Autoblog

The Barney Frank imitator was funny.

I was really hurt by what the GM CEO said about the Chrysler 300 - cause I own one.

I just feel that Barack Obama needs to bail the companies out, but force them to do his bidding. If I was President Obama, I'd force them to make cars that got 50mpg CITY and better...or make them roll every car off the lot with alternative energy requirements.

Obama can use this as a chance to create lots of jobs, and upgrade our infrastructure. Nuclear Power, hydroelectric and solar should be our base energy source.

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@Flash

yeah and then Obama can also make the American public buy the 50 mpg city cars that only a small amount of americans would actually buy. I for one won't. If i wanted a car that got 50MPG i'd buy a 1982 VW diesel rabbit.

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as much as i want GM to survive, they still make cars which just look good in pictures but just sit in one of them.

i am renting a Malibu LT (supposedly one of the three cars - along with volt & cruze - which is going to lead the resurgence of GM) and while the interiors look great on autoblog, you should sit in the car to see how bad it is. i admit it is miles better than the old one but it just cannot compete with event a sonata or a galant. They are not even in the same world as the accord or the passat,

GM NEEDS to have goos interiors in terms of material quality not just design.

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Haha...Barney Frank.

Anyway, as funny as this skit is, it pains me because I know that most Americans believe everything SNL says.

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In response to Flashpoint, sure, lets let President Elect Obama bail out the automakers and force them to do his bidding. Why not make them put out cars that get 100 MPG? Hell, he could force them to produce flying cars within the next 10 years if he wants. I think that allowing the government to just "take control" of the Big 3 is the right answer, lets just combine them all and make them the Big 1!

This is the mindset of someone who truly has no understanding of how our government and socio/economic system works. For one, who would pay for all of this? THE TAXPAYERS! We live in a capitalist society my friend, bigger corporations have risen and fallen before, we should let the free market be just that - FREE! If GM or Chrysler can't figure out how to turn their business around, they have two options, 1 - go bankrupt and restructure (which would ultimately lead to their demise), or 2 - sell the entire company to the highest bidder (as unthinkable as that may sound), I'm sure Toyota wouldn't mind having a larger chunk of the market, and it would allow jobs to be retained as well, either way, we should not be going further into national debt just to save some companies who haven't exhausted their options. The simple fact is this, the auto market is SHRINKING, the Big 3 have relied too long on MASS PRODUCTION, only one of them have the right idea and that is Ford, and only because of Alan Mullaly, he kept Boeing from going belly up after 9/11 by resizing to meet capacity, while still coming out with newer and better product for the consumer. And that's what he is doing at Ford as well, and it is actually working. Heres some more food for thought, right now the Big 3 account for a certain percentage of overall vehicle sales in the US, that percentage is staying the same, however the volume is getting smaller every year, this means that consumers are actually buying less and less each year, and since the percentage of customers buying American cars isn't going up, that means there are few ways to get more sales volume, so we have 3 companies vying for the same peice of the pie, and sooner or later, one of them will be left out. So take that example, and then this one, lets say for instance that Chrysler closed its doors in the next few months. Yes that would mean alot of jobs lost, and yes that would mean some other suppliers would have to close their doors, but think of what it would mean for the other 2 American carmakers left, it would most likely translate into increased sales for them, because most people that buy American today are loyalists that would rather buy an American car than a Japanese or German car (or any foreign car), especially when it comes to trucks, so what would happen would be a rapid increase in sales for the remaining Big 2, this would bring in more revenue, allow them to produce more vehicles, and most importantly, buy time to continue their turnarounds. The beauty of the free market is that it always eventually corrects itself, the only time the market gets screwed is when government tries to get too involved with anything other than regulations (Google "Consumer Reinvestment Act" and see how the housing forclosure situation got where it is today), that's why we're in the economic crisis we are in today, and if the government keeps bailing out private industry, we might as well stop calling our country a Democracy and start calling it a Socialist country. Oh but wait, that's what Comrade Obama calls it "redistributing the wealth", so maybe we should call ourselves the "United Commonwealth of America"? Sad but true....

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"Detroit doesn't just need to make safer cars, but gayer cars. Like the Mini Cooper, oh I think that thing is just adorable..."

Way to keep up those homosexual stereotypes, SNL.

Anyway, I laughed, but I think this is pretty much horse$#!%. First off, most of these writers probably don't even own a car, which makes it hilarious that they're attacking car companies. It's like vegans attacking Outback Steakhouse for having bad food--hey, maybe if you tried one you'd find out it doesn't suck as bad as you think it does.

Second off, they're attacking cars that haven't even come out yet. Ford Fiesta? Really, that's the joke? You couldn't put him in a Focus and have the Sync system go out? Or put Wagoner in a Chevy Aveo and realize the sticker says "Made in Korea"? Or, for that matter, anything else. Rubber band trannys in the Caliber, and SNL attacks the Chrysler 300.

Well, I guess the 300 is a gas-guzzler, so SNL got its enviro-weenie fetish fulfilled by trashing it.

Skit was fairly funny (for SNL anyway), not exactly true.

Or smart, for that matter.

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I feel GM needs to bring more of their Euro based cars over as petrol is getting more expensive in the US. I know the US has the Saturn. But do you have the smaller Euro Corsa in the US or even the Agila. Ford could speed up and do the same.

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So in the 80's and 90's when the Taurus beat the Accord and Camry in quality, was that crying wolf?

I have a hard time with the acceptance of the assumption that the B3 never made anything of quality. That's simply not true. They had their problems, but so did everyone. It was the B3 problems that got emphasized because it's popular to call anything American crap.

Take a look at VW. They have been making junk for decades. Why is it the B3 get the bad rep, while VW grows and grows?

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Dude: Hulu.com

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I went to the LA auto show. Its a lil bit too late, the damage is done. After sitting in the Genesis and a STS if the Koreans can do it the Americans have nothing left to offer. Its a bit too late to be competitive when everyone is still making strides ahead. Playing catch up isn't going to save them.

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+1, specially with the current cast. Meanwhile Fox decided to cancel Mad-Tv

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it's not that bad, your probably just a victim of the generation gap.

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Obviously you have no idea that SNL is enjoying its best ratings in years, due mostly to the election and the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin thing...but even after the election was over, their ratings are high.

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@Roy: Wow.

Well, all right, there were a couple of really good skits they've recently done:

-Bailout #1: Their first take on the financial bailout was very good. Balanced and funny.

Uh, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Even during the elections the impersonation of Obama was absolutely drop-dead horrible. The only impersonation that even came close was Sarah Palin, which is why it got so much press.

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