O, and you should probably include Texas. Actually one of the fastest growing places for use of alternative energies and hybrid vehicles. Now has more wind energy production than California and expanding rapidly. Just sayin…..

I can’t attest personally for anything midwest, but I can compare to SoCal. Having that comparison, I would question calling these bay folks the smartest on Earth. They holler about their diversity and acceptance….but I look around…..and hey, I am the only white guy. There are no black folks, and no mexican folks. Back home there is real diversity and acceptance, not this facade of it like here. And, back home, everyone isn’t all regionalized and segregated like in Oakland. (unless you count Arcadia, which is pretty much all Korean folks) They are caught up in what was decades ago, but just can’t get into the now. When they realize what they really are….they will cry. What they are is a segregated society without any real understanding of anything outside of their little (highly polluted) bay. I mean, why does a place that is so socially equalizing like Berkeley have a population with 21% below the poverty line. That is 75% above the national average. Don’t even get me started on San Fran….sketchy as hell.

Anyways, this places offers a great school, and maybe a nie vacation spot, but certainly not a home or a place to raise some kids…….except for maybe Pleasanton….or San Jose…lol

The IC out here in the Golden State is 100X what it is anywhere in the midwest. Only New York, Boston and Washington can compete intellectually.

Cal’s Haas Business school is an outstanding school, although Stanford’s is better by a long shot and I’ll bet a Big Game showdown on that one.

I can tell you, as someone that attends one of those prestigious bay area schools (UC Berkeley, the highest ranked public Universitey on Earth) that the people here are good Engineers and nuclear physicists, but tend to be lacking in macro-economic understanding and real polical situations. They are blinded by their own self-righteousness and usually unwilling to listen to opposing views. Then again…..I guess I only go to Berkeley….can’t be that smart right.

Sorry Mr. Anonymous, I don’t work for any union.

As far as I am concerned……Toyotas are old people cars. Old folks holler about old cars they loved when they were young and sexy, and now that they are falling apart, they fall back on what the remember to be solid….but it isn’t anymore. Honda, chevy……hell, even Nissan is beating them in consumer reports over the past few years. I don’t hate foreign competition, in fact, I love it and think it makes us better for it. I do however hate seeing you guys swindeled by an old undeserved reputation. Then again, you will probably be dead soon anyways, so what do I have to worry about. Hurry up, I would rather save some of that Social Security for myself, and hell, maybe my kids…..instead of robbing us……my generation.

I too buy the American way. For the best product I can find. When I graduate, the Volt will have been out for a year, and I will take advantage of that opportunity. It being the most fuel efficient option on the market….by far, I will take it up. IF….and IF someone else can come up with something else…well…..I am waiting competitors.

GM does not make the cars people want???

GM sells almost twice as many cars in the US as Toyota.

Bailout ::you be an absolute fool not to. The USG spent 90 Billion on the Aubrey V22 that was a horrible investment.

GM= good for USA puts people to work.

Also people face the facts the HOME business is OVER hello!!!! Your home is no longer going up.

Time to get back to work making goods. Cars are the most expensive good right now.

Why let your money go overseas.

Toyota is Consumer Distorts largest Contributor

Toyota Historically is the most unsafe car sold and has killed more people.

Ford is the safest car company and currently all there models are safer than Toyota.

I have owned Both Toyota And GM cars and I find the GMs to cost less.

Toyota PR is strong in the USA including this blog.

But facts are Facts Toyota cars are no better than GM in fact they are unsafe and cover up problems.

Try buying a Lexis hybrid getting 20 MPG and people complain about a GM suv getting 20.

Get some pride Americans and stop basing American industry.

OR maybe the anti-gm and anti American here are not Americans.

It”s interesting that guys like yourself (a union guy maybe) are so quick to call anyone who expresses the general feeling of holding domestic makers accountable an A-hole (live in a glass house?). As for the Prius, if you had shopped for one you would know that it will max out in price at least $5-10K lower than the pie in the sky Volt. As for comparisons of Cobalts and Civics, lets drive one then the other. Better yet, lets drive a 3 year old Civic and a 3 year old Cobalt and see which one has held up better. I’ll never buy another domestic again, not just because of their poor reliability and residual but because of overpaid, underworked union members and simple-minded people who try to browbeat me into being an “American” by buying an “American” car. I do buy the “American” way, I buy the best product at the best price, which happens to be Hondas made right here in the USA. Let the big 3 die off like the rest of Detroit has.

And now for my rant……
I will agree that the Unions are not the ONLY problem. Just like in the tech sector, there are WAY too many people in executive positions that are only interested in their own golden parachute. ANY company that rewards an executive for flushing their company down the drain should be punished, or bought out.
I don’t think there is an easy solution since the government has been so heavily involved in the Oil and Auto industries for so many years. All of this should have been addressed in the 70′s when this happened the first time. Now we have 30 years of dependence on the industries. I’m hoping any bailout will include the ability for smaller “upstart” companies to have the same rebates and incentives that the “big 3″ would have.
I also think Americans need to given the same opportunity to purchase vehicles on an equal footing. By that I mean that we should be taxing the imports at the same rate as they tax our products. Unfortunately, this will also cause these same countries’ other goods (read ‘electronics’) to increase in price. I feel this will make consumers a little more cautious in purchasing products that will last, instead of resigning themselves to “throw-away” products. I am a firm believer that we (Americans) will continue to purchase products that increase our independence and make us “feel good”. I owned a ’69 Chevelle (350-V8) that lasted for more than 200,000 miles and I had it tuned to get about 17 MPG with a modest impact on performance. While the mileage wasn’t great, it was fun and stylish. When the transmission went out, and gas was climbing, I got a Miata so that I could balance me needs. Given the opportunity, I would buy an old Chevy (30′s-40′s) that had been converted to hydrogen or electric. Unfortunately, all the electric motors that are strong enough, are still way too expensive and there aren’t any viable open-source controllers to help in the DIY field. I determined it would cost me over $15K to convert my Miata to a similar level of performance.
Anyone implying that everyone should be buying small cars and use mass transit needs to touch on reality. With the right technology, we can have all the luxuries we currently have, and still help the environment.
People need to stop saying that it’s Electric vs. Hydrogen and let both of them work. Get the large electric motors down in price and you’ll see the conversions take off just like the small-block Chevy did in the 50′s and 60′s.
Sorry for the rant…it’s been building for a while.

The Bay Area universities are a hundred time better than the overtstated and overated University of Michigan business school that pays big advertising dollars to Business week to have it’s laughable business school ranked every year. That’s inside knowledge fact BTW.

Fact…Education
41 percent of residents aged 25 years and over had a bachelors degree or higher. The San Francisco Bay Area population is near the top in the Nation for overall education level. The San Francisco and San Jose PMSAs rank third and fourth in college graduates, ahead of Boston and behind only Boulder–Longmont, Co PMSA and Stamford–Norwalk, CT PMSA. Santa Cruz PMSA ranks eighth and the Oakland PMSA eleventh.

Facts…Income:
While only 26% of households nationwide boast incomes of over $75,000 a year, 48% of households in the San Francisco Bay Area enjoy such incomes. The percentage of households with incomes exceeding the $100,000 mark in the Bay Area was double the nationwide percentage. Roughly one third (31%) of households in the San Francisco Bay Area had a six figure income, versus less than 16% at the nationwide level.

Forty-two San Francisco Bay Area residents made the Forbes magazine’s 400 richest Americans list. (2006 list more than that now, but don’t have time to count the entire list) Thirteen live within San Francisco proper, placing it seventh among cities in the world. Among the forty-two were several well-known names such as Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and Charles Schwab. The highest-ranking resident is Larry Ellison of Oracle at No. 4. He is worth $19.5 billion.

For the record…Detroit is in the bottom third of the nation in education level. This is the pool of talent that is presently running our nations automobile manufacturers.