Z-06

You are assuming Man-Woman 69, not a bulletproof meaning. It should be more like Simultaneous Cunnilingus - SC. Now that is all encompassing. Reponse to thread: 4 Tits.

Play time

[source: Wall Street Journal] New Era in Autos as GM Files for Bankruptcy By KEVIN HELLIKER, NEIL KING JR. and JOHN D. STOLL DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday, marking the humbling of an American icon that once dominated the global car industry and setting up a high-stakes gamble for The question now facing 56,000 auto workers, 3,600 GM dealers and the Obama administration: Will it work? The government, which will own a majority of the company, is wagering upwards of $30 billion that it can return GM to profitability, reversing a decades-long decline by shearing away liabilities and creating a freshly competitive car maker by summer's end. The reorganization faces myriad risks, ranging from legal challenges to the uncertainty of when consumer demand for new cars will rebound. In becoming GM's new owner, the government is also entering largely unexplored terrain filled with political minefields, notably the possibility of meddling by Congress in the company's daily operations and business plans. Even if a new GM emerges swiftly from bankruptcy, the administration will face a thicket of challenges, including closing more than a dozen factories and shedding the Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands. Shepherding these unwanted parts of GM -- the so-called Old GM -- through liquidation in court could take years, with potential extra costs to taxpayers if the process bogs down. And unknown is how the cost of restructuring both GM and Chrysler LLC would have compared with the cost of letting both companies fail in terms of lost wages, disruptions among car-parts makers and the broader economic fallout. Chrysler, which could emerge from bankruptcy as soon as Monday, will be controlled by Italy's Fiat SpA under its own risky revamping. In a potential sign of turbulence, secured lenders to GM, which are owed about $6 billion, expect the government to pay their claims at face value during court proceedings, but only if they release their claims against certain GM property, such as inventory, machinery and receivables. This could open the lenders to later demands they pay back part of the loans, if the collateral is deemed less valuable than initially agreed upon. But there is a rosy scenario, too, according to government and industry officials as well as other experts. Bankruptcy should allow GM to pull off one of the most expedient downsizings in the industry's 120-year history. Long hampered by laws, union strife and management practices that kept it from fast action to fix problems, GM plans to eliminate almost all of its debt, halve its U.S. brands, shutter 2,600 dealers and rewrite labor contracts almost overnight. Emerging sometime this summer would be a GM with a cleaner balance sheet and slimmer operations than the company that has posted deep losses since 2005. GM has burned through $33.6 billion in cash the past four years. Under its restructuring plan, GM will shed more than $79 billion in debt, gain work-force savings worth billions of dollars a year, close unneeded facilities and reduce its dealer network by 40%. Sales consultant Ron Cruz hangs a red tag with a fixed, discounted price for this GMC Envoy SUV at the Martin General Motors dealership in Los Angeles Monday, Nov. 14, 2005. Sales consultant Ron Cruz hangs a red tag with a fixed, discounted price for this GMC Envoy SUV at the Martin General Motors dealership in Los Angeles Monday, Nov. 14, 2005. The Obama administration, for its part, has navigated the GM rescue so far with notable speed, clearing away many of the biggest obstacles in just months with less drama than many expected. In six to 18 months, GM could be a publicly traded company again, administration officials said. Under the plan, the administration will spend a bit more than $30 billion to fund the bankruptcy and in exchange receive 60% of GM's stock, while the Canadian government will put in $9.5 billion for a 12% stake, senior administration officials said. Over the weekend, owners of a majority of $27 billion in GM unsecured bonds agreed to a sweetened offer to trade their investment for stock. Days earlier, the United Auto Workers union signed off on a range of concessions. GM at the last minute also found buyers for some unwanted subsidiaries, including German-based Opel, which is being acquired by a consortium led by Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., and the Hummer brand, whose buyer remained undisclosed. GM is expected to file its papers at 8 a.m. Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York's Southern District in Manhattan, followed soon after by a speech by President Barack Obama. GM Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson will then hold a news conference in New York outlining GM's plans. Long-term success for the company depends on a critical question: When will consumer demand for new cars rebound, and with what force? New-vehicle sales in the U.S. have dropped nearly 40% since January, to an annual rate of fewer than 9.5 million a year. At that level, even Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest car maker, is losing money. Under the restructuring plan, the surviving New GM would break even when the rate of all new-vehicle sales in America reaches 10 million a year. In the view of many analysts, economic recovery should unleash pent-up demand, pushing U.S. sales far past GM's break-even point, though probably not within reach of the historic peak of more than 17 million sales back in 2000. Yet some worry the New GM will emerge under the same management as its predecessor, minus longtime Chief Executive Rick Wagoner. After pushing out Mr. Wagoner in March, the Obama car task force gave the top job at GM to Mr. Henderson, a 25-year veteran whose father worked at the company. In an interview Thursday, Mr. Henderson said he understands that federal officials want results. "They're expecting that we'll get the job done," he said. GM won't prosper without halting the lengthy slide in its U.S. market share, to 22% in 2008 from 45% in 1980. It faces the old perception of poor quality that turned swaths of the American market toward foreign-brand models. "I won't buy another GM," said Dennis Brown, a banker in Cypress, Calif., whose 1980s-vintage Pontiac Fiero and Chevy Chevette suffered a litany of mechanical problems. Current GM models have fared better in quality rankings. Beyond quality, trendsetters typically shun Detroit-brand cars, a problem that is especially prevalent among highly educated buyers who also tend to purchase higher-margin vehicles. Car buyers who are college graduates account for 70% of European-brand car sales in the U.S. and 55% of Asian brands -- but only 39% of Detroit-brand car sales, according to J.D. Power & Associates. GM hopes to counter its image as a maker of gas guzzlers with the 2010 introduction of the electric-powered Chevrolet Volt. Administration officials have downplayed the market potential of the Volt because of its expected $40,000 price tag, compared with less than $25,000 for the popular Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas-electric. Even at $40,000, moreover, the Volt will struggle to break even because of the cost of its technology. GM's new deal with the UAW, meantime, promises to deliver considerable cash savings, and has been billed as capable of putting GM's labor costs on a level playing field with key rivals such as Toyota and Honda Motor Co. GM cut hourly costs, such as overtime provisions, supplemental unemployment and entry-level pay rates, by at least $1.5 billion annually. But the car maker will not be entirely out of the woods. It faces heavy retiree-related costs that will cut into profits on every car and truck it builds. Because of the way the UAW health-care agreement is set up, GM will still be sending about $600 million to the union annually in the form of preferred stock dividends. Even if GM builds two million vehicles a year in the U.S., a stretch in the current 10-million annual market, it will spend $300 in retiree health-care costs per vehicle it builds in the U.S. GM faces another challenge related to pension obligations. Once flush thanks to strong investments, GM's pension funds, covering nearly 500,000 Americans, have been drained by the decline in the stock market and by a move by the company to increase pension payments to offset falling health-care benefits and entice older workers to retire early. As of Dec. 31, GM estimated its U.S. pension funds were underfunded by $12 billion to $13 billion, and would need "significant contributions" as early as 2013. In its deal with the UAW, GM canceled some pension-benefit increases that were due to retirees. But GM may attempt to use bankruptcy protection to allow the Treasury to buy attractive assets of GM without assuming the related pension liabilities. On Feb. 17, GM asked the government to bail out the company's pension funds in coming years. Write to Kevin Helliker at [email protected], Neil King Jr. at [email protected] and John D. Stoll at [email protected] [Official Bankruptcy Filing]

Tremendous Art of Restoration. I vote this as the rebuild of the year.

Congo-rats GM4Life for your wonderbar ride. Enjoy long happy miles on that W-body.

Whose house is that? The settings are gorgeous, and your SLR does a great job. We need to have a C&G meet.

[sarcasm mode] Wow what a huge meet up.[\end sarcasm mode] You take some good pictures. The 300M is a nice car I always have soft spot for. Too bad it did not come with a manual transmission, otherwise I would get it as a beater.

Then what remains is basically the logo.

Welcome! Congrats for your car and please do not hold back, relax and keep on posting any input to make this website a fun place is better.

Research

Dry (Too early for you Mr. Satty)

Try Michelin Destiny. It is an old and tested tire. I have been using a set of Destinies on my Lumina and have just put over 70K miles on them and are ready for replacement. The ride quality is forgiving and moreover quiet tires. They cost about $135 a piece at Discount Tires, but that includes the road side hazard and maintenance program, installation, old tires disposal, etc.

Rodents

I guess standing in the line of Pollo Tropical and ordering me a blackened 1/4 lb chicken with black beans and rice and sweet plantains can be considered healthy for tonight.

A small 3-5 door hatchback, wagon, sedan, coupe and convertible will not be a bad option.

Saving earth

Amazing Flexibility.

No not really. If Saturn can have Corsa platform and smaller vehicles than Astra and restrict itself to the small lineup it will not cross with Buick.

Awwww. Did your eyelids moisten up while typing the anecdote? I can understand the feeling.

So wait a minute, you wanted to have the TT + the A5, or TT instead of the A5?

I do not see it DF - other than the sweeping curves. LH has variable A and C pillar geometry which makes gradual transition. CC's C pillar looks bloated and the transition to the trunk is not discontinuous like the LH - more like a bulge shape.

The car with this color looks like a blue whale, with those creases in the fenders giving it a bloated look. I fail to see LH design too other than a swooping hoodline with no straight creases whatsoever. I think in lighter colors the creases really look ugly. Other than the GTI, VW fails to impress me. Interiors are simple and that is the most satisfying part.

Phaser

Bob, actually I know three people who moved from Portland to Florida because they found the weather depressing. My first roommate in Orlando was from Portland and she went anorexic when she was in her teens before she moved here. One of my colleague and his wife were on anti-depressants before they moved here and now use none.

Conductive