balthazar

If a long economic turn down is in the cards (and it is if we leave "long" undefined, because; we don't know), then it's already happening. Manufacturers already seeing considerable slowdowns have embraced vastly different product lines because they have the manufacturing capability and the need to try & maintain revenue streams. Alcohol Co's making sanitizer, clothes Co's making gowns, car Co's making PPE & med devices. If those enterprises keep people employed and maybe even make a few bucks, until capacity is peaking for those businesses, I don't see why they wouldn't continue to take business away from importers. Definitely for now, we'll see for how long. Also, until science solidifies whether or not this may be a mass cyclical thing, these are potential hedge bets against the next round.

You ever post stuff in that thread, blu? You know I do- that's me ^ top of page 488.

Pontiac was a huge innovator in the late '50s into the '70s. - - - - - Tenneessee, 1937 :

Don’t know- only learned about it yesterday. Divisions were still doing the lion’s share of their own engineering in the ‘70s.

I’m thinking a number very well may in the medical field.

^ I think that in some industries, you're going to see some surprising shifts moving forward.

From the 'What's Old is New Again' Department : I learned that Pontiac offered adjustable pedals in the mid '70s ~

^ It starts at $45,000, and it's a totally unknown chinese brand. Good luck!!!

RE the ‘5 myths’ above: 1. Would like to see specified data. 2. That’s not an actual myth. 3. VW’s announced ID.3 MSRP is the exception. The vast majority of ‘like’ EVs to ICs have significant initial price differences, and if we’re going to ise the same metric as myth 5 [average time of new car ownership], that myth is almost always TRUE. 4. Range & charging infrastructure still pales in comparison to fuel stations and many car’s ranges. ‘Average daily miles’ is a strange forced metric. 5. Battery pack life -again for the forced metric of initial buyer- may well be fine, bit the vehicle assumedly is going to pass to 1 or 5 more owners. What then?

Cleaning thru mountains of paper, came across some notes I took about 7 years ago. I was orchestrating a warehouse move for the DOT; we ran a 26-ft moving truck twice a day for 7 days, moving contents of 1 warehouse to another. While waiting one day out in the parking lot, I circled a mercedes benz 560SL. It had airbags and that EXCITING!! ribbed plastic cladding; I would guess it was a late '80s but daimler is too lazy to bother changing the styling for years, so without a data plate, who knows. My notes read as follows: • black plastic rear view mirror with Pinto-esque dimmer button • black rubber-ringed sideview mirrors • black plastic door handles • black plastic grille bars [both the door handles and grille bars had sun-faded to that tiger-striped, sparkly grey color] • very cheap matte black plastic bumper fillers/extensions • black plastic A/C vents • Pinto-esque open-topped console [no lidded compartment], covered with a wood-look vinyl sticker • more cheesy 'wood' vinyl stickers around the radio • very exposed/obvious seat belt bolts & brackets • exposed foam rubber gaskets around the taillights • exposed rubber trunk gasket (lower corners) • exposed screws on metal pieces below headlights • seats were ironing-board flat, so were the door panels, with no detailing or design whatsoever The very notion that this was in any way a luxury car is a laugh riot. It was built cheap & sloppy, it screamed cheap & sloppy from front to back. mercedes was perpetrating 1940's construction levels on 1980s consumers. It's embarrassing. People who bought these should've thrown their money out the window instead. I have 1 pic from my old computer of this car; this sort of thing was supposed to be engineered past in the pre-war era :

Don't have to tell me how long spacklin' takes. I'm a Spackle Master, 33rd degree at this point.

pics, please.

Gonna give this a whirl : UPDATE ::

Another quickie today : My family had a cabin on a lake in NY State for decades, and we had a float out in the water to swim to. My son carved into the sideboard of it years ago. When we sold the place in '13, we broke up the float, but I saved this one board. I cut it down, drove two 4-in screws down to hold the crack/pieces together, and gave it a light sanding. He's going to deepen the carving and wall-hang it. Before / after :

Wife made a turkey, stuffing, gravy, spaghetti squash. Low key, mid-day. FaceTimed with my sister & her daughters. Worked in shop cleaning /organizing about 6 hours. Took a 1.5-mile ride to drop a project off at my buddy's house. He's gone no where, has some low risk factors but is very paranoid. We stayed at least 8 feet apart, but was nice to talk for a half hour. Rain supposed to start here in the 2AM hour, go at least 12 hours. Just when it was finally nice & dry outside.

Worked in the shop today, it needs it's once-every-3-years cleaning. Always of the mind to organize & purge. Made good progress, more tomm. Been a long time since I posted a pic of it (if I ever have), here's one from 2013. The '64 is gone, and the green container box has a hinged door on it instead of just a tarp.

^ At least someone is doing something! :D Here's my hillbilly fire pit: the base to an actual one, a rim that would fit my '40 except someone prior to me inexplicably cut the center out of it, and an old grate I cut to fit in it. If I were to use it as a fire pit, I'll have to put some steel screen across the bottom. To date, I've put it on the ground without the firepit stand and used it to burn papers when I have too much for the wood stove.

I made this rack years ago, but in the course of purging & re-arranging things in the basment, this is the first time it's been naked since I made it. Fabricated from an old iron bed frame, it's to store long pieces of lumber/trim. Never know when you need an odd piece.

People are overrated.

Gov't does the same thing as religion; asks you to follow it's leader ('pope' / president), leverages persuasion (guilt / laws), instigates strife with dissidents (preaching / warfare) and continually asks for money (contributions / taxes). Neither is all bad, neither goes away, but you can only walk away from one of them. Whether it's laws, 'commandments' or social customs, the human animal generally benefits from some behavior control.

How come it took mercedes 35-40 years to build a better interior than this?

EDIT :: bentley, by far, has the lowest revenue out of VW Groups many brands. VW Commercial makes 5 times more revenue than Bentley does, and the VW brand makes 44 times the revenue. On the matter of profit; thru Q3 2019, bentley only pulled in 65 million in profit. Audi's profit was around 4.5 billion, and VWs profit was 16 billion. VW would very much like to sell more VWs rather than audis or bentleys. In fact, bentley is obviously a drag on the annual report- it would be better shuttered. Put the money into VW and sell more VWs / make more profit.

But there's no evidence those are "stolen" sales, unless you believe they are directly cannibalizing sales from one another. If that's the case, they would shutter the brands whose bottom lines aren't the highest. But they don't, in fact; VW has bought more brands. So your 'stealing' theory is disproven by VW Group's actions. Each brand incorporates a ton of unique overhead costs; from distribution, advertising, parts, etc etc. They unquestionably must survive on their own to a large degree.