G. David Felt

In Seattle for some weird reason, woman in their 40's usually Vegan are the most common buyers. The Vegan group here at work all own them. It is a very interesting group of people.

Interesting read on GM's 9 speed and the clicking sound they make. https://gm-techlink.com/?p=11283 Weird, but I see no reason in this day and age for a transmission to make a clicking sound.

This is very cool read on how JEEP is planning to make the Gladiator stand out in the crowd starting with the removable doors. https://www.autonews.com/future-product/jeep-gladiators-conquest-plan-stand-out-crowd I had no idea that in the US, 1,400 trucks are sold a day here. WOW are we Truck Crazy!

Seems he is back in the News and the Security Exchange is investigating as Nissan paid $601,000 for his kids to go to Stanford. This is the same school at the front of college bribes for admission scandal that is hitting the news. https://www.autonews.com/executives/nissan-said-have-paid-stanford-tuition-ghosns-children Seems allot of unusual perks were given to Ghosn that are now coming to light. From Luxury homes to a Nissan paid wedding at Versailles which was a Marie Antoinette themed wedding for his kid. These perks make one really wonder about the abuse by CEO's of a companies money for their own personal family gain.

This brings up one of my biggest concerns I have noticed in the overall auto industry on the ASE certification. That is how does one troubleshoot a problem versus just being a certified parts replacement person. Growing up with a father that had an Auto repair business, my dad pounded into me that you need to always think about what caused the issue and if it is a sign of something bigger going on. Just do not take the easy way out to replace a part and the customer is back a month later or 6 months. As such, I tend to troubleshoot my auto issues first and investigate it before I take it to the dealership to do the grunt work of repairing it. That in and of itself could also be a reason I have not really ever had a problem with the dealership. I tend to spend some time on what I believe the problem is and still ask them to do a complete check to try and insure I have not missed anything. Specialty tools being what they are, it has become more and more that it is not worth my time to do the repairs compared to a competent dealership / repair shop.

I just look for the positive side of life all the time, no need to waste emotion and energy on human error that can be easily corrected. Now if the repair was say a brake job and the whole assembly came off causing big damage to my auto, then hell ya I would be pissed and probably explode if they did not fix it. GM has always been good about taking care of the part failures and making it right to me. Just how I look at life, my Wine Glass is always half full with Chocolates on the side!

SMART Cars were a joke, premium fuel required for subpar fuel economy. Does not matter that they built a cage that could stay together when hitting a cement wall at 70mph, the human was still hamburger. Yea, time for Smart to Die and go to the history books in the Sky. Same place Fiat needs to go and Alfa should have remained.

Yup, the temp service guy put my auto down for a regular oil change not looking at my history that Randy always makes sure I get my Mobile 1. Even then they changed it out and all was good. So Human error on the Temp person, not the regular service. Human error / mistakes does happen. I still say this was a good experience as the dealership took care of me. Some could dwell on the dealer making a mistake, but if they did not take care of you, then that is an even bigger evil. My dealership took care of me as it was their mistake. All is good.

I remember coding on my Pet and saving it all to cassette. I do have to admit, while I never dealt with punch cards and the nightmare if you dropped them of getting them back in order. My first coding was on an HP server that used a Ribbon punch programming methode. It was crazy how big a reel one could get depending on how you coded your program.

Equally as happy, just had my one on one with the boss and now I am on par for the industry position I am in. Part of how Dell does things over EMC where EMC paid lower but gave a bigger bonus. Dell pays on industry par but with a little smaller bonus. Yet having a biweekly bigger paycheck is nice.

Laugh all you want So far my experiences have been positive for the most part that I can remember. But then I go in and set my expectations up front. So far so Good in life! U'mmmmm ? What you talk'in about Willis?

I do not know about that, last fall took the Escalade in for a routine oil change and a temp was there while my service advisor was out on PTO for a few weeks. They ended up doing a normal oil change and the engine just chattered and was so noisy, took it back and they double checked and sure enough wrong stuff. Once the Synthetic was back in, motor was puring smooth and quiet. Now I always double check that the Paperwork says Mobil 1. I think the newer auto's tolerances really require what synthetic does to the motor. I can say it also extends life real well as the 5.9L V8 in my daughters 1999 Durango sure is running well at 250,000 miles for a well used 4x4.

Yup hoping for the same thing here at Dell. This week is the 1 on 1 with the management and you find out how you performed and what you get. Hoping for a good one too.

We would always be happy to have you in Seattle, one big multicultural melting pot of friendly liberal people.

Will he go back to Tesla Roadster 2.0?

Hi Robert, I can honestly say that while I have never worked there, it is an amazing company that one needs to be single to work for. Single people who sign on usually get either a signing bonus or stock grants that mature over 4 years. Depending on the group you work in, it can either be the traditional 40 to 60 hrs a week or 80 plus. Decent pay and a big pay out at the end of 4 years, though Amazon is famous for adding stocks to keep you there longer. The reason I say single is that I have a better work life balance at Dell than I would at Amazon. Every person I know that is / was married either left and came back here to save their marriage or ended up divorced and focused on their career and the money they could make. All depends on what you want to achieve. Amazon makes life very easy with their food stores all over the city here where you have the app on your cell phone and walk in, browse, grab what you want and walk out, no checkouts, pretty cool weird shopping experience. They also have everything in house from dentist, doctors, dry cleaning, etc. Amazon very much like Google, want you to be at your desk working all the time, so make everything else very easy for their workers. Amazon is a BIG BIG BIG Dog loving company, they built dog parks for their employees to play with their dogs during breaks around the city here and you can have them at your desk. Dogs are 6,000 strong at the HQ here and have benefits on par to humans. Crazy. https://www.geekwire.com/2017/photos-amazon-opens-dog-park-next-spheres-employees-public/ https://www.thisdogslife.co/amazons-dog-friendly-headquarters-6000-pups-strong/ https://blog.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/how-much-does-amazon-love-dogs-just-ask-one-of-the-6-000-pups-that-work-here Dog lover like you would love it there. My son's girlfriend works there and has a decent work life balance, but I know it is her group she is in. So take it with a grain of salt, Amazon could be the best company you ever worked for or it could be hell, heck even somewhere in between. Good luck if you decide to talk to them.

Synthetic versus traditional oil blend, I thought Mobile 1 says the same thing but ok, synthetics versus traditional oil blends.

Yea, I do not mind the loss in HP, but the Torque I thought was not that great.

I had 3 paper routes to support my video game addiction. Yet with that, I still went to medical school first before going back to school after a personal tragedy happened and getting a degree in Sales and Marketing and then deciding to take my hacker fascination with computers as my career. Been in storage ever since from Digital Computer Corporation to Compaq, to Microsoft, to way too many startups to name, then Legato, bought out by EMC, left to go back to Startups, then got bought out by Brocade, back to startups, then to bought out by EMC, stayed, bought out by Dell and still here. LOL Love my Storage Job. Course I can say I am happy to have been a part of bringing you the Cloud. If you lose something, not my problem

My cadillacs are like that, never use a drop of oil either. Usually once a year on Mobil 1. Runs so quiet with Mobile 1 compared to Oil.

This is where an electric motor assist would make sense I think. Not a pure hybrid with 30 to 50 miles of pure electric range, but to take a page out of F1 racing where an electric motor using a super-capacitor to give a jolt of power when needed to goose the gander. A well defined driving auto like the Miata or BRZ would benefit by a few second boost of power I think.

www.motor1.com has published that Ford has shown at the recent dealer meeting a 2 door Ford Bronco and stated a 4 door will also be available. Story states that the bronco is a body on frame solution that will be positioned to compete against Jeep Wrangler. https://www.motor1.com/news/315237/four-door-ford-bronco-rumor/ Story also states that the dealers got to see the new Mustang inspired EV CUV. Very cool if true:

Seems many Analyst are seeing a bear market and saying that Tesla is heading to a 52 week low and as such are cutting forecast for Tesla 3 car. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/teslas-stock-is-tanking-cramer-and-other-experts-react.html https://www.investing.com/equities/tesla-motors-news Seems from Fortune, Blomberg, investors news, cramer and more that we are headed for a bear market.

Sad that you have had bad experiences as I have had nothing but the opposite and when my transmission in my old 94 GMC suburban failed just at the end of the warranty period, GMC replaced it no questions asked. My Cadillac dealership rocks, have had zero issue with them taking car of all my auto's regardless of which GM brand it has been. I find that 3rd party mechanics are terrible, even when ASE certified. I trust them far less than the dealerships. Here where GM gives lifetime on their repairs, I would rather go to the dealership than a third party shop even when they are cheaper. Been burned by poor cutting corner mechanics a few times that took for ever to get properly fixed. Rather trust the OEM for repairs.

Today, this morning at the office: