This post is a combination of my usual Sunday Blast from the Past feature, and a complaint to General Motors and its Chevrolet division. Now, I will concede that the modern-day fleet of Chevys is pretty cool: the new Malibu, Sonic, Spark, Volt, Corvette, Cruze and Camaro are awesome to look at. And I'm also aware that the Chevy Impala is due for a complete makeover. But it cannot be said loudly or often enough, the 2013 Chevrolet Impala sucks for air! Not only does the body style date back to the Bush era--2005 for the 2006 model year--but it has either been de-contented or has never been good, at least for the rental market.
Our recent trip to the Oregon coast was fantastic in nearly every way, except for the rental Impala, driven nearly 600 miles each way from San Francisco. The front driver seat was tolerable, barely. The front passenger seat had no back support, and the seat was insufficient for long drives. The backseat? intolerable. Horrible. We actually thought that it had been folded down, then reinserted improperly. It was like sitting on a foldout, convertible sofa from the 1970s. 200 miles into our adventure, we stopped at a Walmart for dining room chair cushions, just so that we could mitigate the torture! We used them for the rest of the jouney, and still weren't comfortable. Add to that a set of barely usable cup holders (wobbly coffee, anyone?) tiny visors, and a glovebox the size of a macho burrito, and you have a fairly shitty driving experience.
A Chevrolet I actually owned and liked!
Beyond all of that, for a full-sized car, the passenger cabin was woefully cramped. We had two six-footers with us, true. But we have more room--far more room--in the backseat of our Toyota Corolla-based Scion xB at home. And the cabin of the car was no bigger than the interior of my mid-sized Mitubishi Galant. The only place the Chevy excelled was in the trunk, which sleeps six. The car sucked. Hard. So, here then is my salute to all the shitty Chevys over the years (even though one of my favorites was my 1986 Chevy Cavailier RS). GM, you can do so much better.
Obama in a Volt, or, "Evil in a Failure!" Image from Wonkette.
I remember when the movie Superman Returns came out, and from the beginning the reports were that the movie would have to make more than $200 million in order to make up its development costs. The movie did clear that hurdle, but was still widely considered to be a failure for not reaching Iron Man or Avengers-level money, in order to make money on top of its investment. Well, it was also derided because people didn't like it (I did, but I'm in the minority). But it was saddled with all of the money wasted on early drafts and hired-then-fired cast and crew from aborted earlier treatments.
The Chevy Volt is getting a bit of that seemingly unfair treatment at the moment. First, it had a lot of development costs. Second--for some reason--conservatives, led by Rush Limbaugh despise the car.* So, just like conservatives will believe just about anything that makes President Obama look bad, no matter how far-fetched, the calculations about just how much each Chevy Volt is losing is a bit of a stretch. When I heard Limbaugh bloviating about it today on the radio, I knew there had to be more to it. There always is. The bad math comes from assuming there will never be another Volt (or derivative), and dividing the development and production costs between each existing model. Which isn't very honest.
It would be at this point that I should point out that Rupert Murdoch lost millions of dollars on FOX "News" for years, and years, before it posted a profit. Sometimes you have to pump money into a project for a while before it bears fruit. Hopefully, General Motors produces less rotten fruit, though! [Excerpt] No, GM Is Not Losing $49K On Every Volt; Reuters Just Fails at Basic Business Math
If there’s one characteristic that distinguishes conservatives from liberals, it’s business acumen, right? Libruls may occasionally be able to sell some patchouli-scented hemp-based iPod cozies at the Lesbian Sisterhood crafts fair, but conservatives are the folks who REALLY understand how Bidness works! That’s pretty much the premise of every Republican campaign in the last 30 years, after all. So how is it that when a journalist made a pretty obvious error in a story, the supposedly business-savvy folks in the right-wing blogosphere went nuts passing on the story’s erroneous conclusions? . . .
* Obviously, conservatives dislike anything Obama has done, even if he was enacting conservative ideas. Everything. And even thought the Volt--as the story above mentions--was started in 2007, they link its perceived failure with Obama. But doesn't it bother anyone that Limbaugh is leading the parade of hatred not just against our President, but against an American institution like GM?
I've previously run (and rerun) a blog post on the cars I've owned. But I never tried to find commercials for them all. I think it's about time I did!
1. My first car was a 1973(ish) Toyota Corolla. This ad misses the mark by
about six years. But I'm still not sure if it was a '73, '74 or '75.
2. My second car was a 1980 Datsun 210. The one in the ad is a year older--
and a hatchback--where mine had a trunk. But close!
3. My third car, a present for graduation, was a 1978 Dodge Colt Station
Wagon. Try to find a commercial for THAT! And believe it or not I did, but missed it by a year. Mine did NOT have faux wood grain sides, however.
4. This was the first car I bought for myself, the 1980 Toyota Celica. And
while the commercial is EXCATLY the right year and car. . .they used a 1979
model for the ad! You can tell, because the '80 had rectangular headlights
and a different grille.
5. After paying off my first car, I got restless and bought an '86
Chevrolet Cavalier at auction (for $2490!), only two years old. Mine was
the red, sporty model.
6. My sixth car was an ill-advised purchase, also at auction. The '87
Nissan Pulsar was cute, but it leaked and had all sorts of problems.
7. When my Pulsar threw a timing chain, and turned into sculpture, I bought a 1989 Mazda 626 Turbo hatchback. Loved that car! In Japan, it was apparently called the Capella, as shown in this ad.
8. After the Mazda was near death, I bought a 1998 Jeep Wrangler, which had been a vehicle I'd wanted all my life. Since I held onto it for nine years, you can be sure I loved it. But all good things must come to an end. . .
9. And we come to my current car, which is oddly enough, currently at the body shop after a minor collision. The 2009 Mitsubishi Galant--which is only superficially different from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Galant--may not win any awards, but I love it. And I don't expect to add a tenth car for a while.
.jpg)
