Welcome to car maintanance in the new century. Try changing the serpentine belt on a Chevy Equinox. Can you say "remove engine mount raise engine"? I knew that you could.

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Hey, people can choose whatever motor they'd like for their car. But sometimes I feel like they ought to USE at least 80% of it from time to time.

I was just "training" my wife on Tiptronic last night (her first V6 in over six years). She's scared of the sounds it makes over 3,500 RPM when the variable header shifts.

What were we talking about?

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I had dinner last night with some co-workers and a couple of their spouses. To put this in to perspective, these were mostly folks in their late 40s and early 50s, of anglo persuasion, a VP in a division of a major entertainment company, a project manager and a various other white-collar types.

Anyway, I found it odd, being the "kid" at the table in my late 30s, that I was the ONLY one who had even the slightest sympathy or want for the "big" 3 survive. All I heard from these white, upper middle-class folks was "how great Hondas and Toyotas" were and how their Ford Cortina, Maverick, Camaro, Thunderbird of their wild 60s and 70s HS and college days were all pieces of shit (not to mention a 2003 Volvo lemon that was bought back by Ford) and how they'd NEVER go near another "American car" again so long as they live.

I know, this is just one small anecdotal example, but if these 40-50ish white professionals can't be convinced to "buy American", how the hell is enough of the population going to be roped in to buy these cars, especially a $40k Chevy?

Whether it's true or not that Japanese cars are somehow "better" than American brands, the impression they suck that's soaked into folks like the ones I had dinner with last night runs DEEP.

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It's kind of sick, especially with how things change over time. It's like holding a grudge against a college football team because you didn't like them in 1974 (or the opposite, thinking everything the Japanese do is coated in gold, which is sort of like Alabama fans and their team)

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I'm in favor of a rational plan to support the auto industry, but my first reaction on seeing this is that they are just playing Chicken with Congress with this ploy. They're basically saying "We can't afford to innovate our way out of this without help" in an effort to encourage the gov't loan program. Maybe I'm just cynical though.

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