Oracle of Delphi

I'm glad your dad is fine, congrats on the job offer ...

Now that they have the Government money and bankruptcy court has cleared their debts, let's watch and see if they sell all those brands. I bet something comes up where GM changes their mind because a deal couldn't be struck, and they keep the brands they were going to sell at the last minute ...

If they do, just NUKE their a$$ ...

You have a friend besides me? I may have to go, just to see this poser ... I will be in Delaware then too

You shouldn't say that about Z28, how rude ... If I were Z28 I'd have a block party in front of your house with fat belly dancing women dancing on your lawn and signing We Are the World ...

Well you have to remember, there won't be Pontiac in those price ranges now, so Buick has room to slide down a bit ...

Child's play, come to the Autobahn ...

I ride this trail when I'm home

Gungan

Nicholas, less BMW more bike. Your Gludious is looking Maximus ...

July 4, 2009 - 12:01 am ET MILAN (Reuters) -- CEO Sergio Marchionne's immediate product plans for Chrysler Group could be limited to weeding out weaker models and tweaking prices as he gears up to launch new designs within two years. Marchionne, who also heads Fiat S.p.A., took the wheel at the struggling U.S. car maker in June after sealing a deal for the Italian company to take a 20 percent stake in return for getting Chrysler back to health with the help of Fiat technology. He said on June 26 he hoped to have "at least a road map from a product standpoint" in 14 days, and on Wednesday said he wanted to decide what to do with Chrysler's Dodge and Fiat's Alfa Romeo brands by the end of this month. "Marchionne might have to make some very tough decisions about which models to kill" in the short-term, said Adam Jonas, auto analyst at Morgan Stanley. "He should talk to his surviving dealers." For Chrysler, North America is its most important market, with only 12 percent of sales this year expected to come from outside the United States, Mexico and Canada. Its Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands are well-known but well-worn. The company acknowledged in its February restructuring plan that it had to improve quality and fuel efficiency as well as "establish a more customer-relevant portfolio." 'Bridge solution' "Chrysler models are old and they have little appeal on the market," said Giuseppe Berta, professor of contemporary history at Milan's Bocconi University. "Marchionne has to work out over the summer a bridge solution which will allow him to get to 2011," he said. Analysts say new models for Chrysler will take about two years to be ready for the market. Models which could be dropped in the short-term include the Chrysler Sebring, the Jeep Compass and Patriot, while the Dodge Caliber could be either scrapped or re-engineered. Chrysler is likely to sell under 1 million vehicles in the United States this year, Berta said, compared with just over 2 million in 2007, before the global credit crunch choked demand. Its efforts to rustle up buyers are also hampered by its own financial problems which triggered the elimination of about 25 percent of its U.S. dealerships and damaged confidence. Chrysler is "completely at a standstill," said Berta. "It needs a push." Cinquecento vs. Mini Fiat, for its part, expects to produce its Cinquecento city car -- a rival to the Mini -- in the United States starting in 2011, and use Chrysler's dealer network to sell the car. It could also sell its Alfa Romeo MiTo model and a new Milano model to be unveiled next March. It hopes to rival BMW's Mini sales in U.S. cities such as New York and on the east and west coasts. Mini sold about 54,000 vehicles in the U.S. last year, and analysts said with a much larger dealer network and a cheaper price, Fiat could be targeting up to 80,000. Longer-term, Marchionne needs to introduce new models for Chrysler. A possible recovery in the U.S. car market and restructuring could deliver him the breathing space he needs. "You've resized your business to be profitable at 10 million (total U.S. annual car sales) ... and all of a sudden your market is at 13 million, then you make money," said Philippe Houchois at UBS. Jonas said going through bankruptcy with cuts to dealer networks and revised labor agreements meant "there's the potential for Chrysler and GM to come out of this very aggressively, luring the best engineers, best managers." A Reuters poll of analysts found a median expectation for U.S. auto sales of 9.81 million vehicles on an annualized basis -- far below the 13.7 million rate in June 2008. In addition, around 12-13 million cars are being scrapped in the United States a year -- effectively reducing cars on the road. U.S. support Houchois said Chrysler was also likely to find support from the U.S. administration and therefore "this business is nowhere near running out of cash." On Wednesday, Marchionne said that Chrysler was "still burning cash, but it's slowed down by far," adding that his priority was to "stop the bleeding." Two years hence, Marchionne is unlikely to have scrapped an entire brand, analysts say -- although he could push marketing of models instead of weaker brands like Chrysler, much as the Cinquecento has shed its Fiat tag. The Jeep brand, for example, has great recognition and image but its products, apart from the flagship Wrangler and Cherokee models, are considered by analysts as lacking appeal. "Jeep is one of these under-utilized assets where the brand has phenomenal recognition but the product is average ... it would be a shame not to try to do a better job with the brand," Houchois said. Fiat could boost the Jeep brand's overseas sales through its dealership networks, especially in South America and other emerging markets. Chrysler itself had planned a new Jeep Grand Cherokee and a new Chrysler 300 for 2010 Link: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...373359377818692

The front license plate takes away from the Solstice's looks and form ...

See, I think that sounds very masculine, so GM should have used it on a GMC model, behold the GMC Masturbater ...

That's next week ... :rotflmao:

Galaxy

Psssst, I'll let you in on a secret, don't tell Camino, but I love EP IIs ...

I always enjoy your pics and videos ted, how do you keep the video cam so steady, I look at my vids and you would think I was in Cali in the middle of an earthquake ...

Are you a man or a mouse? Declare your independence from your wife on this Independence Day!

WOW, you have a humongous back yard ...

By Jodi Xu If you are going to name a bank, it’s gotta be something big and strong like “Security First Trust and Federal Reserve.” And you have to name a bank that because nobody’s gonna put their money in “Fred’s Bank.” “Hi, I’m Fred, I have a bank. You got $1500? …ahhh, I’ll put here…in my white suit.” Steve Martin At a time when banks have acted more like customers’ antagonists rather than allies, one bank is trying to prove otherwise, at least with its new name. Today, GMAC Bank, owned by GMAC LLC, switched its name to Ally Bank. It is a reasonable approach, given the word’s meaning–that of supporter, assistant or helper. And GMAC has been so mired in troubles that a name change makes sense. But will ‘Ally’ do the trick? “The name itself is great. It simply said ‘I want to work with you and help you,’” said Rick Barrera, brand consultant and author of “Overpromise and Overdeliver: The Secrets of Unshakable Customer Loyalty.” But years of experience with banks has made many customers wary, Barrera said. On a day-to-day level, customers have grown fed up with hidden checking-account fees and elaborate mortgage fine print. That doesn’t even begin to reflect anger over the huge bank bailout and financial crisis. “It’s like walking down the dark alley with your arms up,” Barrera said. “This is why we are building a better bank.” Ally’s freshly revamped Web site said this morning. The name change had been mulled since June, as the company tried to appeal to a broader range of customers. “We want a real word that powerfully portrays who we want to be,” said Diane Morais, head of deposit and innovation of GMAC Financial Services, which will keep its name. Its mission, according to the Web site: “A bank that values integrity as much as deposits. A bank that will always be open, accountable, and honest. Yes, honest. We won’t deal in half-truths, kindatruths, or truths only buried in fine print. That’s because we don’t have anything to hide. We’re always going to give it to you straight.” The campaign raises the stakes for GMAC. “It’s a great promise, but the question is whether it can deliver,” Barrera said. “If they are able to live up to the promise, they will win huge market share very soon, especially in a down market when people are really watching their money.” In order to build customer loyalty, Morais said, the bank has introduced round-the-clock customer service, a no-penalty certificate of deposit and new explanations of financial terms — such as compounded interest – in very simple language. What happens if Ally falls short? “A brilliant marketing strategy with a great name like this will blow up in their face. People will be like ‘Is this what they claim of being an ally?’” Barrera said. Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/05/15/bye-...nk-work-or-not/

Automakers will bring European designs to U.S., and stay with gas engines. Expect these new models to hit the road in the next five years. Everybody knows the auto world has shifted. The trick is divining which brands have got the gumption to last. Now, with President Obama's new efficiency standards requiring a fleet-wide fuel economy average of 35.5 miles per gallon, automakers have their work cut out for them. Domestic carmakers in particular are gearing up to battle forthcoming offerings from new-to-the-U.S.Fiat, with its diminutive 55.5-mile-per-gallon Fiat 500, and Chinese newcomer BYD, maker of the staid hybrid-electric F3DM sedan. Motor City had better get cracking. It takes four years to produce a market-ready vehicle, and a typical lifecycle for one model is seven years. While we wait to see what brands emerge victorious, Honda's mod CR-Z and Ford's "eco-boosted" Euro models point to the types of cars we can expect by 2014. Just don't get your hopes up for lots of choices when it comes to plug-in cars. Automakers insist there's still much to improve about the humble combustion engine, and they plan to eek out all the improvement they can get. Tom Plucinsky, a spokesman for BMW, says the company will bring a gasoline-powered and highly efficient X1 compact SUV to market by 2014. "There's no breakthrough," Plucinsky says. "It's all little things that can add up. We've made big advances over the last five years or so in the efficiency of the gasoline engine, but we think that there's another 10 percent there." BMW will find that 10 percent by using smaller (read: lighter), forced-induction engines that generate more power. (Plucinsky says naturally aspirated engines will be relatively nonexistent by 2014). Ford and Mercedes have also said they'll bring 4-cylinder, turbo-charged engines to the U.S. in the next several years. Audi has joined the light-engine surge as well, committing to building a next-generation S5 that weighs hundreds of pounds less than the current version. Audi's Bradley Stertz says advances in aluminum construction will lighten its load, making it more fuel-efficient. In the meantime, Americans can expect a trickle of vehicles from afar. Italian-run Fiat and Alfa Romeo will likely have vehicles in U.S. showrooms by 2014. But the real news lies further east: China. At the Detroit Auto Show Chinese automakers Brilliance and BYD ("Build Your Dreams") showed cars that could eventually reach the states, perhaps branded under a different name. Geely and Chery are other Chinese automakers with ideas for expansion outside the East. Lincoln Merrihew, senior vice president of business solutions for market research firm TNS, says he expects a China-made car to hit in five years or less. "It'll be a mixture of capabilities and bravado that will determine who comes in under their own flag," Merrihew says. Asia leads the green-power front. Nissan is testing battery-charging networks in Arizona, saying an unnamed electric vehicle will go on sale by late 2010. Toyota says it will sell one million gas-electric hybrids per year during the 2010s; Honda President Takeo Fukui has repeatedly said his company is most-heavily endorsing hydrogen technology. Still, no one technology has emerged the clear winner. Sara Pines, a spokeswoman for Honda, says the company is experimenting with several possible solutions. Others say the as-yet undetermined carbon-emission standards in California will largely determine how automakers move forward. That uncertainty has basically created a level playing field. Now it'll come down to whether the upstarts can hang with the big boys. Links: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30944610/ns/business-autos/

Thanks Z, I tested 3 different sizes, and they all worked ...

Well Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska, that should get things started there ...

You do know he lives in Amish country, how wild could it be? They don't even have electricity there ...

It did smart at the time, and I did have other issues because so much fat from the bone marrow got into my blood stream ... But time and good drugs heal all wounds ... Besides it's fun to make the metal detectors go off all over the world's airports when I travel now ... The Borg don't have anything on me when it comes to implants ...