The Last Chevy Cruze

[TexasAg1969]

Today the last one was shown going through the assembly line in Lordstown where the plant will be closed after that one is completed. Very sad day for America and for the fine people that once built me a Cruze to my specifications. I contacted the guy in charge of it this morning as he had come in from retirement last summer to see the last one to be built. We have plans to meet in S.A. where his daughter lives when he is here for a visit in late April. All-around good guy and a fine union man. He has a lot of friends seeing their jobs disappear today.

[The Gipper]

I have had a Cruze on a couple of occasions when I have rented cars.  I thought they were fine cars.   

What was the problem?  I don't think it was the car itself.   I thought it was selling decently.

Or is it just that GM wanted to go somewhere cheaper, like Mexico, to build their cars.  

Maybe the B.O.M. should worry about US jobs being shipped to Mexico than a few people coming this way over the border.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

MAGA!

[mjp28]

6 hours ago, The Gipper said:

I have had a Cruze on a couple of occasions when I have rented cars.  I thought they were fine cars.   

What was the problem?  I don't think it was the car itself.   I thought it was selling decently.

Or is it just that GM wanted to go somewhere cheaper, like Mexico, to build their cars.  

Maybe the B.O.M. should worry about US jobs being shipped to Mexico than a few people coming this way over the border.

GM Lordstown started in 1966 I graduated in 1968 I knew a lot of guys and some gals that worked at GM including Packard, many bragged about making $70,000 to $120,000 a year there including OT. Meanwhile Mexican workers make a fraction  of that.

From THE STAR 2018...... NAFTA and autos:

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has promised to bring auto manufacturing back to the United States from Mexico.

The success of NAFTA negotiations could be determined by how willing the Mexican government is to let him try.

 

NAFTA negotiations are reportedly stalled over a U.S. proposal that an imported car would only be exempt from tariffs if 40 per cent of it was made by workers earning at least $16 (U.S.) per hour.  (DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS / AP)

As top officials from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico scramble to come to some sort of deal on the continental free trade pact by next Friday, the overwhelming focus of their discussions is the complicated issue of auto rules.

Canada is heavily involved. But the biggest dispute appears to be a clash between the U.S. and Mexico over a U.S. proposal designed in part to wrest some manufacturing away from Mexico.

“You’ve got a traffic jam of significant proportions in the negotiations, and the key issue holding things up is this,” said Harley Shaiken, a University of California, Berkeley professor who specializes in labour in the global economy.

Under the current NAFTA, a car being exported to the U.S. is not subjected to any tariff if at least 62.5 per cent of its content comes from North America. The U.S. wants to raise that content minimum to 75 per cent.

And then it wants to introduce an entirely new rule about the wages paid to autoworkers. Specifically, it wants to require a certain minimum percentage of a car — 40 per cent, according to several U.S. news reports — to be made by workers earning at least $16 (U.S.) per hour.

That’s a problem for Mexico. The average wage for Mexican workers in car assembly plants is under $8 per hour, and under $4 per hour for workers in parts plants.

Some of the vehicles Mexico exports to the U.S. may already meet or come close to the proposed 40 per cent minimum for high-wage content. But other vehicles don’t: right now, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan, vehicles exported from Mexico to the U.S. generally contain about 20 per cent to 30 per cent U.S. content.

For these vehicles, the new rule would force automakers operating in Mexico into tough choices they don’t want to face......

 

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Supposedly they are not selling well, as are all American Sedans.  Ford is quitting all sedans with the exception of the Mustang.

[TexasAg1969]

5 hours ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

Supposedly they are not selling well, as are all American Sedans.  Ford is quitting all sedans with the exception of the Mustang.

The Mustang is not a sedan though.

[The Gipper]

7 hours ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

Supposedly they are not selling well, as are all American Sedans.  Ford is quitting all sedans with the exception of the Mustang.

WTF are people buying? Sorry, but in my opinion, these "SUVs" they are pumping out are fairly useless vehicles. 

And no, the Mustang was always a sports car, not a sedan.

I mean, they turned the T-Bird into a bigger sedan at one point.  I assume they are now back to being a sports car.

[mjp28]

People have short memories bring back $3.50 or $4+ gas and the demand for small cars will go up......like the rest of the world. $6 gas? Yeah.

[One Post]

16 hours ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

Supposedly they are not selling well, as are all American Sedans.  Ford is quitting all sedans with the exception of the Mustang.

I got one. I wanted the 2017 but bought a 16 from the year before. It had 22 miles on it and was the first time I bought anything NEW. My wife drives it now.

[TexasAg1969]

23 hours ago, The Gipper said:

WTF are people buying? Sorry, but in my opinion, these "SUVs" they are pumping out are fairly useless vehicles.

Au contraire. My daughter currently has my Subaru full time AWD Outback with X-mode for deep snow/mud at use in Crestview, Colorado on a ski trip with her family. She reports that it has handled deep snow very well and that she was glad she did not take their RWD Tahoe like she did last year. It had trouble with just medium snowfall. Subaru sells a ton of vehicles in Colorado for exactly that reason. Plus in the summer it can go on mountain roads you cannot take anything but a Jeep on for the most part. Great gas mileage and far better acceleration than the old Subarus.

[The Gipper]

50 minutes ago, TexasAg1969 said:

Au contraire. My daughter currently has my Subaru full time AWD Outback with X-mode for deep snow/mud at use in Crestview, Colorado on a ski trip with her family. She reports that it has handled deep snow very well and that she was glad she did not take their RWD Tahoe like she did last year. It had trouble with just medium snowfall. Subaru sells a ton of vehicles in Colorado for exactly that reason. Plus in the summer it can go on mountain roads you cannot take anything but a Jeep on for the most part. Great gas mileage and far better acceleration than the old Subarus.

The Outbacks are a pretty good vehicle.  But I don't really see them as an SUV.

They are more like a lineal descendant of a Pacer, or Gremlin.  Its just that they are made far better.

[The Gipper]

The Outback here is perhaps a bit longer, with another set of doors, but same basic concept.

[The Gipper]

They made 4 door Gremlins...its just that they called them a Hornet.

[TexasAg1969]

9 hours ago, The Gipper said:

The Outback here is perhaps a bit longer, with another set of doors, but same basic concept.

A mechanics dream moneymaking Grimlin vs the best long running AWD has to be the biggest stretch I've ever seen in car comparisons. One is a snowmobile and the other is a high centering rear wheel drive nightmare in snow. They aren't even close in concept.

[The Gipper]

14 hours ago, TexasAg1969 said:

A mechanics dream moneymaking Grimlin vs the best long running AWD has to be the biggest stretch I've ever seen in car comparisons. One is a snowmobile and the other is a high centering rear wheel drive nightmare in snow. They aren't even close in concept.

Yea, they are....in concept.  What they weren't close in was  the quality of the execution of the build.

If the engineers had thought about it, they could have made the Gremlin an all wheel drive easily enough. I mean, what vehicles had 4WD in the 70s?  Some  pickup trucks and the Chevy Blazer?

[TexasAg1969]

21 minutes ago, The Gipper said:

Yea, they are....in concept.  What they weren't close in was  the quality of the execution of the build.

If the engineers had thought about it, they could have made the Gremlin an all wheel drive easily enough. I mean, what vehicles had 4WD in the 70s?  Some  pickup trucks and the Chevy Blazer?

The Subaru AWD was first introduced in 1972.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Suburu's are liberal cars.😁

[The Gipper]

2 hours ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

Suburu's are liberal cars.😁

Higher quality then.  Good to know.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

1 minute ago, The Gipper said:

Higher quality then.  Good to know.

They cry and break down easily.

[The Gipper]

9 minutes ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

They cry and break down easily.

That must be a conservative's car then.  

I mean, I have never seen such fear and loathing directed to a nobody as they direct toward this young little  hispanic chickie.  You would think that she was some kind of body snatcher or something.   If she is, then she is too late, some other alien life form has already sucked out their brains and left like mashed potatos in their place.

[mjp28]

I've got Sherrod Brown's newsletters for years here is the latest.......

American Cars, American Jobs

 

It’s time for the president to keep his promises to Ohio autoworkers.

As GM began laying off workers in Lordstown last week, we also heard the company is planning to close its West Chester processing center this spring, laying off another 100 workers.

This news has been devastating for workers, their families, local businesses, and the entire community.

But it didn’t have to be this way. 

I met with GM CEO Mary Barra and she said the Cruze wasn’t selling, and they want to invest in electric vehicles instead – but they’re building GM’s new Chevy Blazer in Mexico.

GM could retool the Lordstown plant and make those cars in Ohio, but they won’t.

We need to overhaul our trade and tax policy, and end this corporate business model where companies like GM close American plants, collect a tax break to move overseas, only to sell those cars back into the U.S.

It’s why I’m reintroducing the American Cars, American Jobs Act. It will help us level the playing field with foreign competition by making it more affordable for Americans to buy American-made cars and trucks, and revoke the tax cut in the President’s tax law that rewards companies sending jobs overseas.

It has two simple parts.

First, customers who buy cars that are made in the U.S. get a $3,500 discount. And if that American car is electric or a plug-in hybrid, they get an even bigger $4,500 discount – those are the cars GM said it was going to start making instead of the Cruze. 

Second, companies that cut the number of American jobs they had on the day the president’s tax bill passed, and add those jobs overseas, lose their tax break.

The president’s tax bill allowed companies to pay just 10.5 percent in taxes on some of their overseas profits, instead of the full 21 percent corporate rate. It’s like handing out 50-percent-off coupons to companies that send jobs overseas.

Our bill says that if you move American jobs abroad, you lose your 50-percent-off coupon and pay the full 21 percent. On the other hand, if you keep jobs in the U.S., you keep your discounted rate.

President Trump promised American autoworkers he would fight for them – he told the people of the Mahoning Valley, “Don’t move, don’t sell your house. We’re going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build new ones.”

Workers in Lordstown are still waiting.

I’m calling on the president to keep his promises and help us pass the American Cars, American Jobs Act. 

Sherrod

[DieHardBrownsFan]

 

 

 

Donald J. Trump

36 mins · 

General Motors and the UAW are going to start “talks” in September/October. Why wait, start them now! I want jobs to stay in the U.S.A. and want Lordstown (Ohio), in one of the best economies in our history, opened or sold to a company who will open it up fast! Car companies are all coming back to the U.S. So is everyone else. We now have the best Economy in the World, the envy of all. Get that big, beautiful plant in Ohio open now. Close a plant in China or Mexico, where you invested so heavily pre-Trump, but not in the U.S.A. Bring jobs home!

[Browns149]

Did they make the Chevy Cobalt at that plant, before the Cruze?

That car was a POS. 

[Westside Steve]

On 3/6/2019 at 10:28 AM, TexasAg1969 said:

Today the last one was shown going through the assembly line in Lordstown where the plant will be closed after that one is completed. Very sad day for America and for the fine people that once built me a Cruze to my specifications. I contacted the guy in charge of it this morning as he had come in from retirement last summer to see the last one to be built. We have plans to meet in S.A. where his daughter lives when he is here for a visit in late April. All-around good guy and a fine union man. He has a lot of friends seeing their jobs disappear today.

If anybody anywhere in the world wanted a Chevy Cruze it would probably still be open.

In other news Kiko Hershberger's House of scrapple sushi drive-thru just closed.

WSS

[TexasAg1969]

2 hours ago, Westside Steve said:

In other news Kiko Hershberger's House of scrapple sushi drive-thru just closed.

WSS

What in the world is scrapple sushi?

[Westside Steve]

On 4/11/2019 at 12:52 PM, TexasAg1969 said:

What in the world is scrapple sushi?

A fictional product which nobody wants oh, much like the Chevy Cruze. Scrapple is a Pennsylvania Dutch dish made of cornmeal mush and organ meat. Sushi is, well hell you know what sushi is. No, not the former GM of the Cleveland Browns either.

WSS

[LogicIsForSquares]

On 4/14/2019 at 1:39 PM, Westside Steve said:

A fictional product which nobody wants oh, much like the Chevy Cruze. Scrapple is a Pennsylvania Dutch dish made of cornmeal mush and organ meat. Sushi is, well hell you know what sushi is. No, not the former GM of the Cleveland Browns either.

WSS

Scrapple was a regular part of a NJ breakfast. We lived on the NJ/PA border.

[Westside Steve]

1 minute ago, LogicIsForSquares said:

Scrapple was a regular part of a NJ breakfast. We lived on the NJ/PA border.

I've had it, don't particularly like it. Black and white pudding on an Irish breakfast plate is a lot better. Scrapple reminds me a little bit haggis.

WSS

[DieHardBrownsFan]

This receipe doesn't sound bad:

 

Pennsylvania Dutch Scrapple

1 pound lean pork
1 large onion 
3 quarts water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground sage
3 cups cornmeal

 

Place pork pieces into large pan; add whole onion and water. Cook slowly, covered, for 2 1/2 hours; drain, reserve broth (about 3 quarts), and remove onion.

Chill meat and remove fat; separate meat from bones. Chop meat.

In kettle, place meat with 2 quarts of reserved broth. Add salt, pepper and sage; bring to a boil.

Combine cornmeal with remaining 1 quart reserved broth and stir into boiling mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Cover and cook over very low heat; stir again after 20 minutes.

Pour into two 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pans. Cool and chill overnight. Cut into slices, coat with flour if desired, and brown in butter or bacon fat. Serve hot with eggs for a hearty breakfast.

[LogicIsForSquares]

34 minutes ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

This receipe doesn't sound bad:

 

Pennsylvania Dutch Scrapple

1 pound lean pork
1 large onion 
3 quarts water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground sage
3 cups cornmeal

 

Place pork pieces into large pan; add whole onion and water. Cook slowly, covered, for 2 1/2 hours; drain, reserve broth (about 3 quarts), and remove onion.

Chill meat and remove fat; separate meat from bones. Chop meat.

In kettle, place meat with 2 quarts of reserved broth. Add salt, pepper and sage; bring to a boil.

Combine cornmeal with remaining 1 quart reserved broth and stir into boiling mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Cover and cook over very low heat; stir again after 20 minutes.

Pour into two 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pans. Cool and chill overnight. Cut into slices, coat with flour if desired, and brown in butter or bacon fat. Serve hot with eggs for a hearty breakfast.

That is some high quality scrapple haha. In most servings it isn’t “pork pieces”. It is just the left over stuff that isn’t fit for bologna. I grew up with it so I like it but it can be a little funky.