GM in real trouble

>
> I found it based on your description:
>
>
http://www.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en...03965,0.010064
>
> Hard to tell, but the site looks smaller than Fletcher Jones'...
> --
> What the heck, I'll play too.
> - Dave

Yes, that's it. Smaller footprint but most of the buildings are
multi-story. I'll take a closer look today.

While I'm at it, Scott, you wouldn't happen to know anyone interested in
driving for us would you? The pay isn't great but the work is nice and the
hours are flexible. It's good for someone retired or semi-retired, or
someone between jobs who wants to keep busy. A clean driving record is
required.

Alan

Dave Head wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:52:36 GMT, Arif Khokar > wrote:
>
> >Nate Nagel wrote:
> >
> >> Eh, I think the VW is good looking from the outside. You want AWD? how
> >> about a nice R32? And as for the performance deficit, you are right -
> >> VW spent their $$ on refinement, Subie spent their $$ on ass-kicking
> >> power. Who's right? Depends on what you feel like that day.
> >
> >Spend more and get both by getting an Audi S4.
>
> If I was going to spend that much more money I'd have gotten the Subaru WRX STI
> at $32K and kicked Audi ass all over the block...

And in the end, all you'll have is a boy-racer-looking Subaru.

Arif was sort of right. Spend $10k on a 1992-94 S4, add a few minor
mods to bring the 0-60 time to the 5.2 sec. range, and still have a
comfortable, quiet, *stealthy* highway cruiser that will both kick ass,
transport four adults in comfort for hours, and not get a second look
from the revenue patrol. AWD, too.

And all for much less than what you paid, and the car will hold that
value for a damn long time. (Getting to be collectible nowadays.)

Nate's kinda right, too - except the UrQuattro is really tough to find
parts for now. You wouldn't dare damage the exterior or interior -
trim is impossible to get. Fixing the mechaincals, however, is
dead-simple, and the parts are easily available.

WRXs scream "Look at ME!", especially the STIs. I like my ass-kicking
car to have a low profile, just the opposite of the ricers and
boy-racers out there.

E.P.

Nate Nagel > wrote in
:

> wrote:
>> Nate Nagel wrote:
>>
>>>Dave Head wrote:
>>>
>>
>>>which ASSuming you get the leather (who wouldn't?)
>>
>>
>> I wouldn't. I've never seen the advantage in it. It seems to have
>> none, other than showing off for the neigbors. Otherwise, it appears
>> that it might even be _heavier_ than cloth, which will do nothing for
>> your 1/4 mile or solo II times.
>>
>
> But it doesn't look like ass in two years, which any car with cloth
> seats invariably will if I am driving it. I'm hard on interiors. I
> practically live in my car. Even when old and worn, leather still
> looks good, and cleans easily. Cloth... looks like old, worn cloth.
> Probably with coffee stains on it.
>
My wife has a 2000 Outback Limited that we bought new. The leather seats
look good and have worn like iron. I've been impressed with the way the
interior has held up.

I've got a 1999 Legacy that I bought used in 05. It has cloth seats and has
worn reasonably well. But there is a bit of fuzzyness to them. What do I
care, I'm in it less than an hour a day.

Doug

<<<<The best solution is to eliminate the trade restriction, namely the

moronic NHTSA FMVSS regulations and stifling EPA regulations. Once the
market is open to every manufacturer, the intense competition will
force
General Motors and others to improve their products in order to stay
alive. The other benefit is that General Motors (and even Ford) can
sell
whatever vehicles from other countries and relabel excellent Opel as
Chevrolets or whatever brand for US market whenever the demand
warrants.
With price of petrol approaching or surpassing $3 a gallon, they can
just import the economical vehicles without subjecting them to
$10million cost and lengthy process of engineering and certifying to
meet antediluvian US regulations.
It has been done in other countries and worked well. In the 1980s and
1990s, Chile removed the trade barriers and local protection for the
ships. This move forced the local industry to improve its products.
Same
with Australia which is adapting ADR, its equivalent of FMVSS, to
harmonise with ECE and reducing the import tariff. General
Motors-Holden
and Ford Australia got their act together and pushed hard to improve
its
local products. What's more, Australians enjoy more choice of products
than ever before.

It is shame that Americans are blaming wrong things and pointing
fingers
at wrong reasons. Now is time to eliminate NHTSA and to open the market

to the competition. NHTSA has been stonewalling the Congress and
American public about its failure and shortcomings. Every attempt to
harmonise FMVSS with ECE is always stalled or obfuscated left and
right.
The riot act is getting too long and too obvious not to do anything.

Well?>>>>



If this happens I would love thet get my hands on a VW Lupo Turbo
Diesel!

While they are at it, why not make the US license plates look like the
ones in Germany. All wide/long and slender. It looks cool.


O2

"Scott en Aztlán" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 09:55:26 -0700, "wtrplnet"
> > wrote:
>
> >While I'm at it, Scott, you wouldn't happen to know anyone interested in
> >driving for us would you?
>
> Not offhand, but I'll keep you in mind. I assume your email address is
> valid if I remove the SPAM shields?


It is, but I don't check it very often. I will send an email to the address
above and you will have my real email address.

Alan

> > Not offhand, but I'll keep you in mind. I assume your email address is
> > valid if I remove the SPAM shields?
>
>
> It is, but I don't check it very often. I will send an email to the
address
> above and you will have my real email address.
>
> Alan
>
>

Ok, I did, it bounced. Send an email to my excite account, I'll find it
eventually.

Alan

wtrplnet wrote:
> It's past time that people will buy crappy cars just because 'most' or
> 'some' of the car is built in the US. Now the dealers are begging for
> customers' attention. Get a clue GM. Make cars that people want to
> purchase and you won't have this kind of trouble.

You get a clue. GM's troubles have one source: the greedy, featherbedding
parasitic gangsters of the UAW.

I just hope that ASAP, a bankruptcy court will allow GM (or some successor
company that can take over its operations) to get out of its "obligations"
to the union, including both its overgenerous pension plan and the hundreds
of employees it is now required to pay for doing nothing.

On Tue, 02 May 2006 12:53:53 -0700, John David Galt
> wrote:

>wtrplnet wrote:
>> It's past time that people will buy crappy cars just because 'most' or
>> 'some' of the car is built in the US. Now the dealers are begging for
>> customers' attention. Get a clue GM. Make cars that people want to
>> purchase and you won't have this kind of trouble.
>
>You get a clue. GM's troubles have one source: the greedy, featherbedding
>parasitic gangsters of the UAW.

Well, no, its not just one source.

Their biggest trouble is reputation. They _used to_ build crap.

When the built crap, it wasn't always the union workers fault. It might not
even have been mostly the union workers fault. The union workers can't do much
if the design engineers and the process engineers don't set up tight tolerances
on their stuff, so that the "fit and finish" suck after the union workers do
the very best that can be done with the tools and processes provided.

And of course there's the management bean counters that used to sacrifice
quality for the bottom line.

However, the JD Powers surveys of late have given Detroit Iron some pretty high
marks, especially the luxo-sedans like Caddy, Lincoln, etc.

>I just hope that ASAP, a bankruptcy court will allow GM (or some successor
>company that can take over its operations) to get out of its "obligations"
>to the union, including both its overgenerous pension plan and the hundreds
>of employees it is now required to pay for doing nothing.

Well, hurting the workers is not a noble goal, I think. If belt tightening
must be done, I think it should be across the board, from the CEO on down.

Dave Head