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Detroit, 9:20 AM
Tue Nov 24
24 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/12/08
I want to buy a gas guzzler. Of the few things I wouldn't want to give up no matter how bad it got, it would be my full-sized car. I don't want some regulator telling me what I should buy. No matter how bad the CAFE standards get, a lot of people agree with me.
I am a conservative person, but I am extremely angry at the Republicans, particularly Shelby. To make light of one of out last US-owned industries, while acting as a champion for your foreign overseers doesn't exactly make a good case for post-Pat Buchanan Republicans. I bet it would be hard for GM to build a plant in Japan and avoid the local employment customs. They could have suggested a less government-heavy way of bailing the industry out instead of looking totally anti-American.
People live longer, its a fact. That's what's causing these pension troubles.
12/13/08
Diesels rule, that is to call a TDI or and HDI a Diesel is a severe understatement.
I drove a Range Rover 3.9 V8 on gas, got sick of its need for gas and not giving speed or accelaration back, purchased a 130000 mile Volkswagen Passat with a 130 horses TDI engine, a six speed gearbox and now after 260000 miles I am not even thinking of getting rid of the VW, it has all the advantages of a big V8, torque and power all over the range, a 130 MPH tops speed ( I live near Germany so this has been tested frequently!) and the engine runs on exhaust fumes of trucks I suppose, on a 12 Gallon tank I can travel 650+ miles .
There are smarter solutions then a V8, the future will simply be that an engine will work as a sort of generator, generating power to the gearbox & computer which makes the darn thing go.
Like you I was afraid when I bought the VW, telling the guy who sold it to me that my Range Rover's starter motor was bigger and gave more power then the tiny 1.9 liter Diesel engine, how wrong was I!
I am now going for the 500000 Kilometer mark, just for the heck of it; my only problem will be what will happen if the Volks is still as good as it is now at the 500 K mark?
12/15/08
I have had and worked on many gas V8s with just as many kms too.
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/15/08
12/12/08
But bankruptcy will not be the end of GM. It will not be the end of Chrysler, either. As long as people buy cars, there will be someone to make them. People aren't buying as many as are being made, but the UAW has the industry by the short hairs, and won't let it build fewer.
I hate to say it, but bankrupcty protection (as much as, in principle, I hate the concept of bankrupcty) might be the best hope for the General. If only to give them the legal backing to renegotiate liabilities to bring the company down to the size that the market says it should be.
They will continue to build cars. Good cars. Fuel efficient cars. And even a few fuel swigging trucks. The world is different now, and the relevance of many contracts in place has gone away long before the term of said contract. I don't like saying that GM should be allowed to renege on promises made to workers and retirees, but without concessions, thosee retirees, and current employees will get nothing.
Play the game right, and everyone can have fun. Get greedy, and everyone might lose.
12/12/08
12/12/08
Good job finding the Caps Lock button.
Now that you have made some semblance to an assertion, would you care to clarify what that assertion is regarding and perhaps even come up with a few ideas of how to "FIX IT!"?
12/12/08
12/12/08
But yes, I got the reference.
12/12/08
The difference could not be greater, the Pug had one silly roof mounted interior light, while the Olds'had 'courtesy' lights even at your feet.
The Olds was a V8 automatic with power windows, airconditioning and a radio with a wonderbar. We had a sunroof ! So NEVER forget that you've shown the world (the Japanese & the Europeans) how to build a car !
In essence it is a cost price problem, e.g. each American produced GM cehicle gets a $ 2000 surcharge for pension funds which were agreed upon in the past.
The Conservatives have asked the unions to give in with the pensions, the unions refused.
Furthermore, the proud American auto industry can switch to war production withing 48 hours, should a conflict occur somewhere in the world - this is why here in Europe British Leyland were rescusitated for over a decade during the cold war.
The US ministry of defence will never allow the US manufacturars to bail out just because of that.
Of course they have been producing the wrong cars for over a decade, but who bought them?
Remember, if they install production lines from models we have here in Europe from Opel, they will have an economical and smart range of cars, Opel are doing well in Europe, something which cannot be said for Saab.
Copy the Japs and us Europeans, like we copied you !
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
Yes, people are indeed getting a little extreme in this thread, but before you blame them, understand where they are coming from and why they are acting so. You know as well as I do that any decision on this matter affects everyone, and people are already in a state of relative panic over the banking issues. This is simply adding fuel to the fire.
People are scared, and they cannot be faulted for that. They can be faulted for acting out on their fears in such an irrational manner, but not for justifiably having those fears. I would rather, though, give them a little time and space to vent their fears and their frustrations now, so that perhaps by letting it out immediately they can calm down and solve the problem rationally.
The decision made here will have impossibly long-term effects on all of us, and at this point, we can only begin to imagine what those effects will be.
12/12/08
I propose we settle all further differences in a civilized fashion, with the well established martial tradition of Monkey Mud Wrestling!!!
Who's with me?
12/12/08
I'm there.
I'll even steal a six-pack and bring it over.
On a side note, maybe we could PPV it around the world and turn it into a giant Big-3 fundraiser.
12/12/08
I know your train service went a bit wonky, and British Leyland was hardly an advert for the process.
But, Renault was nationalised until 1996, and did fine.
Depends how you do it, really.
Or you could just leave to the captains of industry to sort out, because their track record is ample demonstration of their suitability for the task.
12/12/08
Those fat ass senators from the Confederacy are TRAITORS just like their ancestors. The same mentality that made them tyrants and overseers exists today with their right to work, anti labor attitude. They absolutely despise the working class and can't wait to drive labor down.
As for the Japanese and Germans establishing plants here it wouldn't be happening without all the government hand outs that these traitors give them. Why is it a fat ass like Shelby can give sweetheart deals to foreign manufacturers and deny his own country's manufacturers any assistance and still call himself an American?
One more pissed off American,
Nick Roberts
UAW Local 862, retired
12/12/08
Why not take this opportunity to reconstitute the board on VW lines, such that a proportion of board members are union officials?
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
The only people who vote for Republicans anymore are religious zealots, gun nuts, tax nuts, etc.
Killing the UAW, whose ranks are full of Democrats, leaves those former union workers without a solid allegiance.
I'll bet the GOP is banking on many if not most of the former workers becoming GOP voters (blue collar, Christian, etc.).
By taking away the union vote from the Democratic party, in a Country that pretty much hovers around 51/49 elections, you have effectively relegated them to minority.
I could be wrong, I have been before.
I am opposed to bailouts for a # of contradictory reasons and a little idealism, but the pragmatist in me thinks it's a mistake not to loan these retards some money.
12/12/08
Ya think?
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
But, let me guess, we're all supposed to wait and see how big-government, anti-business intervention will help the economy THIS time. We should all just give hope and change a chance.
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
I can't tell you how much that made me laugh this morning.
Sometimes, we all feel that way, don't we?
12/12/08
12/12/08
I'm digging my bomb shelter and arming myself from the inevitable lynch mobs as we speak...
12/12/08
12/12/08
12/12/08
May 1, 2009: GM holds a press conference. They're done. It's over. Everything closes. Not bankruptcy, they are done.
Then what? Aside from the almost instant 20% unemployment rate. Short term? Long term? and don't forget the overseas activities ...
12/12/08
And for all of you who will inevitably complain about "Profits going overseas," go buy stock in that company. Then profits will stay here. This isn't really a difficult concept to understand.
12/12/08
12/12/08
and that assumes the general economy doesn't crap out.
"We" have all the capital. Still. "We" are not letting go of it. and no one is addressing Holden, Opel, Daewoo and the potentially successful GM operations that could survive without Detroit weighing them down.
The Big-Three trained boards of the suppliers are certainly going to run for the hills, and then there are all those guys in service and sales who will have to undergo major deprogramming to work for anyone else ...
This was all only a matter of time.
12/12/08
12/12/08
Call me paranoid, but I say we should all think about getting guns (and gun licenses, natch) while we still can. I have a feeling the world will reach a state where we'll need 'em sooner rather than later...