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College Corner, OH Car Consumer Discussions

Re: rocky [marsha7]

by rockylee on Mon Sep 08 00:12:59 PDT 2008

"Our border would have land mines, along with other barriers"...now THAT is something we agree on wholeheartedly...but a Democrat with a concealed weapon???...c'mon, rocky, what would your heroes Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry and Hussein Obama say, when they want to take guns away from the decent (even you) citizens... Checkout the NRA, and you will see I'm not alone as far as democrats go supporting the 2nd amendment !!! ;) Why would you want to break up WalMart???...he started with one store, expanded as do many companies (Starbucks comes to mind...are you going to break up Starbucks since no one sells as much coffee as they do???), learned how to CUT COSTS in distribution (read Sam Walton's autobiography...a fascinating 2 day read where he tells what he did and how he did it) so getting mechandise into the stores more efficiently allowed him to grow...he also was one of the first to utilize computers to their fullest to run the company inventory and satellite technology... I don't hate the old man but I do strongly dislike his children and what they became. they have stabbed him in the back as far as philosophy (core values) goes. I promise you he's like a rotisery checken in his coffin !!!! ;) He would not import shoddy, lead tainted, crap from China, just to put the locals out of business. you might need to re read that book again !!!! ;) Just because someone gets bigger then YOU think they ought to be and they should be broken up under antitrust???...has it ever dawned on you that most of the jobs in WalMart are unskilled and barely require someone to be able to read???...stocking shelves does not require a college degree, may even be one of the few places that a high school dropout can get a job...cashier???...thanks to bar codes and scanners, dropouts can do the same thing...proof, now they have self-checkout lanes where we scan our own stuff, pay with cash and get proper change...no cashier needed!!!...how are you going to argue that cashiers are worth more than minimum wage, if that, when machines can check me out without the living cashier???...by the way, the computer rarely makes an error on change, but most cashiers, if the computer did not tell them the amount of change, could not think enough to make proper change...so much for gov't schools taught by unionized teachers, their "graduates" can't make change from a $20 bill...so rocky applauds the teachers unions, who basically "manufacture" a student that can barely read or write, similar to the UAW union junk of the last 30 years...but don't tell rocky, as long as a union member got paid, the quality of the product means nothing to him, because he wants laws that will FORCE us to buy the union product, even tho it has no value and it incompetent...private school kids and home schooled kids have no problem, but public government-unionized schools can barely graduate kids who can read "Dick & Jane"... Has it ever occured to you Rocky, hasn't been in a Wal-Mart, since he's left Texas, because up here in the north we have other wiser choices !!!! ;) I don't care if they give some mentally, handicapped, uneducated, illegal alien, homeless, criminal, person a job. They have literally destroyed communities and the parent company will subsidize a new Wal-Mart, until it runs everyone else out of business. They should teach this business practice in Harvard, and refer to it as "Wal-Marting" your competitor !!!!! :mad: I just hate that anti-union, rotten, smelly, company. The ones in Texas, had so many illegal aliens working in them along with illegal alien customers, I'm not sure why the ICE, didn't raid the place ??? I know theirs a job for Rocky, right ??? The ICE !!! Well I would probably blow a gasket because of how restricted the ICE, is. They virtually aren't allowed to do their jobs and I will admit to gagrice, thatisone of the main reasons why I supported his boy Duncan Hunter. ;) One other thought...you rail at the wages at WalMart...no one ever said that clerks at WalMart would be raising a family on WalMart earnings...they never could and cannot now...rocky, just because a human shows up at a job does not mean it is worth $50K a year...cashier, as noted above, greeters and floor sweepers...who, in their right mind, thinks they will support a family on these earnings???...they are, and have always been for a little pocket money, that's all...are door greeters worth $50K???...you think if door greeters unionized they would be paid more???...one day after unionization the greeter would be replaced by a motion sensor for $10, and when you break the beam, the machine would say "Welcome to Walmart"... I agree every job has it's worth, but on the flip side you think ever job in a store or in a manufactoring plant should be paid illegal alien wages and those same people have to rob, steal, sell drugs, just to make ends meet. The proof is in the pudding. Look at any large city where once proud union industries stood and look at em' now !!!! They are crime havens !!!! :mad: That, rocky, is your mental handicap that you are incapable of overcoming...you think the kid selling lemonade on the corner should be able to buy a home and 2 cars from what s/he makes from 25 cent glasses of lemonade...you have no conception that many jobs are simply of little value...AND you expect too much...where is it written that everyone deserves a home, 2 cars, plasma TV, Armani suits, an iPhone for $500, satellite TV, yada, yada, yada...even in your own life you simply EXPECT that any job, no matter how menial, should give someone an income to support a $500K home, full with pool and servants...that expectation is where your union welfare mentality comes into play, and will hold you back forever... You have taken what I said and went off the deep end and only Michael Phelps, can save you !!!! :P I believe that this country can pay a fair minimum wage, one that allows a person to have a modest apartment and be able to feed themselves. Hell you can't hardly do that on $14 an/hr. now days in most places. :( rocky: SOME JOBS SIMPLY HAVE LITTLE VALUE AND PAY LITTLE BECAUSE OF THAT...NOT BECAUSE SAM WALTON WAS CHEAP, BUT BECAUSE A DOOR GREETER IS NOT EVEN WORTH MINIMUM WAGE FROM THE GIT-GO, BUT WHO, OTHER THAN SAM, EVEN THOUGHT TO HAVE DOOR GREETERS IN HIS STORES??? Door Greeters.......Come-on, some of those people that greeted me looked like they just got out of the pen !!!! :surprise: I can only guess when they created the concept of rose colored glasses, somebody was thinking of you... LOL, well the same could be said about the world you live in !!! I know Alanta, isn't suffering the economic affects as we are here in Michigan, but even Alanta, has a pretty strong union base mainly developed by the large African American, population. Good luck in the job hunt... Thanks, I'm going to need it appears........ :( "The Rock"

rocky

by marsha7 on Sun Sep 07 15:25:08 PDT 2008

"Our border would have land mines, along with other barriers"...now THAT is something we agree on wholeheartedly...but a Democrat with a concealed weapon???...c'mon, rocky, what would your heroes Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry and Hussein Obama say, when they want to take guns away from the decent (even you) citizens... Why would you want to break up WalMart???...he started with one store, expanded as do many companies (Starbucks comes to mind...are you going to break up Starbucks since no one sells as much coffee as they do???), learned how to CUT COSTS in distribution (read Sam Walton's autobiography...a fascinating 2 day read where he tells what he did and how he did it) so getting mechandise into the stores more efficiently allowed him to grow...he also was one of the first to utilize computers to their fullest to run the company inventory and satellite technology... Just because someone gets bigger then YOU think they ought to be and they should be broken up under antitrust???...has it ever dawned on you that most of the jobs in WalMart are unskilled and barely require someone to be able to read???...stocking shelves does not require a college degree, may even be one of the few places that a high school dropout can get a job...cashier???...thanks to bar codes and scanners, dropouts can do the same thing...proof, now they have self-checkout lanes where we scan our own stuff, pay with cash and get proper change...no cashier needed!!!...how are you going to argue that cashiers are worth more than minimum wage, if that, when machines can check me out without the living cashier???...by the way, the computer rarely makes an error on change, but most cashiers, if the computer did not tell them the amount of change, could not think enough to make proper change...so much for gov't schools taught by unionized teachers, their "graduates" can't make change from a $20 bill...so rocky applauds the teachers unions, who basically "manufacture" a student that can barely read or write, similar to the UAW union junk of the last 30 years...but don't tell rocky, as long as a union member got paid, the quality of the product means nothing to him, because he wants laws that will FORCE us to buy the union product, even tho it has no value and it incompetent...private school kids and home schooled kids have no problem, but public government-unionized schools can barely graduate kids who can read "Dick & Jane"... One other thought...you rail at the wages at WalMart...no one ever said that clerks at WalMart would be raising a family on WalMart earnings...they never could and cannot now...rocky, just because a human shows up at a job does not mean it is worth $50K a year...cashier, as noted above, greeters and floor sweepers...who, in their right mind, thinks they will support a family on these earnings???...they are, and have always been for a little pocket money, that's all...are door greeters worth $50K???...you think if door greeters unionized they would be paid more???...one day after unionization the greeter would be replaced by a motion sensor for $10, and when you break the beam, the machine would say "Welcome to Walmart"... That, rocky, is your mental handicap that you are incapable of overcoming...you think the kid selling lemonade on the corner should be able to buy a home and 2 cars from what s/he makes from 25 cent glasses of lemonade...you have no conception that many jobs are simply of little value...AND you expect too much...where is it written that everyone deserves a home, 2 cars, plasma TV, Armani suits, an iPhone for $500, satellite TV, yada, yada, yada...even in your own life you simply EXPECT that any job, no matter how menial, should give someone an income to support a $500K home, full with pool and servants...that expectation is where your union welfare mentality comes into play, and will hold you back forever... rocky: SOME JOBS SIMPLY HAVE LITTLE VALUE AND PAY LITTLE BECAUSE OF THAT...NOT BECAUSE SAM WALTON WAS CHEAP, BUT BECAUSE A DOOR GREETER IS NOT EVEN WORTH MINIMUM WAGE FROM THE GIT-GO, BUT WHO, OTHER THAN SAM, EVEN THOUGHT TO HAVE DOOR GREETERS IN HIS STORES??? I can only guess when they created the concept of rose colored glasses, somebody was thinking of you... Good luck in the job hunt...

Re: buying a vehicle for the mileage... [cotmc]

by roadburner on Tue Jul 29 12:20:59 PDT 2008

I don't want to be stuck with costly repairs -- and with a first-year X3, the reliability data isn't very promising -- but this car has been pretty good to us, and it has everything we want. My wife's 2004 X3 has over 60K on the clock and the only warranty repair has been a passenger seat SRS sensor. It needed pads/rotors on all four corners at 60K and I changed the ATF and TC oil at 50K but aside from that-and changing the oil myself at 7.5K intervals-I've just followed the maintenance schedule. My son will probably take it to college in 2012.

Re: The way I see it... [lemko]

by trichardson on Thu Jul 10 13:12:41 PDT 2008

there are plenty of people working plenty hard everyday, not complaining, and trying to keep smiling. The reward they are getting is their house foreclosed, their 401K being gutted, and their job being outsourced. Meanwhile all you trickle down people think everything is OK because "you are just fine". - I agree 100% that there are millions of people working hard everyday who get screwed. Never once said there wasn't. As for their problems you list: a) Most foreclosures are due to three reasons. First, the buyer bought a house that was waaaaay too much of their monthly income. Secondly, the greedy bankers wrote out loans they knew these people couldn't pay if they hit any bumps in the road and did it anyway. Third, people didn't put enough money down and went Interest Only or put the absolute bare minimum down so when the house went down in value they ended upside down. Flame me all you want but for people impacted by these reasons didn't do their homework and burned themselves. Of course there are other, good people who got screwed but they are in the minority. b) 401k - Well, if you are near retirement age you should have been moving your money out of stocks anyway. If you're 10+ years away from retirement odds are (based on history) the market will recover and you'll be fine. And if you diversified at all you shouldn't have seen more than a 10-12% decrease and that is overestimating. c) Jobs - true. Again, good people get screwed. But if you prepare yourself you're in a better position than others. And by the way, we've been outsourcing jobs for decades, it's not a new thing. I have a challenge for you - go to any city, and hold a meeting in a lower middle-class or working-class neighborhood, tell everyone in the room that they don't work hard enough and that is why they are not OK. See how long you last before the angry mob takes you out back and beats you with a rubber hose. - I never disparaged low or working class people. Where did you see that? I am working class. Or better yet - get out of your corner office. Then put all your savings (less about $1,000 dollars, which still puts you at an advantage to a lot of folks) in a blind trust that you cannot access for about two years. Then go out and get a job (good luck with that) in a factory, retail store, call center, or auto manufacturer and then start living - while smiling of course. In two years, I wonder if your opinion will be the same. - That would never happen for numerous reasons. First, I worked two jobs to put myself through college so I don't have to work retail, in a factory or for an auto manufacturer. And by the way, retail around me is hiring like crazy so it wouldn't be hard. I have seen Hiring for Managers and Salesmen/women signs at Target, Best Buy and Publix recently. Oh, and I love how you focus on the political side of the argument rather than my comments about the poor Big 3 autos. :) Really, I do. Becuase I know why you don't argue the others my friend.

Just my two cents on a few topics in this thread...

by trichardson on Wed Jul 09 11:12:28 PDT 2008

Just my two cents on a few topics in this thread... - Perception is reality. Not just when it comes to car quality but in general. There are countless examples in everything from cars, TV shows, politics, education, etc. that shows what people THINK to be true or accurate is often more important than what the FACTS say to be true. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but it is the truth. And in general the majority of Americans feel that the quality of the Big 3 in the US is much lower than that of the Japanese and German automakers. I guarantee you that if you took a random sample of 1000 Americans from across the US you would find at least 75-80% who think this way. - As an outside observer I think a lot of the disagreements in this thread can be traced back to generational shifts in thinking. Younger Americans who grew up in the 80s and 90s have grown up with the sense that the Big 3 are ugly, noisy, unpolished and unreliable. They weren't around to see the horrible early imports coming from Japan in the 60s and 70s. Conversely, they were around when the Big 3 continued to pump out unreliable vehicles that appeared (perception again) to be the ugly stepsister of their foreign counterparts. And in the 80s and 90s this perception WAS reality as the Big 3 did turn out piss poor vehicles. - Remember, when discussing an industry like cars we talk in generalities. Yes, the Malibu is a fine automobile. But it is ONE car in a sea of many put out by GM. One car is not enough to break such an imbedded perception as exists today. It will take years and continued increases in quality across all brands to break this perception. - I think differences in perceptions by the sexes comes into play as well. 20-30 years ago women did not have the income or car buying opportunities that they do today. And the cars reflected that. Women don't necessarily want a big ol' V8 that sounds like a freight train. They want safe, reliable, dependable and good looking cars. This is yet another stake in the heart of the Big 3. They missed this boat completely while Honda, Toyota, BMW, VW and even Hyundai jumped all over it. Today women have so much more of a say in their family's car buying decisions and they are going to gravitate towards a foreign made automobile. - The UAW was a great institution. Key word is was. It was needed at a time when workers were abused and taken advantage of. Believe it or not those days are over. Today, differences in how firms treat employees (how much pay, what benefits, how much time off, what retirement plans, etc.) via the market are so much more varied than they were back in the old days. If any employee doesn't like how his/her firm treats them, he/she can leave at any time. Today's workforce is also better educated and a higher education is basically a must if you want to be paid and treated well by your employer. The days of blue collar employees without a college degree expecting to be paid $28+ dollar an hour are over. Just like how the US graduated from a farming based country to a manufacturing one, we have now moved from manufacturing to information/technology/marketing country. And if an employer closes shop and the employee is unwilling or unable to adapt, it isn't the employer's problem. This is capitalism, sorry. Every single working adult in this country should be flexible. You are not "owed" or "guaranteed" anything and if you think you are you are either ignorant or foolish. Everyone should have their resume updated at all times and should be prepared to adapt when the crapola hits the fan at their place of business. That may mean you need to move your family to another state, take classes to learn new skills, move to a lower position to get a leg up someplace new. It may SUCK royally to do this, but that doesn't make it wrong. It makes it a free-market based America. - Choice. God I love choices. In the 21st century I can choose from a million things to eat at my local supermarket. I can choose a million different things to wear from the mall. Take tomatoes. No one will force me to eat locally grown tomatoes. I like tomatoes, and if I want I can get them from Florida, Georgia, California, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, etc. This is a good thing. Same with cars. I can shop for one of hundreds of cars from dozens of automakers from every corner of the globe. With this increase in choices automakers have to compete more. The UAW and the Big 3 just can't (and sometime won't which just boggles my mind) compete with some of their brethern and that puts them at a definitive disadvantage. They need to adapt and while it will be painful it is needed for long-term growth and success. Because otherwise, people will continue to make choices and choose cars that aren't made by the Big 3. And not feel bad about it at all. Whew, rant over...for now :) nice to meet everyone.

Re: Two in a row [mackabee]

by richard64 on Sat Oct 27 19:28:53 PDT 2007

You're getting worse than jmonroe. While I showed joel0622 the error of his ways at your request, you have been a bad boy. After all of those years with high school and college students, don't you think that I would know a trick when I see one. If you dared to establish a link to a porn site (as if you could), the Hosts would have a used Toyota run over your a--by tomorrow morning. Now go stand in the corner until the next customer walks through the door. (Sorry Hosts---I had to use the word for emphasis.)