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Author
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Topic: WTF I wanna vent a lttle
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 13, 2011 09:10 AM
I've been doing a little reading on what is to come in the auto industry and I want out.
http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/auto_pres/
What all of this means is tooling cost will be going up for all of the shops and techs out there. I predict you will see more and more specialization with the cost of OEM scanners and annual updates being so high. What does all of this mean for us: higher cost whether it is the cost of the vehicle and/or the cost of maintenance. I'm 59 and hope to retire in three so I won't be working on much of this over thought out crap. If you look at the link provided, all of the new technologies mentioned, except for keyless ignition, have come about because of government regulation. Obama's 53 mpg cafe requirement is driving us toward hybrids, direct fuel injection, and twin mode charging systems. EPA rules are pushing the new R134yf refrigerant. DOT rules regarding traction control are pushing the Steering Sensors, ABS systems, electric braking and other stability technologies.
These technologies will particularly hit the middle class and the lower income class the hardest because who do you think is going to be hit with replacing batteries on a hybrid or repairing these fancy technologies after they are out of warranty. But Obama doesn’t give a damn.
The proof is in his Cash to Clunker program. The trade ins would have made available good used cars for those of lower income stratas but the program didn’t allow for it. It even required that the engine be destroyed so as to make it useful for only two reasons: a boat anchor or scrap metal. But hey, according to Al Gore, only the rich should be driving personal cars and private corporate jets, and the rest of us need to depend upon mass transit which will work real good when hunting.
Happy Trails
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 13, 2011 11:06 AM
No offense, but it's a little bit hard for me to be empathetic when the company I work for is going down the shitter like a greased turd. I'd be happy as hell to know that all I had to do to ensure I had a way to provide for my family was take additional training, likely provided at no or little cost by my employer. In today's world, your situation is still golden.
At the same time, I despise change, so I do feel your frustration, somewhat.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 13, 2011 12:53 PM
You know, Lance, I have sympathy for your situation. And, I have sympathy for everyone that has suffered from some sort of downsizing. Being out of work is only slightly more stressful than the anticipation of losing your job.
But, in the case of the postal Service. I just don't get it? I remember very clearly that a first class "airmail" stamp in 1960 cost 7⊄.
They get whatever they ask for and it is supposed to cover the cost of doing business and adequately pay their employees and perhaps show a modest profit?
How has it descended into a situation where they are threatening bankruptcy, and offering much less in the way of service and probably asking and receiving another hike in first class rates? I have always been baffled at the junk mail rates being subsidized by first class rates. If they charged advertisers a fair rate, there would be less junk in my mail box.
The couple that live across the street from me for the past 37 years are both retired from the Post office as letter carriers. They both hated their jobs and couldn't wait until they could retire, at which time they both looked for and got part time employment so that they could qualify for social security. Those jobs apparently have evaporated recently and I am pretty sure they both collect unemployment benefits, although I would never ask the question. But I can see both Jags in the driveway, and it looks like they just run errands and take the dog to the dog park. And, it is questionable as to whether or not that they have qualified for SS? Maybe he has, he was in the Airforce and spent time in the Nam, and I think that gives Post Office credit on the pay grade, as well as SS credit.
But, by all accounts, the Postal Service is a unfulfilling occupation unless you are some type of high up supervisor? Maybe you would have been better off in the Fire Department, and maybe you can get back in?
But, I am sympathetic.
gh....lb
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31447 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 13, 2011 05:09 PM
It depends upon how you define "fulfilling". I've had my time saving lives and the like and am glad to have that part of my life behind me. My goals now are to provide for my wife and kids and earn myself a good retirement so I don't have to walk myself right into the grave. Until the past year, I'd hoped that was possible with USPS, but no longer. I'm sure your neighbors will agree with the adage, "I love my job. I hate working for the Post Office." Most of us do. I love my customers. As their mailman, I am and have been part of their lives for the past 9 years on the route that was taken from me. I watched many of their kids grow up and to them, I was part of their world. Americana, if you will. Everyone has a mailman, city or rural, young or old. He or she is reliable and that mail gets into that box every single day (but Sundays), rain, shine cold, hot, always. I know that I did my job well by the number of people from my old route who have come by my house and knocked on my door just to check on me because they hadn't seen me for a while. They thought I might have gotten sick or hurt and were concerned. The relationship between them and me was like that. From their mail, I could tell when life was good for them, and I could tell when they were facing challenges. I knew when they were in the gravy and I knew when the bills weren't getting paid, and they've always been okay with me knowing their business because they knew their secret was safe with me. I was their mailman, and like family.
I always think back a couple years ago to this little girl on NE 13th Street. Her name is Isabella - everyone calls her "Belle". I took care of her great-grandma, also named Isabella, when I was in EMS and through that, I knew her mom and her grandmother.
Isabella would come out everyday and tell me what sort of exciting things had been going on in her house. Her new doll, and in the last days on that route, her new bike. She's 5 now, was 3 or 4 back then. Everyday, there was Isabella. And, after a while, it admittedly came to be a bit of a hassle. I just didn't have the time to visit with a four year old. Then one day, I'd gotten past her house without being "caught" and was making my escape when I heard her voice behind me, "Mailman! Mailman!" I thought to myself that I really don't have time for this, but I turned around anyway. She came running up to me and, breathlessly, says, "Mailman! I need to tell you something." I knelt down to her level and said, "OK, Belle. What do you need to tell me." Her reply? "Mailman,... I love you." I was glad I'd taken the time to stop and smell the roses and sometimes, despite being hurried and herded by management to meet "numbers", something happens to make your day.
Now, to answer a few of your questions.
Here's an answer that will, or at least SHOULD piss all of you off. Why is the USPS going bankrupt?
I'll give you 22 billion reasons why.
In 2005, USPS went to Congress and explained to them that the process by which we adjusted our rates was sending us into a fiscal hole. At that time, USPS calculated what we needed to charge for a first class letter, took that to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) who haggled over it, tweaked it and then took it before Congress who would him-haw about it and, if approved, send it back to us to be implemented just in time for it to be outdated and insufficient. We were never able to keep up with the economy. At that same time, USPS asked Congress to approve a new system by which we could evaluate our rates each year and, if necessary, adjust our rates based upon an equation that hinges off the consumer price index. This was approved, and is why you've seen increases of 1- and 2-cents at a time since 2006.
Unfortunately, in exchange for this ability, a democrat controlled Congress also passed and mandated that the USPS prefund the following 75 years of retiree healthcare benefits and gave us just 10 years to do it in. Each of the past four years, USPS has paid the federal government $5.5 billion to meet a mandate that no other government agency or private company has ever done, and for good reason. Doing so will wreck your ship.
In the past four years, we have paid just over $22 billion dollars into that account, during a time when we've gone $21 billion dollars in the red. It was recently confirmed that had this prefunding mandate not been imposed on USPS, we would be $1.5 billion in the BLACK RIGHT NOW.
Why not just give the money back to USPS and repeal the mandate? USPS asked for this and were told, NO. Give USPS back enough many to cover their emergent debts? NO. Fact is, the money no longer exists. The democrats went ape shit crazy and passed all kinds of new programs. And, if you've ever worked with gov't, you know that passing a new program and passing its funding source are two different bills. The programs were created, and Congress needed funds, so they passed this prefunding mandate to gather money without creating new taxes which would cost them their own jobs come next election.
Although the USPS' budget is "off budget" and supposedly not to be touched by Congress, so was Social Security, and like SS, the federal government has been siphoning the life blood from the USPS for the past 4 years to cover their own debts and artificially reduce the national deficit. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has done the audits and made this statement.
How does this affect you?
For starters, USPS is presently evaluating the closure of hundreds of processing centers and thousands of post offices around the country. For you guys that live in major cities, the problem isn't a problem. For you that live outside the big cities, if this passes, you will no longer see postal services like you've grown up with.
Most of the PO closures are small offices in rural communities. The USPS is closing them not so much because they are a loss leader, but because of the way they calculate work volume and revenue. You see, the only mail that counts toward an office's value in the "big scheme" is that mail taken in. The mail being delivered doesn't count. If you live in a small town with no businesses or industry that use the mail to send out catalogs and the like, you're screwed.
My partner Kevin recently made the comment that he drives through dozens of small town on his job and all he sees is a half-dozen houses and a post office. Why do they need a Post Office? To deliver mail to the hundreds of farm houses that lie across the countryside. That's why. Rural America is well beyond the cities as far as internet access. The USPS was created 236 years ago to ensure the dissemination of information critical to the American people and it's mission is no less important today.
This also ties into your comments about first class mail subsidizing junk mail, too. Fact is, there are just a couple major marketing firms that are responsible for all the bulk business mail you receive. USPS has made the mistake of allowing them to become stakeholders in how we operate, and they have made it very clear that they don't consider marketing to middle America to be in their best business interests. The return on their investment isn't sufficient and they don't think those of us not living on one coast or the other should be entitled to the same daily service as our contemporaries to the east or west. In other words, screw rural America. Because they are stakeholders, they hold USPS hostage with their threats of pulling their business unless USPS caves to their demands to reduce and eliminate the workers in areas they don't want to pay to use, and that's a big part of what is happening.
But, does this affect you even more? Hell yeah, it does.
Junk mail is anything but junk. Despite what the news tells you, and what the USPS tells you, the internet is not the demise of the USPS. 2006 was our best year and there was an internet then. We were awash in cash. And, again, we would be now if not for the dem-passed prefunding mandate.
Junk mail is commerce which depends upon a strong economy. Junk mail creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and the USPS, through junk mail, supports a trillion dollar industry every year in this country.
The USPS carries 40+% of the world's mail six days a week. We do so for the lowest price in the world, too. The next closest country was, by my last source, Japan, who was at $76 cents a letter when I began and we were at 34-cents. Today, by their scale, and in the absence of so-called junk mail, every stamp you use would cost you well over a dollar. If the USPS were to privatize, you could expect to pay at least a dollar for a stamp as privatization means hiring people as cheaply as you can get them to work and charging as much as you can get away with to protect the almighty profit margin.
"Too much!", you say. Well, I was listening to a radio show last Saturday and the guys on there started trashing the whipping post that is the Post Office when one of them interrupted and said that the Post Office is "a true miracle". The others were taken aback. Then he explained, "Think about it. You put a forty-four cent stamp on something. Give it to a guy. He gives it to another, and another and another. And pretty soon, they get it clear across the country and to the exact person or place you wanted it to get to when you wrote the note. How much would you ask for to carry a card across the country and do that? A dollar? Twenty dollars? Hell, if someone came up to me and asked me to take this letter to my Aunt Gracie in Seattle in three days, I'd tell them go to hell. A stamp oughtta cost us a hundred bucks, easy." Makes you think.
But how will this really affect people? The processing center where our mail is sorted is on the chopping block. USPS' press release said it would only cost the city of Salina 3 jobs. Really?
I attended the public meeting on this and it became very clear, very early on, that the number would go well beyond 3. In fact, 16 mail handlers and 2 managers will be involuntarily transferred from Salina to Wichita, 90 miles away. And the USPS says it will save them $1 million.
Never mind that it saves the Salina PO $1M in wages being paid out and that those employees will still be working, just in Wichita, so it doesn't save the actual USPS anything.
What's more important is what this means to the city of Salina, a city of 45k people.
18 postal jobs at a total of about 1.4 million in wages annually. Since each of those earned dollars recycles through the local economy 3.5 to 5 times before leaving town, we're looking at a total economic impact of up to $7 million dollars each year. That three jobs became 18, and ultimate, because of the lost revenue to Salina, will swell to possibly as many as 40 to 60 jobs because each time those dollars are spent, on taxes, food, cars, services, etc., those purchases support another job. Those jobs will be lost because of the loss of money and many jobs will never come to be because of the same reason. The USPS will save a million bucks, but they'll devastate dozens of people, dozens of families and cost a community millions of dollars to do so.
The Post Office is YOUR Post Office. For most of us, the mailman is the one singular representative of the federal government that we see on an almost daily basis. Whether you realize it or not, you still depend upon the USPS. Under newly proposed delivery standards, you'll no longer be able to send a card to the guy across town by mailing it today and knowing it'll be delivered tomorrow. The new standards will send that card hundreds of miles away to be sorted and returned 2-3 days from now. (If the Wichita, KS sorting center has a problem, the next closest center for us will be Cheyenne, Wyoming.) Magazines that you pay for can be delayed as much as a week and a half, and newspapers will be as much as a week old before you finally get the chance to read old news.The Pony Express was more efficient than the new, streamlined United States Postal Ser (hack), Serv (wheeze), ah hell, there's no such thing as Service in the USPS anymore. We're all crying that our new "forever" stamp will be renamed to become the "Whenever" Stamp because it'll get there "whenever it gets there".
Excuse my French, but this is a fucking train wreck and it all comes back onto Congress. I implore you to call and write your Reps and Senators and tell them to quit screwing with the Post Office.
If this really pisses you off, read up and get all learned up on it. Here is a great web site where information is being consolidated daily, and it's spot on accurate.
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/
Heres an excellent Ralph Nader piece that covers all the bases. Pay special attention to the num,bers in the fifth paragraph.
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/time-save-post-office
Sorry for the LONG post, but this is kinda at the forefront of my world right now. I also want to remind you guys of something... No matter how technologically advanced we get, how many of you don't look forward to getting home and looking in that mailbox everyday, just to see what came?
[ December 13, 2011, 07:53 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 13, 2011 10:16 PM
Actually, Lance, I knew better than to complain about junk mail. I know exactly what you mean. But sometimes, and considering that I personally do not look at any of it before throwing it in the trash, it can be annoying.
These congressmen are some real operators. In fact, this is just a bit of a left turn, but I found out today that here in CA, you have to give them your DRIVER'S LICENSE in order to get a fishing license! New law, for 2012. How the hell did they slip that one in when we weren't looking?
I used to buy them two or three at a time and pass them to others that couldn't get to the store before closing time. Just fill in your name and info before fishing.
Not anymore, and I think it's a freedom and liberty issue and am pissed off about it. Legislators! Fuk 'em.
gh....lb
[ December 13, 2011, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31447 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 14, 2011 06:55 AM
I could see them allowing you to do that back in "the day", but anymore, I'd be inclined to wonder if this regulation is a spin off of the new regs being seen around the country that forbids deadbeat dads from being able to secure fishing and hunting rights as a way of compelling them to pay what they owe. Back in "the day", they were just happy to get your money for their budget and didn't care who spent what. Maybe California is trying to pass a new fishing education program, like hunting and furharvesting. Ya gotta know how to treat those fishies right, ya know. LOL
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 14, 2011 08:40 AM
Cdog: I'm really sorry about your job problems. I agree with Leonard that losing a job is one of the most stressful things a person/family can go thru. Being a job that offered a pension that you planned for surely makes it even worse. I know when I worked at the school district that I didn’t save as much just because I had a pension. I really appreciate your explanation regarding how congress is robbing you guys to increase spending on liberal programs under the guise of making you retirement trust fund more solid. A lot of your budgeting process sounds like what went on in the school district in the way revenue and expenditures are two entirely different and separate processes. Only a government agency could come up with such a BS way of doing things.
I think you took my post wrong. Like I said in my original post: “I’m 59 and hope to retire in three so I won't be working on much of this over thought out crap." The issues I bring up are much more political than personal, and my post should probably been posted in the political forum. I was simply pointing out how these new technologies are going to cost the consumer more and more and the majority of these new technologies are the direct result of new regulations coming from this administration. Who do you think is going to pay for the six scanners, the annual updates, and replacement scanners when old models become outdated. You and I will be paying the bill. The regs that are causing this are Obama’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regs, the EPA greenhouse regs, the Federal DOT traction control and stability regs. The little guys don’t stand a chance in all of this while elitists fly around in the private jets. I hope I don’t start sounding like those OWS idiots.
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 14, 2011 09:35 AM
And I'm sorry for sidetracking/ highjacking your thread. You raise some very legitimate concerns. The OWS people have some valid concerns, though. Their problem is their delivery and where things went once they got started. Most of those ragamuffins are the grown up result of the "everyone gets a trophy for just showing up, no one loses because we're all entitled to win" crowd.
My gun plumber is one of those guys who is good at what he does because he knows every minutia detail about the things that interest him. He is a conservative, but hates government, which I guess go hand in hand, and he has his thoughts on big corporations, too. No denying that the little guy has been excessed from the equation and if it looks like there is a master plan at work here, it's probably because there is. Like I told my supervisor when we were talking about just how insane the decisions being made at USPS are: You're left to conclude that they're either as stupid as we give them credit for, or this dismantling of the US Postal Service is deliberate.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 14, 2011 10:47 AM
What I said is losing your job is only slightly more stressful than the anticipation of losing your job.....or something like that? There are a lot of people today, with jobs, that worry that the next paycheck might be their last paycheck, because of the group anxiety happening in the workplace. In that case, a layoff is almost a relief, when it comes.
But, it's not bad enough that the bastards are tracking our vehicles, and tracking our cell phones. Now I have to show an I.D. to get a damned fishing license! Friends, this is symptomatic of the whole Big Brother attitude crashing down on us and why some people are making an attempt to get off the grid, entirely. There are whole websites dedicated to it, which, if you think about it, is laughable.
gh....lb
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31447 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 14, 2011 11:03 AM
"...some people are making an attempt to get off the grid, entirely. There are whole websites dedicated to it, which, if you think about it, is laughable."
How would you begin. Pick a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty and bury your gold under the floor of a dirt floor hut. Hell Osama was trying to live under the radar and couldn't do it even with his resources. A passport is only good for 10 years before it needs to be renewed. If you run around without it and a local LEO stops you, you may get a lenghty tour of a shitty jail. Other coutries don't treat illegals as well as us. I'll stay above ground level because I like the air up here
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 14, 2011 11:14 AM
like this: http://www.offthegridnews.com/
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31447 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
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posted December 14, 2011 12:32 PM
I worked in a Ford dealer for just under 10 years. I have been out of it since 2004 and I'm just barely getting to the point that I don't break out in hives by just looking at a wrench or project that will need one.
I don't envy the independent shops trying to take care of anything that fits through the door. The deck is stacked against them.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 14, 2011 12:54 PM
It will just get worse. The people stacking the deck are both the government and each company's own engineers and marketing.
Years ago, I was Inventory Controller for the Land Pride Division of Great Plains Mfg.. I recall talking with an engineer one day about parts sales and he told me that when a grain drill, mower, car, whatever, is designed and built, the original purchase price is not the only way that drill/car generates revenue for the company. Engineers specify particular types of materials to be used in fabricating parts, knowing exactly how long that material will last before requiring replacement. In most cases, their estimates are very, very close. By doing so, they know that each unit that is assembled and goes out the door (less those lost to accidents, fires and the like) will need to have this part replaced x amount of time from now, that part replaced Y amount of time from now, and so on. By doing it this way, they create a depenant funding stream beyond the original purchase of the unit. To augment this, most manufacturers of various things have gone to making only OEM replacement parts available, and many of them are now made as assemblies rather than the broke down individual parts that go into each assembly. At the same time, Great Plains, as an example, will not sell you a finished unit so as to not compete directly with their dealer reps, but will sell you the parts to keep your unit going. Whether it's a rotary 3-point implement brush mower, or a car, the concept of planned obsolescence is alive and well, and buying any of these big ticket items is just like buying an ink jet printer for your computer. The printer itself is relatively inexpensive. It's the ink that breaks your bank account, and without the ink, the printer is a paper weight. You could never buy a car part by part and assemble it for anywhere near what you can buy one road ready and they know that once you buy the car, they'll get you for the parts, which to them = revenue.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 14, 2011 02:40 PM
I don't mind the work. I work alone and find it rather peacefull. What I don't like is stupid people and the need for more special tools. About3 grand a year is average for most techs. I'm probably a little less because I'm so cheap and getting close to the end of it all. I'll keep the tools and will probably update my scanner right before I get out so as to take a grand off my taxes and have a scanner that will last me a while longer on my own stuff. I hate paying guys that know less than I do.
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Lone Howl
Free Trial Platinum Member & part-time language police
Member # 29
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posted December 14, 2011 03:36 PM
Lance:
#1....I personally like the Post Office...cheapest shipping around for small items.I know they have been trying to grab more of the package/shipping game last few years, but just seems like no one knows it. Probly 85 % of the time, when I order say, a new lathe tool or something small like that, I have to ask for USPS shipping. Lots of companys dont know about it or just dont want to mess with it. But UPS charges 7 bucks for 1 pound...ground. Fed Ex, very close to that. US Mail...you can ship it Priority for 4.95, and it gets here quick.
I ship calls first class for 1.70 or close to that. Maybe thats part of the reason they lose money? Dont know, but I like using them, very economical for small (and nano) bidnesses.
#2... I am a Great Plains dealer, and your story is correct lol.
Mark
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When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.
Posts: 2083 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2003
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 14, 2011 04:31 PM
CDOG I heard Henry Ford once said he could sell his cars and trucks at cost and make a million dollars on the parts. I've seen parts that you think would go over 100 bucks sell for 28, and I've purchased propietery three wire electrical connectors from the dealer at 60 bucks a pop. At least we can get them from the American dealers. Kia uses a repair kit that only they have access to.
The biggest price Bugger I've ever seen was on a 2001 Dodge Truck 4x4 w/ABS 5.9L part number 52009689AC retail of 632 bucks for a brake hydralic line. WTF Dodge is real good at screwing up the parts situation and I refuse to by another One.
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 14, 2011 04:36 PM
Hey MArk,
I need to let you talk to my wife, and my kids. They don't think I'm ever right. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Chris S
"SPECIAL ACCOUNT" HM's Facebook page moderator & runs with scissors
Member # 3888
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posted December 14, 2011 06:34 PM
All vehicles are built so close to the wear tolerances these days that, like clockwork, you can predict when the parts will begin to fail and ultimately, fail.
I sell parts for VW's and can tell you that we get calls in waves for certain items.
Posts: 534 | From: Oakland County, MI USA Earth | Registered: Jul 2011
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Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
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posted December 14, 2011 08:36 PM
Lance that is why I hate automatic trannies in a truck that does any pulling on a regular basis. $2500 add on up front, with a $3000 repair later on. Finding a truck (Ford)where you can shift your own is a hard thing to find. (around here anyway)
Love my Great Plains grain drill though.
AZnative...Stupid people? A guy in a fairly new Mark 8 sucked my doors off on the interstate. He hit a patch of ice further up the road and ended up on it's top. I pulled up, as he was crawling out the passenger side window, and asked if he was ok. I'm fine he said, I don't know what happened that car has traction control. You and I know it doesn't work at 90 mph but he didn't. Lucky for him and me it didn't kill him.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 14, 2011 11:16 PM
Yeah, and he probably had the cruise control engaged.
gh....lb
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31447 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 15, 2011 07:23 AM
The problem with these safety features is the human behind the wheel. People naturally push the limit and this guy had a higher limit just because he had traction control and he got use to it. He probably has been pushing his personal limit higher and higher and traction control was always able to save his stupid arse until now. Take away traction control, ABS, Air bags and mandatory seat belts and then see how fast people drive. I bet they would all slow down except the really stupid ones and they would magically disappear from the gene pool. It could be a good thing.
Arse: I just watched Love Actually with subtitles on two nights ago with the wife and decided to use the English term.
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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Aznative
FARTS ON CLUELESS LIBERALS
Member # 506
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posted December 15, 2011 07:44 AM
Bryan: I hear what you are saying; however, there are sometimes benefits going with the most popular features purhcased. It usually means better aftermarket parts availiblity which brings more competition which is a good thing. The manufacturer and dealerships can get away with highway robbery when they are the only source other than a salvage yard. For this reason manual transmission parts are extremely expensive when needed. A friend of mine bought a stripped down ford power stroke with manual everything. I would have stayed with electric windows just because of better parts avialability.
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Never thought the devil would need a teleprompter but I could be wrong.
United State of America: RIP
Born July 4th 1776 died November 6th 2012
Posts: 1924 | From: Phoenix Az | Registered: Jan 2005
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