Camino LS6

aaaaand, 4 for 4: http://www.autoextremist.com/on-the-table1/ November 19, 2008 Dick Shelby. The stumblebum Senator from Alabama could barely contain his glee at the sight of the CEOs of the Detroit Three sitting before him asking for bridge loans. His mind was as closed as the incentive-laced back room deals that he helped grease in order for Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota to build plants in his home state. It's not a national problem, he insists, even though Toyota and Honda are both extremely fearful that if one of the Detroit Three goes down, it will take their shared suppliers down with them. Shelby is a clueless, self-serving buffoon who displayed his true colors for all of America to see on Tuesday. Nicely done. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee. The opening remarks by these Senators bristled with enough half-truths, un-truths and flat-out inaccuracies to fill up the airwaves for a month. What, did they send their staffers home early for the break, or is that just the standard operating procedure and level of interest that they bring to work each day in the Senate? Yikes. Bob Menendez. It's hard to make Dick Shelby look august, but this Senator from New Jersey was a tightly wound, boiling cauldron of mediocrity from the time he first opened his mouth. Hello, New Jersey, you actually voted for this guy? Wow. Peter Morici. The fact that this self-promoting hack was allowed to testify before the Senate committee on Tuesday was unconscionable and a measure of the "setup" that was in place before the hearings ever took place. Morici is consistently more interested in promoting his brand than he is in presenting useful information, and his command of the facts in the case of the crisis in the domestic automobile industry left much to be desired, needless to say. Why this abject embarrassment was allowed to impart his "wisdom" at the hearings is beyond us. Pathetic. Neal Boudette. Continuing the Wall Street Journal's relentless jihad against Detroit and the Detroit-based automakers, Boudette weighed-in with an item on WSJ.com on Tuesday afternoon (11/18) that takes Detroit's top executives to task for flying to the hearings in Washington D.C. on their company jets, instead of flying commercial. Boudette said, "There are good reasons for flying the company plane to Washington – it’s corporate policy, ensures their security, saves executive time, which is a legitimate and limited resource. Still, taking the corporate jet costs thousands of dollars more than flying commercial and that may not help the auto makers’ already controversial request." Then Boudette adds, "Now GM’s Rick Wagoner will try to make the case he’s doing everything it can to stave off disaster. It may have helped if he were able to add: 'And the sacrifices are starting with me. I've cut my pay and in fact I took a Northwest flight to get here today to save the expense of using the corporate jet.' " I'm sure Autoextremist readers would love to know that this is the same Neal Boudette who has availed himself access to flights on many of these automakers' corporate planes himself, so it's more than a little puzzling that he would choose to slam the top executives of the Detroit car companies on this issue, don't you think? The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the crisis in the American auto industry has been reprehensibly flawed and blatantly biased from the beginning, a classic example of how piss-poor hacks masquerading as front-line journalists can screw-up a story on a grand scale. Boudette closed his little post with the following: "When these three executives turned to politicians for money, the political implications of their travels and salaries became relevant." To that we say when a publication with the reputed reputation of the Wall Street Journal allows this kind of crap to go out under the guise of "responsible journalism," then that publication becomes fair game for the kind of brutal attacks that are sure to ensue. VW, Tennessee. Do you want to know what the real scope of subsidies to import auto manufacturers looks like? Click here and see what the State of Tennessee is doing to make sure VW has a golden ticket to build a plant there. It's a sad irony that Senators like Dick Shelby are decrying any kind of help for the Big 3 as "nationalization" or "state cars like in Russia" when Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee have been directly subsidizing the foreign makers via abatements and giveaways for years.

http://www.autoextremist.com/current/ New Detroit vs. Old Detroit in Washington. By Peter M. De Lorenzo Detroit. In the last week I have done several live and taped radio interviews across the country and with the BBC in London, a spirited interview with Diane Tucker appearing in The Huffington Post entitled, “Journalist to GOP: You're 100 Percent Wrong About U.S. Automakers,” and I have several national and international TV appearances slated for the next few days too. The subject? The looming implosion of Detroit, of course. People want to know the who, what, when, where, why of this whole thing, and they want to know about the cost, both in terms of taxpayer money needed and the real cost to the economy if the Detroit automakers don’t receive these bridge loans. The din out there in the media right now is so anti-Detroit, anti-“bailout” that I welcome the opportunity to present the other side of the debate, even if it appears with each passing day that Detroit is running out of time and unable to break through the negative media clutter that envelopes the industry at every turn. And after that death march of a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, I’m even more pessimistic. When Alan Mulally, Rick Wagoner, Bob Nardelli and Ron Gettelfinger sat down in front of the microphones, I knew it wasn’t going to be good, especially when Peter Morici – the relentlessly self-promoting economics professor from the University of Maryland – sat down next to them (more on him in “On The Table” this week – ed). Which Senator was responsible for inviting him is anyone’s guess, but it was clear that this was a setup from the get go. We then had to watch as each of these U.S. Senators spewed their particular brand of inaccuracies and flat-out misconceptions about the automobile industry in their opening statements. A very few were actually worth listening to – and I mean like two - while most of the others were so blatantly self-serving and out of touch with reality that it was painful to watch. And then some acted like they were just hatched yesterday and were so resolute in their lack of awareness about what was going on and why they had to be there in the first place that it was simply appalling . I can’t help but think that when enlightened Americans watched these people in action – the people who were actually elected by us to be in office – that they recoiled in horror at the absolutely stunning lack of knowledge, awareness, sense of place, sense of well, anything that was displayed by these Senators yesterday. Is this really the best we can do? I certainly hope not. At any rate, the message in that hearing room was clear: Detroit put itself in the shape it finds itself in by building bad, low-tech cars that nobody wants. That they were regurgitating the now-obligatory woeful misperception of Detroit that has spread across the country - a Detroit that hasn’t existed for the better part of a decade, by the way - was obvious. The fact that these Senators weren’t aware of the kind of ultra-competitive products that these companies have out now was predictable. And the fact that they weren’t aware of the kind of leading edge technological development that Detroit is actively engaged in was predictable too. Being clueless in Washington isn’t all that uncommon, unfortunately, but when misconceptions, half-truths and flat-out lies get hoisted up the flagpole as Fact, then it’s no wonder that the leaders of these Detroit car companies were on the defensive and unable to score points with the judges. Proof of that was on display yesterday when the senators in that hearing room kept talking about restructuring, as if it was a new-fangled idea that these Detroit CEOs weren’t aware of. And they had to be reminded over and over again that Detroit has been restructuring and revamping since 2000, that Detroit hasn’t been operating in a vacuum, that Detroit does build competitive and class-leading products, that Detroit has pioneered new technologies, that Detroit is a viable, relevant, strategic industry that’s part of the crucial fabric of America’s manufacturing base, that the worst financial crisis in seven decades has wreaked havoc on their ability to do business, and on, and on, and on. Back when things were booming for the domestic automobile industry, the importance of lobbying in Washington and having a consistent and focused image strategy that presented these companies’ positions and outlined their contributions to the American economy wasn’t a top priority. Now that it is, and the Detroit Three are playing catchup - while taking body blows and backed up against the ropes - the Old Detroit is still slamming the New Detroit to the ground. The Perception Gap that exists out there for the Detroit automakers isn’t narrowing, it’s actually growing wider. Because when Americans get what minimal news they’re willing to digest – and only because it’s pre-packaged in carefully doled-out sound bites – then the Old Detroit will perennially overshadow the New Detroit, hands down. Detroit may get help from Washington, but left to their own devices - and timetables - it’s looking like the politicians will come up with something that’s too little and too late to actually make a difference. And that’s a giant bowl of Not Good. Thanks for listening.

They had better not, because once they are gone they won't be back. We let the big3 die and that industry is gone forever.

There are just too many competitors in the North American automobile market. And we need to decide which ones we want to survive. Maybe if someone put it to congress that way, it might have an impact on the numbskulls.

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/showthread.php?t=650271

Joe Smith started the day early, having set his: alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 a.m. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG ). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE ) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA ) After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA ) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO ) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN ) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA ) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY ) filled it with GAS (from Saudi Arabia ) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer (Made In Malaysia), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA .....

Grim. And that site is infested with adbots, not to mention that it sucks in general.

Well I finally conquered the header leaks in the wagon tonight, and I took it out for a "spirited" drive. I will hold out for RWD forever.

United States Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Rick Wagoner General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Washington, D.C. • Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. • I’m Rick Wagoner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about the future of America’s domestic auto industry. • I’d like to acknowledge for the Committee the constituents that I represent: • General Motors directly employs approximately 96,000 people in the United States. • We have 6,500 dealers across the country, who employ another 340,000. • Last year, we purchased more than $30 billion of goods and services from more than 2,000 suppliers in 46 states. • Our pension program covers nearly 475,000 retirees and spouses, and our health benefits extend to about one million Americans. • We have about one million registered stockholders. • And 70 million of our vehicles are registered to U.S. citizens… 22 million of them purchased in the last 5 years. * * * * * * * • As recent news coverage has made abundantly clear, many people have a picture of GM that has not kept pace with our progress. • In fact, GM has made tremendous progress transforming our business in recent years. • Since 2005, we’ve reduced our annual structural costs in North America by 23 percent, or $9 billion… and expect to reduce them by about 35 percent, or $14-$15 billion, by 2011. • Between 2003 and 2010, we'll reduce our U.S. hourly labor costs from $18 billion to $6 billion. • We negotiated a landmark labor agreement with the UAW last year that will enable us to virtually erase our competitive gap. • And we’ve addressed pension and retiree health care costs in the U.S., on which we spent $103 billion over the last 15 years. • As a result of these and other actions, we are now matching – or beating – foreign automakers in terms of productivity, quality, and fuel economy. By 2010, we’ll match them on labor costs, as well. • On the product side, we’re building vehicles that consumers want to buy… like Cadillac CTS, Motor Trend magazine’s 2008 Car of the Year… and Chevy Malibu, the 2008 North American Car of the Year. • We’ve also made huge progress developing advanced propulsion technologies. • In 2009, GM will offer 20 models in the U.S. that get at least 30 miles per gallon highway – twice our nearest competitor – and nine hybrids. • We have more than three million flex-fuel vehicles on the road in the U.S. • We’ve established the world’s largest hydrogen fuel-cell test fleet here in the U.S. • And we’re running all-out to get the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle to market as soon as possible. * * * * * * * • In short, we’ve moved aggressively in recent years to address competitive shortcomings and position GM for long-term success… and we were well on the road to turning our North American business around. • Last October, following the negotiation of a new labor agreement with the UAW, our stock price climbed to almost $43 per-share… based on analysts’ views that we had finally overcome the cost-competitiveness gap with foreign automakers. • Since then, our industry has been hit hard by the global financial markets crisis… and the recent plunge in vehicle sales threatens not only GM’s ongoing turnaround, but our very survival. • In response, we have moved quickly to keep our company on track. Since June, we’ve taken steps to: • reduce our North American manufacturing capacity; • further shift production to cars and crossovers; • sell off parts of the company; • suspend dividend payments; • reduce headcount; • eliminate raises, discretionary bonuses, and 401(k) matches for salaried employees; • and eliminate health-care coverage for U.S. salaried retirees after age 65. • These and other actions are designed to improve GM’s liquidity by $20 billion by the end of 2009. They affect every employee, retiree, dealer, supplier, and investor in our company. * * * * * * * • Mr. Chairman, I do not agree with those who say we are not doing enough to position GM for success. • What exposes us to failure now is not our product lineup, or our business plan, or our employees' ability to work hard, or our long-term strategy. • What exposes us to failure now is the global financial crisis, which has severely restricted credit availability, and reduced industry sales to the lowest per-capita level since World War II. • Our industry, which represents America’s real economy, needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that has opened before us. • We’ll use this bridge to pay for essential operations… new vehicles and powertrains… parts from our suppliers… wages and benefits for our workers and retirees… and taxes for state and local governments that help deliver essential services to million of Americans. • In the process, we’ll continue to reinvent the automobile, and improve the nation’s energy security, through development of advanced technologies like those in the Chevy Volt. * * * * * * * • And what would it mean if the domestic industry were allowed to fail? • The societal costs would be catastrophic: three million jobs lost within the first year, U.S. personal income reduced by $150 billion, and a government tax loss of more than $156 billion over three years… not to mention the broader blow to consumer and business confidence. • Such a level of economic devastation would far exceed the government support that our industry needs to weather the current crisis. • That’s why this is about much more than just Detroit… it’s about saving the U.S. economy from a catastrophic collapse. • In short, helping the auto industry bridge the current financial crisis will not only prevent massive economic dislocation now… it will also produce enormous benefits for our country later. • We want to continue the vital role we’ve played for America for the past 100 years… but we can’t do it alone. • You can help us through this crisis. In return, we will repay the taxpayer’s faith and support many times over, for many years to come. • Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. * * *

The tax advantage (accelerated depreciation) was intended to help people like me that need a truck to make a living. But, like most things congress does, the law was crafted poorly so that stock brokers and dentists and anyone who could claim to be a business owner or self-employed could get the tax advantage. So, instead of the BMW, Joe Wall Street bought an Escalade and took the tax break. Not the only factor in the now dead SUV boom, but a large one.

<---- marks down a point for 68

Have you even looked at the cost of not doing this?

I now have this indelible image in my mind of 68 choking the life out of Satty, while Oldsmoboi tries to explain it to the reporters he's shmoozing, Balthazar is hanging SMK out of the window by his feet, and I'm trying to explain to Congress why we deserve a loan!

AH! So I'll be taking the blame!

Hmm, what would my role be? FOG's job:

The bidding seems weak to me.

Very cool, can't wait to hear.

holy&#036;h&#33;!

OH MY GOD !!! :rotflmao: You are on a roll tonight!

Provided GM survives, I think that an Alpha Camaro will be tailor-made for your purposes.

I was plowing snow in my Silverado when my helper innocently asked me the following question. "Can you drift in 4 wheel drive?" I proceeded to demonstrate. :AH-HA_wink:

An absolutely brilliantly written post! Your best effort to date, Mr. FOG! I could argue a fine point or two, but DAMN! You nailed this one.

The numbers come from El Camino: A Source Book by Edward A. Lehwald. I think he has every other year's total except 1960. I may have 1960 somewhere as I remember seeing a total for all years combined. Here are a pair of examples: The year of my current project, 1977: 54,321 My favorite year, 1970: 47,707 Bonus # Sprint in '77: 5,955

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