Free Fords!

Detroit is like Hollywood anymore: no new ideas. What one company does, the other follows. It's a stupid cycle and it's get us nowhere. Fast.

We mentioned GM was paying for some gas and now Ford has done the same thing that GM did back in Oct. 2005 -- free gas.

The Detroit News reports: Ford deal: 0% loans, free gas. Sure seems like the Road Ahead is really just an envelope with cash in it. Which we like. Every car should have envelopes with cash in the glove box. Make sure to check out the chart with the Expedition: over $13k in savings! Sweet Mercy. Ford had to make a big deal about this Road Ahead campaign when all it entailed was rebates and stuff? Zzzzz....

Meanwhile, The Detroit News reports: GM takes flack for cheap gas incentive. This article is too much fun not to quote it a bunch:

While GM has stepped up its promotion of alternative fuels, critics say the new gas program is a cynical attempt to keep selling gas hogs without regard to the environment and America's dependence on foreign oils.

"It says a lot about GM and their dire financial straits that they are so desperate to sell the gas guzzlers that no one wants, that they are paying for the gas to drive them home," said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Program. "When did you ever hear about a junkie giving up his subsidized fix?"

Influential New York Times columnist Tom Friedman -- author of the best-selling book "The World is Flat" -- took on GM in a sharply worded column Wednesday.

"Is there a company more dangerous to America's future than General Motors? Surely, the sooner this company gets taken over by Toyota, the better this country will be," Friedman wrote, comparing GM to "a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash" by offering the fuel program.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who oversees the automaker's product development, said in an e-mail that Friedman "is so 'over the top' that it borders on psychosis."

Lutz said his hope "is that the majority of Americans, not being extreme liberals, and harboring a deep-seated distrust toward the media, will see his piece for what it is: the product of an unusual, but not altogether well, mind."

Ha! How soon before there's a fight on TV? Speaking of Jell-o wrestling with Alison, we're totally down with that.

Comments

[M1EK]

Joel,

Toyota hasn't lobbied the government furiously to stop any and all pitiful attempts to increase CAFE standards or make them apply more fairly to SUVs. BIG difference.

Toyota also didn't milk the government for a bunch of pork to go develop a joke prototype they had no intention of ever bringing to market, just to forestall the pressure for higher fleet mileage standards.

[Joel A]

The charge has been levied at Toyota as well since the automaker continues to build SUVs and trucks as well as its hybrids.