Is This Why Rick Wagoner Got Fired From GM?

[Brad Kenney]

Because even if not, it should at least be blamed on him. (Hey, he took a 20 million severance -- I'm sure GM can get some mileage out of that, right?)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the GM PUMA:



Not so bad an idea, but coming out of Detroit, it just...feels wrong. It's like they out-Nano'ed the Nano. (I wonder if you could get a discount on parking meters? It seems a shame to pay the full rate.)

Jokes aside, I'd bet there's an overseas market for something this small and presumably efficient. Or at least a larger market than they'll likely find domestically. Anyway, if they wanted the domestic market, they would have built the PUMA off the Segway Centaur, which is actually awesome:

[Abogle]

This is just an example of what the govt will be dictating detroit build

[bradintx]

Nifty idea that gets headlines but is totally impractical for most. In the north it tends to be cold with snow for a big part of the year. In the south it is very hot for a long time each year. In all parts of the country it tends to rain from time to time.

Perhaps as a concept vehicle that leads to a more practical application - however if this is what my tax money is being spent to produce, I am getting hosed.

[Dr Stan]

Originally Posted by Abogle

This is just an example of what the govt will be dictating detroit build

Originally Posted by bradintx

Perhaps as a concept vehicle that leads to a more practical application - however if this is what my tax money is being spent to produce, I am getting hosed.

I fail to see any connection between the auto bailout and the PUMA. It would have been in development long before the Feds got involved. Can you back up your claims?

[rbrooku]

I agree this thing has nothing to do with the bailout. It is a "futuristic" concept vehicle for automatically moving large numbers of people about an urban landscape instead of using buses or taxis. The idea is to allow more direct access to individual urban destinations than say a bus would. It is not an actual planned for near term production vehicle.