Auto Industry

[rstrong]

Where the World's Unsold Cars Go To Die

Whoa.

[Wneglia]

Sickening.

Speaking of autos, have you heard about the Elio?

It is like a Can Am Spyder of automobiles, at 1/4 the price and 3 times the gas mileage. (but probably not as much fun)

Would be nice car to putter around in.

[bannination]

Where the World's Unsold Cars Go To Die

Whoa.

I keep thinking about buying a new, or new to me car, but then I just look at the prices and laugh a bit inside. No thanks, for those prices I'll keep my POS that's paid off.

Then I can't believe people that make much less than me have no problem with buying a new one every other year.... and wonder why they can't pay their bills. :-0?>

[Wneglia]

My 2001 Lexus looks like new. It will probably outlive me.

[rstrong]

When the wool industry in England was in recession hundreds of years ago, decrees were passed that, when you died, you had to be buried in a woolen shroud. A similar thing was done in France with linen.

This could work for GM.

[bannination]

1997 Ford Ranger. Got me beat.

[bannination]

When the wool industry in England was in recession hundreds of years ago, decrees were passed that, when you died, you had to be buried in a woolen shroud. A similar thing was done in France with linen.

This could work for GM.

Oh great, recalls on our coffins.

[Sometime Lefty]

I call BS on that story. Those pictures are a few days supply for England (5000 new cars a day sold). The car companies cut back production (like the Volt) when sales dip. They don't keep making cars to throw them away.

[O Really]

Not counting hobby vehicles, who here is driving the oldest rig? 1996 Ford Escort for me.

My recently traded Land Rover was a '98 with 170K miles. Didn't trade it because it wasn't still in good shape.

[bannination]

Not counting hobby vehicles, who here is driving the oldest rig? 1996 Ford Escort for me.

My recently traded Land Rover was a '98 with 170K miles. Didn't trade it because it wasn't still in good shape.

A Land Rover that's still running at 170K miles? I don't believe it, much like the article!

[O Really]

A Land Rover that's still running at 170K miles? I don't believe it, much like the article!

Maybe I picked a good year.... http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Relia ... =Discovery

[rstrong]

Wall Street Journal: The 69 Words You Can’t Use at GM

In 2008 General Motors put together a list for employees: 69 words and phrases that were not to be used in memos, emails or presentations, because they might be found by personal injury and class action attorneys.

They include words like defect, defective, safety, safety related, dangerous, bad, critical, and of course "problem."

My favorite: "Kevorkianesque."

[O Really]

That's entertaining, but most words on the list don't really belong in a professional paper anyway. Some more than others, like "safety" seem would depend more on context than specific word. But I can relate - my railroad clients wouldn't like me referring to some issue as a "trainwreck," nor a failure to be a "crash and burn."
"Always" and "never" are always problems and never should be used. ;-)

[rstrong]

Now we know how GM thinks their cars might be described by GM employees without this caution.

We may also safely assume that an employee was actually using the term "Kevorkianesque."

Note: Employees should also not use these smilies









And is right out.

[Boatrocker]

How about ?

[Wneglia]

GM HAS RECORD YEAR

[rstrong]

"(W)e do not think it rises to the level of a safety defect"
- Chrysler spokesman Max Gates, December 2004, fighting a threatened recall of 600,000 Dodge Durango and Dakota trucks even though, Gates acknowledged, "upper ball joint separation" might make the trucks' wheels fall off.

[rstrong]

"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market."
- Business Week, August 2, 1968

[rstrong]

"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market."
- Business Week, August 2, 1968

I went looking for the source just to see what other predictions the writer might have made and how their career fared, thinking of all the Iraq War hawk journalists that are doing just fine despite swallowing and spreading the lies. I found the quote lots of places but not the author or the certain confirmation that it's real that I was seeking. Ironically, a bunch of the quoters say "1958" rather than "1968". So, some sizable portion of them are as wrong as the prediction.

I just tried a search, and limited it to businessweek.com itself. BusinessWeek twice acknowledges publishing the quote, but once for 1968 and once for "as recently as 1979."

[rstrong]

LOL, same exact sentence 11 years apart? 1968 does make more sense to me, I doubt Japanese auto imports were even discussed in 1958. Too bad they don't say who actually wrote it.

The "as recently as 1979" reference cites an OECD booklet, easily found in PDF format via Google, in turn citing BusinessWeek with no further information. But the booklet pairs it with a 1954 quote:

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dismissed talk of cheap foreign imports flooding the country while supporting Most Favored Nation status for Japan. "The Japanese don't make anything the people in the US would want."