So – the Bailout of the Big Three didn’t pass muster with Congress. Good. Looks like UAW didn’t want to take a well-deserved pay-cut to put their members on par with Toyota factory workers, who seem to be able to put out economical models in a lean and mean manufacturing process.

Bush and Co. are trying to work a run-around so the Big Three can be put back into lean, mean, economical running again. Uh, yeah.

Now, for the “No, There’s no Connection” item:

From the Arizona Republic (no guarantee as to how long the link will last):

Chandler taxpayers paid $32,000 to buy Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn a 2009 Toyota Camry hybrid, The Arizona Republic has learned.

The car replaces the mayor’s 2004 Chevy Malibu with about 70,000 miles about two months ago, city spokeswoman Nachie Marquez confirmed Friday.

Well, gee – with only 70,000 miles on it, that seems like a waste of a perfectly good Malibu, wouldn’t you say? I wonder why they would dump an American Icon-Made automobile for one of those darned Japanese cars (which, by the way, really are made in America, not assembled in Mexico and shipped here)? Let’s read on, shall we?

Assistant City Manager Pat McDermott said the city opted to buy the new car because the Malibu was having some repetitive maintenance problems and becoming unreliable. It’s not immediately known how much in repairs the city has spent on the vehicle.
[snip]
“I think it was appropriate. He has a car that was breaking down. We saw the repair record and it was way more than it should be for a car with 70,000 miles. Partly because it was a pain-in-the-butt car, we started looking at an alternative.”

The city is keeping the Malibu despite its mechanical problems. It will remain in the city’s fleet.

Presumably, the vehicle won’t be used much and is sitting out it’s time until it is fully depreciated before the city sells it.

But, let’s take a look there – an American Made car, with an unacceptable level of repairs, being removed from the Mayor’s use in exchange for a car that (from personal experience) won’t even be fully broken in until it hits the 150,000 mile mark. Plus, it’s a hybrid vehicle, which means that it won’t be idling at all the ill-timed stop lights in town (thanks to the new and wonderful streetcar light rail that is due to come on line on December 27) when the Mayor does drive from Chandler to Phoenix. I don’t see any problems here.

The only problem I do see is the fact that the city is hanging on to the Malibu, even though it’s a piece of junk. I say, sell the rattle trap and get it off the city’s books. That would be the economical and environmentally sound decision.

Oh, wait – they did make the sound decision to trade up to a Camry, so I guess we should hold on to that thought. Can’t expect them to make a whole lot of changes at once, ya know…

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