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I couldn't get there earlier, but did google it and found it referenced many places (most of which appeared to be far from mainstream)
Snopes did have something though
http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/unsoldcars.asp
I am going to record the program, and I am sure it will be enlightening. The program is shown several times during the week if anyone wants to see it. Thanks for reminding me to watch it.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
there is a huge holding lot in Philly that you look down at when coming across the Walt Whitman bridge. tons of cars. but, that is the unloading place from cars being imported, and where they stage them out to all the area dealers. so cars are constantly coming and going, but just from a quick look, you might think it represented a huge backlog of cars they couldn't sell.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Now was that really called for?
There is a difference between the religion saying "We don't have everything in exact detail" (none do) and an individual picking and choosing what they will follow in a religion.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
You have to be careful about vanity plates, many decades ago I knew a guy who bought a blue Toyota GTS. He got plates that read "BLUE GTS". We asked him why he had "blue guts" on his license plates.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Gee invoke my name, OK here it goes.
You get up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) in capital gains from a home provided you lived in the home for a minimum of 24 months in the previous 5 years before the sale of the home.
That can change if you depreciated part of the house due to business reasons. If that is the case you have to recapture the depreciation and pay taxes on the business portion of the capital gain.
Now for the inheritance of the house there is a transfer date from the deceased to the heirs. Any capital gains up to that date are the responsibility of the estate and fall under the rules stated above. Any capital gains after that date are the responsibility of the heirs, again under the same rules as above. Since the heirs wouldn't have owned and lived in the house for at least 24 months prior to the sale it would be taxable (presuming that the heirs would liquidate the home and disperse the proceeds).
Capital loses on homes that are primary residences are not deductible.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Thats what We did, we went to the jewelry district in Chicago. We had someone who made jewelry for jewelry stores make my wifes engagement ring. We were able to pick our choice of stones settings and everything. Save some money at it too.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Thanks. What's interesting about the house and estate is that the property was transferred to my father in law and uncle almost 30 years ago.
However, my FIL passed away 8 years ago, so his half ownership passed to my wife and her sister.
The good news is that we already have an offer made - the housing market is really tight in Ft. Collins - and we all hope this will be wrapped up by the end of June.
Again, appreciate the insight.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
No need to wait, you can watch the full 45-minute CNBC program here.
http://www.cnbc.com/live-tv/cnbc-originals/full-episode/failure-to-recall-investigating-gm/260083779531
A high document fee does not always mean a higher price. An informed buyer would almost always adjust the offer price to compensate for the document fee.
In Maryland, my state, the document fee seems to be limited to $200. In Virginia there seems to be no limit. Seems most Virginia dealers, once they learn the potential buyer, is from Maryland will almost always reduce the asking price for the document fee to $200. Of course, for legal reasons, they will reduce the agreed upon selling price or allowed trade value for the difference in the document fee.
I am sure the Florida dealers design the document fee for many reasons. An obvious reason is to allow them to offer a lower price in their screamer ads with the document fee convienently hidden in the fine print. Another, more sinsister, reason is, for some, to gouge the unsupecting, uninformed, unsophisticated buyer.
It is somewhat amusing anyone actually believes Fox News provides ''real news!"
All the so-called news providers tailor their reporting to reflect their bias, whether recognized or not. Fox News is, without question, one of the most biased networks. Virtually every person, host, or pundit simply restates the same, dare I say it, talking points.
A simple way to determine a network's bias to to view the pictures they provide. For example, MSNBC will show Hillary Clinton in a bright cheerful pose. Fox News, on the other hand, will show Hillary Clinton in a dark, dastardly or comical pose. For Chris Christie, it is the reverse.
A Fox Viewer will often, correctly, point out MSNBC is equally biased. However, it does seem a significant difference between an average Fox viewer and an MSNBC viewer is the MSNBC viewer actually acknowledges the bias. Fox viewers, on the other hand, seem to believe they are getting news from their God.
While Fox does have a more conservative slant to their news I find them to be far more balanced than most other networks.
Seems to be arguing against your point as it supports the idea that if Fox isn't real news then the others are not either.
Actually from my discussions with typical MSNBC viewers is that they believe that Fox is fake news and MSNBC is honest reporting.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Best joke of the month. I have several liberal friends, they will always rail against Fox without actually watching even a minute of it (BTW, I make myself watch MSNBC, just can't take too much of it).
When it comes to news, the difference in perception is because it is 10 to 1 when it comes to reporting anything that is uncomfortable to this Administration. Fox will always report it first, then others will ignore that for several days/weeks, they will finally pick the news up, usually with some commentary showing how it doesn't matter, or it is the latest evil plot to distract Americans from such a wonderful progress we made.
When it comes to opinion programs, I personally can't stand Hannity his preaching style (he will argue that locust on Western Hemisphere is Obama's fault), but van Susteren, O'Reilly and Kelly are BY FAR more balanced than the entire MSNBC evening cohort. There are also several minor characters, like Bolling, who are also not so great, but they're also outweight with excellent news reporters and hosts (like Garrett or Smith).
MSNBC prime time is basically full three hours spectacle about Republicans using babies as human sacrifice, global warming being somehow connected to Mitch McConnel's last fundraiser, Koch brothers already stole the Moon and are preparing to turn off the Sun. BTW, this Marco Rubio guy probably assassinated Kennedy. Oh he was born after that? No matter, he probably would have, if he only had a chance.
A typical O'Reilly's, van Susteren's, or Kelly's show will always have a prominent liberal (either democratic operative, or some liberal progress center scholar) talking on EVERY controversial subject, even if the hosts don't always treat them with full courtesy (that's mostly O'Reilly's problem). Typical Maddow's, or Sharpton's show will have one five minute segment with Michael Steel able to say two or three irrelevant sentences, followed with rest of the program with Eugene Robinson (as a "senior analyst", probably to represent journalistic "impartiality") and some other "American Progress" guest telling us about latest Republican conspiracy, or exchanging smirking and snite comments, always questioning Republicans' intelligence (the lack of integrity is already implied, so it doesn't even need to be mentioned). That's the difference. Fox is not great, but MSNBC is simply unbearable and shameless. It basically is 1 hour of preaching on Fox (Hannity) vs. three or four hours on MSNBC. There is no comparison.
BTW CNN people aren't terrible and make what appears to be honest effort in reporting facts about the matter at hand. They're usually late to a story (whether left or right wing), but at least you know that if CNN picks up a story, it will no longer be ignored by the other side. Their main fault usually lies in inability or unwillingness to connect the dots.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Snake...thanks for putting the tax implications out there for selling a house. Who says our dues aren't worth anything in here?
Was watching a special done last year regarding Gaddafi's regime in Libya.
As most know, I'm not a fan of big oil. Even less so now after seeing the program. While part of Gaddafi's "rehabilitation" (what the international community called his sudden reversel to embrace the U.S. and dismantle his weapons programs) was driven by his need for U.S. investment, the other part was driven my Shell's (Dutch Petroleum} greed.
In brief, this guy was a madman, a mass muderer, terrorist sponsor, mass rapist, torturer, and a just all around terrible guy. Shell convinced our State Dept that we should overlook all of his atrocities so they could profit from his oil. One state dept official said the then Shell CEO literally begged and cried for us to lift sanctions so they could profit from his oil (which at the time was selling for record prices).
I have not bought a drop of Shell Oil since the economic meltdown in '07-'08. I pledge today to never, in the rest of my life, spend another nickel for an Shell product, ever.
Of course, we lifted the sanctions at the time, too. So, we allowed him to continue to operate before his own people finally served justice in the Arab Spring Libyan Revolt.
Rant over.
Thanks, I watched the program and I feel I learned something. One thing they pointed out that several posters here knew was that the bean counters were running GM in the early 90s. In fact they brought in the slasher, a guy who speciallized in cost cutting. GM was ruthless with it's suppliers, making them cut costs sometimes by 50%.
One lawyer hired an engineer and they examined a lot of these starters...before 2006 and after. They found the 55 cent spring that was made stronger after 2006. No one can explain how one guy could change a part and not change the model number for that part. Had to have included engineers from higher up....and wasn't Mary Barra in charge of engineering at that time?
Young people were killed and GM ignored the whole problem. Like I say, for me it will take quite a while to build that trust again.
Oh, and one more thing. GM sales are up since all of this happened and many people have no idea of the problem or of the recall....just shows how uneducated the buying public is.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Sorry, I wanted to change a word in my previous post and went on "quote" by mistake.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Driver, IMHO, GM should be evaluated based upon what the "NEW GM" is doing, not what the old GM did! In other words, the Old GM no longer exists and now we know quite a bit about the reasons why it failed - poor quality vehicles, billions upon billions of dollars in net losses, incompetent or downright felonious employees, to name a few.
It is important now to determine for ourselves if purchasing a GM vehicle is in our own best interests based upon what and how the "NEW GM" handles situations. Also, we must remember that many of the "OLD GM" engineers and employees and managers are now in charge of the "NEW GM". Only time will tell if GM will live up to the promises the new CEO made to the press and in front of Congress.
There are many pending suits against GM for what the "OLD GM" manufactured and sold to its customers and mainly refusing to recall vehicles that were known to have been built with defective parts. GM is obviously claiming that that was another company that did that, not the current company. So I would expect the courts to throw out many if not all of those lawsuits based upon the bankruptcy of the OLD GM. However, it was also the "NEW GM" that refused to recall these vehicles until well after the NEW GM came into existence. So, whether all of the lawsuits will be thrown out depends upon what the courts determine is contributary negligence. Should be interesting.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
THE U.S. TREASURY'S SALE OF GM STOCK
Someone recently posted that it was wrong for the Treasury to sell GM stock at a loss of 11-12 billion dollars - but I tried to search back in the postings and could not find the post or who posted it.
I had an additional opinion about why the stock was sold at a loss back in December or November, at least 6 months ago I believe.
GM was well aware that it had to recall 11-12 million vehicles at a tremendous cost, not just in terms of "fixing" those vehicles, but also in terms of lawsuits and the like, not to mention "predicted" losses in sales due to public dissatisfaction with GM products (which has not yet transpired). I wonder if, somehow, prior to the major recalls, someone at GM hinted to the Treasury or the White House that there were tough times ahead for GM, and that they might want to consider divesting themselves of GM stock which would probably lose value after the recalls were announced. Perhaps this is the reason the Treasury sold all that stock at a loss.
Just some food for thought.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
I don't think they are as smart. However, the new vs. old dilemma is interesting. Not sure whether bankruptcy wipes out entire book of claims against an entity that still keeps assets and personnel. This may be question to a lawyer. Bankruptcy laws have been blatantly broken already during the process, so lawyers may have an opening there. If unions were paid in front of senior debt, why shouldn't families, too.
The part number issue is a literal smoking gun. That to me is most damning evidence and something worthy for district/state attorney to investigate with end game being prison time for those who did that.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Thanks for posting the link.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
That statement is insulting on its face. Implying that anyone who things Fox News is closer to fair and balanced than any of the others is something to laughed at rings of Saul Alinsky's attitudes in his Rules for Radicals. where he suggests mocking and laughing at the opposition.
I suspect anyone who knows me will suggest that I am analytical and able to discriminate between opinion and facts. Fox News certainly talks about both positives and negatives far beyond other alphabet network's level. If Fox News weren't so close to dead on why would the progressives ridicule them so much? (See paragraph 1.)
Two subjects to avoid are politics and religion. That post violated both.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Mike, I thought about that too, but, and although there could be a good case made to do that, I don't operate that way. Unfortunately, too many sneaky businesses do whatever they can get away with, and then when it catches up to them they start over or have new management. I understand the rational for thinking that way, but, I would rather give my business to the guys who have built an honest decent business over the years and who have a proven track record. Saying you are going to start fresh is easy....I really have to see if it is for real or empty words.
Meanwhile, I just heard on todays news....GM recalling another 2.4 million cars:
(Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Tuesday it is recalling another 2.6 million vehicles globally, raising the number of vehicles it has recalled so far this year to almost 15.4 million.
Fezo is right, GM is recalling more cars than they are selling. Soon all their cars are going to be recalled. I wonder if these cars would have been recalled if they weren't under the microscope right now.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
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Someone said it so well a few weeks ago when we were on this topic. If you lean to the far right you will think Fox news is accurate, fair and balanced. If you lean to the left you will think CNBC news is accurate. You listen and believe the news you think is accurate because it supports your view of the world.
I'm not saying Fox or NBC is good or bad, just that they look at the world a certain way, and if you see the world that way you will think they are giving you good information.
Personally, I could watch the 6:30 evening news on NBC, CBS or ABC and they basically just present the facts without much of an agenda. They are practically interchangeable. Maybe it is just when you get into the nich cable TV News that you have certain agendas.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
The people in the U.S. usually get it right. That is why Fox News has so many more viewers than CNN or MSNBC. That is fact, not opinion.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
dino -"BTW CNN people aren't terrible and make what appears to be honest effort in reporting facts about the matter at hand. They're usually late to a story (whether left or right wing), but at least you know that if CNN picks up a story, it will no longer be ignored by the other side. Their main fault usually lies in inability or unwillingness to connect the dots."
I didn't agree with a lot of your post (mostly a matter of degree) but this part is dead on. If CNN had a real dot connecter they'd be excellent.
Sheer ratings does not make Fox News better.....American Idol gets 8 times the viewers than Hannity does so by your logic, AI is better than Hannity.
Fox News has better ratings because it's the only outlet for right leaning viewers. Moderate or left leaning have at least 5 to choose from.
If you want to get your news from watching American Idol, that is your business. The rest of us are discussing cable networks.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
Many of such networks may as well be American Idol for actual news. I don't watch any of them much and American Idol not at all so I guess I must be ill informed.
Just the typical type of right wing cable news network response I expected - rather than answer the questions, it's all bluster and yelling.
The point was that one number of viewers doesn't equal quality programming.
Now IIRC, we had reached a gentleman's agreement to avoid politics a few weeks ago - there are hundreds of other boards on the interwebs to discuss that.
Personally, I could watch the 6:30 evening news on NBC, CBS or ABC and they basically just present the facts without much of an agenda. They are practically interchangeable. >
What they don't report at all is much more significant than what they say about what they do. Journalism by omission is much more subtle, not that the people who ingest this stuff need such careful treatment.
Your comments are very instructive to those of us who wonder how it's all received.
So it is OK for you to talk about politics, but no one else should ? Now that is a typical liberal attitude !
By the way, I didn't answer your question because there was no question in your post, just a statement. You should not get so upset at my attempt at humor. Relax and enjoy life.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
What they don't report at all is much more significant than what they say about what they do.
Exactly. And to double back to the general negative presentation of GM by many without actually checking under the hood of what's being said, the TV news viewer often forgets to check behind the scenes and as well as to check what's not being mentioned.
I recall a recent post by Abacomike that said to take GM as the new GM's deeds, for now at least.
I recall at least 2 TV articles by the Motorweek folks about GM vehicles. Both were boorishly simple in their negativity. One had even clearly had a paragraph redone and inserted into the words. That was about the diesel in the Cruze. Another was about the ELR: the wording summary clearly indicated they didn't like it because it was GM. The arrogance of Motorweek's strange host and crew shows because they prefer the higher cost luxury autos. However, there's the problem that not everyone can afford a Lamborghini Ferramante 359glz Testosterosa Limited Edition XL for $400,000. And there are only 5 being made. However the Motorweek crew seems to think that's the standard by which to judge.
This started when an entertainment group started a special about history of the GM recall. Let's remember that many cars are in the recall that don't have any problem. They are simply being checked out. To wit, my Cobalt and 08 is included simply because it may have had a replacement unit that was earlier manufacture. So half of the Cobalts are just being checked.
It's like the VW recalling their VW's and Audi's to check for a problem. I recall my friend's VW/Audi having an engine light on that even the dealer couldn't get to go off--for over a year. And the windows fell into the door; not safe.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
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You should try and relax too. BTW - I don't think any of us should be talking politics on this board and the discussion started much earlier than when I chimed in. I was miffed at the "America has spoken - Yeah Fox News" - and I am paraphrasing. It was a bit over the top IMHO.
I don't see anything blustering and yelling in Houdini's sage response.
Odd to make a politically slamming response (@robr2 said:Just the typical type of right wing cable news network response I expected - rather than answer the questions, it's all bluster and yelling) and then suggest not to discuss politics.
However, I had pointed out not getting into politics in an earlier post.
Back to arguing about cars.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
GM should be evaluated based upon what the "NEW GM" is doing, not what the old GM did! In other words, the Old GM no longer exists and now we know quite a bit about the reasons why it failed
Now I have watched the full clip of the CNBC story you referenced. It does have content of merit. A couple of items were new, to me, because they brought some outside people. Including the "Auto industry expert" who has some books she was pushing. The guy who changed the part without a new number is gone. I expect him to have some legal problems.
But I still see a lot of puffing in the full story and technically misleading actions to make things more dramatic about the 12 or 13 accidents that now seem directly associated with the weak detent spring. Another catch was the host said 35,000,000 cars on the road that haven't had recalls taken care of due to the poor response rate to the letters (I've gotten 2 so far for my Cobalt). However, one has to listen closely to hear the fact that number is ALL BRANDS, not just GM cars, that have recalls incomplete.
The other point is dragging grieving parents through the show to gain ratings. Oprah would be proud cause that's the kind of thing she did in her early shows. Few things are worse than a parent grieving their loss and of course we feel sorry for them. Rehashing the loss over and over makes it worse. I recall how upset my parents were grieving my brother's death in Battle of the Bulge. They grieved when his body was returned for reburial here after 4-5 years. Then they grieved again a few years later when one of his group (Platoon?) who was there when most of the green recruits were put out in a bad location by their commander as gun fodder without being dug in came to visit to tell each of the parents who wanted to know exactly what had happened to his group in Alsace-Lorraine. I believe that's when they found out he died in Belgium rather than in France, if I've got that right. The survivor was going around to all of the families he could find--this was in the mid-fifties. So here's CNBC dragging out the grieving parents adding to their misery.
One set of girls had no seat belts on; sad but contributory. Another mentioned the car swerving to the left into oncoming traffic; if the heavy keyring turned the switch to ACC that doesn't explain the car swerving. The cars are not that hard to steer with the power steering assist off. I tried.
I also had my son drive the Cobalt without the electric steering assist nor the power brakes although it took 4-5 applications to deplete the vacuum stored in the reservoir tank to get to no brake assist. Try turning off your engine while cruising at 45-50 on a deserted highway.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
"Now I have watched the full clip of the CNBC story you referenced. It does have content of merit."
I agree with your comment about dragging in the parents of deceased drivers - that was unnecessary. All the reporter had to do was paraphrase what the three or four families had to say.
As for no power steering - remember most of those who were killed were teenage girls who have half the strength of teenage males. Additionally, teen drivers have much less experience in handling emergency situations while driving and often panic in those spots.
I assessed the CNBC program as informative because it explained the reasons for the recall in layman's terms - something that I appreciated. But, the report also blamed the NHTSA for not connecting the dots - they investigated air-bag failures, but neglected to realize that the ignition was turned off in every case of air-bag failure. After all, if the ignition is not on, air-bags will not deploy. So that was a point I had not heard from reading my daily newspaper.
All-in-all, the CNBC report was interesting and informative, but it still left several questions unanswered. But I don't believe the report was expected to answer all the questions. It did raise questions that I had not thought about, though.
Thanks for watching the program - with an open mind. I know it was difficult for you considering your distrust and distaste for NBC.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
What you said could be true, what the networks (NBC ABC CBS) don't report could be more important than what they do report - I have seen that happen.. But, do I really need the news analyzed and digested and spewed out in a format I can identify with....left or right? Or, can I just get some basic facts and try to figure it out for myself?
Just another thought. I tend to read a right leaning national newspaper. I think the reason is simply, that newspaper shares my view of the world. The left leaning national newspaper prints ideas that are contrary to my beliefs. Both newspapers could be accurate in reporting events, they just filter those events in very different ways.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
They went over very carefully, there is no way that guy could have been acting on his own. Also, what was his motivation for acting on his own. There were GM engineers who said it was impossible for that guy to change the part, let alone not change the number, all on his own. That seems to indicate there were people higher up who knew about the faulty part and who did not act.
The grieving families etc are always part of such a program, to add to the drama. One girl didn't wear her belt, another was over the legal alcohol limit, but, they shouldn't have died because the car stalled, and the company ignored all the warnings.
I think what they said about recall notices is also true, many get thrown out, people think they are junk mail.
It was surprising to me though, very few people will even know anything about alll this and they will probably be able to buy a 2002 Cobalt for a good price.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
"It was surprising to me though, very few people will even know anything about alll this and they will probably be able to buy a 2002 Cobalt for a good price."
Driver, your comment about "...few people will even know anything about this..." Struck a nerve with me.
I remember the Ford Explorer fiasco with Firestone tires, but I don't remember the details about it. I know that Explorers were "rolling over", but I forgot if it was the Firestone Tires, the Explorer's design or engineering flaws, or both that was the cause.
If enough time passes, more important issues take the place of the older issues and those older issues get filed back into the brain's long-term memory files which is the first part of the brain that begins to fail in older aged adults. Hmmm, I guess I'm one of those older aged adults!
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
They will be getting a collectors item, since it didn't go into production until the 2004 model year.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I was driving home from our daily walk at the mall late this morning and stopped for a red light. To my left was a late model (2013 or 2014) BMW M5 in Space Gray Metallic Paint and to my right was new Audi S5 coupe in dark gray. Both had manual transmissions, which I found out when the light changed and they both took off leaving rubber for several hundred feet.
I guess they wanted me to drag with them down the 3 lane road, but I had Dad in the car and 3-4 cars back, I spotted a Broward County Sheriff's squad car. So I played it cool and as the Sheriff's car put on his flashing lights and sounded his alarm as he passed me on his way to collect the boys who were drag racing.
About 3 blocks later, there was the Audi and the BMW pulled off to the side of the road waiting for the deputy to quiz them about their nasty driving habits
I got lucky that Dad was in the car with me or I would have been the 3rd car pulled over to the side of the road. I will say that the M5 definitely out-performed the S5. With 500+ hp, I guess you'd expect that. Great looking cars - both of them - but I took more of a liking for the M5 - pure unadulterated power - impressive to be sure!
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
That's what I like about the Mazdaspeed. It looks like a little blue econocar; no wings, scoops, stripes, etc. I can surprise a lot of people without drawing the attention of the police...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Oh,I well remember the Explorers and Firestones. I remember how lucky Bill Ford must have felt being a Firestone on his mother's side.
Between that and the Windstall Ford's not on my list of folks I'm jumping to give another chance.
I had a '99 Explorer. Got it with the supposedly tried and true 302 V8 - what a mechanical POS that vehicle was from drivetrain to "built Ford tough" suspension issues from it's Interstate and suburban road time. Never did any heavy duty or off road in it. Also owned a Windstar - a real crapper (and leaker!). I think Ford may have nicer interiors than GM, but I sure don't buy the line that they have better mechanicals. The Explorer Firestone debacle was bad, but the replacement Goodyear's they put on it seemed to ride and drive even worse. People talk about the old Pinto goes boom, but I always thought one of the worse Ford responses was the seemingly dragged out cruise control recall. Just got bigger and bigger while vehicles and sometimes garages burst into flames. I think Ford products have improved like everyone else, but they still have screw ups too. How about that Porker Taurus - big, heavy and cramped. They need to overhaul it or dump it before it permanently tarnishes the Taurus name.
That reminds me of a time in high school when I was out with a friend in his (IIRC) 69 Boss Mustang and we came on another friend who had a late 60's Barracuda with a big block V8 in it. We happened to be at an intersection on either side of another car (three lanes). We were reving the engines and blasting our radios at the light. When the light turned green the car in the center took off like a bat out of hell and the two of us (well three of us, maybe more as the other guy might have had someone with him) just took off at a leisurely pace.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
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I remember the problem, I forget who was at fault too Mike. But a lot of people driving weren't aware of cars at the time. And there has been a whole new generation or two since the blazing Pintos. MOst of the population has a very short memory...that's probably a good thing in many ways.
Regarding GM, I would never say never about anything. After this event however I would want to see that they really have things under control, and that will probably take a minimum of 3 or 4 years.
One auto analyst said cars are getting so complex recalls are going to become more normal. I can live with a few recalls, I just don't want a cover-up or lack of responsibility into looking after a problem.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Oh, that's kind of funny. Apparently the ignition switch was used since 2001, so I guess it was used in a Saturn or the car that came before the Cobalt.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
"I can live with a few recalls, I just don't want a cover-up or lack of responsibility into looking after a problem"
I totally agree with your above comment. We can all live with a recall or two - just get the recall done quickly - fix my car - and let me enjoy it!
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
That reminds me....in about 1966 I took my mothers Hillman and raced a friend in his Mom's slightly newer Hillman. Today, that would be a snoozathon.
We went out on a quiet highway, stopped, counted down, and raced to the end of the highway, about a mile. I don't think we would have got a ticket for speeding.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Don't know how GM sales are holding up in May but the costs of these recalls are having a significant impact on the bottom line. An excerpt from The Detroit Bureau explains the problem.
"According to a statement from GM, the maker intends to take a $200 million write-down during the second quarter due to the recalls announced on Thursday. It previously experienced a $1.3 billion hit as a result of recalls during the first quarter. But industry observers warn the maker could see significantly higher losses from lawsuits and possible federal penalties resulting from delaying various recalls.
So far this year, GM has recalled about 10 million vehicles — nearly half the entire industry's total for all of 2013."