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Contributed by Sam Minervino 2009-05-05

Portland — Remember the Yugo? An article from the New York Times and titled “The Fifty Worst Cars Of All Time: 1975 to 1989” described it this way…

“Malcolm Bricklin, he of the Bricklin SV1, wouldn't be satisfied until he had forced every American to walk to work. To that end, in 1985, he began importing the Yugo GV, which turned out to be the Mona Lisa of bad cars. Built in Soviet-bloc Yugoslavia, the Yugo had the distinct feeling of something assembled at gunpoint. Interestingly, in a car where "carpet" was listed as a standard feature, the Yugo had a rear-window defroster — reportedly to keep your hands warm while you pushed it. The engines went ka-blooey, the electrical system — such as it was — would sizzle, and things would just fall off.”- http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658529,00.html

Did you know that Fiat, the company Obama strong-armed Chrysler to partner with, was the basic designer of the Yugo, a car that has been described by Car Talk Magazine as the “worst car of the millennium”?

With the US government basically owning GM, in the future the public can expect similar autos like the Yugo for their driving pleasure. GM will be a subsidized company, able to undersell its competitors. As the government funnels taxpayer dollars to GM to support the UAW (United Auto Workers), similar policies will be in effect that will make it practically impossible to fire under-performing employees (kind of like the really efficient Post Office). Designers will be pushed to make cheap, small cars to “save” the environment. Since money won’t be an issue, GM is on a fast-track to become a worker’s utopia…great for slackers, bad for consumers.

An interesting story came from a woman attending the “Tea party” in Washington DC. As she parked her car, the garage attendant, an immigrant from Africa, saw her sign. He smiled at the woman and said these words; “Americans are asleep and someday they will wake up to find a few people have everything”. That isn’t verbatim but he was referring to the people running our country today. Wake up Americans