Friday, August 17, 2018

This whole Tesla scandal is why I love Silicon Valley.

The mantra of The Valley is - fake it till you make it. So..... there is a ton of fake shit around here. Which means the life death cycle is brutal.

Sometimes what you thought was a smart business choice turns out to be the worst decision you've ever made. And at the time it was really a good choice, but other players come in and swiftly close line you.

But Elon is just plain out swimming naked at this point. No one really believes at Americans would buy cars that were majority Saudi owned. Do they? This is just ridiculous. But manipulators be manipulating.

5 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeSaturday, August 18, 2018 4:28:00 PM

    Why would it matter?

    Tata owns Jaguar, Land Rover, and a bunch of other car companies now, and they're based in Bombay (or Mumbai for the politically correct).

    As an example, if Hyundai bought Aston Martin but kept the design department in England, I think I would actually be happy with that -- their stuff seems to be well-engineered when it comes to electrical systems, as long as they keep their hands off the motors.

    No, there are enough other things that would convince me never to buy a Tesla, such as Tesla's infamous harassment of a certain auto world journalist many years ago and the fact that every Tesla owner I've ever met is a fucking asshole ... but worrying about whether the Sah-oodies are the ultimate owners of Tesla doesn't really come up.

    As for Elon Musk, I'm not counting him out because he's just crazy enough to make one of his schemes pay off yuuugely, even though I see every Tesla vehicle as an outside-in porcupine ...

    So when are you buying your ceremonial brick, the one that says, "IT TAKES A TRULY BORING COMPANY TO MAKE BRICKS THIS GOOD"? :-)

    Oh, yeah, Elon, we've got lots of suggestions for your bricks here.

    "CHICAGO WILL ALWAYS BE A BORING PLACE THANKS TO OUR BORING BRICKS" ... well, that's my current favorite right now. :-)

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  2. The Jaguar Landrover segment is probably smaller than the Tesla segment. Outside of one supercar the Sauds don't really any automotive history. And while I'm not a dude, what I observe of dudes is they have a fondness for history. You guys seem pretty cliqish that way. So... it takes more than just money to make cars. I have seen a bunch of very fine cars from other countries, but it's hard for outsiders it seems. They never seem to come to market.

    Plus, Elon would never give the kind of control the Sauds would want anyway. So......

    It would be more likely he tapped our government again.

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  3. Capital of Texas RefugeeSunday, August 19, 2018 4:29:00 AM

    Ever heard of Lucas Electric?

    The phrase "fondness for history" just doesn't come to mind when I think about them ... although a lot of not-very-nice phrases do come to mind. :-)

    So yeah, when I think of what could be with Aston Martin, high resale value and high MTBF are two things I'd like to see go together, which means that if a pretty decent car maker in Korea bought them, I would actually be fairly happy about that.

    Especially if they wind up re-manufacturing some of the older parts for such cars as the iconic DB5 ...

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  4. Nope.

    Perhaps fondness for history was the wrong term. I should have said a fondness for history of producing cars. Hundai at least has a history of producing cars, but the Aston market would vaporize if Hundai bought them. For example the Acura NSX was branded only for the US market because people wouldn't pay that kind of money for a "Honda. " So they rebranded it "Acura".

    Cars are just different types of status symbols, so people are really quirky about their purchases. I think it takes more than "just money" to get people to buy cars. The Saudi's don't have any history of producing cars, so we will see if they can gain traction.

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  5. Capital of Texas RefugeeSunday, August 19, 2018 7:58:00 PM

    Ford used to own Aston Martin ... until it looked like Ford needed the money.

    Helly Hansen didn't stop being a Norwegian clothes maker just because the Ontario teachers' pension plan bought a majority stake in them ...

    So, yeah, Hyundai buying them would totes destroy 'em ... I mean, it'd totes destroy the legacy of Lucas Electric within Aston Martin, aka "The Prince of Darkness" in racing circles. :-)

    Oh, and BTW: "... Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices ..."

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