I can’t believe I drank the whole thing
So yesterday General Motors declared bankruptcy. This event is devastating to uncountable (because I don’t have any statistics at hand) residents of our beautiful Great Lake State as well as many folks in other states. At this stage of the game, it does not seem likely to affect this household’s income but who knows. Knock wood everybody. Nothing is ever safe and I wish very good luck to those reading this who *are* negatively affected by this economy. Y’all are in good company.
We didn’t always own GM vee-hickles when I was a kid but I got my driver’s license in a 1967 Pontiac Tempest. It was an automatic but it did not have power steering or power brakes. Imagine that. Some of you are old enough to remember those days. Mouse is more likely to remember the day she tried to drive the POC and the power steering fluid was leaking and awful noises occurred, etc. I think the old Pontiac Tempest was a pretty good vee-hickle and so was the big old Buick that the old man bought around the time I left home. It was green. Banker Green, as The Engineer and I used to joke just to screw with the old coot’s psyche. The GG and I have owned various vee-hickles over the years: Ford, Chrysler, VW, Honda (Honda Honda Honda Honda). No GM vee-hickles. We have had good and bad vee-hickles with every company we’ve bought vee-hickles from except for Honda. Are we bad Americans for buying Honda? Well… The Honda company is based in Japan but I think all but one of our Hondas was built in the U.S.A. That is jobs, folks.
I am really not trying to analyze the situation or predict the future for the auto industry or make any kind of political statement here. When I buy a vee-hickle, the main thing I am interested in is that it will not leave me sitting by the side of the road. I travel the freeways a lot and I travel alone frequently and I just don’t want to run that risk. If GM, in the new downsized version that is envisioned, builds vee-hickles that are as reliable as our Hondas have been, I’ll be interested. Once upon a time, I asked a certain GM-type engineer for opinions about downsizing from minivan to sedan and he was the one who suggested Honda. *He* had already started buying Hondas… Miss you, ol’ boy.
Er, what kind of vee-hickle did you get your license in and what kind of vee-hickle do you drive now? And whatddya think about GM? About the bankruptcy or just the company…
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Hm. Wow. Think I got my license in a 1974 white Volvo 145 (4-cyl station wagon with red vinyl seats). Even though I was competent with a 4-on-the-floor (Dad’s 1974 Audi Fox, that later became “the kids’ car” and the one I took up to MTU and an at-the-time-but-soon-after-no-longer boyfriend borrowed and friggin’ ROLLED [popped the rear window out]…but that’s a whole ‘nother story).
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
It makes me sad and frustrated. We always drove GM cars, mainly Chevrolets, but with an occasional Olds thrown in there. I now drive a Chevy Trailblazer and like it except for the gas mileage and the taillights that keep burning out. My long dead grandfather used to say that if GM went under, the whole country was in trouble. Prophetic?
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
1970 Ford Fairlane 500 Station Wagon, aka the Pucci Rustoli. V8 351 I think (or something relatively similar).
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
Plymouth Volare (everybody sing!) don’t know the vintage.
currently driving an 11 year old Honda. runs great.
GM and the other 2 of the big 3 — you know, they’ve been fighting CAFE standards for approximately 3 decades, while the other car companies (foreign, but mostly built in USA now for US customers) forged ahead with making higher mileage cars. as well as higher quality. and therefore market share eroded. this is a sad, sad time in Michigan.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
My Dad started teaching me to drive in a Ford Model A when I was twelve. The day I was 14 I went for my license. We had a police force of ONE policeman who was the chief of police. He wasw a friend of my dads as most of the tiny city managers were.
Long ago!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
Same car as Jay, but I must have taken my driver’s test in it when it was only a year old, plus or minus. Song playing on the radio when I peeled off a piece of the door trim on the garage? The Carpenters, “Close to you”. My parents had already done the same too close to the garage door frame trick, so they were understanding. The garage was built when cars were smaller, plus there was the Y-shaped driveway. When they bought the Ford, they also test drove a Chevy wagon. It was too wide to fit in the garage.
June 7th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I thin my mom and dad had a pink station wagon named Porky. Ask GG. I drove Chevy Impalas that Gumper got from work. A huge buggy green LTD, that was like a boat. The first car I ever bought was a Skylark. The first NEW car I ever got was a Pontiac 2000.
The falling of the Auto Industry has hit the truck drivers in Michigan, and all over, prettttty harrrd. I left 2 jobs partly because of that, and they are both going out of business now. I am delivering to IKEA stores now. As a matter of fact, right by Lizards house 2 days ago, then Vegas, now, Seattle WA and Portland OR tomorrow. I hope to see Steven Farnell.
My favorite is a Dodge Grand Cravan of mine, that my son Doug is driving.