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Wizard of Woodstock

On Thu, 14 May 2009 11:25:08 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 14 May 2009 05:13:47 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:

It occurred to me that GM, with 15 days left to come up with an acceptable
survival plan to qualify for more bailout funds from the government, may
simply be playing high stakes poker with the government by leaking info that
they plan to export Chinese built cars to the US. In other words, "give us
more money, President Obama, and we'll drop the Chinese export/import plan."

Further convinces me to never, ever, buy a GM product. Let 'em go belly-up
for good.

Meanwhile, our neighbor is taking delivery next week of his new, "Smart
Car". He recently totaled his last car and Mrs.E. lent him the use of her
little VW Beetle until he got a replacement. I am sure I'll be able to try
out the Smart Car and I'll post my impressions of it.

Eisboch

We have a friend with one of the first Smart cars around here. She
says she loves it ... but there is a "for sale" sign in the window.

I was amused that when they did the recent crash tests (that Smart
cars didn't fare well in) They were hitting them with Toyotas.
You have to believe hitting an F-150 (the most popular vehicle in the
US) would be a lot worse.

The problem with the Smart Car is that the passenger cab and chassis
is too rigid - it's like a roll cage in a Sprint Cup car, only there
isn't any spare space or metal to take up energy from the impact.

My friend George Abel told me that he could well imagine what a person
would feel if he went over Niagra Falls in a barrel - he pulled every
single muscle in his body from being bounced around inside that cage.
The single thing he said he would remember forever was getting smacked
in the face with the driver's side air bag then smacking his face
against the steering wheel.

Not something I would want to test.