I often thought it was too bad GM and other manufacturers never had a refurbishing business (not through dealers). I think they missed that sales area big time. You only have to look around on a sunny Sunday to see thousands of older GM cars restored and cruising the highways. I still think they had a good market share (still do) of big, roomy vehicles. If they had of moved into the restoration business of gathering up the oldies and refurbishing them, I think they could have added at least 15% more profits to their books. Who better else to do the job than the manufacturer who already has the parts and the knowledge of what the older vehicles need. There's still tons of people who would rather drive the old styles. I myself am tired of the sea of "silver-gray, jelly bean style" cars. And that's another topic.
When GM dropped the Caprice police models there was at least one company that refurbed them for PD's. Doubt that is still going on. About 1996 I think, and they were being refurbed as late as 2000. Think those dates are about right. As I recall new engines, transmissions and upholstery. When GM dropped all RWD cars they put that production capacity into making SUV's and PU's. Another stupid move.
I have been told that they would have to upgrade them to current standards. I know this happened with a company in Kalifornia that was bringing VW Beetles into the US after Volkswagen quit selling them here. They sold them new as manufactured in Mexico, or Brazil, until the Feds found out about it. Then for a while they put the guard rails in the doors, installed catalytic converters and replaced the carburetors with fuel injection and what else needed to be done. In the process the price went from around 5 grand to over 10 grand. Supposedly this is why VW dropped the Beetle. It cost too much to meet the emission and safety standards. The price of a VW Bug convertible in 1979 was around 10 grand without all of the new requirements being met.
For a short period there was a loophole where you could buy a new Beetle in Mexico. I talked to a Juarez dealer back in 1980 about it. But, he couldn't sell a new one direct to a US buyer. He had to sell it to a Mexican national and obtain a Mexican title. Then you purchased it from the Mexican as a used vehicle. It never left the dealers lot. As soon as you paid for the car along with the straw buyers commission you took it to El Paso and got a Texas title as a used car.
Listening to 1010 radio (Toronto) this morning, they were saying that GM Oshawa should be building vehicles for the millitiary who are sadly lacking same.
Like you, I wouldn't change my smooth running '97 LeSabre, for some of these 'new' designs. For one - I can't get into most of them, and the ones that I can, there is insufficient leg room. Even this car doesn't allow long-legged passengers in the back seats.
The Japs may be leading the way, but they are 5' tall, on average.
So long as we continue to inport from China, etc., we'll sink more and more into this mess. Products should be made by *Canadians for
*Canadians (*substitute your country) and the only way to do that is for the gov to practice extreme protectionism. Nationalise GM, etc., no more NAFTA like trading policies that only benefit the rich. No more sale of our natural resources, not electricity, natural gas, water.
We all should be proud of "Made in *Canada" but it'll take a revolution and a believable, trustworthy, one of the people, dictator - to achieve these ends.
Without being so drastic, we could start by insisting that all retailers stock and sell a percentage of *Canadian made goods, and that imports cannot be sold cheaper, with a plan to increase that percentage year by year.
Of course none of this is going to happen with 'One World Government' on the horizon (unless we have a revolution).
I agree. Saw some article recently about a new car which has sensors on the front, electronically coupled to brakes preventing contact with the vehicle in front of you but it didn't say anything about driving at
100 clicks towards a solid brick wall - and of course someone can still drive into the back of you. This idea only lessens the risk of collision if everybody has them, mandatory by law.
I like the idea of sensors, if every vehicle has them, but putting them to better use imo, by having them sense speed limits from transmitters at the road side, and record in the vehicle, electronically, infractions. Then when the vehicle goes for gas, the driver has to pay for the infractions, before he can get more gas. If the infractions are severe the driver has to call the police.
Speed is not really the issue, for the capable driver, in fact I believe that a driver, without infractions - a clean driving record - should be allowed to drive at whatever speed he decides (within reason: volume of traffic, weather conditions, vehicle capability, driver experience, etc) on a freeway/motorway, away from city traffic..
..it is really aimed at the inexperienced or lazy driver: that doesn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign; that hogs the oncoming lane; that doesn't indicate his intentions; that speeds in residential zones; that speeds in bad weather conditions, etc.
With such sensors in place, the police would have more resources to investigate crimes.
Our local roads have been all broken up by this past winter, with the sucessive freeze/thaw cycles, except on bridges which are as smooth as the day they were laid and the 407 (Toronto, GTA area) which was originally private but now owned by the gov (you need a transponder for paid usage) which I think is concrete, rather than tarmac - and never shows any damage by freeze thaw cycles (not that I've seen).
Whereas the local roads show straight cracks, across the road, where joins between sucessive tarmac applications occured during their construction - leading to very bumby rides (depending on how fast you are travelling). At this time of year, early Spring, there are teams of guys filling in holes and cracks with loose tarmac-stuff and patting it down with shovels! - soon to broken up again, by a heavy truck or another freeze/thaw cycle, i.e. a complete waste of time, imo. Worse than the cracks and holes, are the lopsided manhole covers, which seem to want to unevenly erupt from the road's surface - and beware of catching the steel edge, at speed.
Which brings me to another point, why are there (so many) manhole covers on our roads? I've *never* seen any workmen going into them, and surely a better placement would be on the verge, where the rain runoff drains are. They are not in any pattern either, seemingly randomlyplaced, so drivers are threading their way through them constantly watching for lane changes by other drivers, who have the same problem.
Which brings me to another (slightly off-topic) point. We convey Water, Natural gas, Telephone and Cable 'underground' so why not Electricity too? - and do away with all these eyesore towers - and free up the green spaces they occupy - and of course the seemingly commonsense solution is to convey all these utilities under our roads.
Sometimes I just feel like writing, and writing.. :-)
An interesting solution would be to go completely solar and get off the grid. You've probably read about this stuff in magazines and then it disappears forever. But there's new hope on the horizon if the major energy players don't squash it. Solar Paint. Discovered in Toronto, Canada at U.of T. by Prof. Sargent. They already have a working batch that collects energy from the sun using the unseen infared part of the light spectrum. The current solar panel technology (which is too expensive) to use only uses the visible part of sunlight. Apparently, even in it's earliest version, solar paint is far more energy efficient than solar collectors. So, paint the sides of your house with this stuff and imagine, having a set of batteries charged during the day, (even in cloudy weather). Running your office/house on your own energy. They actually can do this. Let's see how they squash this discovery over the next few years. You've always got to have a way to make a buck off anything like this, so maybe some kind of tax or a way to have the paint wear out every so often so someone can make a dollar from it.
I worked at the UofT for 15 yrs, in research, and see if I can find out more about this, other than these web articles..
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Waiting to see a specialist in our local hospital, a few years ago, I got talking with a guy who welded (to get the air out, so he said) solar panels for the international space station - and said that they were so efficient that just one metre-square array would power the whole hospital!
I got the impression that he was on contract to NASA.
I don't know why 'they cost so much' ? Aren't they simply NPN junctions? I remember buying a pound (yeah, sold by weight!) of metal-canned npn transistors, cutting the tops off to expose the junctions to light and linking them in arrays... but that was a long time ago, and I forget the details.
Back in the old days, it was considered bad mannered, simply because a late entrant to the topic could see easily how the conversation progressed, before jumping in. Rather like reading a book - you start at page #1.
It is still considered good netiquette. The following is from:
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"Remember that proper newsgroup posting is a consideration for others, to help subsequent readers of your post read your comments in their proper context. If you post your comments at the top and away from the previous poster's comments, then any subsequent reader will have to scroll through the whole post to try and make sense of yours and the previous poster's comments. It isn't so much about what is easiest for you, it's much more about what are good manners towards others."
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