| Author |
Message |
    
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1643
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 04:36 pm: |   |
Tell that to the man on the street who thinks all energy companies are thieves because he is paying over $3 per gallon at the pumps. Rush Limbaugh says that we should buy stocks in the oil companies instead of complaining to Congress.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1861
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 05:09 pm: | |
The fact remains that dollars are measured in dollars not percentages and the amount of dollars that the oil companies are making is obscene. I always thought that high volume led to lower prices but it seems to me that gas is going the other way.
When I refered to the oil companies raising their prices just prior to holidays I should have included the fact that they've always vehemently denied that their increases had anything to do with the holidays. They are lying.
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
3277
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 05:37 pm: | |
Nah, they're just bending the truth (like other companies we know).
It has nothing to do with the holidays...it has everything to do with the higher demand (which just coincidentally happens to be higher during a holiday weekend).
Off to develop a fully-electric car...
Mindsight Moderator
Aston's Blog
MWWB |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1946
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 06:45 pm: | |
Todd has the answer. The problem is we use too much gasoline. We have met the enemy and the enemy is us, to quote the famous opossum.
We need to develop alternate fuels and yesterday!!!!!!
I'm going to rig mine with a sail. I'll have to stay at home on calm days, but on windy days, look out... |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2365
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 07:00 pm: | |
Hey, I have a flex fuel truck but guess what? No ethanol in a thousand miles! 
http://www.perrycomer.com
|
Tom Elkins
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
444
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 08:00 pm: | |
And if 10 million people say a stupid thing, it remains a stupid thing.
Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1645
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 09:10 pm: | |
If the oil companies public relations departments haven't managed to change our opinion with all the money they have spent on advertising, then it just might be that we Americans are a whole lot smarter than the executives who run the oil companies took us to be.
http://www.fdungan.com/bushwhacked.htm |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1862
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 05:48 am: | |
Detroit has developed several cars that will run on ethanol85 (85% ethanol) Ethanol is a form of alcohol distilled from corn and is very similar to methanol (wood alcohol) I don't know much about ethanol but Methanol is the feul that the Indy cars run on and the fuel that I used in my race boat for years. It's thermal efficiency is amazing because it converts almost all the fuel into energy, it doesn't even burn with a visible flame. It's much safer than gasoline because it's so much more stable.
The downside is that it's harder to light and it takes almost twice as much fuel to produce the same results as gasoline (of course I'm talking leaded racing gasoline here).
Auto manufacturers will have no problem addressing those issues. Deisel fuel is hard to ignite too but they've licked that. Bigger fuel tanks is a no brainer. And computer controlled fuel injectors with larger jets can easily be programed to adjust the proper fuel mixture.
The biggest problem will be the price of the fuel. If it's going to take 75% more to go the same amount of miles a 20% reduction in the "per gallon" price won't help. It's going to have to come to the pumps at under $1.00 per gallon to get the attention of the public.
But if the business end of things is put into the farmers hands instead of the oil companies, well...
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2367
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 06:33 am: | |
Listening to the oil men talk on the news the real rub is who controls the pumps at the local stations. According to them it will cost 200,000 to change over tanks at your local gas station to hold ethanol. Just how stupid do they think we are?
If it runs in the car with slight modifications, then I wold think industrial grade pumping equipment that can handle diesel, kerocene and gas can manage ethanol.
http://www.perrycomer.com
|
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1864
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 07:58 am: | |
Perry
Consider the source.
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1646
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 01:00 pm: | |
That's the trouble, you can't trust the source because big business hasn't got the message that times have changed. The public is much better educated and much less gullible than it was in the heyday of the American automobile. It's a whole different ballgame. Quit conning us. We now buy foreign automobiles not because we want to but because Ford and General Motors forced us to do it by producing inferior products and engaging in hype.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1647
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 01:22 pm: | |
If you are curious about planned obsolescence and other nefarious practices at General Motors, I suggest reading Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader (I didn't vote for him when he ran for president, but I can assure you that he thoroughly researches and documents everything he writes - plus Unsafe At Any Speed was written before Ralph Nader entered politics; GM purportedly hired a hit man to get rid of Ralph Nader prior to its publication). Although the book is a bit dated, it gives wonderful insights into the mindset at GM. Corporate cultures are slow (and almost impossible) to change.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1948
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 02:31 pm: | |
"...The downside is that it's harder to light..."
glo plugs! |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
3278
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 04:44 pm: | |
"We now buy foreign automobiles not because we want to but because Ford and General Motors forced us to do it by producing inferior products and engaging in hype."
Amen to that...I'll never buy another car from Ford or GM...
Mindsight Moderator
Aston's Blog
MWWB |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1866
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 08:22 pm: | |
I think that you'll find almost all of the engineering for Japanese cars written in English and if you visit their factories you'll see programmable controllers made in the USA.
Before he died I spent a week at a seminar with D. Edwards Deming and he told the story of how he was rebuked when he tried to tell the American manufacturers that they were not paying enough attention to quality but Honda, Toyota, and Nissan eagerly invited him to show them how to capture the market. That was in the 50's. Dr. Deming had the textbook with him that he took to Japan back then. It was written in 1929 by a man named Henry Ford. I saw the book and I heard Dr. Deming say that it was the text that he used.
Todays quality controls at GM and Ford are probably the best in the world. To be sure they leaned on people like Taguchi for statistical process control formulas but the loss of market share dictated that they swallow their pride and shape up.
Unsafe at Any Speed was written almost fifty years ago and aimed specifically at the Corvair. It was not infallibly accurate in it's engineering assessments but it was well written and aimed at an already cynical public. The Corvair was far from perfect but it was not nearly as deadly as portrayed in the book.
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2371
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 09:24 pm: | |
I've owned three corvairs and loved each one. A friend of mine has offered me a 63 convertible FREE if I will restore it. I would take it but my wife would have a hole dug and me and it buried and covered over with concrete. She hates my car projects.
http://www.perrycomer.com
|
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1867
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 05:07 am: | |
Speaking of hype, the best example of advertising that I can recall was what Honda did to the motorcycle industry.
In the 60's and 70's motorcyclists were largely viewed by the public as miscreants and social outcasts. It was a period that spawned the Hell's Angels, the Highwaymen, and the Mongols.
Harley Davidson had been bought out by AMF whose main business was pool tables and bowling pin setters. They were milking the Harley name, investing nothing, and generally running the once proud Harley Davidson name into the ground.
Then along comes Honda with a little motorcycle called a "Dream." The bike was purposely innocent looking with its square headlight and sheet metal stampings covering any component that even looked like something mechanical in nature. Nothing threatening about this baby.
The ad showed a young college girl with an armful of books and wearing a modest sweater and a skirt that was reminiscent of the old poodle skirt. She was wearing saddle shoes and white ankle socks. She stood by the curb next to an ivy covered campus building and was talking to a handsome, smiling young man with very white teeth and a frat haircut. He was wearing a crew neck sweater over his button-down shirt, dress pants and penny loafers. He was sitting aboard a Honda Dream and the lone caption on the photo said: "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda."
All-in-all the Honda Dream was a lousy motorcycle. It was under-powered and not terribly reliable but I guess they were fine if you just rode them around the college campus. Not many of them survived (although there are still thousands of WWII Harley WLA military motorcycles still in daily service)and have become a hot collectors item.
But basically, Honda (and its AMERICAN advertising firm) changed public perception of motorcyclists.
After Harley Davidson was purchased by its employees things began to change. The turnaround was more dramatic than anything the industry has ever seen and it continues to grow. Today Harley Davidson conducts high dollar seminars on how to grow your business and among their clients are Honda, Nissan, Toyota, GM, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler.
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
Tom Elkins
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
446
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 06:29 am: | |
Harley owners have more beautiful babes. Chicken or the egg?
Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1650
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 04:57 pm: | |
The Harley Davidsons produced during the AMF era leaked oil like a sieve. The subsequent turnaround has indeed been remarkable.
I suspect that General Motors is too big to be purchased by its whittled-down workforce.
Originally, Fords came in only one color - black. General Motors vehicles cost more and weren't quite as reliable, but that didn't matter very much to motorists in the affluent 1920's. General Motors offered cars in all colors with lots of chrome and options that Henry Ford thought were frivolous (they were frivolous, but GM outpaced Ford by giving customers what they wanted rather than what they needed; Henry Ford had to learn the hard way that the customer is always right).
I hope that General Motors will experience the type of revival that occurred at Harley-Davidson. While lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place, it frequently strikes nearby. It would be a shame if General Motors and Ford ever declined to the point where they could be acquired by a foreign auto maker.
I'm sure most of you remember back when the federal government gave Chrysler a successful economic transfusion. Should we do the same for General Motors and/or Ford?
http://www.fdungan.com/bushwhacked.htm |
Tom Elkins
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
448
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 06:34 pm: | |
My fearless prediction: both GM and Ford will fold, or be bought by smaller companies (as were Sears and AT&T). Too many endemic problems. That's not a failure of capitalism, but the natural order of things. Economic evolution.
Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins |
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