Further signs of the decline of a great industry

Former GM executive Charles Wilson, when nominated to be Secretary of Defense said, "Because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa." This has been misquoted as "What's good for GM is good for the country." but you get the gist.

Now I've vented on this blog multiple times on the waste called the Chevy Volt. Now we see how bad corporate stupidity...we now have a Cadillac version of the Volt, the ELR

H/T AllahPundit

The General announced today that the Cadillac Converj concept has been approved for production, although in keeping with Caddy’s alphabet-soup naming it will be called the ELR…

The Volt is indeed pricey — the model we tested came in at $44,680 before the federal EV tax credit — because the underlying technology, namely the 16-kilowatt-hour battery, is expensive. Rolling out the Voltec drivetrain in a Cadillac won’t do much to change that, because it won’t increase volume enough to bring economy of scale, Bragman said, but it will make it easier for consumers to accept the price.

That’s why you see luxury brands like BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz rolling out upscale hybrid sedans.

“That cost is more easily masked in a car like this,” he said. “GM can better accommodate the price without the sticker shock. You expect a Cadillac to cost a lot. You don’t expect a Chevrolet to cost a lot.”

Is anyone asking the question any 20 year old with a sliver of intelligence and an idea for a business would ask: "Is there a market for this?" Or put another way, "Will someone but this piece of s^&&.." Err sorry, I got carried away. The answer is of course no. In June Government Motors was all happy that the Volt had sold 125 units...nationwide. More F150's get sold by individual dealerships in Houston in a month.

A few days ago I was listening to a local talk show host Michael Berry and had on a young women (seemed like a clueless college kid) and me made a great point, "The Chinese are eating our lunch because they are doing what we used to do. We would find out what people wanted and needed, make it and then sell it to them. Now we're building things no one wants like solar panels and windmills and we're shocked that they are not selling..." Excellent point...and here is another great example. God help the Big Three if, or should I say when, China goes into the auto market.

Again I pray for January 2013 and hopefully a conservative (Sorry Mitt, you ain't the guy) comes in and cuts GM off...let it know what running a business is like again. And hopefully we will never have another massive waste of money like this one...