Sad but true....

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 7:59 am

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors)
Decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River.
Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak
Performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed,
Decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.
A management team made up of senior management was formed

To investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing
And 1 person steering, while the American team had
8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order,
American management hired an independent consulting

Company and paid them a very larger
Amount of money for a second opinion.

The company advised, of course, that too many
People were steering the boat, while not enough
People were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information,
But wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese,
The rowing team's management structure was
Totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors,
3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant
Superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system
That would give the 1 person rowing the boat
Greater incentive to work harder.

It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,'
With meetings, dinners and free pens and a
Certificate of completion for the designated rower.

There was discussion of getting new paddles,
Canoes and other equipment, extra vacation
Days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the
Rower (a reduction in workforce) for poor performance,
Halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles,
And canceled all capital investments for new equipment.

The money saved was distributed to the
Senior Executives as bonuses and the race
Was 'out-sourced' to India.

Sadly: THE END.

Here's something else to think about:

Ford has spent the last thirty years moving its factories
Out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying
American wages.

Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than
A dozen plants inside the U.S.

The last quarter's results:
Toyota made 4 billion in profit while Ford racked up
9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WASN'T SO SAD
IT MIGHT BE FUNNY!

Buy Toyota - it's made in America!

hoofarted · Post by **hoofarted** » April 30th, 2008, 8:32 am

Yes, sad but true.

Toyota has yet to compete fully in the 3/4-1Ton truck/SUV arena. Great driving cars - my wife misses her Sequoia. But that thing cannot pull 11k with ease. Still waiting for Toyota diesel to make it here.

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 8:39 am

I never understood the lack of small diesels in this country, at least 50% of the vehicles on the road in europe are diesel. Its not like the automakers dont have the motors and tooling.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 8:48 am

diesel is bad for business, they last longer, are more efficient and can run alternate fuels with little or no modification.
so auto manufacturers wouldn't be selling you a new car after 100,000 miles and big oil will make less or no money off you... This country is run by big oil!
The funny thing is in europe (atleast hungary when I was living there) is way different about transportation... a lot less regulation, maybe %30 of the population even has a car, the cars are usually older, and still running fine with small efficient motors and manuals transmissions (I did not see a single automatic my whole time there). Public transportation was useful, efficient and inexpensive, so even people with cars chose to take a bus or train to cut cost. I burn more gas in a week than your average european probably does in 6 months!

hoofarted · Post by **hoofarted** » April 30th, 2008, 8:54 am

dannygraves wrote:I burn more gas in a week than your average european probably does in 6 months!

Dont even start, Mr. 20 minute commute.

Remember the Lada's? hahaha - stupid things were everywhere.

But I agree about the big oil point. Its very true. Little or no money will be made. Why do you think diesel cost more than gas now? An effective way to "punish" those with better economy. Assholes.

Look at the old prices:

Thats the way it should be! Diesel is the crap at the bottom of the barrel.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 8:57 am

dude, when are you gonna start making some biodiesel?

ya, the ladas and trabants!!

CRMOE500 · Post by **CRMOE500** » April 30th, 2008, 9:00 am

You hit the nail on the head Brit! I'm still laughing and shakin' my head, because it is so true!
Ford:

aloha450x · Post by **aloha450x** » April 30th, 2008, 10:05 am

th population of america is 5 percent of the world. but we use 30 percent of the worlds natural resources. america is greedy and fucked up in manyways. but good in many ways as well. go rent the movie "how killed the electric car" this country is killing itself. personally I hope gas goes way higher than it is alreay. maybe people will relize that they not need hummers and esclades to get to the store. and they will stop buying houses the ant afford. look at the price of gas in england. threw the roof. ad they drive what will get the job done nothing more. when gas hits 8 bucks a gallon only dumb americans will rethink the transportation problem. we have become too dependent on suv and trucks we don't need.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:14 am

well, maybe you can aford this gas, but there isn't shit for public transportation in vegas and I drive a pickup because I need a pickup! a 4 cylinder pickup can't pull shit, so I've got a gas hog v-8. It costs me over $100 to fill my tank

and I fill it weekly. My wife drives an expedition with the little v-8 and barely drives, but we need the space to fit the 2 kids, both of us, my mother in law and the 2 dogs, so there weren't many other options there! Many of us are trapped into paying out the ass to get some camel jockeys filthy rich! My bank account was in overdraft yesterday only becasue of GAS PRICES, thats right, the wife did some driving last week and FUCKED my bank statement! You ride a bike on the street and probably live a couple miles from work, so you can go ahead and welcome the $4/gal price, for me I'm wondering why gas prices are higher after we invaded one of the most oil rich nations... oh yeah, because we as americans have turned into a bunch of pussies and let the lawyers run the show!!!

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:16 am

oh, and maybe next time you go to the grocery store, send a package ups, go out to eat, or even have the a/c on your house serviced and you want to know why some of those have risen over %50 in cost, then you can really welcome those gas prices. Gas prices and ARMs are what destroyed our economy!

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 10:16 am

I just dropped $93 yesterday to fill my truck

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:18 am

I got under 3/4 with $75, so I re-ran the card and it went over $100, I actually shut it down at like $102

Ported&Polished · Post by **Ported&Polished** » April 30th, 2008, 10:20 am

I worked in oil refineries for years and can tell you for certain that deisel should be the least costly fuel. In a cat cracker (oil refiner) the top fuel is aircraft fuel. Next down the line is your high octane fuels, then the unleaded gas, and at the bottom of the cat cracker is deisel, the least refined and dirtiest grade. The only stuff lower is the stuff that gets sent out the flare(the flame you see burning 24/7 365 at all refineries) and into the atmosphere.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:23 am

yup, it the stuff the scrape off the bottom, they are price gouging to try to deter people from buying a diesel and running biodiesel or WVO.

hoofarted · Post by **hoofarted** » April 30th, 2008, 10:25 am

Like I said: punishing those with 30% better economy.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:25 am

hell, I sold my old diesel, I worked the numbers, and it got 19mpg while my f-150 gets like 12.5mpg. the price difference in diesel, and that added maintenance cost of having a diesel made the truck cost almost the same to operate, plus I was paying insurance on it, so I sold it to pay my taxes

I got double dicked with that one

hoofarted · Post by **hoofarted** » April 30th, 2008, 10:27 am

Yeah - you always liked "double-penetration" ---

HAHHAHAHH!!!!!!!!

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 10:29 am

aloha450x · Post by **aloha450x** » April 30th, 2008, 12:13 pm

I wasn't dogging on anybody. trucks are nessarry part of life. im just stating that most people that have suv's and big ass trucks don't need them. (most). and the us stockpiles oil. other countries use what they need. the us has enough oil today in their stockpile to run the country for 15 years. so if we had no more oil coming in we could last 15 years. it's the oil copanys getting rich. they charge what they can cause they know we will pay it because we are so dependent on oil. I urge you to watch the movie. (who killed the electric car) you will be outraged at cheveron and gm for selling the patents. when people get fed up and quit buying gas we will turn to alt fuel sources. ie hydrogen (honda) and electric (cheveron). speaking of which did anyone hear that they are developing a catlic converter for two strokes? maybe they can make it work and bring thm back

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 12:52 pm

bmw has had hydrogen fuel cell since like 2000, my question is...what the hell?!

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 1:03 pm

Almost all the big car makers have a hydrogen fuel cell of some kind floating around, they just cost 1 mil plus.

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 1:07 pm

The big issue with hydrogen is actually getting the hydrogen to start with, unless they have an onboard splitter of some kind just getting the H away from the O takes a ton of electricity, which in turn takes loads of carbon fuel or nuclear power to make. Putting you back at square one.

My answer to this is build a shitload of nuke plants and run all the cars and trucks on electricity, fuk hydrogen fuel cells, fuck hybrids. Make sure they have a battery capable of 150 miles and make sure you can charge them from a 110v outlet within 30 mins and you are on to a winner.

No fossil fuels being burnt, no carbon emissions, no dependace on rag heads.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 1:16 pm

well, I still don't understand why we burn coal for power... San Onofre nuclear plant is only run to like %20 cap. while everywhere else they are burning coal... Bunch of pussies scared of another 3 mile island...
I'd drive a truck with a pencil eraser sized peice of plutonium in it that would run for like 50 years! just put it in a sturdy case

and use a thermal motor, they've had those things forever, I remember my dad telling my about a kit in popular science in the '70s to make a small thermal motor.

britincali · Post by **britincali** » April 30th, 2008, 1:18 pm

They are still burning coal because its cheap, china is currently building enough brown coal plants to choke the world

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » April 30th, 2008, 1:19 pm

yeah, I'm not really one to believe that human carbon production is killing the planet, but coal is some nasty shit that needs to go!

BannedCR500Riders.com

Sad but true....

Sad but true....