oldshurst442

Im the same. I LOVE Telsa's tech. I get excited by their products. But not enough emotional charge to spend my money on. Something is a miss for me regarding Tesla products. The X-Factor for me is missing. The styling is not to my liking enough for me to drive with pride. Im definitely not thinking like @David that their styling is a failure. Maybe a notch above your thinking that the products dont appeal to you enough. Im OK with their styling. But not OK enough to spend my good, hard working coin on. Their interiors dont bother me. Im cool with that. Well...the Model S' interior Im good with. The Model 3 and Y's direction of a computer screen for all really bothers me. More so now then then. I too, will buy an EV. Yeah...like you, we will see what the next 10 years will give us. PS: I ignore all social media shyte. No matter who is speaking to us through social media. Even Trump. I think Trump is trolling his haters on Twitter. He knows he has detractors so he lets loose. He also knows he has followers that love him on Twitter. So...he lets loose on Twitter. He is NOT a stupid man. He knows advertising...

Yet...we have argued in the past about what constitutes luxury. And yet...Tesla's luxury is not about opulence. Its about technology. We all know how pricey this technology is to produce. And we all know that EVs just cant be sold at regular Joe prices as its impossible to yield what is necessary for a business to survive...PROFITS. Its the Corvette argument for Tesla. Tesla could hire a few Italian leather makers and get a few of the best high spec tolerance production guys out there and price their vehicles in the 250 000 dollar range and make themselves into a boutique car maker... But THAT is not what the founders of Tesla wanted of its cars and their marketing plan reflects that. So...pricing had to come down to the luxury level. NOT the UBER luxury level. But THAT means certain things have to be compromised. And although we might find certain things in a Tesla disappointing, the marketing plan, the pricing is something that we could say is working out well for Tesla. We are indeed paying for the tech. NOT for the opulence. Like a Corvette. We are paying for the technology and the performance and the image the Corvette has given us for the past 60 years. Not for the fine italian leather... Yet the C8 has given us that too. But...Tesla is NOT 60 years old though... But dont get me wrong. I UNDERSTAND FULLY WHERE YOU COME FROM. IM JUST DEFENDING TESLA. I AM NOT TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT WITH YOU.

The state of American business... Some Americans give tooo much importance to what Elon Musk has to say on Twitter...and they equate that to Tesla products... Good or bad. Musk promises fields of dreams. The corporate world and the media world praise the phoquer and they equate that to Tesla products in the form of smoke and mirror Tesla stocks. Others see the shyte he says on Twitter and they try to equate that shyte to the products he produces and say that Tesla cars are shyte. The problem is...that REALITY is SELDOM a criteria to which Tesla is judged by. Both good and bad. American business, politics, entertainment. Its all garbage television. Its reality TV. Its the OJ Simpson Trial. Its the Kardashians. Its Jersey Shore. Its pathetic.... Hence Musk with his field of dreams promises and Twitter responses and podcast interviews smoking doobies. Hence President Trump actually doing the same phoquing thing the last 4 years. Remember, Trump was also a reality TV superstar... Dont go giving me downvotes. Reflect on what I have said. See about GM losing market share in the US mainly to Japanese car companies and the China dilemma on US economy and world political stage and see how all the shyte I said and how it blends together... I may be crazy for thinking this way...yet Im not wrong in a strange and scary way...

That starts at home... Making a deal with the Devil is never a good thing. Like I said...its starts from home. But its tooo late now. China's technology today has learned from the decades of reverse engineering and corporate secret theft that China's tech could actually stand on its own... Any forcible technology sharing that the Chinese government implicates now is just icing on the cake... American CEOs in ANY industry have gotten to the point today where they ALL focus in ALL the WRONG things and implicate ALL the WRONG plans. Its all about cost cutting. Which is a good thing. I guess. But the costs that are actually cut are the WRONG types of cost. Payroll. We North Americans view the working soul as the enemy of capitalism. We view the payroll as the number 1 cost cutting measure. We do NOT invest IN the worker for the WORKER to be PROUD of what he produces and for him/her to be PROUD of his/her working environment and his/her work ethics and the QUALITY of work to be had... And its only natural. When North American society CONTINUES on RAGGING about how shyte, how lazy, how NOT worthy the AMerican worker is, well, obviously the end result of the American worker WILL be a worker that is shyte, lazy and NOT worth a piss. When American CEOs care NOT about the product itself , but about how cheapening it to wield better cost per production... When American CEOs and American corporate thinking is JUST about the quarterly stock shares JUST to cater to the monthly dividends that the shareholders demand and all else takes a back seat...when insider trading and all kinds of questionable moral scruples surround American corporate ideologies... When CEOs make tons of phoquing money because "they deserve it" or they are "smarter" than the rest of us and when they bankrupt the phoquing companies and we ALLOW them to STILL rake in their huge year end bonuses. When we allow offshore accounts When we allow tax loopholes When we have ALLOWED our phoquing companies to move out of this country (yours and mine...Canada) in the FIRST PHOQUING PLACE... I think Ive mad ranted enough today. Believe it or nor....I AM in a good mood. Very happy!!! Its just that, there is sooooooo much wrong with American business that Im afraid, its just toooo phoquing late to start fixing anything. No amount of Making America Great again chants will fix the mess that corporate America done for itself the last 40 years. American corporations have woven themselves tooooo deep in other countries' economics and have forgotten their home territory that its tooo late for that to solve itself. In the car industry, toooo many Americans for toooooo long are salty towards their own that Im afraid, that that too, is too ,late to solve. So much so that even Tesla, gets poo pooed...IN THE US...by some Americans... Mind phoquing boggling. Tesla gets poo pooed by V8 loyalists. Tesla gets poo pooed by coal lovin' rednecks. Tesla gets poo pooed by GM, Ford loyalists Tesla gets poo pooed by crazy righties JUST because they think crazy lefties love Tesla...in phoquing spite... Mind phoquing boggling... Tesla gets poo pooed by self hatin' Americans JUST because Tesla has a very strong following by other Americans JUST because Tesla has thrown a wrench at the status quo... mind phoquing boggling... Yet Tesla...is AMERICAN... No phoquing American pride yet MAGA hats (nothing political...just the image of MAGA hats) and waving of the Star Spangled Banner is all I see yet underlying self hatred is what I also see... Mind phoquing boggling it is...

I hear you. I feel the same. Other than a C8 Corvette, Cadillac CT5-V, Mustang and the upcoming Bronco and Mach E, I feel no real pride for FoMoCo or GM. Fullsized trucks are cool. Im still getting warm to them. Not there yet 100% Take my two rants with a grain of salt. I soooooo much love American cars that I get emotional when market share or reliability is a topic, and I go off the deep end. Ill take a jab at GM or American cars myself when the topic is ONLY focused on GM or American cars in general. But when the world's cars are concern, Ill defend Americana like nothing else. My two rants above are very emotionally charged diatribes. Comical, cartoony, slippery slidey on the facts. I understand that. But my two rants are not that far off the truth either. And it comes straight from my heart.

Its just shouldnt BE that way. Id like to know if Mercedes has EVER lost THAT much market share in Germany or Toyota/Honda in Japan. And while yes, America's capitalism doesnt allow for protectioni... HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Boeing and dairy and lumber and this current administration tells me otherwise but that is something that I already knew. It comes as a surprise to many though. Its just that this current administration blew the door wide open and exposed America's protectionist policies... The problem though lies with some bulshyte Boomer and hippy asshats that have it in for American cars since the early to mid 1970s. Vietnam war being the culprit. Gas guzzling American muscle cars and land yachts and V8-6-4 Cimarrons are just the excuse. My honest opinion...

In Europe... the countries that build cars, their folk are fiercely loyal to their home market. Germans never think about buying anything but German. The French never think about buying anything but French and so on. In Germany, the German car factories are heavily subsidized by the German governments while the unions protect the German auto worker to degrees that the UAW will never see in America DESPITE what we think about the UAW in North America... The Japanese too. Same story in Japan as with Germany... The one European country that poo pooed their automotive industry is the one that does not have an automotive industry to call their own anymore. And laughably, British TV and British automobile journalism diss American cars and even MORE laughably STILL try to insist that Rolls Royce and Bentley are English makes. Just because manufacturing is still being done in the UK... I see the similarities with the UK in the US with how Americans view their own automobile industry...and watch-out...the American car industry is not that far off in emulating the one in Britain...especially during this pandemic. Chrysler is already in foreign hands... And what is funnier....AND SCARIER...is that Americans not only poo poo their own phoquing industry HARDER than the Brits done with their car industry, at least the Brits have the illusion that their marques are still British. The sad and scary part is that Americans dont think that American cars are...American...but rather think that Japanese cars made in America are indeed American. To go further than that, American built German cars...remain to be German. Americans will bitch and moan about the UAW and will bitch and moan about the American factory worker yet still want American car manufacturing to return back to America, yet most Americans poo poo the American built car but wont poo poo the foreign American made products. They call those American... It boggles my mind how far this mess has gone since the 1970s oil crisis hit America. It boggles my mind how we all have poo pooed American cars during the last 40 phoquing years yet we still praise foreign cars yet WE KNOW that foreign cars were JUST AS BAD, IF NOT WORSE then those shytty American cars. Toyota went down a path in the late 1990s-mid 2000s that was JUST AS BAD, if NOT WORSE as GM's path was in the 1970s, yet here we are...we still poo poo on GM yet we phoquing praise Toyota. AMERICA....GET YER SHYTE FIXED!!! GET YOUR HEADS SCREWED ON PROPERLY. YA"LL MISSING A FEW SCREWS!!!

You never keep your vehicles that long... In fact, the second they are broken in. You ditch and move unto a new ride...

Tipper Gore

Al Gore

morals

Madonna

Jay Leno (I enjoy Jay immensely) Autoline Detroit/Afterhours (off and on) HorsePower Obsessed (ever since the C8 Corvette was teased and revealed and I continue monitoring what the channel has to say about future C8 variants)

truth

unreal

indifferent

I listened to the "turning Japanese" song I posted. Never liked the song back then so I wanted to hear it again for the first time to see why I didnt like it then with "mature" ears. The 1980s had some great revolutionary sounds. But it also had some god awful shyte too. The turning Japanese song falls in the latter category.

The wallowing at about 1:14 is hilarious. Good 'ole American land barges. You gotta love 'em!

Ive never had a Jersey tomater. Ill take your word for it. But...Ive had fresh from the vine Greek island tomaters. Let me tell you, those were/are very delish. Just sayin' About Jersey. We recently viewed The Karate Kid. Huge surprises in that movie. Forgotten details and the like. One of 'em is that Danielson comes from Newark. I always thought he was from the Bronx... Anyway, anytime I see New Jersey anywhere, I think of you. And I say that with love.

I clicked on the link... Anyway. I once praised the return of the Supra and I once liked the car's styling. Well...that sentiment was short lived. Even if it has a rockin engine going forward.

About the A4 though. Junk or not. The A4 was the car that started Audi's ascension in the North American market. And it skyrocketed Audi into superstardom. It debuted in 1995. I never said it was a good car. I said it reversed Audi's meh perception in North America and it turned Audi around 180 degrees. The 1.8T and Quattro were the other factors. The cutesy styling didnt hurt either. And yes. German cars came into their own in the mid-1990s. America was starting to really hate on American cars at this time so it was a perfect time for the Germans to get their shyte together when they did. The Pontiac 6000, in my opinion, was the best car from its other platform mates. It had better styling. (Well, the Celebrity was also a good looking boxy car too) It offered the more engaging suspension tune-up from the others. (if you could call it that). It had the advanced electronics in the interior. The other ones didnt offer any of that If I remember correctly. It also had an AWD variant in 1989. The interior quality was on par to anything coming from Japan or Germany. Yes. The interior quality of these were very very good! Compared to the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, the "more luxury" version" I feel as if the 6000 did luxury better than the Ciera did. It was well rounded. More so than the other A Platform playmates. Its just a shame that GM replaced all A Platform cars with the W-Body. What I want to say is that the RWD G Platform went FWD W Body in 1987 or 1988. The A Platform replaced the X-Body in the early 1980s. But by the time the 1990s came along, the A Platform was just phased into 4 door W-Body versions. The Celebrity became the W-Body 4 door Lumina. There was a Celebrity coupe too, that became the W-Body 2 door Lumina. The Pontiac 6000 coupe and 4 door disappeared and the W-Body Grand Prix coupe and sedan took over. The Ciera had a long long life. The coupe disappeared. But the Century also disappeared and shared its life with the Regal W-Body. I guess the Corsica was meant to be the one to be above the Cavalier. But GM also had a Pontiac version too. The Tempest. Plus the Grand Am. I dont know. Lots of confusing from GM executives on what platforms should survive from what brands and what vehicles should be offered. Alls Im saying is that the Celebrity and 6000 had just as much brand recognition as the Cutlass Ciera and were dearly respected (if not downright loved) by their respective owners. They really were good vehicles. The Lumina certainly didnt get the same accolades and sales as the Celebrity did. Maybe its because the W-Body in its 1st generation was plagued with problems?

Well...Ill be damned. I knew that the real Euros were crappy. I didnt know they were waaaay worse than GM's FWD A-Platform cars. The reason why I was hard on the 6000 just now is that I have driven my dad's 2.5 4 cylinder Celebrity, a friend's 1987 2.8 V6 Eurosport, a friend's 1986 6000 LE 2.8V6 and a friends 1989 Ciera 3.3 V6. And NONE of them had ANY hint of performance. Its just sad that an Audi 5000 is shyttier ... The FWD A platform cars were never bad cars though. With the 2.8 V6, they were very reliable. Peppy. And could haul a ,lot of stuff including passengers in comfort. Actually, even the Iron Duke 2.5 was a reliable engine choice in the A Platform.

Ultimate performance sedan? I liked these cars back in the day. From the Celebrity to the 6000 to the Cutlass Ciera. The Century a tad less. But...As I was 10 years old then in 1983 and by the time I was 16 my dad bought an '86 Celebrity, I never was once fooled that these cars were all that different from each other and I certainly didnt think these cars were performance oriented... Who's eyes and ears was this ad meant for and who the phoque did it convince that a Pontiac 6000 was an ultimate performance sedan? I get the whole 1980's was crap for performance angle as I lived through it, and I know I diss BMWs of this era a lot and I KNOW that even at only 130HP for a family sedan then was some sort of a big number, especially at that price point...but a 6000, or any of its platform mates never had a hint of performance. It accelerated alright with that 2.8V6, but as far as Im concerned, alright acceleration does not equate to ultimate performance... It rode like great family hauler should. It was a very comfortable ride with some awesome for the time electronic wizardry in its interior that only higher priced cars had...but again, that does NOT equate to ultimate performance sedan. Im a little confused with that statement that dude made.

Stunning I dont think I ever saw Turkey Hill ice cream around here. Ill keep an eye out for it. I love posts like these.