Big Three of myth drop like a rock again

Earlier today I blogged about how automakers spent $70 million on lobbying last year, primarily to fight EPA fuel economy standards increases.

Well, it looks like the Big Three portion of that lobbying should have been spent on more fuel-efficient cars, instead, given April sales numbers.

Chrysler, with the most gas-guzzlers in its lineup, was off 23 percent. Ford and GM were both down double digits. Toyota sloughed off four months of decline to post a 3.4 percent increase.

First, Toyota having four declining year-over-year months in a row is not a reflection on Toyota strategy but on the recession.

Second, it looks more and more like Daimler-Benz bailed on Chrysler at the right time. When you have no hybrids, not even lite-hybrid trucks, and not a single nonhybrid that can bust 35 mpg on the highway, you’re in a shitload of trouble.

Since Chrysler is in the private hands of Cerberus now, it can’t go belly up, per se. But some Cerberus managers who suggested this buy can sure as hell be fired.