2009 GMC Yukon SLT w/4SB
Poor Detroit. It's suffered through Mayors Coleman "Krugerrands" Young and Kwame "Sexting" Kilpatrick. Dennis Archer? The calm eye in the storm.
Now the city's bracing itself for more scandal, though it's hardly the stuff you'd find on TMZ. The city's relatively upstanding mayor Dave Bing is drawing fire for the pricey truck he's chosen as his official ride.
It's not a fleet Crown Victoria, or even a hybrid Malibu--a $59,205 GMC Yukon XL Denali is Bing's choice for his official city car, a choice that's raising the few eyebrows remaining in the city of Detroit.
The Detroit Free Press says the new truck has heated leather seats, Bose audio and satellite radio. It's being delivered at a time when the city's finances haven't been worse, and when the city workers are being pressed for 10-percent pay cuts.
The police department's signed off on the $1000-a-month lease, which sounds like a rip-off to us, given the slow state of SUV sales. But on the mayor's side, it's already snowed in Detroit this year, so the heated seats are a must--and the XM satellite radio is standard anyway.
Until last year, the city of Detroit had a sweetheart deal with GM that allowed the mayor to use a car free of charge.
Bing could have stepped into something far worse. The Freep points out the other car choice given to the mayor was a $1,750-a-month lease on a Lincoln Town Car.
Our question for the former NBA-balling mayor: Don't your people haggle at all? Seriously, call us next time. We don't pay retail.
