cars

saw/thought/heard a few things in the last few days about cars that i thought were interesting. you prolly won't, but that's ok. i feel like writing about it anyways.

the other night on my way home, i was waiting my turn to get onto the rotary near work which eventaully winds me on my way home and as traffic was going by, i couldn't help but chuckle at a taxi that went by that had a long bag or something caught under it. it made me think of someone walking out of a bathroom with toilet paper stuck to their shoe. i've seen stuff stuck under cars before, but this was longer than your standard plastic bag or newspaper. i thought the image was funny.

then when i got home, i could hear music that sounded like someone's cellphone ringing, so i tried to see if i could figure out where it was coming from. it took a few moments to figure out the tune but the next thing i knew, i was thinking about Wakko Warner singing the states and their capitals (it is set to the tune of Turkey In The Straw). i looked out at my landlords patio to see if that was where it was coming from and then i saw it. a ding-dong cart. an actual ding-dong cart in my neighborhood. it's been many many years since i've seen one trolling thru a neighborhood, let alone my own. the only ones i've seen in recent times are the ones that roll around where M works (apparently the one that drives past her building got yelled at for being too loud). so after a LONG 5 minutes of an annoying midi version of Turkey In The Straw, the ding-dong cart finally moved along.

my next odd car thing happened while i was headed back to work friday night, i saw an explorer pulled off to the side of the road. it looked like it had a pretty bad flat as the back end was dropped down pretty badly. so i continue along my way, not thinking a whole lot about it. i've seen cars on the side of the road before w/flats. about 1/4 mile down the road, i spot a slow up in my lane and i see people moving into other lanes and as the sea of cars parts (literally) i see a car with its blinkers on. oh great, a car is broken down in the middle of the highway. only it seems to still be moving, so i move around it and realize what it's doing - it's following a wheel as it rolls down the road. normally, i'd have a good laugh, but on wednesday afternoon, TK-8103 was telling RB and i about a time where he had something very similar happen to him one day. at least this time, these people could say where the wheel went...

yesterday morning i woke up to NPR talking about how this week GM and Ford announced financial losses for the last quarter (GM was worse off than Ford) and the person they were speaking with was saying that she thought it was quite possible that one of the big 3(tm) in detroit may go away in the future. she didn't think that cars would ever completely leave detroit, but 1 of them will probably loose, and the other 2 will play a lesser role in the automotive world. it reminded me of a paper i wrote for a class several years ago.

in a business class (i forget the name, but it was a summer class), we watched a few movies, including Wall $treet and Roger and Me. the latter if you haven't seen it is Michael Moore's attempt to speak to Roger Smith (president of GM at the time) to find out why the GM plant in flint michigan was being closed. our assignment was to explain why GM made the decision they did. i remember finding it a rather intimidating task, and after spending some time in the library trying to find anything on the subject, i was getting frustrated. (i found out i wasn't the only one having a hard time finding material.) so as the deadline drew ever closer, my frustration grew until i had a conversation with my father and brother. my brother didn't add much, but as an econ major, he was able to help clarify some things for me.

the question dad asked me was two-fold. the first was what did the plant in flint produce? (pickup trucks) the second question was what was going on at the other automakers? at the time this happened (mid-80's), what was the car of choice? it was the minivan. not a pickup truck. in 1983, the dodge caravan was introduced and it served (and continues to serve) as a big people mover. moms and dads transporting kids to soccer games, etc. a pickup isn't exactly practical for this, so the general conclusion of the discussion was that GM recognized that sales of pickups were down. there would continue to be a demand for them, but having the factory in flint open, was costing them more money than was making them. there were other factors discussed, including the influence of the japanese automakers, how the Jeep Cherokee survived being retired (referred to as being "simplified" in the article) in the early 90's (until replaced by the Jeep Liberty). Jeep was ready to retire the Cherokee, but then a new demographic came to be - the kids that were being moved about in minivans wanted cars of their own, so it was the youth market that actually saved the Cherokee.

of course, the other side of the movie is trying to find out why roger smith was getting such a big bonus (nice golden parachute) while closing plants, but it was an interesting exercise that forced me to look at things from different points of views. something i still do now, which can be a big help in understanding why some people's seemingly foolish logic may not be so foolish, unless they are penny-pinching CIO's who even tho things are good, continue their penny-pinching ways to the detrement of us little people.