"Eisboch" wrote in message
news

"Canuck57" wrote in message
news:UgXkk.51647$nD.26502@pd7urf1no...

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

Although dismal financial results, the bulk of the "losses" are write
offs and charges to re-tool for the manufacture of more smaller, fuel
efficient cars for the US market.

Sounds horrible, and I am not making light of the problems, but it's not
as bad as the media (and you) are making it out to be.

Sounds worse actually. Posting a quarterly loss that is more than twice
as much as your market cap well, in my books is serious bankruptcy coming
on. GM's troubles are understated, and in fact it is probably too late
for GM as we know it to come back from this.

My guess is GM will be broken apart. The US side will just go bankrupt
while if GM has any profitable divisions off shore they will be bought
piecemeal by others.

Target price, $0.20 as a speculation buy.


Time will tell.

Eisboch

Private equity buy at say $3B?

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Canuck57" wrote in
news:xcZkk.154620$gc5.54872@pd7urf2no:

If it was in ace shape, offer them $9 or 10K? Also consider Winnipeg.

Canadians are just figuring it out, while it is nice to have one
vehicle that is "green" and efficient, the other still needs to be a
4x4 V8 or V6. Where I live, every 3rd vehicle is a truck, SUT or SUV.
They don't plough my road in winter and only see the Smart Car up the
road from May to early November. Makes more sense in SC, nice state
BTW.



Thanks for the advise. I didn't think of the snow problem. Here, it's
the
heat. I have a remote sensor digital thermometer on the intake of my AC
unit where it can actually measure the air, not the radiation. It's
reading 92.8F at 1PM and I live on the river which cools the place off a
bit. In the parking lot at the mall, crowded today by an annual back to
school even the state runs called "Tax Free Weekend", where the sales tax
machine is turned off for ONLY A FEW items kids need for school making the
parking lot full, it will be 50C outside and 70C inside those locked up
cars! Air conditioning is to South Carolinians like snow tires and tire
chains are to Canadians....(c;

Have no idea how the A/C works in them. I have one in my F150, and really
only need it for 15 days a year. But nice to have for more. Sort of the
opposite problem. But my guess is the A/C, if they have it can't be too
good, but maybe good enough to make it liveable.

Might want to rent one for 2 to 3 days.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Canuck57" wrote in news:_D_kk.51817$nD.36480
@pd7urf1no:

Now how about they try that say on January 10th.

If they have any brains, they'd be driving it across from Miami to San
Diego on January 10th, leaving the snow to the boys from Possum Lodge!

I was thinking the Trans-Canada highway. In places like Toronto it
resembles a big city interstate. In other places, mostly west of Sudbury
Ontario to the Pacific it doesn't classify as a state quality grade highway
in most places. Embarrassing actually. Just getting through three western
provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, I guess you hit near 80
traffic lights if not more.

When I go to northern Ontario fishing, I always go down to I94 or #2 across
the top. Cheaper accommodations and fuel with better roads. Adds about 160
miles but I more than make it up in time.

I just wanted them to take the same route in the winter. Bet they do the
Miami to San Diego in the winter when A/C in Nevada and New Mexico, Arizona
isn't as critical. PR.

"Canuck57" wrote in message
news:sI6lk.111081$kx.65643@pd7urf3no...

Looks
like a company I left in 1995 is also drowning more shareholder value,
NorTel. But that is another story.



Nortel was one of many that got clobbered when the telecom hype bubble
burst. It's hard to believe how many big boys completely missed the boat
on that one.

Eisboch

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Don White" wrote in news:48946978$0$4011
:

http://www.wheels.ca/article/29504

Wow! Thanks!

"By the numbers

Distance (Halifax to Vancouver): 6,168 km
Diesel fuel used (total): 337 litres
Average fuel consumption: 5L/100 km
Total cost of fuel (average $1.05/L): $353.85"

His diesel must be set a little rich and there are several programmers for
the EPROMS in it to improve the mileage. A team of Italian auto
journalists took a smart from Rome to Nuremberg over the mountains and got
3.3L/100km with two adults aboard and luggage. I think it depends on
their
driving habits, too. He was trying to rush it in 9 days so probably kept
his foot in the injection pump most of the way, giving us a sort of worst-
case-scenario figure.

It's just awful that driving this tiny diesel car STILL costs $CN350 to go
across.....in a country with plenty of oil...but the same central bankers
as us.

I will stick with my F150. @1.05L, say gas was $1.10 at the time, but
closer to $1.25 now for either... could make it in nice A/C roomy comfort,
quiet, stereo and not crawl up BC hills for $1000. So I would save $647 or
so for 9 days travel. Ok, well I would like to save $647 but to be in a
seasonal vehicle cramped?

I still want to see those PR people do that in January on the same route in
Canada. Or do that Miami to San Diego in July.

Would not doubt the pettle was to the metal. Doing the prairies, 55mph
(almost 90kmh) is well, so boring. Want to do at least 70mph (112kmh or
so). Probably 120kmh. Which does increase fuel use. My F150 seems to get
the best mileage between 100 and 110kmh with cruise on. When you hit the
prairies, you make a small but steady rise in altitude that will drop your
mileage. Winter also drops it further. From Regina to Calgary you go from
600 to 1100 meters. From Calgary to Rogers pass, add another 250 meters for
1350 or so. 3.28 feet in a meter makes 4428 you peek altitude. In Thunder
Bay, only 310 meters on the shores of Lake Superior. But I do notice my
F150 fuel mileage goes right up at lower altitudes. Always seem to leave
sea level Vancouver wondering if their fuel is somehow better.

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

"Canuck57" wrote in message
news:sI6lk.111081$kx.65643@pd7urf3no...

Looks
like a company I left in 1995 is also drowning more shareholder value,
NorTel. But that is another story.

Nortel was one of many that got clobbered when the telecom hype bubble
burst. It's hard to believe how many big boys completely missed the boat
on that one.

Eisboch

Ya, I was lucky on that, sold at $50 on the way up. Was kicking my brains
until it hit the big negative turn. Bought a small position back in at
$3.10 before the reverse, but took a small loss at $2.80 on the sell.

But there is truth to what they say, if you bought a $1000 of NorTel, and
$1000 of beer back then, you will still have the Miller empties for 10 cent
return.

NorTel surprised me again visiting them the other day. Reverse split 10:1
at $3 or so, reset it to $30 and now down to $6 something. That means what
was once sailing over $1000 is now at $6.50. NorTel is now chasing beer
caps. Good management is hard to find.

But on the light side, NorTel was at one time, up until about 1994 with
before Stern impact was felt at my level, a good company. Left in 95.
Ferchat (?) was the last really good CEO as Stern was just an over hyped
clown looking for a fat pension out of the employee coffers. Probably still
paying the ******* some $960,000 a year. Left a lot of good friends that
since like myself, scattered. Unfortunate NorTel is a victim of
unscrupulous greedy executive management and crazy incompetent over rated
directors. Could have at one time given Cisco a run for their money with
the right management. And all they have to is give a crap about the
company.

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=N...=on&z=m&q=l&c=

Via tinyurl if the above is broken:

http://tinyurl.com/56sxjx

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Canuck57" wrote in
news:iM6lk.156490$gc5.149024@pd7urf2no:

Have no idea how the A/C works in them. I have one in my F150, and
really only need it for 15 days a year. But nice to have for more.
Sort of the opposite problem. But my guess is the A/C, if they have
it can't be too good, but maybe good enough to make it liveable.

Might want to rent one for 2 to 3 days.



It was 92F the day I test drove a Smart ForTwo gas one here. The $600 AC
plant slowed down the little engine quite a bit, but at 92F you can
overlook that really easy! It did a good job cooling the interior, in
spite of the HUGE windows all the way around that let the sun have at the
interior. If/when I get one, I think a nice velcro'd Sunbrella top you
can
stick in place on Velcro pads custom fit over the top with a cartoon
drawing of car windows full of smiling kids staring out at you and waving
would help cool it off in the parking lot....(c;

Actually, if diesel and great mileage, and not too cramped I would ownd a
second "efficient car". Really makes sense for ordinary commutes. But they
do have limitations.

Talked to another owner at the mall today. He was thrilled with it and
has
owned it for nearly 4 months. His is bright red with black trim. He says
it gets really hot with all the black interior and those huge windows
sitting in the sun, but blow that hot air out and run the AC cools it off
in a fair amount of time for such a little engine.....

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=14826
Here in the South, we have many ways of keeping our cars cool all
summer....Some even work when the car is parked at WalMart like this one!

LOL. That was a hoot. Bet too it was cheaper with the generator than
getting the original fixed. That CFC or old A/C fluid is part of the past
for the most part.

....and resemblance to the CBC Possum Lodge van installations is purely
coincidental....(c;

Never saw that. CBC, you must be a fortunate Canadian GC holder who didn't
have an old man that was a US citizen/tax evader holding you up with INS.
Discovered of course on my GC application and when my now estranged and
deceased father got nabbed at the border that I found out years later. Now
I know why he didn't want me to go to the US to make 2 times the gross and 3
times the net for a more efficient economy. Probably slipped a bit. But
love the US... Left when my H1B ran out. Oh well. They were good times.
Wisconsin fishing, don't get me started. Need to win the lotto 649 and I
will be there for 2 weeks nailing Coho, King, Steelhead, Walleye and Bass
until my bursitis kicks. That is, see the doc, then do Minnesota. For the
winter, lake Okeechobee for the winter. Spent Christmas once there nailing
so many Crappie I could count them. Missed that elusive big mouth though.

Need to convince the wife to let me retire early to Rainy River.

"Canuck57" wrote in
news:rZ6lk.156502$gc5.9111@pd7urf2no:

When I go to northern Ontario fishing, I always go down to I94 or #2
across the top. Cheaper accommodations and fuel with better roads.
Adds about 160 miles but I more than make it up in time.



I graduated from high school in 1964. That day we left for a
circumnavigation of the Great Lakes my dad had been dreaming of for a
decade in his 1960 Rambler station wagon towing a '62 Shasta 13' travel
trailer, our home on wheels. Western Ontario on the Queen's Highway was
just beautiful until the trailer hitch weld broke in the truly middle of
nowhere. We coaxed it behind us by moving all our stuff to the rear of
it to take the weight off the hitch springing up and down on the front
crossbar until we found a phone booth alongside the road I will never
forget. There was nothing there....just a modern aluminum and glass
phone booth.....until you went inside.

Inside that phone booth, bolted to the aluminum was an old manually
cranked Bell System telephone right out of the 1920's. It had a big
earphone on a cotton covered brown cord and the carbon mic stuck out the
front of the box with a crank handle on the side to signal the operator.
My parents were apprehensive but I persisted as it looked well kept and
workable. A single wire ran up the outside of it to a single telephone
wire that went West, the direction we had been heading.

I listened to the receiver after giving the crank about 4 good turns. A
click, then the nicest Canadian telephone operator in the country came
on the line to ask what number. I told her I wasn't sure and that we
were from upstate NY and our trailer hitch was broken. "What number is
on the front of the phone?", she asked me. I read it off. "Let me make
a phone call. Just keep the earphone to your ear. I'll be right
back." There was a click of her disconnect and I waited about 5 or 6
minutes....no music on hold in Western Ontario's wilderness...

She came back and said, "You folks just stay right there. My husband is
on his way in the truck to take you into town. Bill (somebody) is
headed to the Chevy dealership and will get his welding machine all
ready before you get there to fix it." ROLLS ROYCE never provided this
level of service to its customers. A nice man in an old Chevy truck
rolled up to the trailer we had already unhitched from the car and
blocked the tires. My dad followed him into town and Mom and I stayed
with the trailer.

About an hour or so later, the old pay phone started ringing, so I ran
across the road and answered it. "Son, your dad and Harold got the
hitch all fixed with Bill's welding and they're on the way back to you
by now. They'll be there in a few minutes.", she told me to reassure us
help was on the way.

This was on a Sunday morning in 1964. We found out later she had called
the church where Bill and his family had just started in to hear the
service. Bill told my dad he'd rather go to the shop and weld that
hitch than listen to their pastor drone on and on about something he'd
heard a hundred times before.

Dad and I hitched the trailer to the car before Mom hauled our saviour
inside for some homemade campstove cookies and a hot cup of campstove
coffee she had perked for them. By that time, it was, of course, much
later than we had intended and Harold, our saviour, said he didn't want
us driving on that road in the dark because it was Moose mating season
and some real monsters we'd already seen would be on the road in the
dark. So, he went over to the phone and rang his operator. They didn't
have a place to put our trailer up for the night with power, but there
was an outside outlet, toilet with showers at the fire station in town.
So, she called the fire chief to make arrangements for us to stay behind
the firehouse for the night so we could start fresh the next morning.

Noone stayed at the firehouse, but they left the back door open for us
and refused to take any donation to the firehouse's fund. Bill, our
welder, also refused to take a dime, Canadian or US, for dragging him
out of church. The welding he did was fantastic as it was on the car
after a few more thousand miles of towing our little trailer many years
later when the old Rambler was a NY road salt rusted out hulk.

I was 18 at the time and not very observant as most teens are, so I
can't tell you even what the name of the little town in Western Ontario
was....but I can see the whole place in my mind's eye as I'm typing this
old farts reminiscence of the finest Canadians we ever met, helping
complete strangers broken down in their town.....on a Sunday morning.

I wonder if that phone box is still just sitting there.....miles from
nowhere.....

(Richard Casady) wrote in
:

We bought a Lincoln Navigator,

I always drove European cars, mostly British like Morris Minors....

My father always hounded me to "buy American" as he was always a Chevy
man.

When I moved to Iran in 1976 to work for the Shah's air force, I sold my
car and most of my possessions as I had no place to leave them. The
rest I just gave away to anyone who wanted it.

I came home 28 days before the Shah fell in '79 and needed a car. I had
plenty of cash from my nice Iranian job and the 10.8% interest my
Iranian bank paid on savings accounts, so started immediately looking
for a nice car, but not new. I ended up with a 1973 Lincoln Mark IV
Cartier addition that was a light buckskin brown inside on the leather
and out...loaded, with about 80K on it from a local used car dealer.

You didn't have to worry about a front end collision because YOU were
1/4 mile back from the accident...(c; It had the longest hood I'd ever
seen! The front bumper was 3 feet in front of the radiator! She was a
cruising machine and I got her at a real bargain.

I tried to get my father to drive her around to see how nice she was to
drive but he wanted nothing to do with a car "THAT LONG"....(c; A local
mobile home dealer had traded it in on a new Mark VI, I think was the
current model and the used car dealer had bought it from the auction.
It was in first class condition, it's 460 cu in fire-breathing, top-
fuel-eliminator engine hardly broken in.

I kept it about 12 years until it finally got so hard to keep running it
just wasn't worth the effort any more. I worked for government
contractors, so most of my driving was covered for mileage or actual
cost....I always chose actual cost because the Lincoln drank like a fish
and mileage would never had covered it. Ever see a car with a 4-
cylinder FUEL PUMP?!... When you stomped the pedal it shot off into the
next country hardly breathing hard....but it sounded like someone
flushed a toilet under the trunk!...hee hee.

My first Lincoln experience was when I was a teen. My grandfather owned
a 1957 Lincoln Landau 4-door hard top, black inside and out, loaded as
they came, but without AC as we lived in New York where there's only 1
day of Summer before it snows again...well, it did then. It was a great
car for dates with the girls....IT HAD A SEPARATE REAR SEAT HOT WATER
HEATER that kept naked girls toasty warm in any weather....(c;

I have a friend who had a Navigator to tow his Grady-White runabout
around with after he sold his Hatteras 56 and moved into a big house.
He's a big department head at the Medical University of SC, a medical
scientist who is well paid. I tried to get him to pimp it out like the
drug dealers did, but he didn't have it long enough because it was too
tall to drive into the MUSC parking garage his private parking place was
in....poor planning on his part. Fun to drive but hard to back up the
boat with. You had to leave the back doors open to even see the boat
when you are that high off the ground...(c;

"Canuck57" wrote in
news:sI6lk.111081$kx.65643@pd7urf3no:

Ford, hard to tell. They are on a knifes edge but the only Detroit 3
that has much of a chance if any. Depends if the "family" can
motivate lethargic management and kick some union ass real hard. Tata
would like a peace of their market and the competition fierce.



I walked into the Ford dealership to look around and a salesman came to
ask me what I'd like to see. I told him a brand new Ford Fiesta
hatchback that got 65mpg from its tiny Korean engine....just like my
friend James has that runs faultlessly since way back when he got it new
for peanuts.....

They had huge beasts with huge discounts....ONLY.

Every American car I looked at USED to be a small, easy to feed, cheap
to keep model, except for the cars that were SUPPOSED to be big. Now,
ALL the American cars, even Saturns, are HUGE!.....STUPIDLY HUGE!

Car inflation has happened at Asian cars, too....Instead of following
their hearts, they tried, unsuccessfully, to guess what Americans
wanted....ending up with such gas guzzlers as the Toyota Tundra clone of
the F-250 guzzler truck.

I looked at Hondas and they've all grown HUGE over the years....The
salesman asked what I wanted there. I told him a new Honda 600:
http://www.honda600coupe.com/
like the one I SHOULD have bought the day they came out at the Honda
motorcycle shops. It was a great little car....(c;
http://www.honda600coupe.com/Photos_..._-_page_1.html
We HAD the right cars back in the 1960's! We were just too stupid to
KEEP them! Look on this webpage at how SIMPLE the engine compartment
is...it's one-throat motorcycle carb behind the simple, air cooled,
cylinder block. That dryer hose and fan on the port side is the HEATER!
The car is AIR COOLED and has no water cooled system! It's basically a
600cc, 4-cylinder Honda motorcycle....one of those that run ALMOST
FOREVER....with electric fans cooling the heads...