What if Cars were made like PCs?

The failure of the big 3 automakers has kind of dropped off the radar lately, what with the government handing out billion dollar bailouts right and left.   But I want to make my proposal for how to fix our ailing auto industry.

There's an old viral email joke about "What if your car was made like your PC?".    But I want to discuss this as a real possibility.  

Currently, when you buy a Chrysler, you get a Chrysler engine, a Chrysler chassis, a Chrysler transmission, a Chrysler cabin, and a Chrysler body and styling.   This is at best a mixed blessing.  (e.g. we love our Chrysler 300C hemi engine, but despise other aspects of the car)

But when you a  buy a PC (e.g. a DELL), you don't a computer designed from the ground up by DELL.   You get:

• a CPU (designed by Intel or AMD)
  
• a motherboard designed for the CPU, but manufactured by a 3rd party (e.g. ASUS)
• a GPU (designed by ATI or NVidia)
  
• a graphics card, designed for the GPU, but manufactured by a 3rd party (e.g. BFG)
  
• a power supply, manufactured by a 3rd party
• memory chips, manufactured by a 3rd party
• lots of off-the-shelf connectors and components

The only thing you get designed by DELL is the case, keyboard, mouse, and manuals.   The biggest service a PC manufacturer does is to select all the above components for you, and make sure they all work together.

What if cars were made this way?   As a thought experiment, imagine splitting the automakers up into smaller companies, so that there are several companies that make engines, several who make chassis, several who make transimssions, etc.   And then there are companies which function as Styling houses,  which design a final product (body, interior) from the available parts, and assemble the whole thing.

I think such a division would produce better, cheaper cars than the current situation.

Update: I guess I'm not the first person to come up with this idea.   A more in-depth exploration of this idea can be found here.

Detroit has no one to blame but themselves.

I'm going to be blunt here Readers. Chrysler should fire 90% of their staff. They make owning a Chrysler product one of the most un-enjoyable experiences I've ever had owning a car.

Take this for an example. Mr S. took in our Chrysler 300 on Wednesday morning for an oil change/tune-up. The navsat was completely non-operational and displaying an error message on the screen. Let me just point out this car has 15,000 miles on it.

The hands-free call system was still giving us problems, and the the satellite radio was also completely dropping out. Which has been an ongoing problem. The car would need to be shut off and restarted for the radio to start working again.

The car has already been in the shop for the hands-free and satelite radio issues. As a matter of a fact, the car has needed to be in the shop 3 times so far. Read here.

So anyway..... this is the third day the car has been in the shop. When I finally get ahold of them this afternoon, this is the bullshit I get.

They haven't done anything to the car. The tune-up hasn't been done. The parts for the other problems have been ordered. But... because of their fucking 6 hour strike,(read here) they are claiming a delay in the parts stream. Can you believe that shit?

Oh, and just let me point out... I still have to take my car back after they get the parts in.

So... to recap. 5 days in the shop for a tune-up. Because it won't be ready to be picked up till Monday.

Let me just also add - this is the second shop the car has been in. Obviously being pretty unimpressed with the work from the first shop. We decided to try a shop more in the heart of Silicon Valley hoping for a better quality of service. Which I will reveal after I get my f-ing car.

It would be one thing if through every step of the process, Chrysler employees didn't make it obvious they don't give give a shit about their product or their customers. Each and every time we deal with Chrysler we get about as equally bad service. As for the Union.. they should be glad they settled their strike so quickly, because frankly I think they should feel lucky they have jobs.

How Chrysler sucks and Pontiac doesn't.

Honestly - tires should last more than 11,000 miles. Right?

Apparently the tires you get when you buy a new Chrysler 300 don't. I had to stick new tires on the car yesterday.

If that were the only thing that irritated me about the car I might just bitch about it and move on. But..so far these are the problems I've had with it.

1. Automatic transmission refused to shift gears.

2. ABS (Automatic Brake System) stopped working.

3. Hands free phone system never seems to work, and the techs can never figure out why.

4. The satellite navigation system is the biggest piece of shit on the planet.

5. Chrysler wants 600 bucks to give you an updated set of maps.

6. Tires.

7. This isn't a Chrysler problem, it still irritates me. Sirius radio constantly looses signal.

Contrast that to our Pontiac Solstice which also has roughly 10,000 miles.

1. Soft top had a problem that made the cabin have excessive wind noise.

Yep.. that's it.

Even though the problem was pretty obscure - the techs did a ton of research and figured out the problem. After only one visit to the shop.

And - I just have to point out the Solstice is a much cheaper car than the Chrysler. Yet Pontiac didn't put such shitty tires on the car I had to replace them after only 11,000 miles.

Good luck with all that.

From the Central Valley Business Times.

"Sales of new cars and light trucks in California dropped by 43 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) says. "

Who goes on to say:

“The recession and uncertainty surrounding the viability of Chrysler and General Motors have left many consumers on the sidelines,” says Gary Shipman, CNCDA chairman and operator of Toyota, Subaru and Mazda dealerships in Santa Cruz. “It’s too bad because consumer deals on new cars and trucks have never been better and the loss of sales tax revenue is really hurting our communities.”

Well... holy.... shit. I guess they should have thought about that when everyone said "you know what would help this problem? A tax increase". You know what is also hurting our communities? Paying more for every single item people purchase.

No one is sitting on the sidelines. Are these people out of their minds? We've got a 10% sales tax. For every 1000.00 bucks, you pay 100.00 in taxes. A tripling of the registration fee. For my two year old car my fee is about 333.00. This year.

I think I've gotten in right under the wire. I know the increase is suppose to happen at any time. Which would mean, next year the increase would make me pay a sum of around 999.00. I can't wait to see what the fee for the Chrysler is.

Let me just emphasis. My projected tax increase (just to register my cars) is probably going to be around 1500 bucks. In one years time. It isn't abnormal for people here to own two cars in this state. I really don't know a working couple that doesn't own two cars. Sure the Chrysler is a little spendy. But, the Solstice doesn't cost that much more than a Honda Sedan.

Chrysler and GM cars are the more expensive ones. Thus, their registration fees and taxes would go up the most. DUH!

BTW - did you know California is the largest single auto market in the United States? According to this site. I hope they really don't expect that to recover any time soon.

But, but, but. The registration fee increase isn't going to hurt anyone. Right. It's just a few hundred extra bucks. Except for a working family with two cars.

I'm in a surly mood.

It's going be a cold day in hell before I buy another Chrysler product.

I try to be reasonable Readers. I really do. It seems there is no end to companies that try my patience. This week it is Chrysler.

Remember when I told you I took my car into the Chrysler dealership Wednesday of last week? Here.

Well, I still don't have my car. It was suppose to be ready yesterday. But when Mr S. called to see if the car was ready, the dealership would never call us back. As a matter of a fact, you can't get anyone in the service department on the phone. It goes directly to voice mail. Feeling that Mr S. had been nice long enough, I called this morning to talk to a manager. Because - I'm pissed. I've never had any shop keep my car for 6 days for minor repairs. Have you?

Finally, the service manager calls me back. He proceeds to tell me that parts for the satellite components are sitting on his desk. I'm sure in attempt to placate me, but only succeeds in pissing me off more. I wanted to yank the car today.

When I tell him I've never had a shop keep my car for parts that didn't affect the car being driven. He tries to give me an excuse then mutters under his breath "yeah.. I guess you could have still driven the car". Um.. duh~!

Even though he tells me the car will be ready by the end of the day, I still want to yell at the guy. I do. 6 days People! Remember, the car only needed a tune-up and parts ordered for the satellite systems. Which contrary to popular belief, I can still find my way around without a satellite navigation system.

Then the guy starts trying to tell me he thought Mr S. was okay with the car being left there while the parts came in. Which only pisses me off more. Who on fucking earth says they don't need their car for a week if the motor isn't blown. Honestly. Who?

Not to mention I blogged about being pissed at the dealership on Friday. The guy was claiming their 6 hour strike was causing a delay in getting the parts and I would need to bring the car back. See.. its right here in this entry.

I'd be less pissed if they had mentioned they were keeping my car for a week when I dropped it off. But they didn't. Or if they answered the phone in the service department. Ever. Or returned any calls.

This is the thing. I'm not happy so many things have gone wrong with my car, but what makes it more frustrating is trying to get the dealerships to fix the car. You'd think a car company that was loosing so much money, might attempt to provide better customer support. But they don't. They actually provide consistently bad service.

Update: As I was getting ready to post this message I got a call from the dealership. They have put my new navsat in, but they tell me the navsat disk is damaged. I don't know how something that is read by lasers, and has never been taken out of the drive can be damaged - but it apparently is going to cost me a few hundred bucks to get a new disk. I also have a transmission leak. On a car that has 15,000 miles on it.

I guess I get to add this stuff to the ever growing list of problems with this car. Not happy.

It's a compilation post.

This week I have been sick with that cold called the seven layers of hell. Mr S. has it last weak, and I was doing really well. Then I caved, and it's all been a blur since then. The waterfalls of snot. I haven't slept through the night once. It's one of those colds where you have to tell your husband, "look, I'm a mess I'm sorry. Don't look at me. I'm hideous." The coughing attacks that make tears start streaming from your eyes, combined with the waterfall snot. Got your mental image yet? Thought so.

Anyway.....

I've been trying to stay away from people. But I still have cabin fever. Yesterday Mr S. and I decided to go out and do some urban exploration.

(He is now sick with the new strain I gave him back.)

We hopped on the freeway, and the car died. 700 bucks later - I have a new battery and alternator. Which is a bit of a pisser since my car is only 5 years old.

Turns out, Chrysler stuck the battery in the back of this car. So it works the alternator harder. Which makes it overheat and die early. I swear, I will never buy another Chrysler product as long as I live. I had to replace the tires on the car at 15 thousand miles. It is basically a laptop on wheels. Disposable. Well, except for the HEMI.

So, we got the car back this morning, and went back to our urban exploring. We were going to hunt out this place in Fremont called the upside down airplane. The people who talked about it, did so quite a few years back - so I wasn't sure it still existed.

Turns out it kinda does. That have taken the airplane apart and are just using one wing.... for something. There is a lot of urban lore with this place. I'm just not that superstitious or paranoid. I did however find it interesting that they are still staffing one man out there to basically babysit these three antennae.



They have a dummy sitting on the spot where the plane used to be. The picture at the top of the post.

They have a wing of the plane sitting on a cammo jeep with an antenna sticking out of it.

Yeah - I'm bitter.

I'm not even sure how to articulate how I've been feeling the last week. Mostly just mad I think. Mixed with a bit of cognitive dissidence. You see, my whole blog has revolved around wanting people to be fired. Now that this is a reality, it takes quite a bit of effort to remember that we got here through complete incompetence and malaise. I feel bad people are loosing their jobs. But, then I remember my experiences with those companies and wonder if I shouldn't be glad. And when I think about how much of my tax dollars are going to help these people, I just get extremely pissed off.

You see - I didn't expect anything for free. When I bought my investment house, I didn't expect to paint it, throw in some carpet, and make tons of money. My crapshack was the closest you can get to a condemned building you can get. I worked hard and made it a livable place. When I couldn't get rid of it due to market conditions, or use whatever reason you want to use, we re-worked our plans. We moved in a renter. It has been quite a bit of stress. But, we didn't have a choice. Now we have to help bail out the banks who created a huge f-ing roadblock and lost complete control of how to conduct business. Not to mention other people who weren't as responsible.

Maybe I should tell you that my neighbor told me a few weeks ago that he was trying to buy an understated house at a distressed price. It wasn't a crapshack, but not a great place either. He was willing to put 50% down. And he still couldn't get the house. Think about that people. 50% down in California real estate prices. Sure, he was a first time home buyer. But he lives within his means.

Now we have to bail out the car companies. I understand having to help people when they get into trouble. I don't always like it but, I understand the rules. But, when I think back on the experience I've had with Chrysler, it just pisses me off to no end that we have to help these guys.

Two years ago, we could barely get a Chrysler dealership to sell us a car. Without any financing. We'd worked hard all our lives, and were just going to write them a big check. They actually treated us pretty badly, considering. And that wasn't the end of it - every experience we've had with the dealerships has been bad. Here, here, here. And I have to give these people money? Pisses me off.

On top of having to bail these people out - I get the pleasure of all my taxes going up. Sales tax, income tax, car tax. You can't watch the news without them saying they are going to raise some kind of tax. All for the pleasure of being responsible. And never mind that the cloud of layoffs hitting my doorstep are an everyday fear.

And what pisses me off the most is that I'm fairly cynical, but I never imagined in my wildest dreams that the government would let things go so horribly before doing anything. And these are the people who now own our car companies, banks, and whatever else they intend to buy?

Now, I imagined they would use the economy as a bargaining feature in the election. But, really? To do nothing until it was way past too late? I'm just pissed off.

It's like it never happened.

As much as I love my husband, I always joke with him that we can't have anything nice. Mr S. is a complete spaz. When he went through a phase where he would wake up flailing in the middle of the night spilling completely full glasses of water - I thought I'd loose my mind. It happened a bunch of times. Which required getting up out of a dead sleep and sopping up the mess. After about six times of this, and the threat of death - he switched us to aquapods. We then lived in wedded bliss.

The story isn't over however. You didn't think it was. Did you?

He then went into a new phase. Which all involve pockets. Leaving stuff in them. Gum wrappers with gum in them. This also caused a completely new razor phone to be washed. After that, I realized that we needed to buy insurance on things. You know. To save our marriage.

It's not that I'm especially attached to things. It's that we work so hard to get those things. So, I'm of the mind they should last a little while. I even have a whole depreciation formula so if things get messed up I can feel like I'm getting my monies worth. I know. It sounds psychotic. I grew up poor People. Maybe it is psychotic.

Anyway. Fast forward to now. Last week I got into the Chrysler and went "what the fuck happened to the seat"? Oh yes I did. Mr S. and I are very respectful of each other. We've been married a long time. You don't stay that way by being assholes to each other. However, that car isn't cheap and I was looking at a dime sized rip in the seat. This is where he admitted that he'd left a pen or a pencil in his pocket and poked a hole in the seat. I assured him that I would kill him, unless he managed to get it fixed. It seems like the killing thing is a theme isn't it? It's drama People.

Luckily, we'd bought interior protection for the car. I never thought we'd need to use it.

I was pretty sure that Chrysler was not going to honor these policies. Ya know.. with all they have going on. But, if he could get them to. He'd live.

Not only did they honor the policy, the guy who came out (Tony's Auto Care) did a bad ass job. I completely feel guilty for getting pissed at Mr S. in the first place.

Here is the before and after.

Explain this.

The past couple of days I've been reading nothing but glowing reports about auto sales. Absent auto sales, consumer spending would have been flat. Which sets of my bullshit meter in the first place. I'm slightly suspicious we are going to find subterranean garages filled with Fiat's when this whole thing is over.

Add to that - I just read  this:

"TURIN, Italy--Fiat SpA (FIATY, F.MI) Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne Sunday said new car sales in the Italian automaker's home market had fallen in the "double-digit" range in June, the latest reminder of the battering automakers in Europe have suffered as the crisis has turned off drivers from visiting showrooms.

"For Italy it will be less than 20% down...down by a double-digit number on (the same period in) 2011," he told reporters" Here.

Yet they felt rich enough to buy another 3% of a stake in Chrysler. Bringing it's total ownership to almost 62%. Which seems odd in a market where you are down "double digits".

Update: It's interesting to note that Chrysler just posted a 20% increase in US sales. In what the Church Lady would call "convenient". Taken this news - I would expect sales to be flat. 20% up in the US, 20% down in Europe.

Normally I make take my ball and go home. That explains that, I'd say. If I wouldn't have read about GM prepping for "Drastic" Layoffs in Brazil. Here.

"GM, which ended a shift last month at an assembly line producing midsize cars at its Sao Jose dos Campos plant, is seeking to curb production even further, the autoworkers union at the factory said, "

Something doesn't add up here.

Fishtank bear?

Today's been one of those days where everything goes wrong. I'd planned to do something else today, but Jasmine came down with a belly ache 2 days ago. So we decided to stick closer to home so we could check on her throughout the day. The thing with her is she drinks more than any other bunny we've had. So when the eventual belly ache comes, we have to be extra diligent to keep her hydrated.

So, we took in the lame home and garden show we were going to on Monday. It all turned out well because my camera's battery was full dead. I didn't realise it until I went to take a shot.

The Chrysler has some problem with a vapor lock. Which occasionally causes it to stall after it's just been filled with gas. Which it did. Some guys came to help Mr S. push me out of the road. For a moment I felt good about the world. I was telling Mr S. - the one thing you can usually count on with people. They will help you out of traffic. It's easy do-gooderism. Only takes a couple of minutes. You feel happy, the stalled person feels happy. When I've helped push people out of the road it makes me feel happy. And well, I also get to where I wanted to go. So it isn't exactly selfless. But it still feels good.

Not four stop signs later did I stall again. I flip on the flashers and we go to push again. Only this time the guy behind me was a dick. First he honked the horn. Which got him an "I"M BROKEN DOWN yell." I'm already out of the car at this point. Well move! Me - You can see my flashers are on! He went to say something else. I flipped him off then went to trying to get the car out of the middle of the road.

Which totally wiped out the good feeling of the first time. It's like the world said - oh, that made you feel good! Here. Take this one then. Balance, byatch.

But I did get you fish tank bear. Which sounds like the worst idea ever.

I guess trickle up poverty has finally hit them.

Pebble Beach didn't make me feel better this year. Honestly I left feeling a little like I did four years ago when I was leaving Las Vegas after CES. Scared. There were probably 50% less people. As for the cars, it was more notable who was not there.

Spiker, who has always had a large area. Not there. They are suing GM over SAAB and all companies mentioned are sick. Tesla. What the fuck is up with Tesla? They have never been there - but neither has Chrysler. Who actually was there. Which is unusual and annoying. Lotus wasn't there. They also used to have big booths. I'd also say in general there were 50% less cars.

I overheard one of the guys telling someone else a bunch of people cancelled at the last minute.

I do have more pictures. But wow. This show was definitely a marked difference than all the other times I've been there. I think this is my fourth time. Recession or not, things have always been packed.

I never thought I'd love a Chrysler Imperial.

These shots were done with "camera in" high dynamic range. Meaning the camera chose which shots to meld together rather than manual high dynamic range.




The car belongs to Allan Clark out of Dos Palos. And I just thought it was the most creative thing I'd seen lately.



I would have gotten side shots, but all the doors and stuff were open. And the inside was just too retro interesting to have them close up. Sorry.

The little ones - they understand.

Today I set about cleaning up the garage. My freak out level was on stun. After 5 months working pretty much every day on the Canton house, the garage had started to close in on me. I couldn't find anything. I could barely walk in there without tripping. And... it's pretty amazing how much technology can become obsolete in 5 months. All that crap needed to go.

The day started out pretty uneventfully. We stuck out Mow to cut the front lawn and went on about our business deciding what could be donated, or just thrown away.

Now, I've talked a few times about the reaction we get from Mow. I rarely post about it anymore. When I'm in my kitchen and Mow is going - I'll look out the window and see someone stopped in the middle of the street watching it. It just makes me smile. I can't explain it. I'm still surprised when people stop. We've lived here a couple of years now, and I just naturally think everyone has seen it by now. It pretty much is not blog worthy anymore.

Anyway.. I'm digressing. Cleaning out the garage - bla, bla, bla.

I've got my back to the street, and I hear in the tiniest voice "something, something.. rooobot"? Which snaps me into what is happening out there. I don't see anyone - but I can see a tiny red flag. The ones that people put on scooters and bikes so you don't run their asses over with cars.

So, I step to the side of the Chrysler and see a man on a tandem bike with this young boy. The little kid was fascinated, and he was asking his dad if it was a robot. This interested me a great deal because the boy was young. Really young. But, he seemed really articulate for his age. And yes.. I get to comment on a 4 year being articulate. So, I asked the kid how old he was. Because clearly, he was super smart. When he replied that he was 4 - I became fully engaged.

I'm all "you are 4 and you know this is a robot"? He replied that he did. He dad and I started talking about Mow, and that his son had robots at home. At random points when I was talking to the dad, the kid would pick up on something and enter the conversation. Like when I was telling his dad that Mow didn't do everything like edge trimming, but it was nice to have when things were busy. The kid asked "the robot doesn't do everything?" His dad told the boy "you know the machine that makes (this noise - simulating the edger noise) it doesn't do that". The kid immediately understood. He was 4.. did I mention that?

I was totally floored at how well the kid grasped the idea of robots in general. It was like he was a little adult. At 4. I loved the whole exchange.

The hand of god.

If there was a god. And, he had a hand.



Realising that Mr. S did in fact have the day off - we set up to see some snow on the devil mountain.We drove through the windy roads with precipitous drop-offs and after getting close to the top - we started regretting it.



We'd stopped on this overlook. On one side was a rainbow. Suddenly it began to rain ice. Not much. But, just enough to realize that I'm overly impulsive. And, that the Chrysler is built more for speed than traction. Hoping to get down the hill before the rain and ice really began falling - we left without seeing any snow. We'd have needed to hike to see it. Which wasn't a big deal if we could have found parking. But, I really didn't want to be driving down the hill in pouring rain. Mental note for next time.





We also managed to hit a fairly deep pocket of rain. Which I'm so in love with right now.

It also made me happy that the roads were pretty busy by that time. To be honest, I'd become a little panicky at the desolation of the cities over the weekend. But, it looks like people may have gone out of town for the long holiday. Which is good news for everyone.

Just write.

Last night I was telling Mr S. I had the most incredible writers block ever. Well, why not write about Jeff - He said. Or the crappy time we had getting new cell phones.

Mr S. - I have plenty of things to write about - I just can't get them out. Snarkolepsy, He says - sometimes the only way to cure writers block, is to write.

I think one of my problems is that once people start disappearing I start getting agitated. It really makes me panicky.

The recession is really a little like walking out onto a frozen lake on a sunny day. You know at some point you are going to fall through. And, no matter how well you pick your steps - you still feel like you may never make it to the other side. Each day you make it, but you know that tomorrow you have to walk the lake again, and people are constantly punching holes in the ice.

As much as I try to enjoy the stuff I'm doing, you can't escape the feeling of danger.

Take for instance last week. I had to take the Chrysler in for a new tire. The place was empty, and the guy working the place started giving me the soft glove treatment. Most people might have thought "hey, look at that, I have the power now". For me.. it made a shiver run down my spine. Not that I don't enjoy the better treatment. Yet, when repair shops are fighting for your business - it's just something that is noticeable.

I've been going to this place off and on the whole time I've lived in this city. While they care about customer support, the vibe was completely different.



Then, the freeways the past two weekends have been completely empty. This is last weekend going through Oakland at 6:00pm.



This was on 280 in Sunnyvale around noon this weekend. At those times both of those freeways should be pretty busy.

This is just something that is filling my head with a lot of static right now, and making it hard for me to write.

Zombies have moved to the burbs.

And, I guess they are holding down pretty good jobs, because this was on a Chrysler 300.

I'm totally confused. I thought Solar power was going to save them.

Puerto Rico Hit With Island-Wide Blackout.

Said in the most sarcastic way. I've only been keeping a slight eye on this because I can't wait to see what happens to solar panels in the next hurricane. But what do I know?

I'm really loath to give Tesla too much shit right now. Cnbc came out with this article this morning. "Tesla could be 'too big to fail' like GM, Chrysler were during crisis, Morgan Stanley says" .

Remember I talked about this a few weeks ago. But honestly, Elon is the billionaire you want to be. He changed the Valley in ways I could have never imagined. I want him to stop using our money - but I don't want him to stop. Elon is one of the most scrappy guys. He will die trying to  save that company. He might just not have enough runway.

I honestly think a Tesla default will ripple through the Valley in a much larger way then CNBC thinks. In a normal business cycle 1 auto job supports 7 other jobs, but I think that ratio is higher because of all the sensors and map applications. I'm not sure what the ratio is... but I think way higher than that.

Hurricanes blew away Puerto Rico's power grid. Now solar power is rising to fill the void.

Karma is a bitch - I guess.

So, while Mr S. and I were on the way to drop off the Solstice- the guy repairing the truck called Mr S.

And let me just say, I never tire of the modern conveniences of my car being able to talk to Mr. S.'s car. They talk to each other! Oh, I know its just like a cell phone. But, for some reason it doesn't feel the same. Car I say - call the Chrysler. And if freaking does. Although not always without having to be yelled at. They don't always pick up all the words you are saying. Anyway. I'm getting way off track.

Mr S. then calls me in the Solstice. This is what he tells me.

Mr S. - the repair guy says that since he put a new battery in - the check engine light went off, and now he can't find out what is wrong with the truck. He says we should drive the truck right over to the smog place, and get it smogged before the light comes on.

Me - you're kidding me? Now I feel like a complete asshole for yelling at that guy. I'm going to have to apologize to him now.

When we got to the shop the guy I yelled at wasn't there. So, I thought I was going to be left with my own guilt. We drive the truck right to the smog place, and guess what? It failed. Yup! Failed. The technician tells me "have you had the battery out? I'm getting a check engine light, even thought the light isn't on".

Mother fucker - I think. Apparently California is wise to my shit. So I call up the repairman and tell him the truck failed - eating my 60 bucks. Thanks for playing.

Now my impulse is to give the repairman another chance, because he only charged me for the new battery. Not putting it up on the rack or a bunch of other shit he could have.

Did I mention that my truck runs fine - yet I can't get my tags because of this fing light? The cops are out in complete force these days, and even letting it sit on the street will inevitably get me a ticket.

It doesn't affect me.

I have to admit.. I'm slightly perplexed to why the votes are running 95/5% against the bailout. Sure.. everyone hates it. I predict this will change in the next month. Now, news of car showrooms closing are just starting to hit the news. And when people start complaining about the loss of jobs - other people will say "people just didn't want to buy cars". Which is holy untrue. People can't buy cars.

I serve this as evidence. A few days ago.. or maybe a week, Mr S. sent me an email saying that the Chrysler dealership we'd bought our car through was going out of business. He and I had a brief conversation about it. Later that day I asked him "did you read the fine print on that email"? What - he said? Yeah.. did you see the requirements - I said. A fico score of 700. With 30% down.

Personally, even when I bought my first car way back in the day - I could have never afforded that. Or had that fico score to make it happen.

It isn't right.

We got the Pontiac back today. The GM dealership in Sunnyvale on El Camino was fine. All the warranty stuff was transferred over.

That is not what I'm here to talk about though. What I'm here to say is, that even as bitter as I am about the car companies - walking into a dealership is super affecting. It just sucks and is so wrong.

I know they only have themselves to blame. Remember me? I said I'd never buy another Chrysler product as long as I lived. They pissed me off that much. Pontiac however has always been really great to deal with.

I just don't understand how we as a nation got to a point that jobs were such worthless items. It didn't matter how customers were treated, and you could just walk down the street and get another job anyway.

You know what my friend told me today? Her husband got laid off. Though, it sounded more like it was a mutual thing. They've been separated for a while now. But, this is what she said "Snarkolepsy, it was a blessing in disguise. He hated that job so much". So, I asked her "what will he do to pay his rent"? Oh, he can afford to live off unemployment now - she tells me. How long will that last - I ask?

Later as I was recounting this story to Mr S. I was actually somewhat exasperated. When did a job become something you love, I say? They call them jobs for reasons. How is it you go from a high paying job with a house and beni's, to being okay with living off unemployment? How is that is just fine with you? I don't get it.

Yet, as I walked through the dealership today, no one was there. They didn't even make any money from me. I thought I'd have to pay for something. But I'd paid for that stuff when I bought the car. Even down to a certain number of oil changes. So I walked out paying them nothing.

When I left, those salesmen were sitting on lawn chairs at the front of the store. And I wondered how long it would be before the place closed. Maybe they don't care either. Maybe just hanging out on unemployment will be just fine for them. But, what happens when it all runs out?

This can't go on forever. Maybe I'm a sucker for thinking about their families, and what the lives they surely must have led. Now they are reduced to just hanging out on the front lawn waiting for someone to buy a car. It isn't like they can just walk down the street now. Waiting in those lawn chairs is probably all the chance they have to make money.

Truth be told, if I had the money - I wouldn't buy a car right now. I honestly would buy a foreign car before I'd buy American. Something in my cold dead heart feels for the worker. Yet, I'm not even sure they care about loosing their jobs. How f'ed up is that?