Recent Comments:
GM wants $10 billion in aid from the Feds to buy Chrysler {Autoblog}
Oct 28th 2008 5:58PM Who says let manufacturing die?
Just let GM collapse and Ford, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and other companies who manufacture in the USA will be more than willing and able to pick up the pieces.
Why should General Motors and its employees be entitled to my cash (via Uncle Sam's tax extraction machine)?
GM is in trouble because it got big, arrogant and compacent.
Just like Wang, Digital and other big computer companies collapsed and were replaced by Apple, Dell and IBM, General Motors should be allowed to collapse to make room for new innovative auto manufacturers who could easily spring up if the death grip of that dying behemoth was released.
The irony is, the new automakers would probably be staffed by "coastal assholes" and based either on the east or west coasts, where innovation, hard work, and entrepreneurship aren't banned by UAW contracts.
Samsung Instinct gets its first firmware update: too little, too late {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 9th 2008 3:25PM Yeah, and get Apple to delete apps they don't like from YOUR phone, all while paying twice as much per month to run on the nation's worst national cellular network, with average data speeds 1/10th that of Sprint.
Oh, but you'll have a pretty phone!
Chinese-made, Dodge-badged cars coming to Mexico next year {Autoblog}
May 14th 2008 11:24AM BZZZT! Wrong.
The Chery qQ was allegedly a copy of the Matiz. The A1 has nothing in common with the qQ at all.
Chrysler closing west coast design center {Autoblog}
Mar 22nd 2008 3:04AM OK.
You're an inspired, hip, young designer in industrial design. You're living the dream in California.
Chrysler wants your talent -- but you have to move to dreary Detroit to work for them. Or, you can take any of 1,000 other industrial design jobs in California that pay better with companies that are surging and profitable rather than clinging to life by their fingernails.
What to do, what to do...
In short, Chrysler cannot call the shots on this. To get design talent, they have to go where the talent is, rather than demand the talent show up in suburban Detroit. Detroit ain't where it's happenin', plain and simple.
Apple screwed you: So now what? {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 5th 2007 8:25PM As an early buyer of a 4 gig iPhone, I clicked mine on this morning. It still works, just as it did when I bought it.
Am I "entitled" to a refund? No.
Do I have a right to whine about it? I do, but it makes me look infantile.
If your iPhone still works as advertised, you don't have a leg to stand on morally or otherwise when Apple cut the price. You decided it was worth $600, you happily paid it, and now you feel angry because Apple has made iPhoneland less "exclusive."
If Apple had instead announced demand so high that they were raising the price by $200 to stem demand, would all the whiners here be clamoring to send Apple a check for $200?
Didn't think so.
Get over yourselves.
"Chelsea tractors" face daily $50 charge in London {Autoblog}
Aug 13th 2007 1:37AM One reason why the British automotive industry collapsed in a heap of dust, ash and steam was because of stupid laws and taxes like this.
I lived in London for over four years. It's one of the most expensive cities in the world because of extraordinary taxes and fees. Its population density is MUCH lower than most American large cities (New York City has 1 million more people but 1/3 the land area), but it's constantly talking about "running out of room."
The average Briton is taxed to death, with soaring local taxes, soaring taxes on gas, congestion charges, and soaring tube fares (they've quadrupled over the past 8 years).
Worse, the "mass transit" system in the city is dissolving in a wave of underinvestment, meaning that the adaptation is forcing people on lightly used buses that spew out fumes and get 11 MPG on a good day.
Perhaps most tellingly, the high taxes and fees on cars, and high gas taxes (over 80% of the price of a liter of gas in the UK is taxes) singlehandedly destroyed the British motor industry. MG Rover, the last volume manufacturer, collapsed entirely a couple of years ago. If Ford hadn't bought Jaguar and Land Rover, a similar fate would have befallen those troubled marques. And even smaller British automotive manufacturers like TVR have been sold to foreign interests because they were on the brink of collapse.
Basically, the socialists are squeezing the joy (and economic life) out of the British people -- especially Londoners. All the talk about "working people" is bunk -- these levies, taxes, fees, and constant increases are a war on all working people in the UK.
Hopefully, they'll eventually rebel before it's too late and the socialists have completely crushed the life out of the populace.
BREAKING: Former Home Depot chief Bob Nardelli to be Chrysler's new Chairman and CEO {Autoblog}
Aug 6th 2007 1:00AM Nardelli delivered six sigma quality improvements, soaring sales, and profits to GE's manufacturing businesses. All of those are things that Chrysler needs.
All the people panicking that it's not a Detroit insider running things are underscoring Detroit's problem -- its incestuous nature.
Cerberus will recruit the best from around the world to improve Chrysler's operations. And Chrysler's new web site is already talking about improving the relationship with customers.
So Chrysler's new CEO is a guy who boosted a manufacturing company's profits and is focused relentlessly on quality improvements and customer service -- backed by a $150 billion owner who are committed to finding additional people in the industry to help in other areas where Chrysler's lacking at the moment. . . and which demands results and holds executives accountable.
And that's a BAD thing?
BREAKING: Former Home Depot chief Bob Nardelli to be Chrysler's new Chairman and CEO {Autoblog}
Aug 5th 2007 11:59PM Goodness, people seem to be awfully judgmental of Mr. Nardelli, and awfully dismissive of the talent within Chrysler itself (which is significant).
If Nardelli can successfully rebalance Chrysler's finances so that more money flows to engineering and flexible production, and less flows out as incentives and "sales blowout" advertising, then Chrysler's in good shape.
Chrysler has some of the industry's best stylists and engineers in its employ. A little focus on their part, and a little support from management, will go a long way. They didn't get that support from DCX management -- but they will likely get it from the new management. There's already talk of crash programs to fix the existing product line.
The era of auto companies (or any large corporation) being the fiefdom of a charismatic leader ala Iacocca, Lutz, etc. is going away. The key -- the only thing that matters -- is if Chrysler's management can get its engineers the resources they need to make world-beating cars and trucks.
They did it before with Bob Eaton at the helm (and Iacocca has nothing good to say about Eaton). They certainly can do it with Nardelli at the helm too.
