No surprise.  In China, however, GM said sales of its Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands rose 12.7 percent from the first half of last year to 590,126 vehicles. Ford Motor Co. said its sales rose 21 percent from the year-earlier period to 172,411 vehicles. ( Newsweek)  It helps that government controls have kept retail gasoline and diesel prices at levels that are among the world’s lowest.

I don’t know if it’s the best time to visit a dealership.  I know that is what Chrysler is singing.  How do I know how those warranties will be honored?  If they are ditching more dealerships, where will I go if that warranty needs to be honored? 

The Washington Post’s business columnist Steven Pearlstein was asked about the story yesterday in an online Q&A. He scoffed:

Boonsboro, Md.: A bit off the topic, but have you or anyone at the Post investigated this? Chrysler dealers shut down in Obama bankruptcy are mostly Republican? It seems a crosscheck of dealerships to be closed versus donations shows almost all the dealers to be closed donated to Republicans. http://hotair.com/

Steven Pearlstein: Oh, please. What percent of all auto dealers are Republican? I bet its (sic) pretty high.

Well, why don’t you use all your professional journalism training and find out the answer, Mr. Pearlstein? And why don’t you look at the flip side of the question — as “amateur” bloggers have been doing — and investigate the circumstances of the protected dealers?

Pearlstein is not alone in dismissing the blogosphere out of hand. The impulse to denigrate blogs
is borne of professional protectionism.

Ace reflects on the conservative blog-MSM dynamic:

Here’s a dilemma for conservatives. The MSM will not investigate any of these claims, ever. So what is a conservative to do? If a conservatives admit that this line of inquiry seems unlikely to turn up malfeasance, the MSM uses such statements as pretexts to not bother to even check, and uses such statements against conservatives who are agitating for additional investigation — “Even conservatives think this is unlikely, so you guys are obviously crazy…”

Of course I want this looked into, of course. It’s my guess it’s a non-story, not my expert opinion.

But the MSM is so ridiculously biased that they make honesty a dangerous and politically counterproductive business.

The only way to even get the MSM to do their jobs and take a look is to pressure them by claiming Worst Scandal Eveh, even if we don’t all necessarily buy that. But we have to claim that in order to spur any sort of media interest whatsoever. (That interest, of course, coming in the form of stories like Conservatives Now So Crazy They Think Obama Is Closing Chrysler Dealerships for Political Advantage, which isn’t exactly the headline we seek, but that’s the best we can hope for from the MSM.)

A few quick points: I do think that eventually, the MSM will come around to investigating. If they find anything at all that confirms the politicizing of the process, they’ll either whitewash it, downplay it, or take credit for exposing it with little or no credit to the bloggers who first started digging. They’ll also ignore the fact that some of us early on have made the caveat from the start not to make too-broad claims.

I also don’t think it’s necessary to over-sell the story in order to get more mainstream coverage. The fact is, Missouri senators have already pressed the White House for more transparency on the closure decision-making process.

Do the rest of the MSM’s business journalists take Pearlstein’s arrogant “Oh, please” position that the answers are not even worth pursuing? (MM)

The article is incorrect in the statement that Saturn will be "gone". It will be sold.

The notion that Chrysler or anyone else would be selecting which dealerships to shut down based on the dealer-owners’ political preference is not plausible. They’re trying to stay afloat any way they can. When you’ve got one foot on a banana peel and the other in the grave, there’s no time for witch-hunting.

As for warranties, they (supposedly) will be honored at other Chrysler dealerships, with the government reimbursing the dealerships for costs incurred.

You might. Chrysler is supposed to notify customers under warranty in early June where they can go to get their vehicles serviced. Bumper-to-bumper and powertrain warranties will be honored.

But the worry you have is why I was hoping these car companies could avoid the bankruptcy ziggy. Consumer confidence in warranties and repairs is always a key consideration when purchasing a vehicle. Obama had the right idea with the government-backed warranty plan. But it’s too bad the unsecured bondholders wouldn’t give in, and accept equity for the automakers’ debt. Right now, I think bankruptcy may be the only way to start anew.

But the Detroit automakers still aren’t going to be able to compete with the slave-labor costs in markets like China and Japan. Not to mention health-care. That’s why O is trying to restructure the U.S. health-care system at the same time. It’s not Socialism. It’s an effort to make America competitive. We can no longer afford to tack on $1,500 to the cost of every vehicle to pay for employee health coverage, and still be competitive.

That’s also why Obama is proposing to tax American companies that set up shop overseas. We must de-incentivize firms from shipping hundreds of thousands of jobs to other countries.

Education and re-training is another key component, as it relates to restructuing the U.S. manufacturing base. People must be re-trained, for example, to transfer their auto-making skills to making wind turbines. We must build such a high level of skilled education that foreign countries cannot compete with us. That will ensure that jobs stay here, and wages (read: standard of living) remain high.