balthazar

Fed Gov officials are NO BETTER- they never get arbitrarily replaced by an overseer, never are called on the carpet to answer 'witch trial' questions, are even more out of touch that corporate executives, execute failure after failure yet still get LIFETIME salaries and 100% healthcare, PLUS they vote their own pay raises in. Where's the 'board of directors' for Congress ?? Throw them the f**k off the building too, but first and head first. >>"Just the other day there was an article where some bank exec was complaining that because he went to a fancy college he should get to collect a high salary regardless of what the economy or his company are doing."<< Just the other year Barney Frank was assuring everyone that there was no impending crisis in the housing market. He take any pay cut, face being fired, field public outcry over his job performance? Not a chance- instead he gets even more power.

(assuming, for the moment there's a future here to discuss) Ummmmm.... how long, in seconds, before detractors start linking the Town & Country with 'driving an unlettered mail truck' ??? This is NOT what I would call an aspirational association by a long shot.

Got a baby : '04 Silverado w/ 77,6xx K My brother's '81 Chevy Camper Special pickup went circa 275K, but led a hard life : original 6.2 diesel died, replaced by a Chevy 350, then replaced after that with a Pontiac 400 (power!), not to mention the truck seriously off-roaded, got lifted, snow-plowed, had a utility body dropped on it, towed equipment & cars. It was still running but was rotting out pretty bad, so it's gone to that junkyard in the sky...

>>"Wasn't there a Senator or somesuch who suggested these bank officers "follow the Japanese lead"... "<< There was such a clueless fool, yes. Irony: FM/FM are gov entities, with gov-appointed leadership- so he damned himself, in effect. Can you smell the implosion the gov is cooking??

Seems everyone is running with a rogue theory on the purpose here, and that the weights presense is even intentional. And isn't Brembo experienced enough to spot a design flaw that would generate squeal and do something about it ?? Don't they test before release?

I recall late last year that, in a radio discussion RE the current situation vs the Great Depression... that one significant difference (of many) why things now are not nearly as bad as then, was that then, people were throwing themselves out windows to their deaths.

Insurmountable, IMO. Minivans remains at the bottom of the aspiration stack.

At least on that level, the commercial would've made a lot more sense. As it is, it only comes off as trying to 'be cool' comparing a mass-produced generic family truckster to RWD customized vans that represent what people owned because they wanted to, as opposed to what they had to.

Agreed :

At this point, nothing's future is carved in stone.

You know it's junk.

They look fine stock... but they still whisper 'chop me' everytime someone with something sharp gets close.

True; I ignored minority stakes on purpose, figuring they were more 'investments' than legitimately-owned brands. Subaru has yet to build an aspirationally-styled vehicle. Just read in another thread where buyacargetacheck still thinks toyota is made up of only TWO brands.

Why would you picture someone typing something on a keyboard as also talking aloud ?? ...Unless that's how you have to type things in- by saying it, too ! Yep; It all makes sense now ... :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

Do you just use/understand the botanical names, or do you speak the language fluently ? -- -- -- -- -- I too like maps- I do a fair amount of amateur 'archeology' via Google Earth & others. I wish to hell we had had satellies snappin pics 50-100 years ago, tho. My buddy has a Tom-Tom Nav (or maybe it's another brand, IDK) - we were driving somewhere new and he turned it on- it was dead. I reminded him 'Map-Map never goes dead'.

'Yawn' ? 'YAWN' ?!?!? What, no :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: ??? You mean, you were actually addressing something SERIOUSLY on this board ?? :rotflmao:

>>"I didn't think what I asked was all that outrageous..."<< And normally, it wouldn't be. But... it's you, and you've been on double secret probation since becoming a PM, and that means just one more slip up, one more mistake, and this fraternity of yours has had it !!!

Nope- your sig is still too big; I can still see the Intrepid. How about an icepick?

Would love to see a similar poll for all other nations, and the results. No doubt plenty of shocking numbers there. Of course- that'll never happen; what's the point? : 'all Americans are so hopelessly stupid no one will even come close; why bother'. More despicable, destructive, demeaning, self-hating, worthless "news". I've heard this VERY SAME POLL QUESTION repeated I don't know how many times in the last 20 years. What's amazing is the blind eye turned toward the very subject matter taught in schools... and the people behind those decisions, pushing hard to amend. Hardcore PCers thump & wail to teach PC topics like... Oh, I dunno- Muslim history, squeezing out American history, so this news is small wonder. The history books commonly used are a travesty. The education system needs more flushing than the political system. My son is in school learning frickin' Latin, the Greatest of the Dead Languages, and it's not remotely close in time to 1950 !! Does he spend even 1 week on money managament & fiscal responsibility, you know; something that everyone has to deal with for most of their entire lives ????? Nope. Idiotic... but we must make amends, starting with the children.

Spring Englishtown Swap Meet- dunno how many car are there- over a 1000 easy. Won't bother listing. Every year, however, a few more japanese sh*tboxes belly-crawl in, to the point there are dozens & dozens. I mean a stock matrix on the show field (or was it a Vibe?) ???? Does anyone really give a flying f**k ?? Don't see any value in 16 black '90s Impala SSs all lined up, either. Was some cool rod material there, tho. I primarily go to 'network' socially, and people watch. Finally... in May, there's a concerted effort to start a regular 'old-tyme' show, drags & drive-in movies at the track, cars limited to no newer than 1958 (with some exceptions for period-correct). THIS will be worthy of attending- I can't wait.

How would this effect the discussion at hand ?? If anything, it lends more creedence to VW for offering mostly autonomous brands as opposed to badge-engineered versions under different divisions. Toyo did not create Hino or Diahatsu... but again- origin is immaterial to how many brands a Corp "needs".

There's a pic of me on page 62... it's taken me this long to get a 2nd shot up. I try my best not to look overly happy in photographs, but here I'm just beaming at something or other.

>>"? There was a lot more redundancy in past times than now(80s-90s, for instance)..."<< I realize you can only relate to what you recall personally, but the '80s is a decade there's NO reason to revisit except as an example of what NOT to do, and there's another 70 years of business case examples before that. Don't give me any crap about 'no one remembers that'; if we as armchair analysts can only learn from what we remember- we have no business opening our mouths. '09 is as far removed from 1980 as it is from 1960. Thru the bulk of GM, back when GM was, you know; ragingly successful - there was far LESS overlap & redundancy vs. today. Isn't any of this in 'Why GM Matters' ??

TMC~ toyota, scion (numbers combined at will with toyota's to serve the purpose of the moment), lexus, hino commercial (used to build cars also) plus majority ownership of Daihatsu. That's 5, not 3. toyota, according to wiki, also has 522 subsidiaries- tho obviously those are not vehicle manufacturing entities. VW Group~ VW, audi, seat, skoda, lambo, bent, bug, VW Commercial and majority ownership of scania. There's the 9. Plus porsche owns 35% (a controlling interest, tho not exercised) of VW... making a case that that's 10 brands under 1 roof. VW definately is following the GM model, but toyota is also- just farther behind. Case has been made that scion could just as well be badged with the '3 hula hoops' logo. # of brands is not the answer to any 1 question.

I went to NAIAS in Detroit one year : I don't see the weather as much of a factor when the entire event is totally indoors, but OK.