Consumer Reports tried test driving the $107,000, government-subsidized electric coal-powered car. Even Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who does not drive a car, should be able to see the problem here.
When Consumer Reports took the car out for a test spin recently, however, the Karma did not perform as planned. The consumer company bought a Karma from a dealer for the purpose of putting it to the test. And in a video now posted on its website, Consumer Reports auto engineer Tom Mutchler explains what happened.
“It is low, it is sleek, it is sensuous. It’s also broken. Right here in the middle of our driveway. The car doesn’t go in gear. It doesn’t move,” he says.
The new car had to be towed away.
That’ll probably hurt its score.
Exit question: Which is the worst performance: catching on fire, dying on a drive test, or turning into a big, beautiful brick?
Steven Chu and Barack Obama’s idea of another campaign promise achieved – a six figure electric alternative, paid for by the taxpayers, incapable of leaving the driveway. Doesn’t get any greener than that.
No wonder Chu didn’t mind gasoline heading toward Europe’s prices. I should have known that gas could go to a $100.00 a gallon, and Chu wasn’t going to to take a hit. I detest this hypocrite. I don’t care if Chu has a closet of Nobel Awards. He’s an utter moron.
What we ought to do is impose a penalty on the politicians. For every quarter gasoline exceeds $4.00 a gallon on average, another ten pounds is added to a false pregnancy belly these skunks have to wear until returning home.
Or they can be flogged each morning to start the day. Their choice.
We need a constitutional amendment tying all federal, congressional and administration salaries and perks in an inverse ratio to the price of gasoline. When it averages over $2.50 per gallon nationally their total reimbursement goes down 10%. Every $0.25 more it raises, another 10% off. Right now they’d be working at less than 39% and be well on their way to 35%. I’d love it.
I’ve never understood how they got the subsidy for this thing past anyone. I can (barely) understand the subsidy for the Volt, and the incentives they give you for a Prius (at least out here in California). The earliest Prius came with the possibility of applying for, and getting, an HOV sticker, which meant that the car counted as if it were occupied by multiple people, even when only one person was inside, for purposes of California’s carpool lanes. They stopped issuing these for Prius’s that were sold a couple of years ago, and I see they just started issuing them to Volts…wonder how much political pressure was involved there? But regardless, both are small, more or less modest cars intended for multiple passengers. You could have a small family and use either as the family car.
The Karma is a sports car for millionaires. It costs over $100,000.00, and is hilariously impractical. No one’s going to go to the grocery store to go shopping in this thing; perhaps you might take your wife to a fancy dinner somewhere on the West Side in one, and let the valet park the thing for you. So why should the Federal Government pony up half a billion dollars to subsidize the thing? Can’t we convince the millionaires to spend a bit more on one of these? Maybe Al and his friends should advocate a law requiring everyone who has a Ferrari or Camaro to trade it in on a Karma…yeah, that’ll work!
Instead, we’re on the hook for this stupidity, if it falls apart, and of course if it does fail it’ll somehow turn out not to be the administration’s fault.
The Karma ran over my Dogma…
Now we know the true meaning of the phrase “bad Karma.”
We should be more concerned that the Obama crowd aren’t the least affected by ridicule, shame, or by being pointed out as hypocrites or fiscal socialists.
They and their ilk consider themselves above the fray. It’s the universal liberal superiority complex, in our faces.
The only thing that will get their attention is a conservative replacement-government.
It’ll never happen, but Chu’s wife could drop him off each morning from their home in Chevy Chase (by the way, it’s not all that “tony” in his neighborhood) and pick him up at the nearest Metro Station.
He probably has a Department Motor-Pool limo give him a ride to and from work.
Re: ridicule, shame, et al….., wasn’t it an old Democrat who once said, “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so?”
Why should Chu bother to own a car? He has the GSA motor pool at his disposal and can ride in a gas guzzling sedan anytime withhout having to worry about the price of gas.