Paul Jay's Ponderings

Ok, you want billions to keep afloat because nobody is buying during the economic crunch right now, here's what I'd require in return:

• Make a car that's diesel or gasoline based flex fuel. (You already have that technology outside the U.S., so put it in there. No more excuses.)
• Make it a midsize or large compact sedan. (No problems doing this, that should be your bread & butter car anyways.) And no, it should not be delegated to a luxury or performance brand. It should be reasonably priced if people are to buy it.
  
• Make it a plug-in hybrid. You're pushing towards this anyways, fast track it into production now. The sooner the better.
  
• Make it out of composites, this is going to be the biggy and the real leapfrog technology. I'm not talking about body panels (been done before), I'm saying the whole space frame should be made of composites. That would shave of at least 800lbs. and do the most to boost economy numbers outside of the hybrid capability. Not that you'd have to throw out your neat and expensive hydro-formed metal stamping stuff, a few parts might still require that. But that you should figure out how to make a large scale standard production car (and not just a few hand-made exotics) out of lightweight composites such as carbon fiber. If companies like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, or Northrop can figure out how to do large things like aircraft sections out of such materials, then why the hell not have Detroits big 3 make some cars out of it? Besides, it would make us an automotive technology leader again instead of some trend follower. So shaving at least 800lbs from previous models using materials technology and the retooling for that be the biggest requirement for the billions of dollars bailout.

Does that make sense?

And if you can't do that, perhaps we should have you build city busses or other municipal type vehicle at a very large discount. That would get you making something in return for the taxpayer money instead of just getting a handout. Not to mention it would also help U.S. cities that are having money problems with such things too.