Buy an SUV and get a free year of irresponsibility

GM is demonstrating an even greater disregard (or perhaps its merely lack of understanding) of market forces at  work by offering new SUV buyers a 1,99 cap on the price of gas for one year.  I can't begin to fathom what GM executives are thinking, unless they've got their minds set on going out with a bang.

First there's the economic cost to GM.  Leaving aside the fact that many buyers of these vehicles (including the incredibly fuel-inefficient H2 & H3 series of Hummers) don't care about the price of gas, by limiting their cost during a time when gas is likely to hit $4/gal GM is basically saying, "We'll match whatever you spend on gas."  On the vehicles in their production lines that are going to maximize that proposition.  If I were one of GM's investors, I'd be pretty f'ing pissed.

Secondly, there's the blatant disregard for the role American auto manufacturer's have played in the current gasoline crisis.  For years now they've been virtually assaulting American consumers with a barrage of ads and incentives to convince consumers to buy these fuel monsters.  Not to downplay the personal responsibility consumers have for making rational decisions, but anyone who reads this blog regularly is aware of the disregard I have for the ability of the average American to grasp the idea of "rational."  What GM is doing here is telling consumers, "Hey, we know what a pain in the ass it is to be responsible.  Hell, we've based our entire business model around that!  So why don't you just do what you want, as long as you want to buy one of our monster trucks, and we'll take that pesky responsibility thing and just sweep it under the covers for you."  GM is well-aware of the inability of your average consumer to see past the BS, and is taking advantage of that.

So my question to GM is this:  if you're so fired up about making gas prices cheap, why don't you offer this deal for only your most EFFICIENT vehicles, or your flex-fuel vehicles?  In doing so you'd save your investors a ton of money by limiting the cost of your asinine little idea, and you'd encourage consumers to buy more energy-efficient vehicles, helping to offset the increase in demand you'd be causing by setting a price ceiling.  I mean, bloody hell, how much more powerful a marketing message can you offer than "This car's so efficient we'll pay for all of your gas for the first year."  Might have something to do with the fact that there aren't any American cars that are highly efficient, of course...

The answer, of course, is because GM, like other American manufacturers, has always focused on the profit margin, looking to drive up sales of their bigger, high-margin vehicles instead of focusing on creating solid, reliable, energy efficient smaller cars and trucks.  Foreign manufacturers like Toyota, meanwhile, have been bitch-slapping GM in the marketplace precisely because they took the more intelligent strategy of decreasing their costs of production instead of taking the low road of higher vehicle margins.

Call me a Commie, tell me I hate America or that I'm a terrorist sympathizer.  Call me what you want--my next vehicle is going to be foreign.  I simply can't support American manufacturers when they pull boneheaded moves like this.