Big Three Sales Slow...So the Government Buys 17,205

One way for the federal government to prop up Detroit automakers is to invest billions and take control of their operations. That's what happened with General Motors and Chrysler. Another approach is to simply buy the cars themselves. That's the strategy of the General Services Administration (GSA), which is committing $287 million to buy more than 17,000 fuel-efficient vehicles from all three carmakers.

The funds, appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will go to buy 7,924 Fords ($129 million), 6,348 GM cars and trucks ($105 million) and 2,933 Chrysler products ($53 million).

The GSA wasn't specific about what it was buying, nor about its fuel-efficiency guidelines. It did say that "each new vehicle will have a higher miles-per-gallon rating than the one it replaces."

GSA manages a quarter of the federal government's total procurement, and $500 billion in assets, including 213,000 vehicles. According to James A. Williams of GSA's federal acquisition service, the agency "is committed to spending recovery dollars quickly and wisely."

Getting any additional information out of GSA beyond its initial press release has proved to be enormously difficult. The release does raise a number of questions. For instance, the company that benefits most is Ford, which is the only Big Three company not to take bailout money.

It's also unclear which company vehicles GSA will buy. It would be nice to think that the feds are buying 7,900 Ford Escape Hybrids, for instance. And if the totals include Chevrolet Malibu Hybrids, it won't do much good because GM just canceled that product line as a slow seller.