PurdueGuy

That buick outsold Hummer and Saab is duh, and it's not really surprising that they outsold Saturn. The only one that kinda surprised me is that they outsold Cadillac.

Keep in mind that businesses in China are not like businesses in the US. The lines between a business entity and the gov't is very blurred sometimes. That said, there's nothing sensitive that they are gaining from this AFAIK. After all, all that Hummer sells currently is the H2 and H3, so wow, they know about a boxy Tahoe and a full cabin Colorado. Whoopie! It's kind of a shame to see it go to them, but yet... I'm having trouble caring a whole lot I guess.

Not like this affects the construction of HMMWVs. Hummer just had the rights to market/sell the civilian version of it. Seeing as how they're no longer selling the H1, I would doubt that the Hummer sale gives the Chinese any access or rights to sell the HMMWV, and it certainly doesn't affect the construction of them for the US armed forces. There's nothing for AM General to "want back", since they didn't start Hummer - GM created it (the brand).

This feels like an appropriate link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fULQ6Ql-5Q

Yup, they definitely want to keep their lead acid battery plant chugging along. Except the Prius uses NiMH. Fail.

So yeah, it pretty definitely looks like these trannys have a belt inside them. Am I the only one that finds that a little concerning? Is this a maintenance item? Is this going to be the first thing to break on the trans? Belts can be made very strong, but considering timing belt lifespans, I have conerns about the lifespan of this trans belt. Is it in air, or in fluid?

In 4 years? You'll probably be about ready for some new tires, and the shop had better be balancing the wheels with your new tires... if you shop around, having wheels balanced isn't really that much money. I paid $10/wheel for mount & balance a couple weeks ago.

Ok, if I recall correctly, the original question goes something like this: the conveyor will automatically increase in speed to instantly compensate for any forward motion of the airplane, right? If an airplane is sitting on a platform, engines off, no brakes activated, and you move the platform, does the airplane move with the platform? Yes, unless the platform moves out from under it suddenly. Why? Because of friction in the bearings of the wheels. If you remove all friction from the equation, the inertia of the airplane would mean that the wheels, which have no friction except between the rubber and the platform, would rotate, and the plane would not move in spite of the platform moving. If you then apply those same assumptions (there is friction between the tire & surface, there is no friction in the bearings), then the movement of the conveyor has no bearing whatsoever on the motion of the body of the airplane. Thus, if another force is applied to the body from the plane's engine, it doesn't matter what the conveyor does, the plane will move forward. In (almost) real life, there is friction in bearings. So, if we assume that the conveyor has no limit on its acceleration, then the instant that the plane begins to move, the conveyor would instantaneously increase in speed to an infinite amount trying to counteract the movement of the plane, until the bearings simply exploded and the plane fell on the ground. Conclusion: the answer to this puzzle depends completely on how the puzzle is worded, and the assumptions you make, but in general, the force introduced into the system by the conveyor does nothing but spin the wheels, it does not move the body, and the plane will still take off.

Most of the typical Craftsman hand tools are still made in the US. Other Craftsman stuff is really spotty in that regard. I spent much of a day driving around town trying to find a vice that was made in the US. No luck, including Craftsman. Why should I pay $50 for a Craftsman vice that's made in China when I can get a comparable one for $15?

I have a mix of hand tools, but it's primarily Craftsman. Sadly, I more & more find myself buying tools from Harbor Freight, because either Sears doesn't have the tool I want, or the price difference is beyond reason. I don't mind paying a premium for Craftsman, or any american-made hand tool for that matter, but when it is sometimes literally ten times more money for the Craftsman, and half the time I end up finding a "made in china" label somewhere on it anyway, I have a hard time justifying giving my money to Sears.

Another good point, and the same thing applies to other materials. GM has stated that they have some really good plastics that they could use to make things like body panels, and even hinges and other parts that are traditionally thought of as needing to be metal. And as the body panel thing goes, the materials don't have as notable expansion/contraction properties as the polymer used for Saturn body panels, so they could eliminate one of the top reasons the Saturn polymer panels were phased out - panel gaps.

I fully agree. I'm not anti hybrid, but I do recognize that they have an inherent higher purchase and maintenance cost, and lightweight materials should only have the higher purchase cost.

pretty tasteful wheel, nice.

I guess I just wonder what the result would be if GM purposefully made a car lightweight, including the use of like $1500 of carbon fiber or similar material. At least with carbon fiber, there is a "cool" factor involved that's previously only been in high-end sports cars and the like.

Hasn't GM had some supplier issues with the batteries for the BAS I? If the issues are sorted out, and they can get the volume, it would be an interesting idea. Personally, though, I would rather have a car that gets awesome gas mileage because that extra cost was invested in some better, safer, and more lightweight materials. Put the cars on a diet, GM!

Very nice.

Gotta love some of the crazy stuff that comes out of the 24 hours of LeMons. lol

That dealer must be in Vegas or something, eh? How long does the buyer get to keep the stripper? lol

Not if their 6spds are better than the competitions. (Which I have no idea if they are...)

This make anyone else chuckle? Have they even updated the Town Car within the last 5 years in any meaningful way? Seems like a "wins because there's little to no competition" award...

No rev limiter. My car used to be an automatic, but I swapped it to a manual, but left the auto PCM in place. The result is a check engine light and no rev limiter. Now the decision I have to make is if I'll take the time to put in a manual PCM for the rev limiter, or just put in a shift light, or do both.

Well, I went searching for Fiesta pricing info. The only thing I can find is that "it will cost less than the Focus." So, the question is how much less? Focus starts at over $15k. Aveo starts in the mid-$12k's. So, with the Fiesta in that range, it may be a couple grand more money than the Aveo, but I suppose even at that they will be somewhat competitors. Still, there will always be people that just want the cheapest car they can buy, no matter how much of a POS it may or may not be.

I can't imagine the Aveo & Fiesta being direct competitors. Isn't the fiesta a more premium vehicle?

wait a minute... did I see a transmission BELT? Also, some nice Caddy shots in there.

Not sure I would brag about getting more than 100k miles out of a vehicle. It's honestly not worth commenting about the life of a vehicle until it's past 200k, and that's still not saying much. 250k+ starts getting impressive, 300k+ is true bragging rights. IMO, if a vehicle can't last more than 200k miles with only a couple minor repairs (like an alt) and regular maintenance, that's pretty sad.