Geeto67

anybody want to bet they sell a lot of them?I feel like a chevy truck will sell even if they attached a purple flaccid dildo to to the hood, because some people come from gm families and blah blah blah 'MERICA! I love my dad but he's one of those "GM guys", only buys two brands of cars: Chevys and Jeeps. Has only owned 2 fords in his life: a 1956 Sunliner and a 1976 Pinto and hasn't owned one since the 1970's. He's not the only one I know like this, my buddy bobby's dad only buys GM and cadillac. Never underestimate the willful blindness of brand loyalty, they won't see the ugly they will see all the cool new features.

The Design team that designed the Aztek, headed by Tom Peters, also designed the 5th and 6th generation camaro and the C7 corvette. The problem wasn't the initial design, the problem was what GM did to it after by committee in translating it from concept to production - it basically went from a more versatile S-series blazer type vehicle to a minivan with a tent.

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/cto/d/for-sale-or-trade-1968-aztec/6764203397.html what happens when a drunken chevy monza and a drunken fiberfab aztec hook up in a sleazy dive bar? click the link to find out....

I still feel like it is better looking than this: look at those cheeks, I just want to pinch them!!!! :gabe:

GM gonna GM....what you gonna do?

Eh....not quite Jeep's new axles are the m186, m200, and m220. The numbers refer to the size of the ring gear but for the purposes of our discussion m186= d30, m200= d35, and m220= d44. The m220 is available as an option on all jeeps, for a while FCA was including it on any LSD option. The Rubicon gets a wider m220 and larger wheel openings to clear the factory 33" tall tires. You'll still need a lift to run 35" tires though. So if you are worried about not having the strongest axles, you can pay to have them on your non-rubicon. Although people are calling it a D35, the m200 really isn't. The old Dana 35 had a 7.5" ring gear where as the new one has about an 8" ring gear. Also the tubes have a large C gusset to strengthen the housing. I believe the axle shafts are thicker too. But to be honest, does the D35 really have that bad a reputation? Most of the ones I have seen broken were guys running 35-37" tires on 5" of lift in their TJ. I've had a D35 under my YJ with 30" tires since new and at approx 150k miles I've not had an axle failure. Sure the old tracklok burned out and the shock mounts broke, but no failure in the ring, pinion, or axles. Finally on the front the axle has switched from a low pinion to a high pinion. This means less stress on the axle overall and a stronger front setup. http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/tech-qa/1707-nuts-and-bolts-high-vs-low-pinion/ If you are going to hardcore wheel and stick big tires on your rig then yeah it probably makes sense to buy a rubicon. Otherwise, a sport or Sarah with LSD and m220 axle upgrades is probably fine. Although...if you are really going to hard core rock climb your rig, then forget about a rubicon, buy a base model JL and put D60s or portal axles in the thing and forget about the electronic swaybar disconnect. again, I should point out the YJ and TJs came stock with 28" tall tires (225/75R15) and 3.08 gears (3.55 optional) and the TJ rubicon had 30" tires and 3.73 gears. Now a base model JL comes stock with 31.5" tires (245/75R17) and a 3.45 gear ratio, with an optional 3.73 and the Rubicon gets a 4.10. so even the base model jeep JL is almost as good as the best the TJ had to offer.

That is a shockingly shiny car for 100K miles.

fantastic write-up and congrats on getting the car done. Looks and sounds awesome.

At least his ex-wives got some money out of him for the screwing.

I don't think anybody is going to rush to defend it least they out themselves.

Yeah it's fine. Don't worry about it. If you are still concerned pull the plugs and have a look.

urban parking. not parking garages but actual urban parking is it's home. When I lived in Brooklyn, there were several on my street and when the spot was too small for the car lengthwise, they would back them in to the curb like a motorcycle. I loved city riding on a motorcycle because I could park anywhere, but I could understand the appeal if my wife didn't want to ride on the back. Thankfully she liked motorcycles and so I never had to consider a smart fortwo. now I will say I have run into people who aren't car people, or motorcycle people (too dangerous!!!) but think driving around 3 empty seats is a waste of space but don't want a sports car like a miata either. I am not saying they are many but that's usually who considers a smartcar. It dovetails into the zero waste movement I have been seeing lately.

I am not teaching her coding as a job skill...she's six. At this point I regard it as a basic life skill, similar to being handy. She can worry about the job training when she is actually eligible to enter the job market. Computers aren't going anywhere and the way I see it coding is going to be one of those things like plumbing, electricity, woodworking, etc...It's not in lieu of, its in addition to the other skills she is gaining. I leave the language lessons to my wife, she speaks 4 of them.

solution to what? GM has the solution, close the plants and lay off the workers. Ford's solution was to transfer them to SUV production, which to me seems bold because it relies on speculation that the more expensive suvs will carry the volume of their cheaper sedans. It sucks for the workers, but remember GM tried a "different" solution back in the 1980's where it expected the Reagan tariffs to drive demand to domestic cars and instead of laying off workers it created the job bank fiasco. Ford is going to try and do it now, and I suspect it's only to avoid the publicity of a layoff right now that it will make eventually later on in smaller numbers and more discreet ways. GM is trying to fix its corporate culture but that is going to take a while. Here we are 10 years down from the bailout and the scars aren't fully healed. Although there is some change, it may be another 10 before we see a "new" GM, provided they don't backslide. China is not about to overtake us anytime soon. It doesn't mean they aren't gaining leverage in the world economy, but in many ways they are still a developing nation. this is the same "better lean to speak Hindi" from the early 00's, or "better learn to speak Japanese" from the 80's and 90's. Xenophobic garbage that' is supposed to scare you to vote for nationalist politicians. sure we all eat sushi now, but it is because it is good, not because the Japanese took over america like they said way back when. https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/is-china-still-the-major-emerging-markets-powerhouse/a1093954 https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/is-china-the-technology-powerhouse-it-claims-to-be/3009383.article you know who has to worry in this country? unskilled laborers, but not from china - from technology. there will always bee a need for skilled laborers of a wide variety, but those who do the unskilled jobs in this country are being replaced by touch screens and robots. Have you been to a fast food restaurant lately? lots of touch screens. You want a solution? increase educational spending in this country, and fix student lending. Forget teaching my kid Chinese, she's gonna learn to code.

Didn't the Liquor authority open a "discount" liquor store in a closed down giant eagle? edit: yes they did and apparently it is already closed: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181011/ohio-liquor-control-to-open-clearance-store-in-columbus

the pentastar 3.6L engine made the 2012-2018 JK better too. It actually made all the cars it was put into that had the old 3.8L EGH better. I had a two rental chargers back to back where one had the 3.5L dohc and the other the 3.6 and the 3.6 was better too. The EGH engine was designed to power FWD K cars and mini-vans. It was a pushrod, old tech, v6 that's only credit was that it was reliable enough to carry chrysler through the minivan heyday of the mid 1990s. If you drove a chrysler minivan between 1990 and 2010, this workhorse did the (slow) pulling. Jeeps, esp wranglers, are crude. that's their charm. Low technology, low comfort, and marginal fit and finish add to the "ruggedness" of the vehicle. Its loud inside because you can take the doors off and it has no sound deadening under the carpet so you can hose it out. People associate crude with "should cost less" but because of their "charm" they are desirable and that drives the price up. Are jeeps overpriced, yes. But that doesn't mean they aren't a unique experience and fun.

so your proof is conjecture, second hand stories, and speculation? I mean come on man, you literally didn't cite anything to back it up other than "you hear what that other guy said". Don't be lazy. Your information and thinking is way outdated. There was a time when the UAW had a stanglehold on the automakers but the big bailout and financial crisis took a lot out of any leverage unions had with the big three. the Job bank was a terrible idea, and yes - from the 1980's till 2009 there was exactly that, surplus workers who were overpaid while sitting idle. But remember, the job bank was GM's idea, not the UAW, and was politically supported by Reagan at the time it was introduced. There once was a time when what you were saying was ramptant and true, but after the bailout things changed. http://www.autonews.com/article/20140127/OEM/301279990/the-end-of-the-jobs-bank-a-symbol-of-excess https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/06/ronald-reagan-and-general-motors/18813/ by the way, if there is a worker not busy enough, or not being put to good use - that's management's fault, not the workers. That's their job, to MANAGE the workforce. If GM made a bad deal with the union, that's not the worker's fault - that's GM's management's fault for not doing their homework. Spending too much to make something is def a problem here, but it's not on labor which traditionally makes up about 10% of the cost of the vehicle, not the 30% figure I see tossed around by conservatives. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/business/economy/10leonhardt.html?_r=0 http://www.autonews.com/article/20151120/OEM01/151129988/gm-contract-may-yield-flat-per-vehicle-labor-costs-even-with-hourly https://www.dw.com/en/big-carmakers-big-profits/a-19480709 The reality is that a company like toyota runs a more efficient line than GM, has a corporate culture that contributes to constant innovation, and doesn't have any of the bloat at the top like the general. Everything it does it does cheaper than GM, not just pay the workforce. Even it's executive people make less (executives at GM are not UAW). https://hbr.org/2008/06/the-contradictions-that-drive-toyotas-success https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a5514/4350856/ By the way I should point out that Mercedes and BMW have unions in germany, and pay their workers equalivent wages and benefits, and are more profitable than GM as well....so this idea that it is all the lazy line workers fault is bunkum. https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-end-of-poverty/why-are-bmw-and-mercedes-so-rich you are literally the embodiment of the Dunning Kruger effect, but that makes sense in how much I can see you dislike yourself. If you don't hate the american worker, they why do you constantly blame them for the mistakes of GM's management? the UAW isn't the boogey man coming to put the american car industry out of business, it was an advocate of the working class to make sure the top of the house didn't take advantage of the little guy. There were years where GM had more leverage, and years when the union did, and while it is easy (and true) to say the UAW contributed to the need for a bailout, you also have to acknowledge that they were instrumental in working with GM to continue operating post bailout and help figure out a sustainable future. Or you can go back to pretending it's still 2007 while the rest of us have an conversation about the present.

prove me wrong, I'll wait. Why do you hate the American blue collar worker?

I can't imagine base being $50K. Not everyone has to buy a fully tricked out top of the line Rubihara altitude yeti dragon special edition. esp when there isn't a difference in drivetrain from the base model to the rubicon. you know what JK really made sense that I wish they would bring back? the Willys wheeler. Besides the cheesy graphics - the WW got real mechanical LSD in the rear axle (I honestly don't know why they sell jeeps with open difs), the rubicon wheels and tires, rock rails, and better shocks. None of the failure prone sway bar disconnect of the rubicon, and def none of it's mountain high price tag. In 1995 I bought the most off road worthy wrangler Jeep sold at the time. It came with 3.55 axles, a mechanical LSD, and 190hp. The base model JL wrangler exceeds my old yj's capability in every aspect except the LSD, which is a $295 option ($500 if you want to add it aftermarket) on the JL. There will be people who will buy rubi-ators (watch, that name will become a thing jeep people love a good portmanteau) at $50K just as there are people who bough Brutes built out of converted unlimiteds at $70K, but I could see a $35-36K freedom, mike, lizard, edition selling very well to the masses and those people having a lot of fun (even with open diffs). FWIW Clay, the old S series blazer was a halfway decent offroad rig, just as capable as an xj cherokee. It's too bad that GM gave up on suvs that are actually offroad capable, they used to make some nice ones - I had a 1995 S10 blazer and a 1999 Tahoe two door sport z71 and both were awesome.

You should really read the article, they address all that. It wouldn't be $7.00 per hour difference in the workers pocket, it's $3.00 $3.00 x 40= 120 x 52 = 6,240 which is what the GM (and Ford and Chrysler since they pay similar wages) worker will see gross in his paycheck (pre tax) over a Toyota worker. The other $4 per hour pays for retirement healthcare which GM has a lot of retirees and Toyota doesn't because it hasn't been operating in this country as long as GM, the longer they stay, the more that cost is going to rise for Toyota until it matches the big three. I have to point out that GM also has a lot more workers than Toyota, and that the hourly wage is an average. GM operates in some cheap places to live like rural ohio, but also in much larger cities with higher cost of living like NY. And we are not including the mexico and Canadian mfg sites which would bring the number down some, because they are outside the US. Point of all this is....Stop blaming the workers. As far as domestic manufactured cars are concerned the big three pay a competitive wage, offer decent benefits, and what overages they pay over the competition are in offering benefits that incentivise people to be company loyal and stay their whole careers at GM. You want to blame the products, or the inability to run an assembly line as efficiently as the Japanese or Germans be my guest, they are the most likely culprit. It isn't the union, and it isn't the working stiffs - it used to be in the 80's and 90's but again that has to do with corporate mismanagement more than the guys on the line and those days are gone. Wanna know who is overpaid at GM? the executives, because they historically haven't gotten a good value for the money they paid. The Detroit/Hamtramck plant is a perfect example of this - it was supposed to be an efficient factory that sprang from the partnership from toyota that reduced cost per unit. they overpaid for the land (and stole it from an entire neighborhood through emminent domain), they overpaid building it out, and once it was built it didn't come close to the efficiency of Toyota's line. It was better than it used to be for GM, but it took a while to be competitive (and still isn't really).

yup. A Boss 9 is the most coveted mustang in all of mustangdom. There were 857 made in 1969, and restored ones sell for between $400,000-500,000 Considering they make every part to repair an early mustang body, and they sold more boss 429 crate motors than boss 9 cars, it wouldn't be hard to restore that shell back to at least a $200,000-$300,000 car. It wouldn't be cheap either, but you can still get boss 9 heads new if you are willing to pay. I could see someone lowballing, getting the car for $65K and feeling like they got a deal. All the value in the car is in the trim tag, vin number, and any supporting paperwork (like a Marti report verifying that the car is a real boss - which anybody buying that car would get).

discovery went full soft roader for sure. you never go full soft roader. They were available in stick until 1997 I think. everyone I knew who had one loved theirs. I think in the UK they were available stick until 2010.

and most on the market are nothing like a go-anywhere SUV. Seriously, they killed off the FJ, the Xterra, and the s-series blazer. Jeep Wrangler unlimtied is too small to be a decent road trip hauler, Cherokee is a joke, and the tahoe is a bloated overpriced version of it's former self. cant' get a land cruiser in stick anymore. New bronco is only going to be as good as the old expedition now that the expedition is almost as big as an excursion. bah humbug I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I did the macarena I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I was voguing I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I danced to disco I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I did the Watusi I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I did the hand jive I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I did the east coast swing I believe I would've gotten my ass kicked by my friends if I did the Charleston. It's all just youth culture hatred. There are no hipsters, hippies, disco ducks, etc...It's all just young people and people who fear young people and don't understand their silly fun.

I agree...but I have to admit, after driving to texas in my sedan with the family, I was considering an SUV for the space (and because fuck minivans). Then I remembered they don't make any stick SUVs and was immediately cured of that notion. Stop hating on the young....fortnight dances aren't worse than the macarena.