prepared remarks to explain just how much he liked Chevy's new electric car.

"Secret Service wouldn't let me drive it," he joked. "But I liked sitting in it. It was nice. I bet it drives real good."

"And five years from now when I'm not president anymore, I'll buy one and drive it myself!" Obama exclaimed, prompting the enthusiastic audience to chant, "Four more years! Four more years!"

The president's speech to auto workers comes on the day that Michigan voters are casting their ballots in the Republican presidential primary.

In contrast to Obama's embrace of the $80 billion auto bailout, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently claimed that the current White House resident "gave" the car companies to the UAW.

"My view is this: We have to have industries that get in trouble go through bankruptcies," Romney explained at a CNN debate last week.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has also recently taken a shot the auto industry's effort at building more energy efficient models.

At a campaign event in Suwanee, Georgia last week, Gingrich told supporters that he would bring back cheaper gas because “you can’t put a gun rack on a Volt.”