The February 2009 issue of Motor Trend (pg 14) has an interesting article about Richard Shelby, a Republican Senator from Alabama. He has been a vocal critic of the bailout of Detroit. Although, his home state has shelled out nearly 3/4 of a billion dollars to Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Mercedes. To date all states have paid $3.2 Billion in incentives to Foreign automakers. I wonder if those Foreign Car Executives flew private jets when negotiating with those states? Perhaps, the Detroit big three, need to move their headquarters out of the US to receive the preferred treatment of foreign Automakers.

<AHEM>Atlantic and Pacific oceans make such a drive impractical. But I'm no fan of Sen. Shelby, Sessions or a host of Southern politicians.

BTW, I few to Detroit from Huntsville, AL:

• 35 passengers
• 3,600 lbs of fuel burned
• 517 air miles
• 37 air miles per gallon per passenger miles
• 650 land miles (Google maps)
• 51.2 land miles per gallon per passenger miles

Given the air temperature range, I would have only gotten about 45-48 MPG had I driven and it would have taken about 14 hours. The flight time was less than 2 hours but with airports on each end, the total was closer to 4 hours.

Bob Wilson

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