GM Plant Closing

[Jenn]

Folks, if you are going to drive with you cellphone, use hands free devices. But especially, puh-leeze, learn how to actually drive those wheels. If you can't really drive it, don't know what it is capable of or even what size it is, you shouldn't be in it.

Rant over for the moment.

Yesterday I went to one of my banks and near the front of the bank there was a Caddy parked there across 2 parking spaces. I walked in, and immediately spotted the person who drove it (whom I knew) and I said "Apparently just because you can afford a Caddy, doesn't mean you know how to park the darn thing". He gave kind of a red faced sheepish smile and I went on to say (jokenly) "Don't worry, I have an old Chrysler, and I managed to get right into the spot next to you, so I hope you can back up better than you can park going foward".

He went out to check

 

[clwill]

I found out yesterday listening to Senator Larry Craig speak on CSPAN 2 that there is not only plenty of oil off So Cal coast but of course we are not aloud to drill it at all.

According to the GAO (Government Accounting Office) over 85% of EXISTING oil leases in the US are unexplored, let alone untapped. If, for some magical reason you think we can be self-sufficient, why don't you pressure the oil companies to drill on the oil leases they already have?

 

[G'ginna]

Yesterday I went to one of my banks and near the front of the bank there was a Caddy parked there across 2 parking spaces. I walked in, and immediately spotted the person who drove it (whom I knew) and I said "Apparently just because you can afford a Caddy, doesn't mean you know how to park the darn thing". He gave kind of a red faced sheepish smile and I went on to say (jokenly) "Don't worry, I have an old Chrysler, and I managed to get right into the spot next to you, so I hope you can back up better than you can park going foward".

He went out to check

LOVE IT!

 

[Larry]

Don't I know it. Here you will often see that soccer mom or other person driving that H1-H2-H3 or whatever with a cell phone pasted to one ear and thinking nothing about pulling slowly out into much faster moving traffic. And GOD forbid that they should have to actually park like they are supposed to or back the thing up, they have no idea what size they really are.

Folks, if you are going to drive with you cellphone, use hands free devices. But especially, puh-leeze, learn how to actually drive those wheels. If you can't really drive it, don't know what it is capable of or even what size it is, you shouldn't be in it.

Rant over for the moment.

Nice rant and your correct but that behavior goes on in MG Midgets and Volvo's too.
I did however give up trying to surf while driving after an accident near Conroe involving my rented Trailblazer and Sam Houston " Well a facsimile anyway".
Don't ask it's a long story from the old Mater days , like ancient history and Hertz and my company have all but forgotten about it.
Where's my earpiece now !

 

[G'ginna]

According to the GAO (Government Accounting Office) over 85% of EXISTING oil leases in the US are unexplored, let alone untapped. If, for some magical reason you think we can be self-sufficient, why don't you pressure the oil companies to drill on the oil leases they already have?

Around here we just can't hire enough people to work. If you have the magic wand that will help that area, please don't let me stop you from producing that solution.

Another little fact for you, how can we increase production if there are not enough refineries to take care of what is already being produced? Just try to get one of those opened in your neighborhood.

One of the bills that was recently voted DOWN would have opened the option of re-using closed military bases to build refineries.

 

[Bobby]

IT was only a matter of time before the ridiculous trend of oversized family wagons came to and end.
So many bought navigators because they could deduct them from their taxes if they set up an LLC. Even if all they were used for in the business was to haul people.

We dont' need all the huge vehicles. Don't think I don't like a truck we have a 2000 Silverado. And Seger is right , it's a rock. It is also used as a truck. It has made many a run to home depot. It gets 20 on the highway.
I would never however, own something as big as a truck that I couldn't use as one.

That just seem like a waste to me.

And indeed GM makes fine vehicles. Read any car mag review of the corvette and it's just amazing. The performance of that car for the money is seen no where else in the world. You can out run cars costing 3 or 4 times what a vette costs. Someday I will have a Corvette, and I 'll pick it up at the Museum. We stopped their on the way to indy once and watched someone do that . Cool stuff.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

IT was only a matter of time before the ridiculous trend of oversized family wagons came to and end.
So many bought navigators because they could deduct them from their taxes if they set up an LLC. Even if all they were used for in the business was to haul people.

We dont' need all the huge vehicles.

Speak for yourself there Yankster!
I have six children. One daughter is only 5'10" and the other two are just over 6'0" I'm 6'4" and my three sons are bigger than I and have been since they were in high school. We regularly snow ski, water ski, and a thousand other activities together as a family. We have had newer Suburbans for nearly 4 decades to meet our needs. What are you suggesting for myself? We are still very close and gather to go and do quite often. How should I transport them all? Keep in mind that while they used to get a max of 10 MPG in the 70s and 80s they improved in the 90s and really improved since the turn of the century into the 17 MPG range.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I never did understand the idea of a Cadillac or Lincoln truck.

Jim

Or Mercedes or BMW SUVs. UGLY, IMO. Then, most last model vehicles are, to me.

Dave Ramsey reported on the radio a few months ago that the average new car dealer makes about $80 net profit if you were to go in and pay cash for a car. They couldn't keep the lights on with that. FINANCING is their profit.

I believe the big inefficiency with GM (besides union health care and retirement costs) is what's already been discussed. So many otherwise identical cars with different badges. Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles stopped being Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles a long time ago. If they're going to build a car and one company owns the company that does it, build one car with one badge! Foreign competition will continue to kill them on that inefficiency as long as it's there.

I think what could help revive GM is to do more of what already seems to work. Give up a little in the aerodynamic efficiency department and bring back a little syle. Start bringing back miniature 55, 56, and 57 Chevys, 60s and 70s Chevelles, Novas, Camaros, etc. Those are the old GM cars that people love and it's an area in which the foreigners can't compete.

As long as this country allows competition from foreign countries that don't have equal human rights or environmental laws, our companies are going to be at a competitive disadvantage. Of course, I just turned this into a political thread. Darn.

Look at China. Closing down chemical plants for the Olympics so the country doesn't LOOK as dirty to visitors as it normally is, with the world knowing THAT they're doing it! I don't hear anyone complaining about that! I thought that was pretty strange/deceitful the first time I heard it.

 

[Bobby]

Speak for yourself there Yankster!
I have six children. One daughter is only 5'10" and the other two are just over 6'0" I'm 6'4" and my three sons are bigger than I and have been since they were in high school. We regularly snow ski, water ski, and a thousand other activities together as a family. We have had newer Suburbans for nearly 4 decades to meet our needs. What are you suggesting for myself? We are still very close and gather to go and do quite often. How should I transport them all? Keep in mind that while they used to get a max of 10 MPG in the 70s and 80s they improved in the 90s and really improved since the turn of the century into the 17 MPG range.

Ok but should you get a tax break for buying it? I dont' think so.
You should have a suburban. I have friends with ONE kid ( and no more are planned) running around in Navigators. Seems silly.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I have friends with ONE kid ( and no more are planned) running around in Navigators. Seems silly.

You may disagree with that but, would you go so far as to think you should be the one to decide what others need? That's the slippery socialist/communist, social engineering slope that I want the government as far away from as possible.

I used to call in to the Bruce Williams radio show to give an opposing view to another regular caller from New Mexico. One night the topic was progressive taxes.

I forget what number was being batted around but, this other guy actually asked Bruce (who owns several businesses) "How much money do you NEED?"

That anyone would ask that question absolutely pushed me over the edge. This guy actually thought that how much money someone else had after taxes was his business! He also thought it was the job of government and the purpose of taxes to "confiscate" to keep people from having "too much."

 

[vegasnitro]

Ley's not argue, first generation Saturns shared nothing with other GM brands Saturn Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
S/F
D

Since I am a wikipedia junkie, I will digress by saying Isuzu is not another GM brand and advise anyone who has a first generation Saturn of any ilk to source their parts as they normally would.

And it was never my intention to "argue", so if someone's feelings got sore over this completely esoteric thread, then I do apologize.