Alternate Route

What A Difference A Bridge Makes

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:11:12 GMT

In just two days of voting, the Canadian Auto Workers pulled off what the UAW was unable to do in weeks -- convince its membership to vote for yet another set of contract changes with Ford Motor Co.

Not only did they agree to the changes in the contract that put them in line with the deals with GM and Chrysler, they did so by voting 83% in favor as opposed to roughly the same percentage in opposition at the UAW plants.

Will Ford start to migrate work to Canadian plants?

It's not that long a trip over the Peace Bridge to the competetive side of the falls.

Read the entire article at freep.com

Rubbernecking

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:11:08 GMT

Going on an all day exursion to Pittsburgh today with a total of about 6 hours of driving, so I thought I'd get my rubbernecking out of the way before the trip by stopping at wreckedexotics.com this morning.

This photo is from the Weird Accidents section.

Now that's a pothole!

Get Out And Vote!

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:11:58 GMT

How appropriate that on election we have a story about how the US Treasury is considering options for divesting itself of our stake in the auto industry. One of the options it is focuing on is on a series of public offering.

Taxpayers have sunk more than $50 billion in bailout and bankruptcy financing in GM and more than $14 billion in Chrysler this year.

About half of the debt was wiped out in bankruptcy at both companies.

The government received 9.85 percent equity in Chrysler, and 60.8 percent equity and $2.1 billion of preferred stock in GM, and $13.8 billion in debt obligations between the two companies.

Yep, that sure is an attractive IPO. I can't see anything wrong with this plan, can you?

Read more at reuters.com

AR Index 607.97 +6.68 (+1.11%)

Stocks of individual interest

Toyota 79.12  +0.87

GM        0.55    -0.07

Ford      7.58   +0.11

Dow 9789.44 -78.52 (-0.80%)

News Funnies

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:11:07 GMT

It's a headline too good to pass up...

As Chrysler sits on blocks, what will Fiat do to fix it?

Given that some folks have suggested that Fiat is an acronym for Failure In Automotive Technology or Fix It Again Tony, the headline gave me a little chuckle.

Whatever their plan is, it's going to have to be a good one.

That's MY Job

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:11:08 GMT

The image is from the Charlie Chaplin classic, "Modern Times", which follows the Little Tramp through his trials and tribulations at a factory.

I was reminded of the film while reading an interesting op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about how Ford is making it comeback, and how the UAW is throwing a real monkey wrench into the works.

The real issue is the job classifications.

Ford's UAW contract has lots of them, governing who can and who can't perform specified tasks on the factory floor. So if a machine breaks down, an assembly line can come to a halt while everyone waits for the worker with the proper classification to arrive at the scene. If other workers nearby are perfectly capable of fixing the machine, well, that doesn't matter. The number of job classifications is less than it was a decade ago, but it's still far too many to maximize a factory's efficiency... ...

Style Or Substance?

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:11:14 GMT

Ford said on Thursday that beginning in 2010, it planned to be the first automaker to offer inflatable rear seat belts, a technology aimed at reducing injuries to children and elderly passengers in a crash.

Sounds noble enough, and I'll even give them clever on the marketing side.

But when is enough going to be enough on this quest toward the "100% safe car". There's no such thing and every safety feature added to vehicles not only adds weight (I thought mileage was important), cost and complexity to the vehicles, but it also seems to give a signal to a large number of drivers that there's one less thing that they have to worry about while driving their car. The list keeps growing.

ABS Brakes - wonderful idea, but some think to seem they mean you'll be able to stop no matter what situation they put themselves in.

Daytime Running Lights - another seemingly clever idea to make your car stand out in traffic. Only problem is that as soon as a large number of vehicles had them, you didn't stand out in traffic so much any more... ...

Ask Dub Schwartz!

pf_flyer@carspace.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:11:00 GMT

Dear Dub,

I was in a tire shop the other day when a guy pulled up in a smart car and came in saying he wanted some new tires. So the fine fellow at the desk said, "Let's go out and see what size they are", and the smart driver says, "Oh, they're not for that, they're for my Crossfire". What a green poser!

Frank Diogenes

Aha! The mask is off and the monster revealed! I suspect you ran into another one of those folks who wants to show how "environmentally conscious" and smarter than everyone else they are, when in reality they're nothing of the sort... ...