"BAR" wrote in message
...
Gene Kearns wrote:
On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:04:11 -0600, Canuck57 penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|
|"nada" wrote in message
...
| Vic Smith wrote:
| I posted this to the GM group, which I sometimes participate in, but
I | really like talking to boaters more than anything.
| Boaters are.....just cool!
| Anyway most here have some GM experience, and I know you all like to
| talk about unions.
|
| *********************
|
| So I go into the local GM dealership this morning to get the lower
| intake manifold gasket set for my kid's 95 Bonneville. The "new
| improved" gaskets. Aluminum framed, not plastic. The car's got 80k
miles | on it, and too many GM owners took real big
| hits when the lower manifold gaskets rotted away or plastic upper
| plenum melted away. I bought a Dorman upper plenum elsewhere.
| Way too many with as few as 40k miles, and for cars at least as late
| as 2003 with the 3800 Series 2 engine have the problem.
| Can cause hydrolock, bent rods, warped heads, wiped bearings, etc.
| Some catch it in the early stages and only pay $400-1200 to get it
| fixed. I've spent some time in Pontiac, Buick and Chevy forums
reading | about the pain and expense this poor design has caused.
| There was only very minor relief from GM for these disasters. Hell,
the | new LIM gasket didn't come out until 2006 or 2007. My kid is
putting in | the improved LIM gasket and the improved Gorman
| upper plenum as a preventative measure.
| The plenum was 61 bucks through Amazon and the gasket was
| 75 bucks at GM.
| Then there's going to be some brake and carb cleaner to clean things
| up, and some thread lock.
| So it's going to cost about $150 in parts, and at least 3 hours of
the
| kid's labor. Luckily, he loves doing this stuff. Anyway, one parts
guy | goes to get my gasket set, and I ask one of the
| other guys, probably the manager, who's sitting on his ass rifling
| through paperwork, "What do you think about the new GM?"
| He doesn't hardly look up, and why should he?
| After all, I'm just a customer.
| He says, "I feel good about it. We've got the union costs under
| control." Mumbles something about health costs.
| I said, "Yeah, that union health care was hurting GM, and health care
| is a problem all over."
| He wasn't interested in my comment, and goes on a bit ragging the
| union. Didn't hear it exactly, because the other guy came back with
| my part and pointed me to cashier window about ten feet away.
| The cashier was waiting for me.
| So as I give her the invoice and my credit card something is
bothering
| me. When I asked that guy about the "new GM" I was expecting
| to hear something besides bitching about the union.
| Maybe something about how good the Malibu and Impala are selling, or
a
| new goal toward engineering excellence and customer satisfaction.
| I walk back to the parts desk and said, probably a bit too loudly,
| in order to get this guys attention, but I was actually ****ed.
| "Hey, see this?" I held up the $75 gasket set.
| "The union didn't design the 3800. GM engineers and GM management
| did that. Wasn't the union. Sure as hell wasn't Toyota. And if
they
| did they would have made it right. You want customers, you better
| give them reliability. There's more than one side of a story."
| He admitted that as I walked back to the cashier to sign the receipt
| and get out of there. Didn't really want to say anything else to
him.
| **** him.
| Anyway, a bad experience. Hope this asshole doesn't represent GM's
| future.
|
| --Vic
| Every one of these jerks thing the Unioniozed Workers are getting |
something tghey want but didn't go after. It is hateful envy.
| Those that work at the corner market applied to work there.
| Those that work at GM, Boeing, or wherever applied to work there.
| Thse that choose to be Entrepeanurs should have included choice health
| care into their planning.
| The average wage is supposedly 54,000+ in the US yet thes people bitch
| when an Auto Worker or whomever is approaching that level. They figure
| only Wall Streeters should b e making it.
|
|Be sure to enjoy driving it, US citizens at large now have over $100B
less |in the future to spend on autos. Make it over $1T if you include
bank |bailouts.
|
|No doubt, fewer autos per capita is the future. |

Yes, and that began with NAFTA. A "global economy" means the playing
field gets "leveled."

The Chinese farmer can, now, maybe afford a car.... and to offset
that, Americans (and others) will be forced to make-do with *much*
less....

No Free Ride.


It won't be a leveling of the field, it will be lowering the field.

If you missed the fall of the Roman Empire you are about to see what
happened in real time.

What? Are you out of credit? LOL.

Seriously, more people and a fixed world of resources means more competition
and less room for waste. Simply put, the US and Canada have high levels of
waste and debt. Government costs, right out of whack, executive
compensation out to lunch and the little guy always pays. No rewards for
loyalty, honor or integrity. Just rewards for corruption, bailouts and
debtors.

China owns the US.... just finished reading how they are spending the nearly
$2T of useless excess USDs they have buying up real assets on the world's
market at a real cheap valuations. Cash is king, debtors are whining like
stuck pigs.

A little late to cry, if we in NA wanted it any better we would think before
we vote. Too many years of crooked government and decaying morals. With
the attitude the government will bailout loosers, the taxpayers will have to
shoulder more lost wealth for the corrupt.

Wait until this years mortgage crisis hits the news. The downturn has a
ways to go yet.

The Roman Empire fell for the same reasons, when the equitable values were
lost, so did the empire.