Despite failings, GM will come out clean

Did I hear that Chrysler actually said that their dealers were not competitively priced with the import carmakers? What a joke that would be. Who sets the price? I thought it was the manufacturer who told the dealers what to sell cars for.

Chrysler recently ran an add for a vehicle with a regular selling price of $32,500. They then discounted the car for employee pricing, whatever that is, for $3,400 less. On top of that they discounted the car again, another $3,000 for a stimulus savings program.

That accounts for almost a 20 percent reduction on the price of the car. And you know that they were not selling it below cost. General Motors during the holidays advertised their Cadillac Escalade, which costs about $75,000, with discounts of $20,000 some odd dollars. You could go to the dealer and buy the vehicle for almost 30 percent of its original cost. Here again one must ask: What is the true cost?

I believe that they should both be investigated for fictitious pricing when the value was not there to begin with. And in the end, GM like Chrysler will go into bankruptcy, absolve themselves of debt, collect more bailout money and resurface squeaky clean.

This is a classic ripoff if I ever saw one. The federal government gave these companies bailout money to protect the employees from being fired or laid off and unemployed. I have only heard of one job-saving initiative as I have watched this play out.

All of the import carmakers will benefit from the dealer closings; after all, the domestic car dealers have been competing against each other while the imports sold their customers vehicles.

Tom Rajcan

Wheaton