BYE BYE GENERAL (GOVERNMENT) MOTORS

The recent advertising campaign splashed across the airwaves by General Motors was the last straw as far as I am concerned. My family has been one of many that were loyal customers of General Motors products for well over fifty years and several generations. That loyalty has come to a sudden irreversible stop, because of the arrogance, mismanagement and lies perpetrated by this government ruled, once proud company.

As far back as I can remember my Dad purchased and drove Pontiac automobiles. I frequently thought the dealer saw Dad coming, because he repeatedly showed him the least desirable colored cars and the purchase was made. Until the day he died he was reluctant to run the air-conditioning in hopes of conserving fuel. Dad was a product of the great depression and it influenced his every behavior until he went to his grave. (I miss him more with each passing day).

Being a product of Dad’s loyalty and conservative ways, I started with a ‘50 Chevy, and then moved on to a progression of Pontiacs, Buicks and even two Cadillacs. I gave up on Cadillacs having had one stolen right from my driveway in Chicago, and another being gravely damaged by a tree falling across the roof and trunk. I reverted back to a series of Buicks that lasted twelve years into my retirement. When my ’99 Buick received a near fatal death notice from my local repairman I sold her, and inherited my wife’s Nissan Murano, while she now drives a Mercedes.

When I first viewed government appointed CEO Ed Whitaker’s television commercial bragging about GM’s early re-payment in full of their government bailout dollars, I almost fell out of my Lazy-Boy recliner. Who in the hell was Whitaker fooling? GM repaid the government with dollars from another government loan, thus he lied to his loyal customers and all future GM buyers. Whitaker was blowing smoke for the Obama Administration, and as far as I am concerned GM has lost my business for all time to come.

First of all, our government has absolutely no business running General Motors in the first place. They bailed out this poorly run company to protect their union buddies and buy their voting loyalty on the backs of the taxpayers of this country. Our government broke all the rules in running ruff-shod over the senior bond holders. I hope our government gets paid back, but the federal meddling into the daily operation of the company was greatly responsible for imposing unrealistic rules and supporting union contracts that were the root cause of the company’s problems.

General (Government) Motors’ lie has driven me away from their products for all time. Apparently this is how General Motors and our government repay loyal customers. This is a lesson I will long remember when I go to the polls in November 2010, and when I buy my next automobile.

COMMANDER GRANGER