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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (1556)	7/1/2014 4:54:54 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26601

Yes.... For 30 to 50 grand the consumer is due a better vehicle....... but I believe most of the affected vehicles are low cost, tin cans in the $13K to $20K range..... I drove one of those $13K Cobalts in Maui provided as part of the hotel package on a family trip in 2006 I believe. I was at a resort so not a lot of driving so the tin can didn't bother me too much... When I went back to windsurf on my own where I drive on the highway every day, I rented more substantial cars like a Subaru SUV the last time and a "full size" car the time before so I felt safer AND I could fit all my windsurfing gear inside. Anyway, they are the cheap cars and they probably made so little on them, every buck spent hurt. What bothers me is how did they allow fraud, a change without changing the part number? Until they have that figured out... not sure I'd risk your money on the company, much less mine.

To: Jerome who wrote (1556)	7/1/2014 5:07:07 PM
From: Jerome	Respond to of 26601

Follow up on GM........If there were only 13 deaths caused by faulty ignition switches then 100 million dollars would be very adequate to settle all claims. But GM is setting aside over $1 billion dollars. In the past GM accident investigators did everything possible to ascribe the fault of an accident to circumstances other then that switch. This is from Forbes Magazine and an article called "The Cold Calculus of Death" from the article. forbes.com Thus Feinberg said Monday that GM will compensate not only drivers who died or were injured in one of 2.6 million defective GM vehicles, but also their passengers, pedestrians and even those riding in other cars who were struck by one of the affected GM vehicles. The company will ignore whether the driver was partly to blame because they were drunk, speeding or texting. “This program is about General Motors and ignition switches,” said Feinberg. “We have no interest in investigating any contributory negligence of the driver.” GM internally had a list of 69 banned words, that were not to be used in company reports. freep.com ¦ Catastrophic ¦ Dangerous ¦ Explode ¦ Grenade-like ¦ Hindenburg ¦ Life-threatening ¦ Rolling sarcophagus ¦ Widow-maker ¦ You’re toast You can call your garbage man a sanitary engineer all you want but he better take a shower prior to coming home.

To: Jerome who wrote (1556)	7/2/2014 8:46:44 AM
From: robert b furman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26601

The main point I'm trying to make is the customer modified the key fob provided with the car. The customer not just modified it - the customer greatly modified it. That degree of reasonable expectation (adding several keys) was taken way past reasonable. I was at a meeting and the subject came up and a young kid says - that's happened to me - I asked him to show me his key fob. He pulls it out and had 6 othe key fob all looped together with about 50 keys on it. I told him he was living very dangerously and to untie the mess. When a customer buys different wheels for his car and one of them breaks - is it GM's fault. The customer must accept the liability of his modification. The fact that so many vehicles are involved and so few incidents ,displays how out of norm the excessive modification has to be - before an incident can occur. Bob

To: Jerome who wrote (1556)	7/2/2014 9:43:55 AM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 26601

The good news is other car makers are doing earlier than they might have otherwise recalls. My BMW X3 has a recall for some sort of problem that happens if you ignore the dash warning to take the car to the shop where some bolts work loose and the car can lose power. I got a letter saying to pay attention to the warnings and to contact BMW roadside assistance if they occur while I wait for the parts that are backordered. The auto issues do not stop coming, as Hyundai ( OTC:HYMLF) is now recalling 58k Elantra Touring cars in North America due to a support bracket defect. The bracket can cause injuries if it is dislodged during a side air bag deployment. No injuries have yet been reported, and adhesive strips will be placed on the brackets in order to fix the issue.