A Horse With No Name

Riding themselves of the Union would also rid themselves of all of the people who know what they are doing and have been building these cars for 20 years. We should have dealt with the insane rise in health care costs 15 years ago. We can debate all we want about how right Hillary was or how evil she was, but truth of the matter is we had a problem and did nothing to solve it. Now health care costs are way out of control and getting worse...we need to solve the issue of health care costs and some (but not all) of the huge costs of Unions will go away. Plus, I have had a little bit of a change of heart about Unions. I used to hate them, but the older I get the more I see employer abuses and the more I think they may be a necessity. Chris

Carbiz...your problem is that you live in a world of reality. Quit it. Your not being politically correct, and it will make you unpopular in life. I'd suggest taking up lieing out your ass. You will be much happier and much more popular. A day of reckoning can't come fast enough for Wall Street, IMHO. Chris

The problem is that the wheels have been coming off of the whole god-damned thing since perhaps 1973, with the first energy crisis, got worse in the late 1970's (a lot of the problems under Carter were driven by energy prices) and we ignored the problem. We can debate Unions until we are all living in caves and killing our dinners with primitive muzzle loaders, but real wages started falling under Reagan in the early 1980's and have been falling since. We ignored all of these financial problems through the recession of '87, the Sand L Crisis etc. of the 80's. We went to War under Bush 1 to secure energy, but 15 years later we still hadn't learned a Goddamned thing. Clinton and Gore paid lip service to our energy and finance problems, but in the 1990's we were fat and happy and no one gave a rat's ass about digging our way out. People want to either blame Bush II or saint him, and at this point he's in office for about 6 more weeks so it really doesn't matter. We've spent 8 more years ignoring things like outsourcing, finance reform, and our energy issues. Well, 30 years have gone by (give or take) and we still haven't wanted to walk though the front door and deal with 1. outsourcing 2.Energy 3. Banking and finance reform. 4. huge deficits, both government debt and the huge amount of money that has gone overseas to buy energy. The chicken's are now coming home to roost, and it's going to get very ugly and unhappy. The honest to God truth is that it is going to take us 30 more years to dig our ass out of the mess we've spent the last 30 years digging ourselves into. It may take 10 years for our auto industry to recover, if it ever does. It may take us 20 years to rebuild our energy infrastructure. It may take us 30 years to pay for the wild excesses, caused by both political parties, over the last 30 years. But I am an optomist. I am 43 now, and I may have another 29 or 30 years left to live. I want to die the owner of a new GM vehicle in 2039. I want to die knowing that my children and grandchildren have a future. I want to die knowing that the next generation has forgiven my generation and the generation before mine for handing them this nation in such terrible shape. (Chris goes out into the parking lot here at the library to throw a brick through the windshield of a Toyota Sienna, the continues his rant) It really is a shame. We were handed this nation in pretty good shape 30 years ago by the generation that won WWII, and we haven't been doing much with what we have been given. Everyone in my generation, in one way or another...or maybe almost everyone...should really hang their head in utter shame with what we've let happen to our country. Sorry boys, I'm furous with what's happening and I just need to rant. Chris

I'll donate the apple...and several cords of nice dry Oak firewood. Probably going to get banned for saying this, but I'm angry enough to roast the guys wife and kids also. This thing just has me furious. The headline on the Columbus Dispatch (which should be Columbus Cowpatch due to how objective the writing is) was "Carmakers Now Roadkill?" Everyone seems to be laughing at Detroit. This whole thing kinda reminds me of our sexual mores in the 1950's and 1960's, when a woman was considered "cold" if she didn't give it up and "a slut" if she did. GM spent 30 years giving us great SUV's, trucks, and RWD cars by the millions, that the American public bought and enjoyed by the millions. Now that car fashions have changed, GM is considered a whore because it gave the American public what it wanted. Absolutely Unbelieveable. Watch the children of the rich and white collared people suffer when they loose their medical/clerical/insurance/financial services/educational/nursing/or whatever jobs because no one has any money to pay for these services. It's already starting in the medical field...people are unable to pay their medical bills, so medical professionals are suffering. The whole leveraged/loaned/built on other people's mony thing is going to crash, and the wealthy elite will suffer, weather they live in Cape Cod or Dubai. Just my rant for Monday. Chris

I have a warm garage in Ohio with "El Camino" written all over it...HMMM... Get the Camino done. Not promising anything but...I am in lust. I know it's hard to think of keeping any vehicle but that El-Camino is just going to be kick butt. Chris

Sort of like the sliding window on the Tundra driven by the owner of the company I work for. He didn't tie down a generator in the bed and it flew through the sliding rear window during a panic stop, causing considerable damage to the truck. Toyota only charged him $1200 for the window... Chris

I small a lawsuit also. However, autocrossing said car (in the spring) might teach you some good car control skills in the meantime. Chris

I small a lawsuit also. However, autocrossing said car (in the spring) might teach you some good car control skills in the meantime. Chris

The last generation Celica wasn't that good of a car either. Drive one hard and then drive an Integra GSR hard or an Integra Type R hard, or a 99-2000 civic SI hard, or a 2002-2005 Cicic SI hard... You'll find out what a piss poor design the Celica really is. The Honda producsts WAY outclass (by several orders of magnatude) the DSM MITSU cars, and yet the DSM outclasses the Celica IMHO. Chris

There are rural parts of Michigan that are just beuatiful, though. If I had my druthers, I'd be a yuper and move to the Upper Peninsula just to get away from the bulk of population that seems to be over-running everywhere else. Chris

Interesting question. They won't get the whole 25 billion, and probably the government would own part of the automakers. Private enterprise may no longer be quite so "private" But even then, it won't make that much of a difference as there aren't that many people with good jobs left in this country to afford new cars. Honda, toyota, Mazda, BMW, and Suzuki will suffer here as well. I look for the auto market to shrink year by year for a long time to come. Things will move to the left politically and the government will run GM, Ford and Chrysler from the sidelines for a very long time... That would be my guess. Just keep your Buick wagon. GM cars from the 1950's are running around Havannah, Cuba...your grandson and granddaughter may well be driving it, if things don't change.

I think that he is actually starting to turn the Muslim world against him, as his operations are killing mostly Muslims in the Muslim world. but we need diplomacy, something Carter tried back in the 1970's and forgotten about since. And we need to work for basic human rights for Palestinians and a Palestinian state. Bin Ladin may be a genius, but real genius would be solving the problem rather than making it much worse. Chris

...it bit Czar Nicholas in the ass when the economy went south about WWI in Russia. If things get bad in this country it will be very, very bad for the wealthy elite. Not that it will be any better for Joe Sixpack... Chris

Excellent. I am a big fan of Nancy... Chris

Shame on you, FOG...you forgot the Sky Redline and the Solstice GXP, two of my personal fav. GM cars. Maybe they can go away with everything else and we can cruise around in Priuses on a sunny day...what a depressing thought. Chris

...to add to this...the community college thing won't work. Most of the students graduating from Columbus State (where my wife works) are 40K in debt and unable to find a job. There is a movie called Shopgirl. with Claire Danes and Steve Martin IIRC, where one of the lead charactors is working in a mall after graduating thousands in debt. This will be the new reality for our children. Chris

Actually I've lived in the midwest my whole life, and summer is quite nice here. Chris

Congrats, you said it about eleventy billion times better than I did...But this puzzles me. It is almost like they need to look down on blue collar workers to find their own self worth. Chris

Yes, you do! Chris

Why? Chris

...what's the lyrics of that one song by Green Day..."one nation controlled by the media" Couldn't be more true. Sadly, I think you, mr Carbiz, must be the LAST qualified salesperson left on the continent. My 12 year old daughter, Joanna, knows more about cars than most of the salespeople I talk to. Finding some way to get an educated slaesforce, and make it financially worth their while, would go a long way in helping GM. However, when you've got 15 salespeople in a dealerhsip that sells 5 cars a week, someone is going to go hungry. Chris

Sadly, I think your right. We are going to rival Bolivia in our standard of living in about ten years. And I'm not kidding. Chris

GTO For the Win, dude. You have enough old cars, and another "old" car will just compete with your other "old" caqrs for time and attention. Buy a GTO (for me a six speed is a must, but to each his own) and don't look back. Hell, I like small cars and I am even thinking a GTO would be nice. Plus, newer cars don't seem to rust like older ones. With proper care, that GTO would last ten years or more. Again, GTO FTW. Chris

I would agree. Maybe we can form a Cheers and Gears Convoy to Florida to find Flybrian? Chris

When I was a boy growing up in rural Wisconsin, there was a 57 Chevy with one of those wild 70's custom paint jobs and the 4X4 Treatment, as well as a 68 Camaro SS/RS that was made 4WD as well. I've also seen it done to a couple of mid 70's firebirds and a 73 Buick convertible. Still trying to understand the appeal. Chris