If you happen to drive by our place in the next few days and you see what appears to be a black and white police cruiser in the driveway, don’t be concerned. It’s just a press car I’m driving for a review this week. Chrylser loaned me one of their police car demonstrators for an evaluation. It’s not the most subtle car I’ve ever driven but it will be fun for a few days.
For years I’ve been wondering how so many people can afford to such expensive cars, with 40, 50, $60,000 SUVs running around. Now I know. They can’t. It’s hard to believe but there is something even more idiotic than the real estate bubble. I wrote an Autoblog post that went up today about people who frequently buy new vehicles and rollover debt to the new car loan. Imagine buying a $30,000 car that’s worth at most $20K two years later. But you still owe $23K on the loan. Take that $3,000 and tack it on to the loan on a new $35,000 vehicle that you put no down payment on . Rinse and repeat a couple of times. Now all of a sudden, after 6 or 7 years, you’ve made tens of thousands of dollars in car payments, your vehicle has a trade-in value of $27,000 and you have a $40,000 loan balance. Hard as it might be to believe, a lot of people and banks apparently are this stupid. I’ve never bought a new car when I still owed money on the previous one so the thought of doing anything so ridiculous never even occurred to me. It’s mind boggling how stupid this capitalist system has made us. Just wait until India and China catch up!
As we roll in 2008, and I finish clearing my driveway sufficiently that we can get in and out, I’m just glad I didn’t have to drive anywhere last night. I also wish it was just a few degrees colder so the snow was so wet and heavy. As I continue to plow my way through a pile of articles that will appear over the next couple weeks as embargoes expire, I’m looking forward to busy and exciting year kicking off next week with the Consumer Electronics Show, followed by the Detroit Auto show the following week and on through the calendar. Now if we can just get past all the wing-nuts like Mike and Rudy and phonies like Mitt and Hillary and find decent candidate to lead us back to the path of what America is supposed to represent we’ll be all set. Happy today everyone!
Recently Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been garnering a lot of grass roots attention. Even as an unrepentant liberal, a lot of what Paul says appeals to me because of his unequivocal stand on the Bill of Rights and ending this absurd war on terror. This anti-war/anti-police state stance is the main issue that seems to attract a lot of younger supporters who might otherwise consider themselves to be more left-leaning. Unfortunately, there are no Democrats aside from Dennis Kucinich who are so strident on these issues.
Unfortunately, as appealing as Paul’s stand is on these issues, he has some equally disturbing positions on other issues that just aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Paul has made it clear that in spite of his belief that the government should stay out of people’s private beliefs, that doesn’t apply to a woman’s right to decide whether to have a baby. Paul want’s the supreme court to repeal Roe v Wade and thinks abortion should be outlawed by states. Perhaps even more disturbing, when he was asked at a recent event about his response to a debate question on whether he believed in evolution, he made it clear that he does not. Any potential president who can simply disregard scientific evidence in this way has absolutely no business even being considered for the position. In an increasingly technological world with a lot of problems that we must address, it is critical that we have a president who has basic scientific literacy. On this count Ron Paul along with several of his GOP colleagues fails and should be dismissed from the race immediately.
So I started the new job this week and it’s great. I love being part of a small team and the location is great. Among other things I’m writing on DieselForecast and HydrogenForecast. I’m actually looking forward to work everyday which is a great feeling.
On the way home today from my last day at the old job, as I was passing the Hyundai Tech Center I noticed a red-tailed hawk having lunch so I pulled into the driveway and grabbed my camera. I approached raptor slowly, snapping pics as I went. Eventually, the hawk decided I was close enough and headed off for the nearby trees.
It’s come to my attention that my previous post on opportunity left some readers confused as to what I was talking about. So let me make this perfectly clear. I got a new job and today was my last day at the old place. After 16 years the time has come to move on. Not being one to torch bridges, I’ll just say that I worked with a lot of great people over my years at Kelsey-Hayes and it’s subsequent corporate incarnations. As for the company itself, well enough has been said about that.
On Monday I begin my tenure at ICON Creative Technologies and I’m looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship. I’m shifting from engineering to being a full-time automotive journalist, a role in which I hope to inform and educate readers on the latest automotive technologies and advancements. And I’ll be doing it from an office in downtown Ann Arbor!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and hopefully you’ve recovered from that mass insanity known as Black Friday, it’s time to support our local creative community again. The Shadow Art Fair is back next Saturday Dec 1 from noon to midnight at the Corner Brewery. Go check it out for some unique gifts that you won’t find at Wal-Mart or Best Buy!
Not with a gun or a bow, with my camera. I was out in my latest test car, a Dodge Caliber SRT-4 near Matthaei Botanical Garden yesterday when a doe came up to the edge of the road. I stopped to let it decide when to do when I glanced over and saw several more nearby. I managed to snap off a few shots before the doe by the road moved off and I moved on.
There’s a tap on the door, the phone rings, a message in your in-box, you bump into someone you haven’t seen for a while. Who knows how it will happen, it just does. For whatever reason sometimes you don’t feel like getting out your comfy chair, other times you respond. Sometimes you’re looking for it, other times it looks for you. In the fall of 1991, I called about a job that I wasn’t sure I really wanted, sixteen years later I’m still there, but not for much longer. In the fall of 1993 I responded to a message and ended up meeting the love of my life.
Over the years I’ve gotten many, many calls from recruiters and none ever felt right. When the company that I worked for decided to unilaterally cut the pay and benefits of many of their best people while at the same time continually increasing the compensation of those at the top, I began to express my thoughts here on this forum. This place became my soap-box, a place to just spout off on whatever I felt like, the good, the bad, the obscene. This little corner that I carved out for myself allowed me to find another part of myself, to use the knowledge I had gathered over the years and to find my voice.
As it happens it also allowed others who otherwise wouldn’t to hear that same voice. Some liked what they heard, others carried on about their lives. After the incident that prompted my set up corner here, another opportunity arose that I meant to pursue, but my response to the message somehow fell through the cracks. A few months later it thankfully popped up again in a slightly different form and I went after it with a vengeance. It worked and my name began to appear on another nascent site related to cars. I began to make some contacts and not long after that opportunity presented itself yet again. My colleague Alex was busy and I was on vacation from the day job. A quick day trip to New York and back introduced me to a remarkable new car and a lot of very interesting people. That quickly ballooned as I talked to those people on a regular basis.
During one of those events I encountered a pair of gentlemen who would soon reappear. In the fall of 2007, barely a year after I stumbled into automotive journalism, the message appeared in my in-box. I called back. We talked and eventually the deal was struck. A new phase of my life and career would begin. I wish to express my gratitude to the clumsy, ham-handed HR department without whose bumbling, this may not have happened. Thanks to Sebastian and John for plugging in the amplifier that allowed my voice to spread to a wider audience. I look forward to continuing to work with you guys for a long time to come. To John, Rob and Scott for giving me a chance to make a left turn against the prevailing traffic. And most of all to Jules, Sofia and Max for supporting me so much as I make this momentous non-trivial change. Sometimes when opportunity knocks you need to respond in the affirmative.