The car thread ...

[O Really]

I have to admit, the proposed new postal vehicle looks like it was designed by a committee of bureaucrats.

Not a good thing.

Perhaps they should purchase dual-fuel and/or all electric minivans. Or something like Amazon uses.

Sprinters.

https://www.mercedes-benz-vans.ca/en/sprinter/cargo-van

[Ulysses]

I have to admit, the proposed new postal vehicle looks like it was designed by a committee of bureaucrats.

Not a good thing.

Perhaps they should purchase dual-fuel and/or all electric minivans. Or something like Amazon uses.

Sprinters.

https://www.mercedes-benz-vans.ca/en/sprinter/cargo-van

Yes, the Sprinter would be good, but... there is a stated requirement that the vehicles be American. Not sure if Mercedes has an American factory and if they do, if that would meet the requirement.

Again it sounds like Killjoy is greasing palms and probably profiting under the table from this. He's turning what should be a routine matter into what looks like a huge boondoggle.

[O Really]

North Charleston, S.C.
On Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz opened a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., where it will build the latest generation Sprinter van.Sep 6, 2018

[O Really]

So this should be fun. I may have mentioned that son-in-law took a buy-out from Boeing back in the recession and opened a custom/restoration car shop. Anyway, he's got a customer that he's done a good bit of work for who needed to reduce his collection a bit and in exchange for some other work gave him a 50 Mercury about half way through it's second (or maybe third) renovation. It's been chopped and dropped, has a 305 V8 4bbl. Updated suspension, brakes and steering. It looks a bit rough and has been driven hard from time to time, but is street legal and driveable as it sits. Anyway, so SIL is bringing it back as a personal project for eventual sale but it should be pretty nice by the time we get up there this summer and has been offered to Lady O and me to cruise around in for fun. If the Goodguys show happens this year, we'll take it over there. If not, we'll do Friday night drive-in street cruises. It may not have been my first choice for a summer hot rod to play with, but it's not bad.

[billy.pilgrim]

North Charleston, S.C.
On Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz opened a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., where it will build the latest generation Sprinter van.Sep 6, 2018

Have they arrested the Mercedes CEO yet? Alabama did - he looked furin and couda bin a muzzi.

[neoplacebo]

So this should be fun. I may have mentioned that son-in-law took a buy-out from Boeing back in the recession and opened a custom/restoration car shop. Anyway, he's got a customer that he's done a good bit of work for who needed to reduce his collection a bit and in exchange for some other work gave him a 50 Mercury about half way through it's second (or maybe third) renovation. It's been chopped and dropped, has a 305 V8 4bbl. Updated suspension, brakes and steering. It looks a bit rough and has been driven hard from time to time, but is street legal and driveable as it sits. Anyway, so SIL is bringing it back as a personal project for eventual sale but it should be pretty nice by the time we get up there this summer and has been offered to Lady O and me to cruise around in for fun. If the Goodguys show happens this year, we'll take it over there. If not, we'll do Friday night drive-in street cruises. It may not have been my first choice for a summer hot rod to play with, but it's not bad.

Sweet. Those old Mercury cars were really cool. You'll have to post a pic of it once it's about done.

[Vrede too]

North Charleston, S.C.
On Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz opened a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., where it will build the latest generation Sprinter van. Sep 6, 2018

Have they arrested the Mercedes CEO yet? Alabama did - he looked furin and couda bin a muzzi.

Mercedes exec busted by Ala. law

Mercedes-Benz still has a production facility in Vance, Alabama near Tuscaloosa. Idk why the factory in North Charleston, S.C. is not mentioned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz#Factories
Idk if any other German executives have been arrested in Alabama, but in principle I think more corporate honchos should be in handcuffs.

Funny, I checked 5 separate articles and not one of them named the German, despite arrest records being public info. I wanted to post his pic. When have you ever heard of cops and/or the media being so protective of privacy? An image search also turned up zilch, but I found these:





I also found this tongue-in-cheek account from Gawker:

Executive Arrested Under Alabama's Immigration Law Wasn't Even Hispanic



Opps, they did it twice in 2011:

Alabama red-faced as second foreign car boss held under immigration law
Judge drops charges against Japanese Honda executive Ichiro Yada trapped by Alabama's tough new anti-immigration laws

I can't tell Japanese and Latinxs apart, either.

... The St Louis-based Post-Dispatch newspaper revelled in Alabama's embarrassment by publishing an open letter to foreign car companies encouraging them to pack their bags and move to the rival car-producing state of Missouri.

"We are the Show Me State, not the Show Me Your Papers State," it wrote, telling auto bosses: "You've got two choices. Either ask your executives to carry their immigration papers at all times, or move to a state that understands gemüchlichkeit." …

[billy.pilgrim]

Thanks, I had missed the Honda story.

[O Really]

Remind me again why we don't let (require) these people to secede? Is it just so billy.p doesn't have to have a passport to fish in the Bay?

[Ulysses]

If Bama doesn't have a Harley factory yet, it should get one.

Cause Boss Hog and all that...

[O Really]

If Bama doesn't have a Harley factory yet, it should get one.

Cause Boss Hog and all that...

No Alabama, but they are in equally foreign places: India, Brazil, and Thailand.

[billy.pilgrim]

Remind me again why we don't let (require) these people to secede? Is it just so billy.p doesn't have to have a passport to fish in the Bay?

I moved to equally fucked up Tennessee in 1976 and equally fucked up Florida in 82. Could a fucked up Carolina or Kentucky be next?

[Ulysses]

Remind me again why we don't let (require) these people to secede? Is it just so billy.p doesn't have to have a passport to fish in the Bay?

I moved to equally fucked up Tennessee in 1976 and equally fucked up Florida in 82. Could a fucked up Carolina or Kentucky be next?

Well, I've visited both Florida and Georgia (both times on business). Drove from Augusta to Tybee Beach. Along the way I was treated to a living replica of Boss Hogg standing beside his patrol car at a speed trap one horse town. He reeled around and glared at my rental as I cruised through slightly above the speed limit. It could have been a blamey night in Georgia.

Never been to other southern states, although I might have crossed over to SC from Tybee to get gas when I was there. It all looked the same.

Also been to Texas multiple times but for some reason I don't consider it to be the South.

[O Really]

Remind me again why we don't let (require) these people to secede? Is it just so billy.p doesn't have to have a passport to fish in the Bay?

I moved to equally fucked up Tennessee in 1976 and equally fucked up Florida in 82. Could a fucked up Carolina or Kentucky be next?

Well, I've visited both Florida and Georgia (both times on business). Drove from Augusta to Tybee Beach. Along the way I was treated to a living replica of Boss Hogg standing beside his patrol car at a speed trap one horse town. He reeled around and glared at my rental as I cruised through slightly above the speed limit. It could have been a blamey night in Georgia.

Never been to other southern states, although I might have crossed over to SC from Tybee to get gas when I was there. It all looked the same.

Also been to Texas multiple times but for some reason I don't consider it to be the South.

Sure, somebody has to uphold the stereotypes, but that area is a lot like the story of the blind guys and the elephant. Perception depends on what you see.

A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake". For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall". Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.

[Vrede too]

It often surprises people how many extreme right-wing and neonazi groups have their HQs in California.

I think you mean bumbling and corrupt Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.



Jefferson Davis "J.D." or "Boss" Hogg was the all-white suited, gluttonous, commissioner of Hazzard County, GA.



Besides India, Brazil, and Thailand, Harley-Davidson has always been pretty solidly Midwestern. It currently has factories in York, Pennsylvania and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its Kansas City, Missouri factory closed in 2019.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson

In 1977 it put out the Harley-Davidson Confederate Edition . It was a market failure. Pics.

[O Really]

Or maybe it was Sheriff Buford Justice he saw.

[O Really]

Want to feel old? A 1990 car is old enough to be officially considered an "antique" for its registration. Like this Carrera here...

[O Really]

Somebody needs some new design engineers.

2020 Chevy Impala


30 years ago, 1990 Chevy Impala


30 years before that, 1960 Impala

[GoCubsGo]

Somebody needs some new design engineers.

2020 Chevy Impala


30 years ago, 1990 Chevy Impala


30 years before that, 1960 Impala

1960 for me please.

1990 deserves no comment.

2020...

[GoCubsGo]

Then of course there was The Blue Ghost, a 1966 Impala.



Can anyone name the TV show?