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thenewdamage

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About thenewdamage

  • Birthday 10/19/1955

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    The Left Coast

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  1. I was kinda wondering the same thing. Your response is kinda what I was thinking. And I generally do think before I post.
  2. So how is that likely to affect those of us with good credit? Will we still pay the same interest rates or will we have to pick up the tab again if these loans go south?
  3. I got an interesting email today about this very issue. I thought I might share it. And yes, I did check at Snopes and it is legitimate. And its a damned good read too. http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp This is one of the greatest responses to the requests for bailout money I have seen thus far. As a supplier for the Big 3 this man received a letter from the President of GM North America requesting support for the bail out program. His response is well written, and has to make you proud of a local guy who tells it like it is. If you don't understand this and where we are oh well!! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++ Dear Employees & Suppliers, Congress and the current Administration will soon determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis......................As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard. Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support. Troy Clarke President General Motors North America ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Response from: Gregory Knox, Pres. Knox Machinery Company Franklin, Ohio Gentlemen: In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clark, President of General Motors North America. Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream". Believe me folks, The dream is over! This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities.this dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever. Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi , Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting. Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not." You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management. How about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you folks really not know about this stuff? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic? Do I need to go on? What a joke! We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit. I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". "Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would only let it work." But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is really happening. But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams. Yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it. Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?... How can that be??? Let's see. Fuel efficient. Listening to customers. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul. Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy". Efficient front and back offices. Non union environment. Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts. I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh. Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults. I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied."we really might not do it in a year or in four." Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office. Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks. That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits. That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe. That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home. Let the market correct itself folks - it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has; and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics; and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world; and probably turns back to God. Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart. Gregory J. Knox, President Knox Machinery, Inc. Franklin , Ohio 45005
  4. Thats very impressive. My first Buick was a Skylark and I loved that car. I have a beautiful Maui Blue Reatta in the driveway now. I was totally jazzed in the mid to late 80's at what Buick was doing. The last 20 years...not so much. I want to see Buick not just 'survive' but to prosper and become something other than the car of choice for the geriatric crowd that cant afford a Cadillac. I sure hope that GM doesnt throw them under the bus.
  5. That is interesting, I had not thought of the effect of heat absorption while sitting still. Mine was a black one too with gray rocker panels. I am not sure if that was factory though. The only real problem I had was the reverse linkage was always out of adjustment. Oh, and a main seal oil leak too. But I read at a Fiero forum that was a rather common issue. It was painful get in and out of but I do miss it.
  6. Mine is very limited actually. My father sold Chevys for many years and I grew up on car lots. I realize that doesnt translate to actual 'experience' but then again I never claimed any. I was just sharing what I had been told by someone at a local dealership where my son bought a Corolla. You on the other hand were the one that started parsing every word and nuance, not I. I was just making conversation.
  7. Thats a beautiful car. Would love to see that as a CTS-V or CTS4. :hot:
  8. I had a beautiful '85 Fiero GT and never heard a single creak from it. But my '91 Corvette creaked any time I had the roof panel off. Once I had the vette parked on a bit of a slant on the side of the road and when I took the roof panel off the car bowed in the middle enuff it was very noticable. The top edge of the windshield looked like it shifted almost a full inch to the rear. The fit an finish on my Fiero was teriffic. I think it was at least as good as the corvette. My Blazer OTOH was a POS. Unfortunately I dont have the Fiero anymore. I made the mistake of giving it to a son and he trashed it in less than a year.
  9. Pop Quiz question of the day: What is the ZL-2? *insert Jeopardy music here*
  10. I do a lot of driving for my job and have never even seen an Astra until I did a google image search a few min ago. And that showed Astra models from Saturn, Opel and Vauxhall. I know thats all GM but still it seems odd to have the same model name like that across different GM divisions even with it being basically the same car.
  11. There were 69 ZL-1 Camaros made with 50 of them strictly for racing. They were plain jane 'strippers' with no extras other than the all aluminum 427 engine only made by the Winters Foundry of Ohio. The other 19 went to dealerships and were fully loaded. The reason for the limited run was that to qualify for NHRA racing the factory had to homologate that model, basically meaning producing a minimum run of 50 on the assembly line. They are amongst the most collectable Chevys ever. An 'average' ZL-1 can bring a quarter mill now. One of the loaded models in good condition can easily bring twice that. I read an article in Car Craft magazine many years ago about one being found with less than 40k miles on it all original and in immaculate condition. Peterson Car Museum had to sell their existing Hugger Orange ZL-1 to buy the loaded one. Heres some info on it at Wikipedia but take it with a grain of salt I guess as I wrote a portion of it, lol. ZL-1 Camaro
  12. Ive had an Aveo (supplied by my employer) for 3 years now and while it does the job of basic transportation i cant imagine it as 'stylish' in any possible sense. It is what it is.
  13. Right now we are up to our asses in C4's so yeah theyre not currently collectible. But it was an extremely long run. And the C4 was a truly revolutionary Corvette. It was the first one with true world class handling. I heard a rumor that Chevy had purchased 5 Ferraris during development to have a benchmark for handling on the C4. I think that Jim Hill kept the C5 Corvette on a very short leash in the name of 'respectability' and 'refinement' but with the C6's we are seeing that 'respectability' thrown to the wind. And rightly so I think. The average C5 compared to my C4 was almost too refined and stable. It handled better and was more powerful...but a C4 just gives you more of that 'over the edge' adrenaline rush. Or I might be fulla crap too. Thats just my thoughts on the matter. Corvetteforum.com is the place to get this sort of info.
  14. Well, I can remember the anemic 305 Corvettes we had out here on the left coast some years back (1980?). As I recall they were about 180 HP. Not out of range of what the average 'high performance' 4 cyl would put out nowadays.
  15. I ran across this artists rendition slideshow of the 2010 CTS coupe. Kinda cool. slideshow Ever since I became addicted to Top Gear I have this urge to pronounce 'coupe' as 'coo-pay' in the British style, lol.
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