You're not very good at math, either. A huge part of that $ was paid back, and in the long run, keeping that industry domestic = trillions for the American economy & all of the jobs associated w/ the auto industry.
Glad you're not making any decisions. Saving the auto industry came cheap.
GM: repaid $23.1 billion of the $49.5 billion it got from the U.S. Treasury, including all of its outstanding loans. But Treasury still owns 500 million shares, or 32%, of GM stock.
To recoup its full investment, GM stock needs to hit $52.80 per share. It’s currently trading around $21. GM also received a $106 million matching grant to build a battery factory in Brownstown, MI, where it is assembling battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in car using cells imported from Korea.
Chrysler: repaid $9.2 billion, fulfilling its debt obligations to the U.S. and Canadian governments, and is now owned by Italian automaker Fiat (58.5%) and a health care trust for UAW retirees (41.5%).
Overall, taxpayers lost $1.3 billion on the Chrysler bailout. In full recovery mode, Chrysler is currently the fastest-growing carmaker in the world.
Ford: used its $5.9 billion loan to convert two truck plants to small-car production and to develop more fuel-efficient vehicles like the Ford Focus EV and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, on sale this fall. Loan repayments start in September. Ford says it will spend $14 billion over the next seven years on advanced-technology vehicles.
Nissan: received a $1.4 billion loan to build a battery plant and modify an existing car factory in Tennessee to produce the electric Nissan Leaf (currently imported from Japan). Production of battery packs begins at the end of September; Leaf production follows in December. Though it has sold only 14,000 Leafs in the U.S. since December 2010, the company hasn’t backed off its U.S. sales target of 150,000 Leafs per year. A spokesman says Nissan will start repaying its loan after U.S. production begins.
Tesla: used its $465 million loan to build a battery plant and retool part of a former Toyota-GM factory to build the Model S, its second electric car. So far, only 100 of the cars have been built, well shy of its 2012 goal of 5,000. But the company says it’s on track. Loan repayments start in December. Tesla, which went public in July 2010, hopes to break even by 2013.
Fisker: received only $193 million of its $529 million DOE loan because of missed milestones. Its first plug-in hybrid, the $100,000 Karma built in Finland, suffered quality problems. Its next model, the Nina, and a new factory in Delaware, are on hold while the company sorts out its problems and seeks alternative funding sources.
Vehicle Production Group: used a $50 million DOE loan to add a compressed natural gas version of its MV-1 handicapped accessible van. So far, 300 of the 2,100 vans produced at a plant in Indiana run on CNG. As fleet sales rise, the start-up company expects at least half to be natural gas vehicles. VPG began repaying its loan late last year.
Johnson Controls: the leading lead-acid battery maker for autos used a $300 million DOE grant to build an advanced-battery cell plant in Michigan, and is shifting work here from Europe. It predicted slow acceptance of EVs, and is instead supplying batteries for other fuel-saving technologies, like microhybrids, which shut down when the vehicle stops. The plan was for 680 jobs at full capacity. Today, it has fewer than 100.
there more...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmu...payers-money-the-answer-might-surprise-you/2/