I am interested in starting a small business based on buying Lexus LS and SC models and reselling them into a Canadian market. The American Lexus are equipped as most know, in the english scale where the odometer is measured in miles and not the more standard kilometres. Since the odometer is a digital and computer controlled display, is there a simple method of changing the display to show kilometres rather than miles?
I do not wish to change out the instrument package as it would change the "unofficial" mileage, but I am indeed wondering if the smarts were installed to change them to display metric measures rather than english measures....
Anyone know if this is a documented or undocumented ability?
Otherwise I will sell them with the english measure.
There are a few changes that must be made to meet Canadian standards, notably the headlights on during the day. I think this can easily be done via a kit from Toyota, or simply by wiring the headlights into a oil pressure guage. Also there are rules regarding tinted windows that are different in Canada from the USA.
No other changes are needed to my knowledge, but the Canadian authorities seem to suggest it best to change the odometre to read metric rather than english. My opinion is if it is not able to be done with a simple flip, then it is best to leave it alone. Changing out via swapping to a new cluster in my opinion is more offensive than selling a car with miles rather than kilometres.
The speedometer of course is the same. I also wonder if anyone makes a stick on decal type of covering that will show the "big numbers" on the outside circle in kilometres rather than the US models that show the "big numbers" in miles.
I HAVE BEEN TOLD that the Lexus Dealership can put their conputor on it and change the mile to Kilo-meters. This is Not me but the fellow who works on my Lexus.
Them there Kilo-Meter reading will mess you up. I drove down to Mexico a few years ago to go fishing and kept seeing 45 to 90 miles per hour and we hauled ass driving down there. We figured out with a little help with the road being bad that it was Kilo-Meters and MPH. I kept wondering why there was so many Soldgers in Army Jeeps tring to drag race with us. Ever 15 miles or so it was a check point and everytime we passed one at 90 or a 100 MPH there would be 4 soldgers in a jeep running after us. They would just give up after about a miles for that jeep was just too slow. I talk to the fellow at the fishing camp about this and he said they were tring to give you a ticket for speeding. He also told us that they are told to try to stop us but if you had a Mexican insurance sticker on it. just let them go. If you stop it cost you $20.00 and a lecture in Mexican . If you don't stop it cost nothing.
I drove on the way back for my friends have lead in their feet but it was hard to not speed up when you come to one of those check points and let a Army jeep drag race a Lexus LS-400.
Kilometers are spelled kilometers. The same applies for all the other prefixes in the SI system. No hyphen, no capital letters are needed. (Those bloody French made it all wrong! :-)
Perhaps it was just risk management. Trying to catch a mad racer in normal traffic is often more risky than to just let it go and try to catch her later by other methods. Often the mad racer is intoxicated or in drugs, making them unpredictable or very reckless in pursuits. Many innocent people get killed in the police chases.
IMHO, it is about time to U.S. to start conforming with international standards. There are planes dropping, because they fill their tanks with liters instead of gallons, Turtles speeding up in Mexico, and other costly and dangerous things happening because of the the unit system incompatibilities.
Nope. Only in America is it spelled Kilometers. As an example whats the difference between a Micrometer and a Micrometer? One measures items accurately and one is a unit of measure. both totally different things. but America decided to spell it wrong.... sigh... and America of course is the centre of the universe. Hell half the population pronounce nuclear... New-Queue-Ler.
And to say nothing about the massive screwup regarding the mars lander a few years ago. One idiot calculated the orbit entry in Miles while another did it in Kilos.... It cost hundreds of millions of dollars. America agreed to go with Canada in the early 70's, but backed out at the last min. Now America is far far behind.... all areas of manufacturing and especially the machine tool trade have all but disappeared from America.
I don't know who to blame. but in my machine shop I no longer was even offered American made machines. all reps who came by my shop were representing European or Japanese machines. Thats the machines I bought. I did buy a Cincinatti Machine tolls machine.... used.... but I hardly used it. It was too cumbersome compared the the Japanese offerings.
If you did not know it Ameria is or has been getting out of the manufactoring business for years. They are getting into the High Tech Business. HTB is the thinking about a product to be manufactored by a low cost country or maybe here. I will try to give you a example of this transsion.
All Drilling for oil Abilitys are owned by American companys. The Drill Gyro systems used by ALL Oil companys now days is a American system and owned completely by American Companys. So if you want to drill for oil you come to America to get the Know how.
The Japanese Government wanted to re do all their Power Grids & electric system for the whole country of Japan. The only two bidders was Siemen and G/E both American companys. There was no bidders from Japan at all. Japan is very good at Mass production of a known item and all the bugs have been worked out of it they will do a very good job reproducing it, but if it is all new design from the ground up. You go to America first to build it and design it and get the bugs out of it and then let Japan and mass producer take over.
The Chinese Government wanted to about 1 year ago want to expand their industrial base of operation into manufactoring goods and where did they come to get all the technology to put it together. They came to America to design the system and how to set it up. Then went to the mass producer cheap labor country to build what they had been told to buy but even then there was something that these cheap labor countrys could not get them to build and got it made in America. Also during this time the Chinese could not get any country to produce raw metal in bulk and Sheet metal. The 5 Largest mass producers of sheet metal is 3 in American with one in Mexico and one in Japan. The Chinese had been buying all the sheet metal the Japanese could product for a year and only got
1/10 of the order they give them. They then came to American and ordered all the mills here could put out and in 10 months they filled the order for the 9'10 of the first order and filled the second order. Now at this time American company are setting up manufactoring systems to product their own sheet metal mills The High Tech thinking is coming from America, Raw Material is coming from all the third world country & China Too, and the equipment that is already in use is being bought from Japan, England, and India. Now all the High Technology equipment needed to set up the system is coming from America engineering companys.
America has been getting out of the Mass production business for 20 years or more and moving to High tech design and Know how. Then the Mass producers will take over. A nother example of this is the design of the computor systems is just now [ 2 years ago ] being turned over to the mass producer countrys and Japan is now producing their first computor systems to be sold over the world. The Japanese up to here laterly made all the small parts but the main brain of the computors are now just being produced in Japan. They were too bussey building cars, TV, and small parts for the electronic industry. It just cost too much to build mother boards and design the link to the system. Also what helped a little was Bill Gates and Intel would not sell the technology to them to mass produce it till now days.
I know a lot of people think mass producing a product is the country that runs the show but you will find out if you look at the system and who gets paid for what. You will find out the country that designed it in the beginning will make a killing before you every see the product come off the mass producer's plants.
TURTLE
P.S. Here is a thought . If I want to take a Dump on the Moon or Mars, What country would I go to , to see about doing this? The Country with the Technology Leads the world and the Mass producer just follow.
Whatever.... Japan has been producing mainframe computers for 20 years. The worlds fastest computer is Japanese (Hitachi/Ahmdal). Bill Gates has nothing any other country would need regarding operating system software (and quite frankly Bill Gates Windows software could be arguably the main stumbling block for computer technology today. It is outdated, insecure and frankly a pile of crap). And the Europeans have much better launch capability that the US has currently. Russia also has better, so I do not know about your taking a poop on Mars....
And here, BC Hydro sells technology to China for power grids (Three Gorges). BCTel (now known as Telus) sells telecommunications all over the globe. And Telsat supplies half the globe sattelite telecommunications. So your USA technical know how is only as good as it is in many other places... But I really don't care.... I simply need to switch a Lexus from English to Metric.
As for the US economy based on knowledge. It won't help. Already the US dollar is worth only half what it was in 2000. And soon it will lose another 40% . In 2000 the Euro was 88 cents to the US dollar. Today it is 1.40. The debt load in the USA is so high the pundits predict a run on the dollar. Sadly the demise of the US economy will also effect the Canadian economy as well. However the Canadian economy is based on knowledge as you suggest the USA is, as well as vast resources. More oil is in the tar sands than is found in Saudi. Renewable resources like lumber supply 30% of all USA requirements. Minerals are in abundance. However even with those "safeguards" Canada will suffer when America folds the economic tent.
For the past 20 years America has bought far more goods than it sells. Making every year a record breaking deficit. After a while you cannot continue in this fashion.
America has had a free ride for 60 years regarding the dollar. With the Euro now becoming accepted as a currency of world commerce and trade, there will no longer be as much pressure for foreign countries to hold in reserve the amounts of US Dollars they currently have. The estimates of world wide US dollar holdings to be used as a "float" are estimated to be 11 trillion dollars.
This is akin to writing cheques with the understanding that they will never be cashed. When the worlds commodity trades are done using the Euro instead of the dollar, then the "float" will be cut in half. Where will 6 trillion dollars that is no longer needed in the "float" go? Look out. When the sellers of currency let 6 trillion back into the buyers marketplace, the USD will plummet. When the run on the dollar escalates, the investments from outside the USA will find a better return.
All this will occur without the knowledge of the average American. It will take place gradually over the next 2-4 years. I think you should ask some of your teachers about getting some lessons in Macro Economics.... After you do that, you might want to send a note to Pres Bush... Warning him....
If all you did in 2001, was to take out all your investments in US dollar investments and bought simple Canadian currency you could have bought Canadian dollars at 62 cents to the US 100. Today the Canadian dollar is 82 and predicted to pass the value of the USD in 18 months. all you needed to do was sit on the Canadian currency and stuffed your mattress with Canadian dollars. Today you would have made 35% on your transactions. so say nothing of placing those Canadian dollars in safe 7-10 percent per annum resource funds.
At any rate think what you wish. I still need to flip a Lexus from English to Metric. Can you help?
haha! Russia has better... I lived in Russia, and they have NOTHING better. Everything breaks. Also, fastest computer is not a Japanese mainframe, but an IBM, here, check here before giving out fake info:
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04&M And if you are serious about running any type of business, you should at least know how to research a little better.
oh please the fastest computer changes each month.... And right now who do you call to get to the International Space Station... yeah I thought so.....
NEC used to have the fastest. But next week it will be some other
For any country, there are four ways to get seriously into high tech:
a) have an excellent educational system, producing innovative and skilled engineers and designers in sufficient numbers.
b) try to impose (with all means) a global IP system that favors local companies.
c) import loads of people who (can) understand high tech
d) set up lots of subsidiaries in countries with competitive high tech engineering workforce. Whip'em and get loads of cash ;-)
Obviously, US has chosen a), since US scored top on the international list (PISA survey), in which (in addition to many other tests)
15-year-old students were interviewed on how confident they are on their math skills. US-based students were by far the most confident on their math skills being top-notch.
Since the last study carried out in 2000, some EU countries, such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, have been able to improve their position. While European countries generally perform at around or above OECD average (with the exception of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Latvia), the US only achieved relatively poor results in mathematics and problem-solving and average results in reading and science.
have to laugh.... It certainly is not the new immigrants into the USA that gets them the poor showing (as some right wing pundits tend to blame). Canada to the North has much more immigrants per capita, and they are ranked well above the USA in all areas..... And only two below the lead in Mathematics. I guess thats the reason NASA taps Spar aerospace to ...help so often... And MDI / MDA to help so often. I guess also why all the space pictures come to Epic Data to get enhanced... Hmmm And why US DND comes to Eldorado for nuclear help. Hmmmmm why do those American companies come to Canada for so much help?
Pity is that when Canadians do all this work, only a few in the USA know it, and even fewer outside of North America bother to distinguish between Canada and USA. And although most Americans think Canadians want to "Be American" There could be nothing farther from the truth.
Canada was a nation born for the biggest reason..... To not be American.
Call> Since the last study carried out in 2000, some EU countries, such as
Let me talk to the Lexus fellow who does my work on the cars about the KiloMeter and the MPH conversion. He said there was a way to change it if it was designed for North American use.
Please visit Russia and tell me how you feel about their products after you come back (if the taxi actually makes it from the airport to the 'hotel' without breaking down at least one time).
Pleas thank the Russians for sending up supplies to the Space station . Many times..... It is much appreciated when the American space agency is unable to do so. without the Russians sending up supplies the space station would be abandoned.
I have visited Russia. I like it ... I was well taken care of, and indeed the cab made it from the airport into town. I don't understand your reasoning. But I assume you like it where you are. I too like Canada. I was in Russia to play some hockey. Sweden and Finland as well.
Well, it has to do with the fact that I lived in a country taken over by the Russians after WWII and had real time experience with their 'military tech' which is so much worse than what the U.S. has (where I was a Marine for 4 years).
Whatever, My opinion of the US Marines is that they have a hard time fighting out of a wet paper bag. They have no credibility in the world and the leaders are inept as well as corrupt. The soldiers are mushrooms... kept in the dark and fed shet.... Be glad you like it where you are. I for one could not be paid enough to live in the USA. But of course your mileage may vary.... and you were silly enough to do the rah rah rah sys boom bhaa.... Perfect drones for the military to use.
Take the high tech toys away from the USA military, and they do not make the top 10.....
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