CARBIZ

There was a show on CNBC last week, entitled 'Saving General Motors.' It was an interesting piece. Nothing new, but well-balanced. They interviewed Chinese people in China who were buying a Chevy and asked why they had chosen Chevrolet. The response was that the American manufacturer has the proven history and the quality. I had a good laugh on that one. Funny thing is, with over 20% of the population in the Greater Toronto Area being Asian, why do they suddenly snap up Japanese cars once they are on this side of the ocean? What gets lost in the translation? Their kin in China seem to want to buy 'foreign,' but once here, they won't buy 'domestic.' Is that what passes as logic these days?

Are you kidding me? Canada has 1/3 of the world's fresh water. Nearly half the world's potash. Nickel, copper, iron. The coal deposits in Pennsylvania. As much oil is locked in the tarsands as in Saudi Arabia. California and Florida alone could feed North America. Why would North America need the rest of the world? For what? I have always been 'free trade,' but we are not seeing that. This market meltdown was not supposed to be possible. But it is. Country after country is NATIONALIZING their banks. I would rather pay TWICE the amount for a refrigerator that was built here because it supports the jobs here. Seriously, what BS Economics 101 mandates that lower prices are inevitably a good thing? We have been buying 'cheap' imported goods with money that we are borrowing from the same emerging markets that are jobs are going to. Isn't that a recipe for insanity? Remember, those same analysts who have been shoving these theories down are throats are the same ones who have their money invested overseas. Like the assclown who ran Lehman Brothers into the ground: he 'only' made 180 million last year because his options decreased from $350 million. BOO HOO! He is feeling pain like the rest of us because he 'lost' $170 million ON PAPER. Since the TSX has lost nearly 40% of its value this year, can someone explain to me (without the gobbledy gook) where has this supposed 'money' gone? Is there some huge pile of cash under someone's mattress?

We're being told that GMAC's funds are drying up fast. If Cerebrus has access to cash, then that could be what 'Chrysler' brings to the table: a life line. Other than the minivan, there is nothing that Chrysler sells that I would want in my show room. I think most of this is smoke and mirrors. If GM hopes to pry any cash out of Washington, they need to make it look like they are exploring all options - even one as patently silly as merging with Chrysler. As has been said, we need fewer brands, not more; fewer dealerships, not more. Dammit, I am sick of having my throat cut by P-B-GMC dealers as it is. The last thing I need is the same rates/programs over at Dodge/Jeep.

:rotflmao: Exactly what I was thinking.

But whose job adds more 'value' to an economy: a banker on Wall Street or a guy turning a wrench making a washing machine? That is the rub: all of the job creation here in the past 15 years have been in the 'service sector,' which widely covers everything from the gal at Starbucks to an anaylst on Wall Street. I think we are seeing how ethereal these paper-pusher jobs truly are: they are mostly smoke and mirrors. A nation cannot eat paper. Globalization is great, but one has to assume all nations are on equal footing and have the same goals in mind. Anyone who believes that has been drinking their own bong water. Great nations need to maintain a degree of self-sufficiency. A North American Common Market could literally tell the rest of the world to f$#k off. We have everything we need right here. We don't need to drag it from half way around the world. The only reason globalization exists is because we are told that it is good for us. Good for who? The CEO of Coca Cola and ING Bank, to be sure - but to the common person? We are seeing the benefits of globalization right now. WE WERE LIED TO. This market collapse was not supposed to be possible, we were told. Well, boys and girls: fasten your seatbelts. You ain't seen nothing yet. Pretty soon we are going to look back at the early '80s as the good ol' days.

I had a son (mid-30s) and father (late '70s) on the lot today, looking at the Malibu. Son was unhappy. Why, I asked. Dad's '97 Cavalier is costing him money. It's a piece of junk. Really, I asked. What's the mileage: 160,000 MILES. WTF? Piece of junk? 12 Canadian winters? What's it worth, son asks. Are you kidding me? I retort. Not starting off on the right foot, I'd say. He wanted me to tell him it was worth $1,000, then added the imports hold their value better. Buddy, I replied, a 12 year old Camry with that kind of mileage would be worthless - don't fool yourself. Do you want the truth, or do you want me to blow sunshine up your skirt? I won them over with my charm - eventually, and they went off to drive a new VW, then a Fusion and came back to buy the Malibu. Small victories.

Yeah, well, things were a little tense in the Carbiz household last night: we have both our investments in the same funds, so I wasn't amused that by his cashing his in, my funds would drop even more. I guess he has seen this kind of thing in Brazil before and is a little 'gun shy.' Me, I figure the time to panic is over. The time to drink heavily is upon us. Gawd knows I can't afford coke any more....

And people accuse car salesmen of being crooks! Wouldn't it be nice if I could write my own deals, send the credit app to my 'buddy' at the bank, loan my customer money for his car and his boat (on the same deal) and split the $5,000 commission, while neither his bosses or mine bother to oversee the deal? Why would they? They get paid on the 'bottom line,' too. It seems to me that some very simple, straight forward accounting rules were 'over looked.' There should be quite a few people in jail over this.

I just read today that Canada's banks were ranked safest in the world by the World Economic forum Sweden, Luxembourg, Australia and Denmark were next. Britain fell to 44th - behind El Salvador and Peru. Now THAT"s embarassing! The U.S. was 40th, with Germany at 39. EEK. I guess that's why my other half yanked all of his savings out of mutual funds and stuffed them under the mattress last night. :AH-HA_wink: Kind of a lumpy sleep.

Just like his TV show: full of laughs, but the shots are cheap. He's the Chamberlain of the car biz: lots of hot air, Brittanic arrogance but no substance. I"ve driven this convertible, and although I don't think it's Chrysler's best effort, it's not its worst either.

These vehicles (including the almost palatable Bravada) had the fugliest interiors in their class, almost out of the gate. These vehicles represent the worst of GM's old-think. They spent money on the drivetrains, the cool gizmos, the ride engineering, etc., but the interior fit and finish would have looked more at home in a Hyundai than a $40k vehicle. What's worse, they never bothered to fix it. Maybe in '01 they could have justified the cheap plastics and sea-of-monotone-grey (or putrid brown) interiors, but 7 years later and it is the same ugliness. These trucks were passable at birth but are an embarassment today. I hope the Traverse can undo the damage done.

......... CHINA. With the treasury bills and dollars they are holding, they could probably buy California today.

I'm going to miss the Trailblazer.... NOT

Looks great. Now if I can only figure out how to pay the bills for 2 more years.........

Now you're talking! Although GATT would probably have a fit, a carbon tax in imported goods (to 'offset' the carbon emissions of the freighter that shipped the finished product half way around the world) would go a long way to curbing imports from Asia. I understand that under the Kyoto Accord, shipping was exempt! I wonder how that passed! If the ecoloonies who buy Priuses only understood the true environmental footprint of their precious car, assembled in Japan with parts and materials shipped from all over the world.

I have a Husky, so I don't need any more hair in the apartment - but thanks for asking! He caught many squirrels in his day, but at 12 1/2, his hunting days are over. He even went after a porcupine a few years back - that was a $200 trip to the vet.

QUOTE(capriceman @ Sep 30 2008, 11:31 AM) [snapback]432935[/snapback] dude how old are you? I don't know if your aware of this but there is better things than sex. From reading this thread you sound like you have an issue and its all you constantly think about. its like your stuck at 18 or something.

Don't be pissed - that's an old trick. At my old dealer we had a guy who would routinely do that: call people up and tell them he'd found a buyer for their trade at thousands higher than he had originally offered AFTER the customer told him they had already bought somewhere else. He used to laugh his ass off when he hung up. I was glad when they fired him.

+1 There are high rollers out there just itching to buy up banks and investment houses at distress-sale prices. As usual, we little people will pay the bill. Heads should roll over who was authorizing these ridiculous investment packages. It looks like a lot of people were just buying these investments without taking a peek at what they were actually buying! Every night when I go home I listen to my other half bitching about how much money we have lost in the past few months. He already took everything he had in Latin America funds and moved them (at quite a loss) about 2 weeks ago. I wish I had, when I looked today my investment there is down 39% since March. Still, I keep trying to tell him that we need to just sit tight and ride this out.

The best costume I ever saw was a young woman wearing a black body suit with socks pinned all over her body. I noticed that none of the socks matched. I asked her what she was and she replied, "I'm the black hole where your socks go in the washer." Imagination: 100% Cost: very cheap. Saw a guy last year with his face cut through a very big book (it required a lot of tricky bracing on his shoulders that he cleverly concealed). Obviously: Facebook. Me, when I used to party on Halloween (in my much younger days) it was always an excuse to dress down. The best 'costume' I wore was a woman's slip and a mis-matched bikini top. I wasn't wearing any underwear and was somewhat horrified when a friend pointed out that due to the lights on the stage at the club, my thingy could be seen quite clearly through the slip while I was dancing. Well, truth be known, I was horrified for about a nanosecond. :AH-HA_wink:

+1 One thing that those who didn't live it don't understand is that a 83 hp, carburated 4-banger, mated to a 3 speed slushbox of the day (which is what MOST Americans and Canadians demanded), were fairly anemic to drive and not that great an improvement on fuel mileage. Of course the Japanese cars suffered the same fate, too, but far more of them were sold with 4 and 5 speed manual trannies that masked the horrid power of the smaller engines. Case in point, when my father traded in his '69 Chrysler 300 for a '76 Ford LTD, he was horrified at how much less power the vehicle had, yet the gas mileage wasn't significantly different. Detuned, more pollution control - Detroit began pissing off its loyal customers - especially those who didn't understand why their '83 Citation was gutless and underpowered, compared to the '72 Cutlass being traded in. When I drove my step-father's '79 Datsun 510 (with a 5 spd stick), it felt almost as peppy as my '67 Polara that had a 318, but the gas mileage was significantly better than my car. Then again, 12 years is a very long time in the car business! Still, Japanese cars didn't impress me much then - nor do they today.

Frankly, right now WallStreet scares me more than if I lived on a fault line, in a valley next to a flood-prone river, in tornado alley on a hurricane zone that was inside a volcano caldera. .... oh, and beside Godzilla's nesting ground.

Well, being a 'car guy' and having driven most of the cars we are yakking about when they were new, I have to say any of the Datsun Z cars are not in the same category as a Caddy of the same era. Even the Eldorado, after it's downsizing, catered to a different market. In my valet days, I much preferred the late '70s/early '80s DeVilles, Fleetwoods, etc over their contemporary MB or BMers. That was just my opinion then as a young 20-something who got to drive all the luxury marques of the day. Cadillac in particular made two big mistakes in that era: the 8-6-4 debacle and the horrid late '80s Devilles, etc. The other problem Cadillac began to have is not something that they had any control over - namely, not building cars that the self-appointed experts liked. Enzl, you yourself pointed out that the CTS-V is the only 'worthy' Cadillac these days. Says who? Who the f$%k needs a car that goes that fast and will attract that many tickets? Only a 60 year old will be able to afford the insurance - and those guys will just look silly in the car. Cadillac wasn't supposed to compete with Ferrari, but now they must to be considered 'worthy.' The trouble is the 30-something year olds write the car mags and they declare what they like or don't like. We can thank them for the past 15 years wasted on the pursuit of horsepower once again, instead of fuel mileage. And why wouldn't the Datsun 'Z' cars be more 'desirable' at the auctions? They didn't sell as many as Cadillac did. Any cursory glance on eBay will produce pages and pages of late '60s/early '70s Cadillacs still on the road and available - that alone will determine the ultimate selling price.

Well, I've driven them quite a bit and they are not that bad. I'd still rather have a Cobalt, but there are a lot of people (read: immigrants) who are predisposed to subcompacts, having come from Europe or South America where Aveo-sized cars are the norm. At this risk of beating a dead horse, the new Aveo is a step up from the old one. I wouldn't necessarily go as far as saying they are peppy, but they are not as embarassing as the Datsun 210s and Dodge Omnis of a generation ago.

It's always been amazing to me that Chrysler has been as successful as it has been, considering the spottiness of its quality during the '90s. One can only speculate the juggernaut Chrysler could have been if the Neon, cloud cars, original Ram, etc. had all been built better. In the mid-90s Chrysler was certainly building the best looking American cars on the road with some of the coolest looking interiors. It was only the horror stories from disgruntled owners (and easily stolen vehicles) that prevented Chrysler from becoming the jewel in Dailmler's crown. Or rather, if GM had had Gale on the team 15 years ago, perhaps Toyota would still be picking up market share crumbs off the floor.