Patterico's Pontifications

4/1/2009

My Warranty Already Came with An Expiration Date — But Your Promises Come with One Too, and That Date Usually Comes Sooner . . .

Filed under: Obama — Patterico @ 12:24 am



Sometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry:

“Your warranty will be safe,” Obama said in televised remarks. “In fact, it will be safer than it’s ever been, because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty.”

See? You have nothing to worry about. Because if anything goes wrong, it will be fixed. You have Barack Obama’s word!

25 Responses to “My Warranty Already Came with An Expiration Date — But Your Promises Come with One Too, and That Date Usually Comes Sooner . . .”

  1. I want to be the first in the nation to race down to my car dealer’s service department and shout at the top of my lungs “Fix this piece of junk and put it on Obama’s tab!”

    Perfect Sense (0922fa)

  2. If it’s government produced, it probably will need many hours of servicing………

    krusher (212643)

  3. I have owned a GM vehicle almost continuously since 1992 (except for the year I lived in China).

    Now that GM is a wholly-owned subsidary of the US government, I refuse to even consider a GM vehicle. That policy is in place until GM is no longer under government control.

    Wonder why GM got worse treatment than the bankers who got us into this mess? Just follow the money.

    First, bankers gave big $$ to the Democrats and it bought a certain amount of protection.

    Second, unions gave big $$ to the Democrats and now the Dems are doing the bidding of the unions.

    Dr. K (e70a2d)

  4. I don’t know how he can make that comment. He has no power to obligate the federal government to anything. Only Congress has that power.

    On the other issue of giving a tax credit for people turning in their old cars, I was going to buy a new car but have decided to wait. I want to see wnat the new plan will be. If the car needs to be a certain age, I will go out and find a clunker and push it into the dealer if I have to in order to get the credit. Isn’t the federal government great?

    TomT (ce2d63)

  5. What do expect from people who celebrate the darkness and curse the light? They are narrow minded and backward thinking and should be removed from society.

    TomT (ce2d63)

  6. Well there goes my next Saturn I guess. I like my Saturn. 🙁

    no one you know (65b7aa)

  7. The GM bankruptcy, which is what this is, may even be a good thing. The guarantee of warranties and the firing of the GM Board, not just Waggoner, are part of such a proceeding. I think the rhetoric coming from Obama, et al, is a smoke screen to deceive the unions about how they are going to get screwed. They are a vital constituency of the Democrats and will raise hell (they already have begun) when they figure out what happened.

    I could be wrong but others are saying the same thing.

    The demise of this good effort, however, is contained in the new, higher, CAFE standards bill that will no doubt be passed. That and Cap and Trade will place a heavy burden on the economy. Then we may see further intervention in the design of the GM product giving us “green” cars that no one will buy.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  8. Ah, so it’s the Axelrod astroturfing robot who is calling to let me know that the warranty on my car has expired. Seems a bit of a convoluted method to drum up support for this measure.

    Hadlowe (390112)

  9. I have to agree… Bush never made a promise like this. This is a historically significant power grab by the executive. It’s a tremendous expense, and the congress didn’t originate it.

    Juan (4cdfb7)

  10. No one you know,

    I used to drive Saturns… before the UAW completely detroyed the actual Saturn brand (it’s just a badge for Chevy’s now).

    The old Saturns were reliable cars, built with tons of pride. Basically just a rip off of the Honda model of car manufacturing. I assure you that you can still buy a car like this, but it is more likely to have an H on the front of it. If you’re buying an ‘American’ car that doesn’t have ‘Ford’ written on it, you’re taking a tremendous risk (and making a HUGE contribution to the democratic party).

    Juan (4cdfb7)

  11. I hope some competent company buys the Saab line from them before they destroy it too.

    JD (6f1fb5)

  12. There are a lot of complex issues facing the auto industry. One big, big problem (probably the sing biggest) is the inability to make a car profitably under the current union contracts and cost structure. The union work rules and costs such as post retirement benefits make it extremely difficult if not impossible for the American car companies to make a profit.

    Bankruptcy is the right answer for these companies. I believe that Obama removed the CEO of GM prior to bankruptcy because he was not going to be friendly enough to union interests in the reorganization process following bankruptcy. This does not bode well for the success of the industry post-bankruptcy. They need strong management to represent the interest of the company during the restructuring, rather than caving in to the interests of the unions.

    Mike S (d3f5fd)

  13. Agreed – the only way the domestic car industry can compete with the foreign auto makers operating in this country is to approximate their current cost structures. Until that happens, forgettaboutit.

    Dmac (49b16c)

  14. “… competent company buys the Saab…”

    Well, that linkage would be a first!

    AD - RtR/OS (5021d1)

  15. I always said that Obama was the Joe Isuzu candidate, now it’s becoming literally true.

    Socratease (c22e68)

  16. Down we go, further down the rabbit hole.

    Patricia (94c68d)

  17. There are too many car lines now. So, say goodbye to: Buick, Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer, Mercury, Dodge, Chrysler and Saab.

    GM will be Chevrolet and Cadillac; Ford will be Ford and Lincoln; Chrysler will be Fiat and Jeep.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  18. AD – Every Saab I have ever had has been wonderful. Quirky, but wonderful. I was looking at buying their SUV, but with GM owning them and my personal strike against capital expenditures under Barcky, I decided to hold off.

    JD (6f1fb5)

  19. Obama also said he would seek ways to encourage consumers to buy new cars,

    By making gasoline so expensive they either have to buy new fuel efficient cars or use mass transit?

    Dan Kauffman (3c9c17)

  20. Obama Lie This Big = Presidential Loss in 2012

    Obama Truth This Big = Confidence In American cars/ Presidential Win or Loss in 2012

    Cisco (983921)

  21. Comment by JD — 4/1/2009 @ 3:12 pm

    A Saab owner? Bad enough a grad from Monterey.
    Now you truly do qualify as strange.
    But, Hey! Anyone who gets under the timmah’s skin can’t be all bad.

    AD - RtR/OS (5021d1)

  22. You’re kidding that he said our warranties would be safe with the government, right?

    Patricia (2183bb)

  23. AD – What exactly is wrong with a Saab ?

    JD (6f1fb5)

  24. Comment by JD — 4/1/2009 @ 11:36 pm

    They are very interesting from an engineering standpoint, which has always been their “hook”, since the company is basically an aircraft builder (at least until they sold the car part to GM). But, some of their approaches to design were not entirely practical, nor easy to repair – and, after all, I spent 30-years in that field working mainly on Euro/Brit cars.
    Also, did you ever happen to drive/own one of the old 3-cyl/2-strokes?
    Old auto joke: Saab’s were made for people who thought Volvo’s were too mainstream.
    A Volvo owner is the EU equivalent of a Rambler owner; and, with the exception of a few rally drivers (See: Pat Moss), drives like it.
    Anyway, to close this off:
    Just doing a little chain-rattling, since I actually like a few of their later (but pre-GM) products.
    As an old Chinese friend said: They are “interesting” cars.

    AD - RtR/OS (e0c6d9)

  25. You can pull right into the Oval Office for an economical lube job delivered by the “warrentee” In Chief. People should continue calling the WH and demanding to speak to the GM Warranty Department. Priceless.

    eaglewingz08 (93dbd9)


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