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Comments
I basically said the same thing to my wife, but she laughed because she only had access to her dad's full size Dodge Ram van when she was 16.
Regardless, I'm not going to be stuck w/o a car, so I will definitely buy something when the time comes. While I could be tough and tell her to buy her own car, the reality is with all of her extra curricular activities there is little chance she'll be able to work enough to pay for a car and that means I'll be a perpetual chauffeur or have to go without a vehicle. I don't like either option.
Kind of ironic about the PT Cruiser. A neighborhood girl who used to watch our girls a few years ago was given a PT Cruiser when she started driving. IIRC, it was an ugly baby blue. I'll have to start looking to see what they are going for around here.
This comment sums it up:
"While I’m no fan of French government/economic policies (and do agree that their government needs a healthy dose of reality), I have to say that I’m quite happy with my Michelin tires (I recently replaced a set of four Michelins with four more). I can’t say that I’d expect the same level of quality from tires produced in India or China, regardless of the manufacturer. And while environmental policies in Western countries might be considered severe and unfavorable to tire manufacturers like Titan, I’m far from approving of the pollution levels seen in China and India – so I don’t believe I’d be willing to pay for cheaper tires made in those countries having breathed the air over there. I think “mts” above hits the nail on the head – within 5 years this guy will be owned by a company from China or India."
The French are VERY nationalistic consumers. Good luck selling those tires there.
My new Michelins on the Sequoia are great. Far better than the OEM tires. And they were MADE IN USA. That is why I bought the Michelins. That and I consider them very good all around tires.
No doubt. I was talking to my insurance agent who also is a casual friend, he told me a used family sedan is the way to go considering the insurance rates and initial costs. A PT likely would be a good choice too. Plus it would be nice if she could drive something that gets better than 12 mpg around town.
I taught my daughter to drive in my Suburban. Then bought her a 10 year old Ford Ranger with stick. She drove it for at least 5 years until she had a good job and bought a new car.
The GM Volt and Fisker are both going to be owned by the Chinese. They already own the major component manufacturing for the batteries. Probably most of the electronics are made in China.
I think the French needed someone to tell them how stupid they are being. Europeans and Americans are spoiled rotten when it comes to work ethic. That includes the fat cats on top of the heap. Like the article said, Titan has the money and they are going to get the most tires for their bucks. That is who I want running my business.
Well I don't know that CEOs condoning 3 hours work days are really do their job very well.
I wonder if Titan itself will be around in 5 or 10 years. They won't make any money selling Chinese tires in France, I'd wager on that now.
Well it's all relative. I'm sure in early human history you might have had to forage every waking hour to get enough food.
Today we consider 80 or 100 hrs/week sweatshop levels, so that might be one extreme. And then there are the 36 easy hours/week of a lot of Europe, which I would call at the low end of the spectrum for "full time" work. And of course the UAW jobs bank was another poor example.
Staying competitive seems like the US 40/45 hrs per week is kind of midpoint. I know a lot of countries have more vacation time than we do here (and that would be nice as well).
The auction ended on a Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m.--unusual for any car auction there.
I was the only bidder. I bid $6,950, and the guy gave me a twenty out of his wallet for a mark on the car I said wasn't in the description.
He admitted that his salesman goofed by making the auction end at that time.
It is a base model, but has a fob, PW, PDL, CD, and AC and is an automatic.
It had 45.8K miles when I bought it.
It was on the west side of Chicago, but I considered that a 'road trip' and a Studebaker buddy who went out with me to drive my Cobalt home, stopped at South Bend and the Studebaker National Museum on the way out there. I guess I should add that into the price.
It's not that we consider 80 hours to be sweatshop level - 80 hours IS sweatshop level. Even thinking anything different is nothing more than devolution and shouldn't be tolerated in a modern developed society. The same for losing vacation and other benefits. Just racing to the bottom.
I think I remember Gary mentioning he had worked very long hours in Alaska. And unionized, too. Don't know how that happened. Certainly not like the UAW.
It's interesting how the US manufacturing model has shifted from D3 all UAW, to a much more diverse (geographically, makes, etc.) mix. I think I remember reading here that more US cars are made than ever before. Of course the market is larger, too.
The US has become a lot more flexible and productive than the "offshore at all costs" traitors want to admit. The multinational automotive production isn't a fluke. It might not be perfect, but if one is not penny wise and pound foolish, it's not the worst place to operate.
Last summer my son decided that driving a 37 year old '02 without A/C constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Fortunately, my wife had been driving her 2004 X3 since 2005 and we were discussing trading/selling it when my son said he'd be happy to drive it since "If I get something fast I'll get into trouble." Win/win- I even told him that he could drive my Club Sport at our chapter's HPDE this summer.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
I won a set of any four Michelins tires up to 22"(!), so I wound up getting a set of Pilot Super Sports for the Mazdaspeed. As I said on another forum, I've run out of nerve before they have run out of grip. We'll see how they do on the track this summer...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
" the company you manage is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the genuinely international French leader, and 35 times less profitable."
And they're Japanese.
I guess we should fly some 1%-er off to Europe to rent a big car and gauge the "relativity" in France vs. the US. :P
It's amazing that some become defensive when devolved sweatshop standards are castigated.
What could he say? His countries work ethic was called on the carpet. And if the French are such good workers, why doesn't Michelin save their lazy butts and buy the Good Year plant? Titan is a specialty tire company making off road and farm tires. They wanted that portion of the Good Year factory in France. The Unions are an all or nothing bunch it sounds like. They will probably end up with nothing. Titan Tire will have no problem selling Chinese farm tires to the French. Last if the French are such great workers, why does Michelin make most of their tires in other countries?
Yes it was detached and well compensated for. The oil pipeline was built by mostly union pipe fitters and iron workers along with Teamsters. The standard shift for the entire project was 12-16 hours per day, 7 days per week, work 9 weeks and get one week off without pay. Of course anything over 40 hours was 1.5 to 2.0 times regular pay. Many people that worked the entire 7 years of the project made enough and saved enough to retire with a home paid off. I have worked many weeks at 12 hours per day and more. I never considered it sweatshop. You are there and the more hours you got the better off you were. And all those hours just keep giving when you retire. If you did not pi** it all away on flashy cars and fast wimmin.
Sadly today many people work more than 80 hours per week at two or more jobs just to survive. Our lousy government is to blame. Which is a topic for another blog.
You forgot the private jet. :P
It's amazing that some become defensive when devolved sweatshop standards are castigated.
And it's amazing that some people think the US is the standard of the world and everybody else should live by our rules.
Thank goodness the UAW mode of management-client interaction didn't take off overseas...
Or did you mean "fast cars and flashy wimmin"?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Seems to me that for American made cars, we are doing very well. Just not so much at the D3. There is way more diverse US auto manufacturing than 20 years ago. Both my Honda and Acura made in the USA!
Well, they may now. :shades:
I was at their site earlier today and it said that Titan already has a factory in France, making farm wheels and coatings for Peugeot and Renault.
The site has since been hacked though and isn't safe for work. :shades:
9 and 1? All my slope worker friends never had worse than 3 weeks on and one off, and many were 2 and 2.
That was the standard construction work schedule. The fat cats at BP were week on week off. ARCO was 2 and 2. You hung out with a higher class of workers. It was the 9 and 1 that kept me in town during the construction stage. I know several people that worked over a year straight without leaving the slope. A couple of them had small businesses and were afraid to leave. My contract schedule was 3 and 3 for the entire 25 years I was there. Most Summers we worked a 9 weeker. I think some people have been coddled their entire career and think working 80 hours a week is cruel and unusual punishment. I doubt many USA CEOs work less than 60 hours per week and most many more. It was the middle managers that screw off most in my 46 years of observation. This country did not become the most powerful in the World paying people a living wage working 3 hours a day. Let the French tire makers eat top ramen. :shades:
Detroit won't be building a Maserati. But Fiat says it's not all bad since demand for the Grand Cherokee is beyond expectations and the assembly plant targeted for the Maserati will all be used for the JGC and the Durango.
Fiat won't build Maserati in Detroit (Detroit News)
You realize that you were a sweatshop union worker? :P :surprise:
I've seen a lot of higher management work brutal hours. And on salary there is no extra pay. Of course I've also seen higher management that doesn't work so hard. Those are usually the schmoozers that are better at selling themselves rather than actually doing valuable work.
I'd say the transplants are a great thing for the American car market. Bringing reality of the job market back without union distortions. And letting the states compete for the work. Look how Detroit is doing now - less than half its peak population, and about to go into financial receivership. Such a great job done by those unions protecting the working man.
To echo that note I posted - Titan will eventually be Chinese, especially with those business ethics. And the French aint gonna buy those tires, believe me.
The strange relativism confuses me. If one doesn't like the rules of the first world, they are free not to play here - and they shouldn't be allowed in. It's that simple. But maybe I shouldn't expect logic from the surplus overhead of middle management.
The US isn't the standard - residents of many other developed nations have it easier than Americans. We're devolved according to many first world Europeans. Germans laugh at what people tolerate here.
Seems the transplants have better executive decision making too - the key to the failure of the old Big 3.
Yeah, I went up in 1980. It was a totally different world. It was all about maintenance and monitoring. The construction was much more planned in advance during the next 3 decades. Many of the construction camps were shut down and deteriorated. We had periods of boom during my tenure. Nothing close to the 30,000 people building the line. Averaged about 5k-6k while I was there.
I just cannot see a UAW worker building a Maserati, Porsche or Ferrari. Hopefully they do a good job with the JGC diesel, as that is at the top of my list now. If Mercedes gets a decent supply of ML350 Bluetechs I may find one I cannot live without. Though they do not look as good as the JGC, Touareg or even the X5 to my eyes.
To echo that note I posted - Titan will eventually be Chinese, especially with those business ethics. And the French aint gonna buy those tires, believe me.
Good year is bleeding red ink by the gallon. So how do you figure they are doing better than Titan. Not sure how Michelin got involved. If they are so hot for lazy French workers they should take on that bunch of losers at the Goodyear plant.
The French will be in an austerity mode worse than US if not already. They will buy the cheapest tires for their tractors from who ever.
Titan Tires is a small part of Titan International (TWI). Who knows the Chinese may already own them. They own a large part of GM. Whatcha gonna do when the Chinese buy Mercedes Benz. :P
I tend to agree with this. But of course it's relative.
I wonder how long before the first Chinese or Indian cars are sold in the US? So far the only major Chinese assemblies have been from GM (engine).
This is where we see things differently. People are people and there is a Gaussian distribution at all levels - the excellent ones, the middle of the road, and the dregs. For a company the problem is that if the top leadership are dregs, it permeates the entire organization. Such as GM for a few decades. Mix it up with a toxic UAW and you have a disastrous dish.
But there are an awful lot of very good people at all levels in most companies, too. There is really no reason that "most" management is poor. Although it may look that way to the union workers or cube rats.
Seems the transplants have better executive decision making too - the key to the failure of the old Big 3.
Agreed.
To avoid tariffs that are slapped on imported tires (depending on the country), to be close to customers, to keep transportation costs down, yada, yada, yada.
No no no - you've got it all wrong.
According to George Best: "I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted."
In all my years in various phone companies, 5 to be exact, I had one very competent 2nd level manager. I would give 3 supervisors high marks. Most of my dealings with 2nd level was as a shop steward. I know for a fact that 2nd level is a position you are dumped in when another department wants to rid themselves of you. At AT&T Alascom it was like a turnstile job. Rarely did they get bumped back to supervisor. Those that went to the next level were either competent or great BSers.
I worked with a guy that was a great BSer. He wanted to be in management so bad he would do anything. His chance came while on vacation in TX. He convinced a small Telco he was what they needed as a mid level manager. He was flying high. Calling us all the time to tell us how he would go into the office in the morning line out the supervisors and head to the golf course. This went on for over a year. Then one day he called up wanting to know if there were any openings. He got fired when his boss realized what he was doing with his time. How it took a year is anyone's guess. We did not hire him back as a Teamster technician because we did not need any BSers at the time. We had plenty of them.
The US needs austerity mode 10x more than what the easygoing developed EU members (with higher qualities of life than the average American)will endure. Some of that austerity means ending the corporate welfare and pity-the-rich trickle down trough, cutting back the policeman of the world military-industrial debt machine, and cutting the foreign aid to parasites cord. If we could reel in some of those black holes, we could probably compare to some of their positive standards, instead of racing to the bottom.
Go research French consumer behavior. Like some other Euros, they take great pride in buying locally. Very proud and nationalistic people. Cheap (and likely poorly made and built under inhumane and environmentally criminal conditions) Chinese tires won't find a loving customer base in France. I'd be interested to see where Michelin tires actually consumed in France are produced.
I am not holding my breath about the Chinese buying MB. They'll try to copy, which the first world shouldn't tolerate, but buy - nah.