I love the colors of the Fall. This Liquidamber seems to be growing out of the top of my car here. I took this a few days ago. I was thinking about my Cadillac today after watching GM CEO Rick Wagoner… on the TV at lunch. He’s in Washington today begging for handout, sort of. ABC did a good job, I thought, of pointing out the disparity of all these auto CEOs flying in to beg for money in their corporate jets. I worked for 20 years at Kodak, and in my time there I met several high executives who seemed utterly disconnected from reality. Did those automaker execs consider how it might look to come begging for bailout money, but not flying the crowded steerage we call airlines, like the rest of us? No, the answer is no they did not. It would never have even occurred to them That’s just how it goes.
My personal opinion is that they aren’t trying very hard to make their case. When they fail to get the money, they will declare bankruptcy and dissolve their union contracts as they reorganize. This is a once in a century opportunity for them. We’ll see.
I specifically bought a US made, union made automobile from a local dealership for my business. Back then I would secretly sneer at real estate agents driving their BMWs and Mercedes. Now, seeing CEOs like Rick Wagoner dodge compensation questions makes me wonder what I was thinking. My Cadillac SRX is on it’s second brake job, and third set of tires after less than 50K miles. Great. Not like I’m a race car driver or something.
We also have a late model Cadillac De Ville. It developed the well-documented (I found out later) Northstar engine oil leak out of warranty. That cost $2000 to repair, which I’m told was a good price. Then an alternator went out. On just about any other car, and you could get an alternator at Kragen for $50 with a core. But no, not Cadillac. the WATER COOLED alternator was a special order at $900. It’s very disappointing.
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Thursday, 1. January 2009
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