Here's a Yamaha made exclusively for India
Now all of these are 150ccs.
Posted on 12/06/2008 5:23:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The car was the symbol of the prewar 20th century. Henry Ford's Model T, Volkswagen's people's car and even Britain's Morris Oxford were more than just industrial products. Suddenly, industrialisation was able to offer the mass of consumers cheap, convenient and individual mobility. The car changed industrial civilisations and their cultures.
Detroit was the undisputed centre of the industry. It manufactured more cars than anywhere else - four out of five across the globe as late as the mid 1950s. Its cars shaped American society. Americans yearned to climb into its Buicks, Cadillacs and Mustangs. The cars denoted your identity and your ambitions. The mobility spawned America's vast, sprawling suburbs. 'What is good for General Motors is good for America,' said its then chairman and chief executive Charlie Wilson. He captured an important truth.
Now, America's big three car companies - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - are fighting for their lives. Last week, they presented last-ditch restructuring plans to Congress, promising a massive increase in fuel-efficient cars and a cessation of corporate excess as the quid pro quo for more than $30bn of soft loans and stand-by credits. Without them, General Motors and Chrysler will be forced into administration; Ford, in a stronger position, could be brought down too.
The US, already reeling from the loss of half-a-million jobs last month, would face the loss of millions more and the collapse of a key part of its manufacturing base. This is more than an appeal for a bail-out: it is American capitalism and society at a crossroads.
Many different crises coincide here. There is a crisis of lack of demand created by the credit crunch, with November sales down 40 per cent. There is a crisis of production.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I see a future under socialism where they will de-invent everything in sight. We will ride bicycles, electricity will be outlawed and we will live by hunting and gathering. Mass starvation will be state policy to get rid of “excessive carbon footprints” and we will abandon cities since they can no longer be sustained. See! Pol Pot was way ahead of his time. Welcome to Zimbabwe, the model.
LOL!
The UK needs a moral/practical bailout?
There is no way they could pay back the loan.
Actually, Jeeves, the car’s future lies in Asia.
You may want to get those candles out again. :)
In the years since, they lost their share and their legacy costs have become the noncompetitive difference. The problem, however, is not that they are not competitive, but rather we no longer have a credit economy—we have a barter economy, which doesn't work in the auto industry. It's NOT a problem bankruptcy can solve. No one will ever buy a car where warranty and service are in question. I think they have also just killed the brand names they have had to announce as part of their cutback plan.
The only solution I can see is for companies that are forced to ask the government for assistance, to be required to take a percentage (TBD) hit across the board for all employees. As to the legacy costs (retirees), if the company went bankrupt, their retirement monies would fall into the Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation (a U.S. Government Function) anyway, so why not let the government absorb and pay all those (probably discounted) legacy costs now (without the bankruptcy). That would permanently remove that burden from the manufacturers and combined with the percentage labor reductions, should make the U.S. auto industry competitive and viable.
The costs of their cars would then be “LLL” (List-Less-Legacy”
that’s a given — GM does well in Europe and Asia, but in the US, it’s car range sucks big time. It can recover, but not with a bailout. This needs to be an internal restructuring. For the record, Ford has already started down this road and they could have turned it around by 2010 if this crisis didn’t hit. Ford gets it and their cars in Europe are really very good. GM, on the other hand.....
gas will drop down to $30 a barrel, yes. But teh economy will pick up by Q3 2009 and the oil suppliers are cutting down production NOW. when the reversal comes, the cost per barrel WILL yo-yo up and down from $40 to $140 (when the highs and lows come, I don’t know, but they will come) — why? because the price had risen too fast and has fallen too fast. Break-even for most oil cos is $30 to $40 in current $$s, so I’d guess that in the long term it will stabilise to $70. So, it’s best for the US to reduce it’s dependence on oil and cut off it’s dependence on Middle-EAstern oil NOW.
Again, sadly, HD concentrates only on the litre class and above motorcycles. The 250ccs, 500ccs etc are dominated by the Japanese and the 100ccs to 250ccs by Indian manufacturers.
Even if I wanted a HD, I can't afford one. Maybe I could find a used rust bucket in my price range, but... safety sorta matters. ;)
The 250ccs, 500ccs etc are dominated by the Japanese
Which annoys me to no end.
I want an American rice rocket!
and the 100ccs to 250ccs by Indian manufacturers.
I know nothing - absolutely nothing - about Indian bikes or scooters. What I've heard about their cars (well, okay, I've only heard about cheap Tata cars) frightens me. :)
That’s one extreme. The other extreme is over-consumption. Both are bad and both feed off each other.
The “Hunk”? lol. I love the name.
The bikes look fantastic and being able to survive years on Indian roads are a testament to the quality.
There is the crisis of knee-jerk jealousy of America and everything it stands for among European elites, but that one is ongoing.
My worry is the GM management’s willpower — Ford’s management has demonstrated that they want to change and turn-around their company. however, I haven’t seen such commitment from GM’s management
Yes — note that all are 150ccs and their fuel efficiency is in the range of 100 to 110 mpg. They’re about 14 to 16ps / bhp and torque is about the same range.
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