Posted on 08/15/2011 2:19:28 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama to automakers: ‘You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks’ By Andrew Restuccia - 08/15/11 02:37 PM ET
The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.
“You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.”
Obama has positioned the revival and reshaping of the auto industry as a major part of his administration’s push to improve the economy and create jobs.
“When I came into office they were talking about the liquidation of GM and Chrysler, and a lot of folks said you can’t help them, and it’s a waste of the government’s money to try and help them,” Obama said Monday. “But what I said was, we can’t afford to lose up to a million jobs in this country, particularly in the Midwest.”
Obama was speaking at the start of a three-day bus tour of the Midwest. He will visit Decorah, Iowa, later in the day.
The president said his administration “turned around” the U.S. auto industry and is calling on automakers to change the way they do business.
“They are gaining market share for the first time in years, but what we said was, ‘If we are going to help you, then you have also got to change your ways,’ ” he said.
The White House unveiled first-ever fuel efficiency rules for heavy-duty trucks last week. The standards come after the administration ratcheted up fuel economy standards for cars and light-duty trucks.
The administration negotiated the standards in a series of high-stakes closed-door meetings with industry. In the end, the White House won the endorsement of major automakers and truck companies.
Obama has touted the new standards as “the single most important step we’ve ever taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
Later Monday, Obama touted the administration’s efforts to boost electric vehicles and advanced battery technology.
“That is the kind of approach that we have to take: Using the private sector, understanding that ultimately the private sector is going to be creating jobs, but also understanding that government can be an effective partner in that process, and nowhere is that more true than in rural America.”
FUBO! Zero has never run a comapny and fails to understand that the federal government does not control commerce. These companies need to sue Zero for his statements and actions.
Eat your peas.
IOW, watch for a manipulated rise in gas prices.
Maybe he should ask his pals at GM how to force a product on a market that doesn't want to buy it. Eg. the Volt.
Ford seems to have done pretty good with the F series trucks.
That's because the idea of developing our own vast, known energy resources hasn't occured to him.
Does he realize that about the only market where the US automakers can still make a profit is SUVs and trucks??? Does he realize that not everyone lives in Chicago and that some people actually need trucks to do their jobs and to live their lives? Does he realize that not everyone with an SUV is a soccer mom with security issues? He is too stupid to realize that he is destroying the productive and profitable parts of American industry. Unless he bans SUVs and trucks, someone else will make them and Americans will buy them.
>‘You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks’<
This is code for “build more Chevy Volts” (which no one buys, even brain-dead libs)..
Does he realize that about the only market where the US automakers can still make a profit is SUVs and trucks??? Does he realize that not everyone lives in Chicago and that some people actually need trucks to do their jobs and to live their lives? Does he realize that not everyone with an SUV is a soccer mom with security issues? He is too stupid to realize that he is destroying the productive and profitable parts of American industry. Unless he bans SUVs and trucks, someone else will make them and Americans will buy them.
Pure statist elitism. Dictating auto policy from an armored Escalade.
I'm sure Obama will take a cue from his hero, and get the automakers to do his bidding.
“...you have got to understand the market”
Dumb statement of the year.
If the market was demanding smaller cars, they would build smaller cars. They build SUV’s and trucks, becuase that’s what the market demands.
It’s Obama that doesn’t understand the market.
Those standards go on 1/22/2013.
Sure they can OBama. You’ll be gone soon enough like a bad memory while the automakers will still be producing big vehicles that makes them big money.
It's like he believes he is a dictator or something.
And drag this guy out of the WH by his heels...ala Mussolini...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.