I wrote in an earlier post that "The Republican candidate who will get my vote is the candidate who promises to sue every DOE loan recipient into personal bankruptcy and see to it that our Nobel Prize winning Secretary of Energy is doing hard labor in Leavenworth until he is 90." Henrik Fisker was an European auto designer who had never manufactured so much as a veg-o-matic. He had no production plant. He had only the friendship of obese Al Gore yet the Department of Energy was willing to invest $529 million into his plan to produce an electric baubles for the rich and famous. For their money the taxpayers got an attractive auto but with a MPG-e rating in line with a ten year old Ford F-150.
Now we find that, like Government Motors' Chevy Volt, the Fisker Karma is prone to catch fire. A recall has been issued for 239 vehicles with the explanation that:“Within the high-voltage battery, certain hose clamps may have been positioned incorrectly during assembly. If positioned incorrectly, the battery compartment cover could interfere with the hose clamps, potentially causing a coolant leak from the cooling hose,” NHTSA said in its recall notice Thursday.
“If coolant enters the battery compartment, an electrical short could occur possibly resulting in a fire.”Gimme a break! $96,000 and the damn thing will catch fire if a hose clamp fails. Of course with the rigorous manufacturing standards that would never happen unless GM built the Karma. GM announced today that it was recalling 4300 Chevy Sonics for "possible missing brake pads". They go on to say that missing brake pads could increase stopping distance. Really? No one ventured a guess on how a car could get out of the plant without brake pads. The old GM probably had a Vice President of Brakes to prevent just such missteps. Had this been Toyota Senator Carl Levin would probably want to water board the CEO until he got that answer. Suffice it to say Obama's venture into the auto business has been a colossal flop.
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