"Canuck57" wrote in message
news:RROkk.50596$nD.3370@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.



They have been retooling for 4 decades.

WTF.



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.

Worse, bankrupt GM.

GM is toast.


I'll try again.

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in news:
:

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch



This consumer is trying to by a DIESEL Smart ForTwo but Smart USA doesn't
want to sell me one....dammit.

I may toss caution to the wind and fly to Canada and buy one, even used.
They're plastic so the salt doesn't eat them up there. The diesel is
important to me as I want one to burn on Vegetable oil like my other
diesels do.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Eisboch" wrote in news:
:

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch



This consumer is trying to by a DIESEL Smart ForTwo but Smart USA doesn't
want to sell me one....dammit.

I may toss caution to the wind and fly to Canada and buy one, even used.
They're plastic so the salt doesn't eat them up there. The diesel is
important to me as I want one to burn on Vegetable oil like my other
diesels do.



The "Smart" car's availability in the USA is a little confusing. For
several years a company (forget their name) have been importing them,
modifying them to meet US safety standards and selling them. This was done
without the blessings of Mercedes, who owns the Smart car product line.

Mercedes has introduced "official" Smart cars to the US market, but as you
have discovered, only two models are currently available. If demand
warrants, they plan to make available other models, including the diesel.

That's how I understand the current situation. I also heard or read that
Mercedes was going after the company that was importing and modifying them
to curtail their business.

You need to make sure you are buying from a dealer who is officially
authorized by Mercedes. Otherwise, warranty issues may not be honored.

I've also considered buying one, just for fun. Still thinking about it.


Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in
:

That's how I understand the current situation. I also heard or read
that Mercedes was going after the company that was importing and
modifying them to curtail their business.

You need to make sure you are buying from a dealer who is officially
authorized by Mercedes. Otherwise, warranty issues may not be
honored.


I won't buy a warrantied new car unless I'm forced to. For the
difference in price between new and 2 year old used anything, I can set
up my own repair shop and staff it with the finest mechanics. I haven't
played the dealer-to-get-warranty-work-fiasco in decades. I want
professional mechanics to work on my cars, not some low life the dealers
hire.

In Charleston, SC, that would be Star Motor Service:
http://www.starmotor.com/
The best Mercedes mechanic, one of Star's owners, was killed in an
unfortunate motorcycle accident a couple years back, but his brother
still owns the business and you'll find him, not in the office, but out
under the cars where he's been since I met him in the 1980's, when they
worked out of a rented garage and didn't have a pot to **** in when they
came here from Germany. The facility and reputation speak for
themselves. Owners drive from Charlotte and Atlanta to Star for expert
overhauls on fine Mercedes cars. One of the classics they stow for a
millionaire collector is Chairman Mao's 1966 600 Pullman limo, complete
with Chinese Communist flags and a phone stalk of rotary dial carphones
in the passenger compartment that is fully bullet proof. I've ridden in
it right where Mao sat! Star rebuilt it for the owner when he bought
it, drove it to Charlotte for the Mercedes car show and brought back
several trophies for their trouble....in grand style, of course. It's a
monster!

When Stephan was alive, I called him to see if I could get some help for
a Canadian sloop that had a cracked fuel filter housing on its Mercedes
aux engine. Steve said sure and for me to ask the owners if they minded
him bringing his boys with him to see the boat. It was fine. Steve
lived for his kids and this was on their time with him, the weekend.

He removed the cracked fuel filter and took it to his shop on Saturday
morning. He heliarc welded the housing and machined it so you could
barely detect where the crack used to be. Back to the boat, he
reinstalled it and they all took the boat out into the harbor for "sea
trials" as the Canadians called it to let the boys have a hand in
sailing this beautiful yacht. Sea trials lasted until nearly dark,
Steve's boys now proper sailors, and he refused the yacht owners offer
to pay him for his lost Saturday.

It's too bad he's gone. His boys miss him something awful, all 4 of
them!

With service like this at our disposal, warranty service by some clods
at a dealership just isn't a good idea. I'll be glad to pay. My
mechanic is Melan at Star. He's from the former Czechoslovakia and is
simply amazing to watch working on the cars. Unable to get a ball end
socket that's part of the windscreen wipers for my 1973 220D antique, he
fabricated a new one in short order that's working perfect. Like the
Reinerts, he worked for Mercedes in Stuttgart, too, going through their
whole apprentice program before working in the factory....(c;

No thanks. I don't need warranty service and a $20,000 depreciation.

On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:07:04 +0000, Larry wrote:

o thanks. I don't need warranty service and a $20,000 depreciation.

We bought a Lincoln Navigator, two years old, for twenty less than
new, with sixty five thousand on it. It developed a leaking valve
guide at one seventy five. What service? The spark plugs that we
replaced at a hundred thousand were still good.

Casady

"Richard Casady" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:07:04 +0000, Larry wrote:

o thanks. I don't need warranty service and a $20,000 depreciation.

We bought a Lincoln Navigator, two years old, for twenty less than
new, with sixty five thousand on it. It developed a leaking valve
guide at one seventy five. What service? The spark plugs that we
replaced at a hundred thousand were still good.

Casady


Ever see how they replace the spark plugs on a Navigator?
Interesting.

BTW .... Mrs.E. wouldn't part with hers even if gas went to 10 bucks a
gallon.

Eisboch

(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;

On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 21:57:26 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I'll try again.

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch

That's true up to a point but GM and Ford pigged out at the party.
They knew very well they were making much higher margins on their big
vehicles, and as a result, put way too little funding into R & D for
fuel efficiency. The handwriting has been on the wall for quite
awhile for anyone who cared to look, but GM and Ford had their head in
the sand. Is there any doubt that they could have produced high
quality efficient vehicles, similar to Toyota and Honda, if they had
put an effort into it?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 21:57:26 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I'll try again.

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch

That's true up to a point but GM and Ford pigged out at the party.
They knew very well they were making much higher margins on their big
vehicles, and as a result, put way too little funding into R & D for
fuel efficiency. The handwriting has been on the wall for quite
awhile for anyone who cared to look, but GM and Ford had their head in
the sand. Is there any doubt that they could have produced high
quality efficient vehicles, similar to Toyota and Honda, if they had
put an effort into it?


And Toyota and Honda have also taken a bad road. Looking at new vehicle for
SWMBO. Liked the Acura MDX. People complaining about mileage. 12-18 mpg.
Look at the new Tundra. Same size as an F150. 14 mpg highway. Toyota
Highlander Hybrid. $49k. Like the look and feel of the Saturn GreenVue.
32 mpg highway, 20+ around town. $25k. My daughter bought a new Sequoia
last year. $48k, and probably gets the same crappy mileage as the same size
Ford Expedition. About 14 around town, and 16 highway. Look at all the ads
for the Japanese cars. Touting the performance.

"Calif Bill" wrote in message
m...

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Aug 2008 21:57:26 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I'll try again.

Automakers build what the consumer buys.

Eisboch

That's true up to a point but GM and Ford pigged out at the party.
They knew very well they were making much higher margins on their big
vehicles, and as a result, put way too little funding into R & D for
fuel efficiency. The handwriting has been on the wall for quite
awhile for anyone who cared to look, but GM and Ford had their head in
the sand. Is there any doubt that they could have produced high
quality efficient vehicles, similar to Toyota and Honda, if they had
put an effort into it?


And Toyota and Honda have also taken a bad road. Looking at new vehicle
for SWMBO. Liked the Acura MDX. People complaining about mileage. 12-18
mpg. Look at the new Tundra. Same size as an F150. 14 mpg highway.
Toyota Highlander Hybrid. $49k. Like the look and feel of the Saturn
GreenVue. 32 mpg highway, 20+ around town. $25k. My daughter bought a
new Sequoia last year. $48k, and probably gets the same crappy mileage as
the same size Ford Expedition. About 14 around town, and 16 highway.
Look at all the ads for the Japanese cars. Touting the performance.

In the year I bought my F150, there were more foreign parts in it than the
Tundra. Both assembled in the USA. I like my F150. More of them on the
road for cheaper parts when it gets older. But I get better gas mileage
than above, guess it depends how you drive it.

I don't subscribe to the Japanese myth any more. Sure, once they were
better but had a imported Nissan Pathfinder changed my mind.