDS AUTO SALES COMPANY,  3440 Blue Ridge Blvd., Walhalla, SC
Floyd Motor Company, 144 S. Ron McNair Blvd, Lake City, SC
Hoover Chrysler Jeep, 2250 Savannah Hwy, Charleston, SC
Lancaster Dodge Chrysler, 1277 Great Falls Hwy, Lancaster, SC
Meggs Chrysler Jeep Dodge, Hwy 15-401 Bypass, Bennettsville, SC
Mullins Chrysler Jeep Dodge, 3391 Hwy 75 East, Mullins, SC
Raceway Chrysler Jeep Dodge, 900 E. Bobo Newsome Hwy, Hartsville, SC
Strom Altman Dodge, 2049 Remount Rd, N. Charleston, SC
Superior Motors, 835 Five Chop Rd, Orangeburg, SC

Full List:
Chrysler Dealer Closure List

Ford Refuses Bailout

Finally, someone refuses a bailout!

That’s right, Ford has yet to take a bailout and claims they can survive without Uncle Sam! They have been able to do this since they restructured in 2006.

I remember the world believing that Ford was going belly up in 2006 when they began to announce they were shutting down operations across the US and were restructuring.  Now with all that has happened and the $10+ billion that GM and Chrysler are indebted to the soon to be Socialist States of America, Ford may be the quality company that we can count on.

And not only that, Ford may have finally designed a car (family car that is, I do have 2 kids) that is sporty enough for me to comfortably drive.  I really love the size of our CX-9, but it isn’t a “cool” ride if you know what I mean.

After Ford shuttered the Taurus in 2006 and started building the Fusion (ok, I remember this from watching NASCAR as a teenager), they really killed themselves.  The Taurus (and Thunderbird) had a reputation with the American people, and they killed both of those in a 10 year period.

The new Taurus is a work of art too.  Starting at a little over $25K, It will supposedly get 28mpg on the highway and drops to 18mpg in the city (they need to work on the city driving, that is a large drop off) and a ton of technology available including:

• SYNC – a voice-activated mobile phone and digital music system designed by Microsoft (I can’t believe I just gave Microsoft props, it’s killing me)
• BLIS – A blind spot information system with cross traffic alert (sounds neat, won’t try to explain)

The only downside, it doesn’t have the manual transmission.  That hurts a little bit, but the car is supposed to be available in July 2009.

Hopefully Ford will continue to capitialize on their prior planning and I might just convince the wife to buy an American made car again.

Catching Up on Inglis After The Election

It should come as no surprise to you that the Congressman and I are at odds over many things. That does not mean that I don’t respect him and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his recent victory.

See Bob, I can do more than just criticize!

Now on to more pressing issues. Let’s start with the bailout…uhum…the Recovery Package. At Inglis’ Let’s Talk lunch this past month Congressman Bob Inglis gave an update on his vote. He stated he had to ask himself the following question:

Is the risk of doing nothing greater than the risk of buying $700 billion of illiquid securities?

He decided to support the bailout so the economy could make an emergency landing rather than crash. He said with the facts he knew, he was glad that we have a democratic republic because the people were missing this one.

He further stated that we must do something about Medicare and Social Security to get the budget under control. He believes this is one of the largest symptoms of our budget crisis.

Some argued then to just get rid of it. It was stated that many of us will never see its benefits, therefore let us manage our own retirement. The Congressman stated we really cannot do that, it will make many people mad, especially those that are counting on it.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity and shot back

Congressman, with all do respect, it didn’t matter that you pissed off America by supporting the bailout. So what is the difference in applying that logic to axe Social Security.

Now, I realize there are bigger complications with just eliminating social security. My objective was to get the point across that just because it will make people mad cannot be a valid excuse, it didn’t apply to the bailout.

There was also a little plus for Congressman Bob Inglis in the bailout that was passed. In it was a provision to allow for a cap and trade system on carbon. It was called the “ENERGY IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION ACT OF 2008“. It was found in Division B of HR 1424.

To at least finish this off on a positive note, Congressman Inglis did vote to change the bankruptcy laws for Reservists and National Guard troops who may be serving actively.  This should provide them more protection while they are earning less than their normal salaries while serving our Great Nation.