CARBIZ

I wonder if anyone in Detroit has approached Big Development, or at least the mayors of our major cities about 'roughing in' metered plugs for all future condo/office development. This may be jumping the gun a bit, but over 50% of the people in Toronto live in a condo or apartment. For the Volt (or any other electric car, for that matter) to be of any use to me, I will either have to have a VERY long extension cord, or move to a building that has electrical hookups in the underground. I'd sure as hell hate to lug those batteries up 11 floors.

Whether one believes WE are the cause of global warning or not, I cannot help but wonder where we are heading when I see the likes of the front page of the National Post today: a nice shot of the Beijing skyline completely obscured by air pollution. The waters around the Olympic sites are so heavily polluted with algae that special nets are being installed to keep the algae out. Literally hundreds of tons of the green soup are being scooped out of the water. Yech. That could have been our future, if provisional steps weren't taken 35 years ago.

We're in the middle of this transition now (fossil fuels to whatever fuels), so we cannot see for forest for the trees, so to speak. I am sort of reminded of the PC wars in the '80s: IBM dismissed the PC market initially, let the start ups flail around, then swooped in to scoop up a big chunk of the market. It would be nice if that were GM's strategy. On the other hand, IBM sold their entire PC division to Lenovo, so where does that leave us?

Siegen's right: if GM had kept their mouth shut, we wouldn't be privy to this up and down development process. My Optra won't go more than 600 km on a tank (360 miles), so this 'announcement' is no big deal in reality. However, the PERCEPTION is not good.

1) Israel gets stuck doing a lot of America's heavy lifting in the Middle East. 2) Britain, France and the U.S. did the world a disservice by looking the other way in 1948. Sure, the Jews were treated badly by the Axis powers, but did they have the right to snatch land that hadn't been theirs for 2,000 years? Be careful how you answer that question: the 'first Nations peoples' are listening. Where do we draw the line? 3) The Palestinians deserve a homeland of their own, too. 4) Many Arab leaders no longer call for the extermination of Israel, but rather insist on a Palestinian homeland.

Read www.autoextremist.com today. His rant is spot on, for the most part. GM cannot 'kill' any more brands. It is too expensive, but they can starve them. Although it may sound like a bad corporate move (and in a lot of respects it is), it would be cheaper than going through the legal motions of killing off one of the brands. There have been many legal cases in both our countries where franchisees have sued (unsuccessfully) the franchisor over perceived lack of leadership, product, etc. In the dire shape GM is currently in, it would be difficult for a dealer (or dealers) to accuse GM of DELIBERATELY starving one or more brands, but it could be done slowly. GM can easily argue it doesn't have the development money for the slower selling brands - and that would probably hold up in court. I think we may have already seen the start of it with the intro of the Aura, then Malibu, as one example. Everyone agrees the Malibu has gotten far more attention, both from the press and advertising. Besides, once P-B-GMC is fully integrated, their total number of models can be cut back and if the new product that comes out is decent enough, those surviving P-B-GMC dealers may thrive quite well. As Peter says, "but unless you’re connected to a Cadillac or Chevrolet franchise, the future is bleak." :AH-HA_wink:

They talked about it here. If you are 50 km/hr over the speed limit, you automatically go to jail here. That's 30 mph, to you south of the border. The car is seized. Be careful with draconian Canadian laws. Not only can the police set up road blocks (as in Soviet Union style) for breathalysers anwhere, anytime, the police now have new powers to order up roadside blood, urine or saliva samples for drug testing. It is now a crime NOT to allow a breathlyser. Drunk driver's suck, but I don't feel like living in a police state. I know only too well how often the cops and/or crown attorney (our version fo the District Attorney) lie, cheat and steal to get a conviction - or is it just plain incompetence? (Just ask Steven Truscott who was just issued a $6.5 million wrongful conviction check for the 9 years he spend in jail for the 1959 conviction of murder for a 14 year old girl that it turns out he never killed.)

Punish? What about a general amnesty? After all, why bother with legal channels and pay all those nasty fees when you can just walk across the border and work illegally, send your kids to school and enjoy all the benefits of our way of life? In Canada, it is hilariously easy to stay in this country, especially from places like Mexico. Just pretend to be gay and claim persecution, or pay someone $10k to marry you. Works either way.

It definitely is an improvement over the old Focus.

And how exactly can the ozone hole be closing if China emits more CFCs than we did 20 years ago? They still use freon over there, BTW. Again, 3 or 4 billion people can do what they want on this planet. Seven billion cannot. It just pisses me off that I will probably have to drive a go-kart one day soon because 1.3 billion Chinese want to be middle class. That is the real elephant in the room.

Ya just like throwin' round the insults, don't you? I drive an '07 Optra. It is 119 hp. It is gutless. I personally don't care. I averaged 31 mpt (Imp) on my recent trip to Chicago. NOt bad for 130 km/hr., I'd say. NO way you'd convince me to drive a SmartCar or a Civic with 83 hp. I'd take the subway, first. For the record, I'm 47 and quite comfortable with the size of my, er, appendage, thanks for asking.

Well, if I may as non citizen: it was clear to me from almost the beginning that the media, liberal or not, had decided they'd rather have a black President than a female one. Dangerous, IMO, with all the hatred in the world.

Do you think Toyota is making money on the Prius? Scratch that: I guess if the government gave them the synergy drive on a platter, maybe they are making some money on them. As the Camaro was a 'halo' car for a previous generation, the Volt will be the 'halo' car for the next. As long as the media gushes over it, it will drive people into the Chevy show rooms where they can then buy an Aveo or Cobalt that does make sense. :AH-HA_wink: GM has shown that they are shrinking the product cycle: the Malibu went from 7 years to 4. The Impala only existed for 5 years before being replaced. The Cobalt is slated for replacement after 6 years; the Cavalier went 11. Lutz knows. Rick hired him.

In your earlier post, you were mentioning luxury cars. According to Desrosiers.com: June '08 Acura -15.3 Audi - 13.6 Landrover - 30 Porsche -13 I would suggest this is because all the people who HAD money, went south last year and made their purchases and now the Canadian sales are stagnating, or with all the job losses in Ontario, nobody has the money for these cars any more. Or maybe stats are BS, because Acura went from 1,890 sales last June to 1,600 this June: about what GM sells in a couple days. When your numbers are low, statistical swings can be impressive. As to my remark about the degree of education amongst import humpers: when Mark Richardson (the so-called editor of the Toyota Star's Wheels section) coaches his ancient mother to buy a Corolla, even though she loved her 10 year old Cavalier and didn't want to drive 50 miles out of her way to the nearest Toyota store, and he broadcasts that in the paper (because he is the boss, after all) - well, you have to wonder whether the lunatics have taken over the asylum or not. Knock on any door in Rosedale and ask the owner of that shiny, new BMW X5 in the driveway how much horse power it has, or even how many cylinders and I guarantee you will be chilled by the response. Or lack of.

.....and they're too busy paying for funerals for dead cops and judges.

I sense RW is growing increasingly frustrated (as are all the managers I have spoken with) about the swirling mass of negativity in the media. There are literally a dozen fuel efficent models in the works, some (Aveo/hybrid Tahoe) in production now, while others are being fastracked, yet the media holds GM up as an example of 'old school' thinking at every turn. This sudden spike in gas prices was not seen by anyone. Most thought we'd be around $100 a barrel now. Hell, even the Camaro is being fried in the media before it arrives, but with a 2.0 turbo, that car would be a rubber burner AND fuel efficient! Franky, as a consumer, I'd be pissed to know that the Japanese government paid for the Toyota hybrid. You'd t think the clowns at the WSJ and other places would be, too, yet they are all too busy printing news of GM's bankruptcy.

There are 2 small cars coming next year 1) the 1.4 beastie in the 2nd quarter 2) the Cobalt replacement in the final quarter. As I have been saying for a long time, Lutz has been a very busy man for the past few years. However, he can only be in so many places at once. :AH-HA_wink:

I think most of this is just media hype. We see a lot of consumers sniffing around small cars and 'thinking' about dumping their gas guzzlers, but I don't really see any hysteria out there. If someone has a lease on a TB coming up in 3 months, they would probably be looking at the Vue or Edge or something like that. I doubt they would see the benefit to dumping the vehicle now. Having said that, however, we can't rule out the possibility of the kind of rationing and over-reaction we saw during the dark days of '73/'74. Isreal could still very possibly spoil our oil party by bombing Iran. There are still idiots in Sudan and Nigeria. A crackpot is running Venezuela. The Mexican peso is still not worth the paper it is printed on. The U.S. is experiencing Vietnam II in Iraq. Frankly, the political/economic climate is quite ripe for a return to the mid-70s. IMO, any prudent consumer would be researching getting out of their gas guzzler in a timely fashion. Better to get $15k for your Tahoe now then $5k for it a year from now, especially if it's nearly paid off. Make sense? I hope oil prices subside, but I fear they may not.

And as long as people continue to believe that, then Japan Inc has won. The long, painful recession that the U.S. is sinking into (and Canada is skirting so far) is a direct result of this sham. As the paper jobs in Wall Street start to evaporate we are going to see soon enough that the Emperor has no clothes. Nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost from Ontario in the past few years. 100k! Toyota hires 900 people to work in Woodstock, then Ford and GM lay off 2,400. How do accountants love those numbers? Parts suppliers are going under ever week around here. Sure, the Toyota dealers employ people, but then so once did the GM, Ford and Chrysler dealers that are closing up shop everywhere. Is there a net benefit to North America? That is the billion dollar question. We are starting to see the results of weasel economics. We have been spoon-fed pure BS by the lazy, fat media and their liberal-arts accomplices for the past 20 years. A factory lays off 400 $25/hr workers and Wal-Mart hires 100 $8/hr workers. That is the reality. If California is having fiscal trouble, then that belies the Sunshine State's great optics, too. Something is rotten. I guess nobody gives a damn as long as the banks and insurance companies are hiring. Oops, now they're sending their jobs to the Asia, too? Dell just moved 1,000 jobs from Ottawa to there, BTW. And, lastly: yes, Toyota is publicly traded, but can you buy those shares here? Just asking, is all.

End of '09 soon enough for ya?

There are almost 60,000 Scientologists in the United States. Is that a significant number? Who cares! On a side note: how many 'average' citizens of the world could name more than 5 companies that sold products in more than 3 continents?

Tell that to all the executives and workers at Zenith.........oops, you can't: they went bankrupt and were 'bought out' by LG.

I am following the ongoing G8 summit in Japan. Japan and Europe are pressing for more 'carbon taxes,' while Canada and the US are dubious. Finally, officials are waking up to the fact that unless China and India are signatories to ANY agreement, it doesn't matter a hill of beans what California, or North America does. Frankly, I am getting more and more disgusted with all of this stuff about 'global warming' and food shortages, etc. Things were fine until India and China decided they wanted to go all middle class on us. Sure, they have a right to pursue liberty and happiness (whatever the hell that means!) like the rest of us, but we also have the right to tell them to zipper their pants! Everything we buy is going to suddenly get very expensive because Asia and south Asia suddenly have money (our money, I might add) and are going on shopping sprees. Why are we suddenly fighting over diminishing oil and foodstocks, not to mention other resources like zinc, copper, nickel, etc. when the REAL solution would be for about half a billion Chinese and Indians to go away? Fat chance. Like that is going to happen, without a famine or war. California can do what it wants, but as usual this is just more window dressing.

Don't be fooled by the pretty corporate offices - a lot of the white collar jobs are for administration of the dealer network, parts, etc. The shots are all called in Japan, the money goes to Japan and most of the executives are Japanese. Nobody said there haven't beem American collaborators. There are plenty of Canadian and American collaborators, to be sure.

They're reviewing the old Aveo, not the new one. This from a magazine that finally admits it was biased toward Toyota all along - like we didn't know that.