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Friday, 5 June 2009
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Update
Just a quick update for the blog. I changed the video box on the right from clips of The Dark Knight to my new series of videos called "Ev Verses". I hope anyone that actually reads by blog will also watch these... they are only slightly more brain numbing that reading my posts!
-Jake
Sunday, 16 November 2008
the State of the American Automotive Industry
The American auto industry is in a terrible condition right now and I feel that the parties that are being blamed are not totally to blame.
The other day I was talking with a friend who is a sales guy at a GMC, Pontiac, Cadillac dealership. He had a customer drive over two hours to buy a car from him. That sounds good until you find out that it was a used car, a Toyota Corolla. That is all fine and dandy I guess if that is what the guy wanted. The gentleman made a series of comments about how the great the foreign manufactures are doing and how bad the American’s are doing. I asked my friend if he suggested the gentleman buy a Pontiac Vibe. We both laughed over the irony of that comment. If you are lost at this point then you are not a lone in the world.
The reason for the suggestion that you might not be a lone in not understanding that comment is because there is a lot of cooperation between manufactures these days. So much so that the line between them gets blurred a lot. Take for example Ford. Ford gets a horrible reputation for the quality of their vehicles, especially when compared to Mazda. But what most people don’t know is that Ford owns and builds Mazda. In fact, when my uncle recently rebuilt a Mazda 6 that had been in a front end crash we discovered that the engine block has the letters f-o-m-o-c-o on it, which stands for FOrd MOtor COmpany. What does that mean… it means that when you buy a Ford Fusion or a Lincoln Zephyr you are buying a Mazda 6.
Let’s look at a new deal that was recently finalized by Chrysler llc. The deal would mean that the next generation Nissan Titan, hailed by so many as a breath of fresh air and one of the best new pickups in the industry, will be built by Dodge. Conversely, the mid and small cars for Dodge will be built by Nissan. (I am unsure if that deal extends to the Chrysler and Jeep lines though.)
Let me throw this out there too. Ford Motor Company owned Land Rover, Jaguar, Mazda, Aston Martin, and Mercury. They had a close relationship with BMW because of the purchase of Land Rover from them, which to my understanding is still open. Now lets consider GM with Pontiac, GMC, Chevy, Saturn, Buick, Cadillac, Hummer and those are the brands that are more obvious to the general public but what about Holden, the GM of Australia, and Opel in Europe and a controlling stake in the parent company of Subaru. The Holden Commodore is considered one the most amazing cars in Australia and was being imported by the sister company Pontiac as the new GTO for a couple years and currently imports the G8 in its totally complete ready for sale form. Dodge, the child company of Chrysler and sister company to Jeep, just released the brand new 2009 Dodge Ram. This truck was developed during the time that Mercedes owned the company that means that this truck is basically a Mercedes. There are other products that are currently on the road that a Chrysler dealer sells that are basically a Mercedes such as the Chrysler 300m and the Chrysler Crossfire, which is basically a SL500.
After all of this I finish by going back to my original comment made to my sales friend. The Pontiac Vibe is a modified version of the Toyota Matrix. The car is actually built by Toyota along side the Corolla for Pontiac. Toyota makes the parts and assembles them into a finished car that is then delivered to the Pontiac dealers for sale to you. Did you know that? Did you think about that when you purchased the Honda saying to yourself that it will run forever and that the quality of the car is better than any of the American manufactures? Next time you go to a car show, count how many vintage Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, etc that you find and then consider how long your new Honda will last.
Edit:
After reading and think about this post for a couple days, it seems that I forgot to mention two companies. Volvo and Saab. Volvo is known for its safety, known for it to an insane degree. But did you know that Ford owns Volvo.... and constantly dips it aged fingers deep into the Volvo parts bin. As for Saab... well, it is a GM product. And Saab for all its wonder hasn't had an completely new car, from the ground up brand spankin' new, for approximately thirty years. (Until the new Saab X9)
It seems that I also neglected to include a conclusion to my thesis that the wrong people are being handed the full weight of the blame for the state of the American auto industry. I blame the American public and its inability to make informed decisions in contrast to the usual pattern of emotional decisions made everyday. If the American public viewed the car as a privilege rather than a right then drivers would understand the responsibility they are taking on themselves when they put a key in the ignition. So many people have decided the automobile is nothing more than a necessary evil. You have to have one, in most of the country, or you can't get around. What happened to being a "Driver"? What happened to the experience of driving. Anyone that has driven an old car will tell you about the "experience" of driving. You don't find someone driving a pickup from the 1960's talking on a cell phone. How about the days when you went out and put on some leather gloves and goggles and went "for a drive." Cars today have given up the experience and are simply something that people expect to get into and suddenly arrive at point B. I dread the day cars drive themselves because I LOVE the experience of driving. I love the power, I love the freedom, I love the technology of controlling an EXPLOSION!!! If it were up to me, I would drive an vintage vehicle everyday so I can feel the road beneath me. The engine twist when you step on it. The sound of each cylinder firing through the exhaust pipes. And ultimately, seeing the two black stripes behind me at a traffic light. I am a driver and would willing drive a heavy, V8 powered gas guzzler, while paying gas prices because I don't care about getting from A to B as cheaply as possible but getting from A to B having had as much fun as possible. The automobile is NOT a right, it is a privilege that needs to treated as such. And if we did we would want to be informed enough as consumers to know what the manufactures are offering us and what the facts are.
The other day I was talking with a friend who is a sales guy at a GMC, Pontiac, Cadillac dealership. He had a customer drive over two hours to buy a car from him. That sounds good until you find out that it was a used car, a Toyota Corolla. That is all fine and dandy I guess if that is what the guy wanted. The gentleman made a series of comments about how the great the foreign manufactures are doing and how bad the American’s are doing. I asked my friend if he suggested the gentleman buy a Pontiac Vibe. We both laughed over the irony of that comment. If you are lost at this point then you are not a lone in the world.
The reason for the suggestion that you might not be a lone in not understanding that comment is because there is a lot of cooperation between manufactures these days. So much so that the line between them gets blurred a lot. Take for example Ford. Ford gets a horrible reputation for the quality of their vehicles, especially when compared to Mazda. But what most people don’t know is that Ford owns and builds Mazda. In fact, when my uncle recently rebuilt a Mazda 6 that had been in a front end crash we discovered that the engine block has the letters f-o-m-o-c-o on it, which stands for FOrd MOtor COmpany. What does that mean… it means that when you buy a Ford Fusion or a Lincoln Zephyr you are buying a Mazda 6.
Let’s look at a new deal that was recently finalized by Chrysler llc. The deal would mean that the next generation Nissan Titan, hailed by so many as a breath of fresh air and one of the best new pickups in the industry, will be built by Dodge. Conversely, the mid and small cars for Dodge will be built by Nissan. (I am unsure if that deal extends to the Chrysler and Jeep lines though.)
Let me throw this out there too. Ford Motor Company owned Land Rover, Jaguar, Mazda, Aston Martin, and Mercury. They had a close relationship with BMW because of the purchase of Land Rover from them, which to my understanding is still open. Now lets consider GM with Pontiac, GMC, Chevy, Saturn, Buick, Cadillac, Hummer and those are the brands that are more obvious to the general public but what about Holden, the GM of Australia, and Opel in Europe and a controlling stake in the parent company of Subaru. The Holden Commodore is considered one the most amazing cars in Australia and was being imported by the sister company Pontiac as the new GTO for a couple years and currently imports the G8 in its totally complete ready for sale form. Dodge, the child company of Chrysler and sister company to Jeep, just released the brand new 2009 Dodge Ram. This truck was developed during the time that Mercedes owned the company that means that this truck is basically a Mercedes. There are other products that are currently on the road that a Chrysler dealer sells that are basically a Mercedes such as the Chrysler 300m and the Chrysler Crossfire, which is basically a SL500.
After all of this I finish by going back to my original comment made to my sales friend. The Pontiac Vibe is a modified version of the Toyota Matrix. The car is actually built by Toyota along side the Corolla for Pontiac. Toyota makes the parts and assembles them into a finished car that is then delivered to the Pontiac dealers for sale to you. Did you know that? Did you think about that when you purchased the Honda saying to yourself that it will run forever and that the quality of the car is better than any of the American manufactures? Next time you go to a car show, count how many vintage Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, etc that you find and then consider how long your new Honda will last.
Edit:
After reading and think about this post for a couple days, it seems that I forgot to mention two companies. Volvo and Saab. Volvo is known for its safety, known for it to an insane degree. But did you know that Ford owns Volvo.... and constantly dips it aged fingers deep into the Volvo parts bin. As for Saab... well, it is a GM product. And Saab for all its wonder hasn't had an completely new car, from the ground up brand spankin' new, for approximately thirty years. (Until the new Saab X9)
It seems that I also neglected to include a conclusion to my thesis that the wrong people are being handed the full weight of the blame for the state of the American auto industry. I blame the American public and its inability to make informed decisions in contrast to the usual pattern of emotional decisions made everyday. If the American public viewed the car as a privilege rather than a right then drivers would understand the responsibility they are taking on themselves when they put a key in the ignition. So many people have decided the automobile is nothing more than a necessary evil. You have to have one, in most of the country, or you can't get around. What happened to being a "Driver"? What happened to the experience of driving. Anyone that has driven an old car will tell you about the "experience" of driving. You don't find someone driving a pickup from the 1960's talking on a cell phone. How about the days when you went out and put on some leather gloves and goggles and went "for a drive." Cars today have given up the experience and are simply something that people expect to get into and suddenly arrive at point B. I dread the day cars drive themselves because I LOVE the experience of driving. I love the power, I love the freedom, I love the technology of controlling an EXPLOSION!!! If it were up to me, I would drive an vintage vehicle everyday so I can feel the road beneath me. The engine twist when you step on it. The sound of each cylinder firing through the exhaust pipes. And ultimately, seeing the two black stripes behind me at a traffic light. I am a driver and would willing drive a heavy, V8 powered gas guzzler, while paying gas prices because I don't care about getting from A to B as cheaply as possible but getting from A to B having had as much fun as possible. The automobile is NOT a right, it is a privilege that needs to treated as such. And if we did we would want to be informed enough as consumers to know what the manufactures are offering us and what the facts are.
Confused...?
I've become so confused by what people consider rational. The people of California voted and once again stated as a whole that they want to keep marriage between a man and a woman. As I understand it, this is the second time this amend mended has been passed by the people. Now I realized that the losing side of something like this would like to blame some one or something. I just find that the way in which some have chosen to respond seems to be the exact opposite of the treatment they themselves are seeking. The right some feel that gays have to be 'married' rather than have 'civil unions', an issue I take to be somewhat moronic to start with, is based on the idea of tolerance and the seeking of acceptance and equality. The assaults on the properties of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of the supposedly pivotal role they played in the passing of Prop 8 in California is ludicrous.
With a consideration of the facts, one will see clearly that the while yes the church was involved in the fight to pass the proposition it was on a scale smaller than say the Catholic church for example. There were many organizations behind the bid to pass the proposition and the LDS church played a relatively smaller part. According to the official letter from the church to its member in California, the members were asked to contribute to the coalition with their means and time.
(We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman. Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.)
No were in the letter did the church say that terrorism is an appropriate method of making our point or getting the prop. passed. Today it seems almost appropriate that if you loose you just get violent... wait that sounds a lot like the mob from the 20's and 30's, didn't we get past that?
Additionally, it seems odd that in the rational mind someone would connect revenge against only one of the churches/groups behind their loss. How about extending that to violent revenge against a singled out group... isn't that what the gay population was/is complaining about?
Finally, what happened to democracy? One side always looses an election or an important proposition. I have to say that I lost this past November 4th. The Presidential Election went the opposite way I had wished it to go and I strongly feel that Obama is the wrong choice for this nation. Regardless of that fact he will be known as President Obama for the next four years and all the violence and terrorism in the world won't be successful in changing that.
Why do people think violence, or anything, will change a religious belief?
With a consideration of the facts, one will see clearly that the while yes the church was involved in the fight to pass the proposition it was on a scale smaller than say the Catholic church for example. There were many organizations behind the bid to pass the proposition and the LDS church played a relatively smaller part. According to the official letter from the church to its member in California, the members were asked to contribute to the coalition with their means and time.
(We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman. Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.)
No were in the letter did the church say that terrorism is an appropriate method of making our point or getting the prop. passed. Today it seems almost appropriate that if you loose you just get violent... wait that sounds a lot like the mob from the 20's and 30's, didn't we get past that?
Additionally, it seems odd that in the rational mind someone would connect revenge against only one of the churches/groups behind their loss. How about extending that to violent revenge against a singled out group... isn't that what the gay population was/is complaining about?
Finally, what happened to democracy? One side always looses an election or an important proposition. I have to say that I lost this past November 4th. The Presidential Election went the opposite way I had wished it to go and I strongly feel that Obama is the wrong choice for this nation. Regardless of that fact he will be known as President Obama for the next four years and all the violence and terrorism in the world won't be successful in changing that.
Why do people think violence, or anything, will change a religious belief?
Saturday, 12 July 2008
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