G. David Felt

While I agree with much of what you say, I also think GM has had WAY TOO LONG an Overly Large amount of poor quality dealerships and no one has really been willing to step up and say you have to do business this way and sell this amount as a luxury dealer to stay in the game. Otherwise we yank the dealership from you. I think GM is taking a piss poor way out of culling dealerships this way, but it will in the long run make Cadillac stronger as they keep the dealers who are willing to invest for the future rather than the bottom feeding hang on that are really more focused elsewhere to make the bulk of their money and if someone wants to drop coin on a Cadillac they will take that sale too. Time to clear our the weak dealerships that from Sales to service offer piss poor experience. The year I lived in Texas, visited a Cadillac Dealership that was north of the mid cities and just south of my house on Grape Vine lake and I remember both my dad and I where amazed they were considered a luxury dealership in the piss poor old building that smelled and had no ambition to really sell, more about servicing the seniors living in the area that did not question anything. Saw no reason for the dealership to exist as a Cadillac dealership and this was back in 1994. So Culling the dealerships is needed.

Yes but NO. If you were in my sister In-laws cheap Lexus, you would see everything cheap Toyota. Not even an attempt at luxury. Yes there are way too many similarities between the Escalade and Suburban of 2006, but still many things the Escalade had that the Suburban did not. From Bose system to heated and cooled seats, bigger V8 engine and both real wood and plastic wood simulation that the Suburban did not have. 2006 Escalade interior 2006 Chevrolet Suburban Still take the Escalade features over the Suburban. At least GM attempted to give it a luxury feel where Toyota and their cheap hybrid auto did not try to do this.

My SS requires the whole front facia be removed to replace headlights and turn signal lights, Crappy design from an engineering point of view when they could have made it easy from the engine bay with just a little thinking. I believe this happens due to separate engineering teams that do not communicate with other teams. Just given connection points and they build their module to attach to the connection points. Sad really. In regards to independent service businesses for ICE auto's. I have a friend Tony who owns his own Transmission / Auto repair shop. Started as only a transmission differential focused business but he has had to expand to covering everything as he himself has said he does not see independent auto shops being around in 25 years. He has pushed his own kids to get college educated and skills in areas that will have career growth rather than learning business to take over his business. Tony said he see's himself 20 more years in it before selling it off. As such, his daughter is in college now for a medical degree and his son started this year in computer science. His son still loves to be in the shop and work on auto's but Tony has him enjoying it as a hobby rather than a career. Interesting times we live in for sure.

Yes you are right, my Escalade is based on the Suburban. Yet unlike the suburban it does have many features that the Chevrolet Suburban and even the GMC Yukon XL did not have. Plus I saved a bunch on it when I traded my wives CTS in on it. So far, not a bad investment considering that my Escalade ESV Platinum 2006 has 153,257 miles and is still like new, drives like new and I suspect will be with me for many more years even when I get an EV, I do not see myself getting rid of the Escalade any time soon. Some vehicles are just made better than others and in this case, the last year of my Platform seems to be the best year built yet. 14 years and going strong and nothing broken or not working right. Hard to pass up on that kind of Reliability.

Yes, would totally agree with you on this, Sadly my wives youngest sister bought one. Had to fold up my body and legs to get in. No one could sit behind me, Head was hitting the roof and it was the worst wine noise that even the radio could not hide. Sadly, Mia is a badge snob and she thinks Lexus builds the best. Even when I pointed out it was a rebadge of a Toyota and she could save money buying the Toyota badged version, she went off on an Ignorance of Lexus is luxury, better than anything Toyota builds and not part of Toyota. My wife was cracking up laughing at her. We warned her not to buy it, she still did and it is a shame.

Poorly Managed Companies

Caddy is HOT! Bolt Conversion makes so much sense to me. Inner City people would love to have a 2 person option like this to haul stuff. I think plenty of Market potential.

Seeing this does make me wonder if they are not trying to force out senior high paid pilots to reduce costs that will end up in some form of Bonus to the CEO. Of the $220 million saved if they agree to the 10% cut in salary, the CEO did take a 10% cut in salary this year, but was paid with bonus over $8.7 million in 2019 and with the Pandemic this year agreed with the board to a pay of 5.85 million in 2020 according to Dallasnews.com story. Southwest had one of the biggest profits of all airline carriers last year in 2019 at $22.4 Billion in Revenue with $2.3 Billion profit according to the news story I found on my phone as I type. Why does the Board and CEO follow other companies and forgo their salary to keep everyone employed. This is what I Love about Dell Tech as the Board and Executive mgmt. forego their 2020 salary to keep everyone employed even the facilities workers / Janitors who just keep cleaning the empty buildings over and over. Everyone job was protected by this act of giving up their wages to ensure we stay employed. I wish more businesses who have wealthy executive mgmt. teams would look to the short term loss of ones wages when they have far more money than us rank and file and ensure keeping everyone employed. I do think the Airlines will have to eventually reduce headcount to break even, but during this pandemic, asking for the lowest paid people to take massive cost cuts while executives still bring in bank is just crazy. Want Loyalty, want hard workers, then Hey Southwest CEO, Give up your salary to along with the Board to keep everyone employed during this pandemic and down turn in travel. Focus them on cleaning and improving processes and the areas you use to conduct business. Bet the rank and File would have great cost saving ideas on how to process freight and people better due to actually having to work it every day compared to some analyst sitting in an office at the HQ building.

Wonder if he edited the video showing he was going over 90 MPH at the beginning as that would be reckless driving. So many questionable things. Nice sounding guy, but come on, responsibility is there for him. Interesting posts, thanks for posting.

That is a Fat Squirrel. Wishing your friend with the Australian cattle dog all the best. Great dogs, but very high strung and energetic. They need room to run. I know this as my other sister has one with freaking crazy light blue eyes and that dog runs all over the house and their yard. Wish I could bottle the energy as that dog bread is bred to run big time. Your Troop of dogs are looking good Robert! Lovely, Simply Loverly. Question for you Yoda of Old Metal. Did Cadillac ever have this kind of Hood Ornament? I have looked and did not find any, but these are sexy as hell and wish more auto's would have them. Selfie time I say!

I am currently totally loving the Labradoodle. Soft, does not shed, good personality and hypo allergenic if you have friends with allergies. Great over all medium size dog. My sister and her partner are going to get two of them. They spent the day with this lovely Labradoodle who is now owned by one of their friends. This was at 6 weeks old during the summer.

I totally agree, that UX250h is a POS auto and I truly believe due to it being in California for years before going nationally is the last of the compliance auto's still being sold. But it has the stupid L on the front end so badge snobs buy it, but it really is a UGLY SPUD as you say. Cramped, not comfy and NOT LUXURY! Totally agree with you here.

Lexus has been lagging behind the EV race as they focused on their Prius Hybrid Powertrain going into everything they could. Now we have this. This is an update to Toyota's EV announcement last year with their new platform reveal at the end and the Tease of Toyota's new EV SUV that will come out next year. Interesting 13 minutes.

Everyone Loves a Woody!

The State of Georgia and yes , the same state that is being contested by the current president of the US has opened the first Solar Roadway in the US. Located in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, Peachtree Corners using Wattway solar panels by French road-builder Colas Group has installed as a real world test panels over the whole road. They are installed on top of the existing road surface and provides comparable levels of Grip to conventional paving. This is an 18 mile road and will help to prove a better way of economical, environmentally safe helping to reduce emissions. This is one of the largest outside of France road installations as testing will allow long term viability by seeing how it holds up to Semi Trucks on down to Motorcycles. The road way is expected to produce 1,300 kilowatts-hours of electricity which will be used by a FREE Level 2 Charging station at the City Hall and open to all EV drivers who wish to use it. An energy storage system is also installed to insure charging is available for nighttime use. Georgia gets first solar roadway in the US (greencarreports.com)

Very Cool, the First fully EV Charging station with Rapid Charge terminals has opened in the UK. This is the first of 100 new EV focused charging stations that will open over the next 5 years and the roofing is all solar to support the charging as well as pulling power from Green energy sources. Cool fact to quote the writeup: There is also a 6 MWh battery onsite which helps to balance the local energy grid and shift energy to periods when it is more valuable. For example, on windy winter nights the battery can store enough energy to drive 24,000 miles in electric vehicles the following day, helping to maximize the value of renewable energy resources, stabilise the grid, and keep prices low. UK opens first fully electric vehicle service station, powered by solar, today - Electrek

A Comic for Computer Nerds. Gotta say, this is the ultimate year of quotes for 2020 Pandemic!

? All the Atheists I know either have dogs, a far superior pet or none at all like me!

I love skiing all days even what we call Blue Bird days like this weekend. Lucky, snow returns tomorrow and normal cold rain for Seattle. I would miss skiing if I could not do it. Just great freedom. The ski resorts do say you can put down your face covering during the run, but must have it on at all times when in the resort area, lift areas and at the top of the lift areas. I see no difference in breathing, so I just keep it on during the run. Warmer face. I do look forward to some powder days. But for the first time up, great to get back in the grove on a sugar run day with Blue Bird conditions. The mountains are amazing from the runs. This is from ridding up Mills Creek, a 3 person chair normally. The views are like this from all over the mountain. This is from the Top of Khers Chair overlooking the lower resort area. Mountain at the Top Left corner is Cowboys Ridge, Single to triple black diamond, but amazing on a powder day. Beginners and intermediate is at the bottom and to the right in the photo. Map of the base ski area, more on the back side. From last year, it is supposed to be like this, this coming weekend.

Redoing the master bed room so ran to home depot for some supplies and found the following F250.

OUCH ,something is up at Ford. Bummer for the Contractors. https://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2020/12/ford-motor-co-cuts-contract-workers-effective-immediately-ends-buyout-period-for-salaried-employees/ Ski season started and I got 10 runs in, 18 miles covered. Safety was top notch and you have to be fully covered at all times.

An oldie but a goodie!

I think there is also the East coast to west coast differences as the Cadillac dealers here are all stand alone in western Washington. Saw a mega Chevrolet, Buick, GMC Cadillac dealer in Spokane but the Cadillac still had it's own sales store compared to the other 3 were in the same building. I honestly think it is good to pare down the underperforming Cadillac dealers.

Stock Market crash

Yet while you have not replaced your blade for a sharp one, oil change or spark plugs, plenty of people do that annually or bi-annually as there would not be the home call service business. If these people broke down what they pay for gas, maintenance, etc. and compared it to the higher cost EV mowers which are significantly quieter also, they pay for themselves in the savings long term. I agree it is great that we have choices. I for one look at how long I usually hold onto a tool and use it and the costs to maintain it and I see savings on top of not having to wear ear muffs for the ICE noise. On top of this the average person does not do the maintenance you do or others here do on their auto's, tools, etc. Most people like @A Horse With No Name gain some benefit from doing their yard work. I enjoy the workout, but I am glad to not have to mess with fueling, oil, etc. You stated a $1000 for an EV Mower, I actually looked it up and paid $550 for mine and 5 years with zero maintenance other than some very cheap electric charging to run and it still is going strong. I say the EV mower is better than a cheap $200 ice mower IMHO. I also think we will go to more demo models at the dealers and more ordering what one wants than to have a ton of lot inventory. The internet and Amazon is making people re-think how they shop.