Re: Perception

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: "Jim Blair" <carnuck@xxxxxxxxxxx>
" 
" A: There were far too many "Love Canals" and "3 mile island" as well as 
" other super polluted (Any Hanford downwinders here? Raise your tumors) areas 
" that needed cleaning after big business was done with them here. Now it's 
" spreading to other parts of the world and a large part of that is 
" autobuilder related.

one right here in woburn, that was made into a movie.

there's a fairly shocking case in my old home town of a company that
reprocessed depleted uranium - into howitzer shells among other
things, for which much of the middle east will have our name on their
lips for millennia to come - and the way they just dumped 55gal drums
on their property...  a lot of them...  and they are quite close to a
major river.

when news of this began to get out, the parent corp transferred assets
out of this division, transferred liabilities in, then spun it off.
the shell of this former division promptly went bankrupt, taking
responsibility for cleanup with it.  the corp walked away with the
profits.

"    As for no emissions in Japan, they are so tuned into it that they give 
" tax breaks for people to buy new cars and as it ages, the taxes and licenses 
" go up

unless japan has some magic low/zero pollution process for making and
disposing of cars, i think this was in major part an attempt to prop
the japanese auto industry up, under a high-profile cover.  not that
it needs propping up now...
--
there's a total ban on importation of japanese trucks, didja know
that?  that's why the toyotas and nissans are made here, and why the
mazdas are actually ford clones.

but i heard that one small suv i[and probably all of them] is being
imported as a 'car', then registered with the epa as a 'truck'.  how
can they get away with having it both ways?

"    As for Vegas, I repowered several of them with Chevette motors and auto 
" overdrive (with the 4.10 axle from a standard car) and the fuel economy was 
" decent (20 around town and 32 highway) and the power didn't suffer unless 
" the car ran fully loaded into the higher altitudes. Same goes for the Pinto 
" with Cortina 1.6L (inverted hemi GT motor) and 5 speed. I ran rings around a 
" lot of higher "performance" V8 cars and still got at least twice the fuel 
" economy. I did a lot of suspension tricks to get it to ride well (for a 
" Pinto. More like the newer Mustangs)
"    That's why I wish I had the time and energy to put the 2.45L AMC 4 cyl 
" with TBI into an AMC car with O/D. After having several of these motors, 
" even with high mileage, they have been a wonder with the right gearing. 
" Perhaps a Gremlin X'terminator or 4x4 SX4. Even the bulky Eagle wagon would 
" run well with one of these motors as a commuter mobile. Run the AW4 Jeep 
" auto O/D (2WD in cars or 4x4 in Eagles) with 4.10 gears and you have a 
" little powerhouse that's not too hard on fuel. I don't know what the later 
" MPFI economy is like, but for a commuter car, you don't need massive amounts 
" of power MOST of the time.
"    People deride me because I run a 304 in my tow rig ('73 J4000 with tired 
" TH400 and Borg Warner Quadratrac with 16% O/D and part time kit installed. 
" 3.73 gears with full float hubs at all 4 corners and 33" tires) but I get 12 
" mpg in town and almost 20 on the highway, loaded or empty. (I got 17 mpg 
" with a car on tow dolly behind and another loaded on top of the box over a 
" 200 mile stretch at 60 mph average)
"    Now I am looking at getting an M715 frame with 10 or 12 foot deck to put 
" a car on top and another on a stinger behind. The deck will be lighter than 
" the original steel box but that weight savings will probably be taken up 
" with extra frame, winch, etc. (Now how did I come around to this? Oh yeah! 
" Purpose built vehicles that should've been made, but weren't)
" 
" 
" From: John McEwen <moparrr@xxxxxxx>
" Subject: Re: Perception
" To: mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx
" Message-id: <p06110401be995a61d4b6@[192.168.2.150]>
" 
" While it's nice to blame the big companies and we know that there are
" many reasons to blame them, they are not solely to blame for the
" current mess.
" 
" The seeds of the problem lie back in the '60s and were begun (rightly
" so) by Ralph Nader and what he represented.  The root of the problem
" lies in LA and So. Cal. generally.
" 
" The flower power movement germinated in part due to the
" military-industrial complex which was outed at that time, brought
" emphasis and recognition to the cause of the environment - which up
" to that time had been simply something to plunder.  Add in the
" "Smoggy Day in LA Town" and the ravages of war on the economy,
" followed by the gas crises of the '70s and you have the beginnings of
" the end of the American auto industry and the American economy.
" 
" The manufacturers could not do everything at once.  They could not
" design and produce anti-pollution measures, meet the influx of
" quality, inexpensive cars from Japan, and develop brilliant new
" engine and chassis technology to meet the CAFE standards imposed
" during the same decade - all the while  building attractive modern
" designs.
" 
" The costs were enormous and the assistance minimal.  Instead of
" recognizing the problems and helping to overcome them, the American
" people passed more laws then went out and bought Hondas, Toyotas and
" Datsuns.  They voted with their check books and US Cars Inc. lost the
" battle.  The enthusiast car magazines savaged the domestics and
" shovelled praise on anything foreign which was easy when they
" couldn't contribute to the solution.
" 
" AMC collapsed, Chrysler went to the wall while GM and Ford built
" crappy - desperately down-sized, unattractive lumps with poor
" performance and economy but clean tail pipes.  Japan offered
" reliability, economy and performance while General Bullmoose offered
" "Colonnade Hardtops", Opera Windows and Mustang II..
" 
" Europe and Japan went right on building cars in homelands where
" environmental protection was unheard of.  How many of you realize
" that Britain has only just recently abandoned leaded fuel?  How many
" of you realize that in Europe at least 60% of all new cars are sold
" with diesel engines - and they're not slow, noisy or smelly - or
" could be sold in California?  North America responsibly encourages
" hybrids while Europe has only recently discovered the environment.
" British car enthusiasts flutter about paying for "lead-free" cylinder
" heads while we worry about meeting the CAFE standards for 2010.
" 
" While we were fussing with bumper standards, the Euro/Japanese
" complex was making money shoving the same old technology out the
" doors everywhere but in NA.  Instead of meeting the challenge, we
" paid them to build factories here so that they could avoid paying
" import duties.  The payoff was jobs for small-town USA, Mexico and
" Canada.  Remember when Flint and Buick meant the same thing?
" Remember Oldsmobile?
" 
" While the US manufacturers were inventing catalytic convertors,
" exhaust gas recycling, electronically-controlled carburetors, and a
" myriad of other gadgets, the rest of the world was spending a much
" higher proportion of their larger profit on making their vehicles
" more reliable and of higher quality.  They then built those cars in
" the US using US-developed solutions to meet US laws.
" 
" As sales of Japanese cars rose dramatically, spurred by pricing and
" quality, all the US manufacturers could offer was size, boring style,
" lack of performance, poor economy and even poorer reliability -
" created by the great amount of new technology required to meet a
" problem which didn't affect the part of the car the owner was
" concerned with. except in a negative way..
" 
" When the US tried to build small economy cars, what they produced was
" scaled-down big cars - still using the out-of-scale components from
" those big cars.  Let's not forget Pinto and Vega.  They sold millions
" of them, but the only real feature they offered was price and a kind
" of dubious economy.  Compare a Vega to a Datsun 510.  A Toyota
" Corolla to a Pinto.  No contest.  But don't blame the manufacturers -
" 
" forced to keep investors happy with endless profit figures. 
" 
" 
" 
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen

adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought