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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
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Don't kill the messenger, okay guys? Here's a website that has been plastered on our local TV stations and in the newspapers---maybe you saw it about what has been happening about the topic. Hints: Alabama Gov. Shelby, a "Boy" and a "cott"--you do the math.We're all brothers here--north and south, east and west--and this is just a discussion amongst friends, so don't take this out of context or personally, 'cept for Kenny  |
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Not sure who shot the messanger, thought all were being treated with respect. Sort of the way liberals act. Your sin is bigger than their sin. Shucks might be a county music song, "your sin is bigger than my sin, and as the gov of Il. and ex Gov of NY have a duo. Then that probalby is a MoTown or Blues tune. Wait, Motown is singing the Blues, right?
How about a tax payers union? Makes more sense to me.
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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
Well, from what I hear parts of the Gov't are fretting on the ripple effects of the Big 3 taking the "splat" . A coworker has a contact at TACOM in Detroit (okay EW techinaly Warren) and was told they are worried about getting parts for DoD from some of the suppliers if the suppliers have to closeup because they also supply the B3 and only run small production for the Govt.
I've worked union and nonunion shops, and I see it as a fault of many parts, mainly union and the companies. I see a need for the union for ensureing fair equalitable treatment of the workers IF the company does not like to be fair. Not being a big history person , but fromwhat I see the unions pushed/demanded many companies too far, back in the late'60-'70's- early80's and created these'pockets' of "excesses" for the workers. Now the pendlum is swinging back from the companies and the work force use to the 'perks' are squaking and the companies can't fund those any longer. I fault the companies for bloating themselves into how many levels of management and VP's with assistant vp to the vp for widget x. Besides the B3 have not learned from history.. the 50's -foreign small cars the 70's again-foreign cars - sure the B3-4 followed and created some wonderful cars Corvette, Thunderbird, Nova, Tempest/GTO, Pacer, etc (okay I had the throw the Pacer in for a giggle). They where great cars for the original idea -Small nimble sporty , economical or basic transport.. BUT NO- what happened -corporate ideas had to botch them over the years into land cruising aircraft carriers. What happen to the cute small T-bird? that thing morphed into a Huge hunk of metal that took nearly two parking spaces and could only cary maybe 3. That seemed to be the trail the B3-4 followed- small cars and kept enlarging them and then they wound up with no small car in their line-ups. The Corporate never truly revamped their business model. Again, now how many models of SUVs did Chrylser build 6-9 different models? same for GM- H1, 2,3 ,Tahoe , Seqouria, Suburban, Bravia..etc. and can't forget Ford.. Edge, Escape,Flex,... Granted profit is a motive, But when the car compaines don't offer the buying public true options to buy fully equiped small cars they flocked to foreign makes that offered the options. And whats the deal with my '96 Dodge Ram MADE in Mexico... Oh well I got up on the soap box and wandered.. sorry I guess i had to vent ""the comments made are not endorsed nor promoted.. by this station...he he""
To all on the board here I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy, safe and with much hope a better New Year.
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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
My first new vehicle was a 1993 Chevrolet K2500 Suburban. What a piece of sh!@#t. On our first trip with it, BOTH sid view mirrors fell off. The A/C would take almost an hour to cool the cab on a hot day and it had the rear AC option. I ordered it with the heavy duty 4L80 trans. & 4.10 gears for towing. The salesman said 10,000 lbs. was no problem........EVERY time I towed with it the trans. over heated & puked oil and I did not tow in OD. At 14,000 miles, the engine spun some rod bearings and was trashed. The dealer refused to replace the engine with a new crate engine and installed a short block. Did a crappy job. Power windows went out twice. The best mileage it EVER got was on a long trip and that was a whopping 16mpg. It was garage kept and spared nothings to be pampered. It continued to have many other problems. I tried to go through BBB to make GM buy that piece of crap back. GM refused and BBB stabs the customer in the back. I traded it in on my Dodge Ram with 48K miles on it. I was lucky to get $8500 for the trade in.
GM owes me $5000 plus 7 years interest on the $5000.
The Dodge Ram has been a damn good truck for an AmeriKan vehicle. I had the sterring box replaced at about 5000 miles under warranty. From there it was pretty much maintenance free. On the last month of the warranty the engine developed an occasional miss. Diesels DON'T miss. The injector pump was replaced under warranty. This is usually a $2500 to $3000 job. Then I come to find out this is well known problem because the fuel transfer lift pumps are junk and fail regularly and kill the injector pump. Fist I spring for the cost of a big line kit/lift pump relocation kit for about $200. Plus I buy a new lift Cummins pump which is a "campaign recall pump" to address the bad lift pump problem. Those pumps are just as bad. Next I spend $500 for an Air Dog 150 to fix the lift pump problem once and for all. Then I notice the steering started to get sloppy again. Come to find out ALL the Dodge Rams do this because of a poor design. Fork out $140 for a DSS steering stabilizer. Now it steers like a champ. In cold weather the engine will not maintain temp. Fork out another $37 for grill cold front louvers. ALl the dodge trucks have the crank case vent puke bottle on the front of the engine that pukes oil and crap all into the radiator and entire engine compartment not to mention under side of the truck.......it keeps the rust down.  It only cost about $400 to get a kit installed to fix that or you can do like I did and eliminate the puke bottle and reroute the hose closer to the ground.
My friend had a 99 Dodge Ram with the Cummins. He notice that he started loosing coolant but nothing showed up in the oil or exhaust. Soon after he found the leak.....the engine block cracked. A well known defect known as the 53 series block. The deal say "sucks to be you". Cummins told him "we will be glad to sell you a new engine for $12,000 or we will cover $5000 of the cost for a new short block IF WE install it". A new short block was $9000 plus $80 an hour shop labor. My friend bought a new Cummins 5.9 block off of eBay for $1500 and rebuilt the engine using the old one HIMSELF. Before that he learned that 94 thru 2000 Dodge Rams with the 5 speed manual trans were crapping out because the 5th gear nut come loose! About $3000 later he installed his own NV5600, new flywheel and Southbend Clutch. Its a great truck now. Folks with 12 valve Dodge Ram cummins trucks have to pay to fix the "killer dowel pin" which is the front engine timing cover alignment pin that comes loose falling into the timing gears snapping off the cam gear and destroying the entire engine!
Fast forward to last week. My wife calls me to tell me here Ford Tarrrassss will not shift out of 1st gear. I am waiting for a OBD I code reader to check for any codes I may be able to fix but if the trans is bad.......spend $2000 or more on a car that is not worth $500. We had the ENTIRE transaxle & transmission replaced at about 28000 miles. It craps out at 167000 miles! I am told we were REAL lucky......most of these transmissions don't make it to 90,000 miles! We got almost 139000 miles out of ours......I guess we should feel proud?????
Bottom line..........AmeriKan cars SUCK! The quality and workmanship SUCK! I am real happy with my Dodge Ram BUT I has to spend thousands to get it to what I want it to be.
Some much for the "Big 3". When they build me a truck or car I can drive 200000 miles that is built good enough to stand up to a FULL COVERAGE EVERYTHING covered warranty (I'll take care of the gas, oil, tires, and brakes) MAYBE I will buy one AFTER I negotiate my best deal AND the dealer repays me my costs of previous crap vehicles they sold me!
The car manufacturers can go straight to HELL! Good riddance! They ALL need to go bankrupt so they can reorganize and make themselves competitive. No more $75 per hour jobs to install stereo knobs. NO JOB BANK! NO multimillion dollar CEO pay packages. 12 year 200,000 FULL bumper to bumper warranty which includes AUTOMATIC buy back at FULL purchase price OR new vehicle replacement for ANY vehicle with a warranty history of more than 3 problems.
I'm fed up and tired of getting screwed by the automakers. I bought the wife a 2001 Dodge Ram Cummins 4 x 4 to replace the Ford Tarrrassss. After I fix the problems I learned on my truck, we will have 2 great vehicles. I WILL NOT pay 50K for a pickup truck!
Since Big Brother is gonna bail them out......I think it only right that the CEO's be paid and hourly wage just like the line workers. NO OUTSOURCEING of ANY kind. NO IMPORTED parts of ANY KIND. Retirement pay should be in line with military retirement standards.
Its nice to dream. Don't hold your breath waiting for ANY of this to happen. NOTHING will change. The big 3 will get their money and the same old sh!@#t will continue.......at least until the house of cards collapses...........then you better pray the gun and ammo makers build better guns than the car makers build cars....
Rant over......I'm done........let the mud pies fly now! I sure feel better now.  !
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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
Chief, I take it you're a satisfied customer? :P
Back in the '90's Nissan got their tit-in-a-wringer with the Feds about the supposed perception of "reliabilty" of their cars. Turns out they were replacing items on cars that they knew were bad---like seat belts--fuel lines-- and not telling anyone when the car came in for even an oil change.
I used to get Technical Service Bulletins from Mitsubishi as part of my job. Every week for about a year--until told them to stop sending them--I would get 1-5 bulletins about things that were going wrong on their cars. I'm talking MAJOR issues--out of balance axles and drive shafts, warped brake rotors, engines stalling, engine fires, suspension part breaking.
I did work for Infiniti too. Same thing. Some cars had 7 layers of pearlescent paint that was nearly impossible to match.
A Mercedes engineer from Germany told me the build quality was so bad that the widths of the cars varied so much--the width of your finger--that they had to use three structural pieces across the car instead of one like the Big 3 do because the cars are more consistent.
When I worked with BMW the Z3 convertible had MAJOR water leak issues at the trunk because the plant "forgot" to install a rubber seal that was 6' long and 3 inches high. What did they do about it? Nothing.
When I worked with Porsche we got 700 cars in from Germany that sat in New Jersey with 3" of standing water in the cabin. Why? They were made in Germany when it was cold, then sent here and sat in the summer sun. A "rat hole" or void in the sheet metal near the trunk and quarter panels were filled by hand with globs of Vaseline to stop water. The sun melted the Vaseline and Voila! Water leaks!
How come nobody rants about other stuff they own like:
Their tractor,
Hot water heater busting,
Furnace crapping out,
TV going out,
AC going out,
Termites,
Fast food
Spouse ;P
I'm jis' sayin' ya'll.
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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
EW; It's amazing, now and then I actually agree with you. Of all the cars and pickup trucks I've owned from my beloved 49 Hudson right on thru the 07 Trailblazer and 07 Silverado, the only problem car I ever owned was a 90 sometning Venture van. It was built with a plastic intake manifold that warped after a while. I was dumb enough to let a Chevy dealer who shold have never been a dealer of anything (FIX??) it. I can't believe he is still in business. While the Venture was there I walked thru the service building, he has eigthteen service bays, all equiped with hoists and my Venture was the only car in there, he had seventeen bays that were empty.
Now on to other things. Our new high effeciency LP furnace, the heat exchanger burned thru before the third season. The ten year factory warranty replaced it, yep, with another one that burned thru in three more years. Now, if you've ever read the fine print in the factory warranty, I didn't, but anyhow they furnish the parts, YOU pay a couple flunkys they sent out eighty bucks an hour to replace it, over 600 bucks. That didn't happen the second time.
Fast food, yes, like eating out of a garbage can in most of them, enough on that.
All our great old mainstreet stores are gone thanks to WalMart, I could rant on this one for an hour, but I won't.
that's enough for now, Christmas is coming and I don't want to be in a bad mood. Merry Christmas. Frank.
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What is your take on the Big-3 hearings
The Big 3 need to have past IBM CEO Lou Gerstner or IBM CEO Sam Palmesano come in and run them. We went through the transition in the 90's. Let me tell you that the company is not the same one I was hired into 30 years ago. If we can't get a customer to accept charges for our services - we workers are gone. It is cruel, but it works.
The worst thing the feds could do is to bring in some stupid financial government czar with no business experience. The big 3 then will end up worse off.
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