Obama Buying Unneeded 17,600 cars

Biz Journal

President Barack Obama said the U.S. government will buy 17,600 new, fuel-efficient vehicles from ailing American automakers by June 1.

Obama made the announcement Thursday in a statement issued by the White House, saying the General Services Administration will spend $285 million of Recovery Act Funds to purchase the vehicles for the government fleet.

All purchases will be made from manufacturers with an existing contract with the GSA, which are General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Chrysler LLC, which operates an engine plant in Kenosha, and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). This includes the purchase of 2,500 hybrid sedans that will be ordered by April 15.

jeeeze .. what the heck are we going to do with 17,600 cars we dont' need? Will his buddy Oprah be giving them away on her show? This is pathetic. All this money thrown out the window on crappy cars that Americans won't buy.

[edit on 4/10/2009 by FlyersFan]

From your source:

“This is the largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles for the federal government fleet in history,” according to the statement.

The decision was made to buy the vehicles on the short timetable to help give a boost to the economy, as well as demonstrating the Obama administration’s support of the U.S. auto industry.

President Obama said, “The problems that caused this economic crisis weren’t created in a day, and it will take time and hard work to get our economy back on track. But I am 100 percent committed to a strong American auto industry, and we will stand with America’s auto workers and their families during these difficult times.

“This is only a first step, but I will continue to ensure that we are working to support the American auto industry during this difficult period of restructuring."

Didn't want that to get lost in the mayhem that will ensue. One could look at it as useless, one could look at it as attempting to aid the auto makers. Secondly, don't hybrids get much better gas millage? If so, savings on fuel. Less money going out on that.

NO Hummers???

I've been wondering, have the auto workers offered to go to the table and renegotiate their pay? Don't they get paid a little much for skilled labor? Yeah I know the crooks at the top are way overpaid too, they should just be fired period. I hope that comes from the aftermath of all this, that these guys at the top don't get paid millions of dollars a year for wearing a suit.

The government owns 642,233 cars as of 2008. These cars are replaced on a regular basis when needed. The government maintains contracts with vendors to supply them with the cars. They speak in the article of a 'short timetable' on this item, which says to me, that they simply took a different route to replace older cars by using the emergency funds and buying them sooner rather than later, in order to help the auto industry and the economy. The purchase would have been made regardless; in this case it seems that they tried to actually do something useful with a mundane utility cost.

I work at a Marine Base and the government vehicles get replaced every 2 to 3 years. I have a feeling that this purchase will go to swapping out vehicles like that.

reply to post by intrepid

Sure .. but they were not needed. That was the point.
He just picked up a pile of $$ and said lets' go get some cars.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Government cars last 3-4 years tops. Do you really think that there are NO gov't cars that are ready for replacement right now? And buying hybrids is a good idea, because it gets more efficient cars that may last longer, and it helps Detroit.

reply to post by intrepid


I can't accept this as a 'saving money' thing. First off, the impression I get is this purchase of vehicles is outside the normal ongoing process of vehicular replacement by attrition. That means that this is another government 'knee jerk' money catapult, rendered stereotypically vague by a media that asks precious few questions. The idea of saving money on fuel by spending money on cars that burn fuel seems kind of "American consumerish." If the purpose is to stimulate the car industry, why not contract for electric vehicles? Isn't that the 'direction' our changing nation was supposed to be headed now?

Seems like they could have more expediently moved the revenue into the car manufacturers' pockets by finding 17,000 plus struggling families who need a car.

Well, perhaps I have simply become to cynical...

reply to post by FlyersFan


Where does it say that the cars were unneeded?

Oh sure, you could probably argue that, well, the order was 'accelerated'. So, what, they bought them now instead of at the end of the year? Next year? Would the value of driving the older cars for a little longer outweigh making the purchase now, when the money is more timely?

wow, i bet its only for show.

the media will now say "obama bought cars for us, the ailing masses, all heil obama!"

wtf is wrong w/ us citizens these days... they used to have eyes and ears. and balls.

They did that with Chrysler in the 80's too.Everyone in the government were driving those crappy K cars around.
Dang things were rattle traps.

[edit on 10-4-2009 by calcoastseeker]

Well I certainly find it better that they are actually getting something useful for their(our) money rather than just giving it to a bunch of rich executives to fill their pockets with nothing in return but empty promises.

[edit on 10-4-2009 by verylowfrequency]

Anything to keep our govt agencies rears nice n toasty.
You know what the govt needs?
Good mechanics.
That way they dont have to buy new cars every 2 years.
But why would they want to create new jobs for Americans?