Horrible Service

Wow, just finished reading this whole thread (as boating season is very busy here, I'm a little less often on here)... Very intresting thread indeed as you stated John.

66Skylark wrote: Does anyone remember the episode of Married with Children when Al goes to buy a new car?

Loved that episode Kyle!

quinner wrote: Great points Eric!! It makes me want to puke every time I hear the "Foreign is Better BS". To each his own on what they choose, for me it will always be Buy American whenever I can, it gives me a feeling of patriotism and a sense of support thy neighbor.

Chris, I'm with you on this one. As Belgium doesn't have a car manufacturer (not anymore anyway) I still prefer to buy European, in the "support thy neighbour" spirit. My parents in law prefer jap cars. To each his own...

jbear wrote: Man I love these threads. I am a Ford guy all the way. ... My7 brother worked at the Cleveland Casting Plant for 40 years...his brother-in-law is still there are quite a few friends. And that counts too.

We have a very big Ford plant here in Genk and quite a few of my friends work there. Ford is a very popular car in Europe.
As I mentionned, Belgium does not have their own manufacturer, but we have quite a few big automobile plants here: Ford in Genk, Volvo in Gent, GM in Antwerp, Volkswagen near Brussels...

eric lavine wrote: the hype back then was Jap cars were better and to a point they were and everyone started to buy them, but again the world was a better place back then too, anyone of my age has seen the collapse of the auto industry and the steel industry and that really is what drove this country

Exactly the same happened over here back then. Even my parents started to buy Japanse cars... But, European (and American) cars cought up on them quite good. The only thing here in Europe, is that our cars still can't compete on warranty with the Japs...
BTW, US cars are becomning quite popular here, so don't worry.

BuffaloBFN wrote: Nate, Eric is right about your opinion changing with time...you are also right about having an opinion! That only shows that you aren't afraid to think for yourself.

Nate, I agree with Buffalo. There will always be guys on here that will disagree with you. Just try to look at both sides of the story before forming your opnion.

bkhallpass wrote: What kids have now is zero responsibility, and zero accountability. There are no consequences for their actions. Everyone is a winner, blah blah blah. If you get bad grades, you must have a learning problem. If you get into mischief, it must be the fault of the bad influece around you. Absurd. I read an article recently talking about how new college hires have to be coddled. Free food and drink. Video and arcade games at the work place. If you don't baby them, they quit and move on, and some other company is more than happy to babysit. Supervisors report mothers writing notes to them or coming to their offices when they don't like the performance appraisal recieved by their allegedly adult children. Further, these kids think they should be paid the same as men and women who have been doing the job for 20 years.

I have friends working in construction. Everywhere in the construction business (and not only in htat field) you hear they hire Poles, Tchechs, Kroats... because they can't find locals to work for them. Sollicitation intervieuws are more and more about the demands of the candidate for the job instead about hte demands of the employer.
Friend of mine is a teacher at a technical school. Whenever he gives a punishment to a student or detention, you can bet on it that the next day, the parents are at his desk asking him where he got the brutality of punishing their son or daughter...

eric lavine wrote: we played in those streets as kids whether it was baseball, kick the can or even hide and go seek. Our parents begged us to come in at dark. I was baffled, are these kids sitting in front of the TV? are they not allowed out? it was real wierd.

It's been quite a few years since I saw or heard kids playing on our streets...

Well, it was good reading to me!

the only thing i had on my mind at that age was a POA, my stepfather booted my ass out at 8:00 am and told me not to come back to dark, he was a son of a bitch, my younger brother rebeled tooth and nail and those 2 did not get along but you know I look back and now i know what he was thinking, he molded work ethic into me, whether it was weeding the garden or helping him at his shop, it is something i will carry with me and i find myself passing the same methods onto my kids.
there is no such thing as microwave meals in the house, when its sunny out the kids are outside, My wife gets them involved in sports and i try to make every game, It really is tough on me with her not working but i rather go broke then to have the kids shoved into daycare. I think all the influences on kids have went to the wayside

bkhallpass wrote: If you want to fix America, worry about something you can influence - your own kids.

Wow Brian, good one...Doc as well!

I don't have any children and don't intend to, and what Doc said is more along the lines of what I meant. I used some trivial examples earlier on, but think who's teaching the kids eating hot pockets in front of the boob tube.

I could easily go on my own rant about government education. The sharpest kids I meet are homeschooled.

we are, I believe on the right track with these thoughts, i was at my friends the other night in the same neighborhood i grew up in, it was almost a dead silence in the row houses except for cars passing by and I asked him where all the kids were at, we played in those streets as kids whether it was baseball, kick the can or even hide and go seek. Our parents begged us to come in at dark. I was baffled, are these kids sitting in front of the TV? are they not allowed out? it was real wierd

BuffaloBFN wrote: BKH Think of what kids are exposed to these days compared to what we were; sometimes I think they don't have a chance.

I don't accept that argument. I grew up in the sixties and seventies, 20 miles from San Francisco. You could buy pot to acid on every street corner; there were parents smoking pot and swapping wives; no one was hiding the gay population. They didn't even know about AIDs yet. There were plenty of gangs, guns and crime. Still, only one girl in my entire high school had a kid while still in school.

I don't buy the "uncertain world" BS either. When I was growing up, we were squarely in the middle of Vietnam, and every night just before dinner, the television news would show the photos of local boys who had died. There were riots over the war, riots in Berkeley over free speach, and riots in several of the high schools over race and forced busing.

What kids have now is zero responsibility, and zero accountability. There are no consequences for their actions. Everyone is a winner, blah blah blah. If you get bad grades, you must have a learning problem. If you get into mischief, it must be the fault of the bad influece around you. Absurd.

I read an article recently talking about how new college hires have to be coddled. Free food and drink. Video and arcade games at the work place. If you don't baby them, they quit and move on, and some other company is more than happy to babysit. Supervisors report mothers writing notes to them or coming to their offices when they don't like the performance appraisal recieved by their allegedly adult children. Further, these kids think they should be paid the same as men and women who have been doing the job for 20 years.

Yet, we blame our problems an illegal aliens who do nothing more than work their butts off in jobs that our young people arent' willing to do, for wages our citizens snub their noses at.

The parents aren't much better at setting an example. I've had numerous employees that think they should have time off everytime their kid is out of school. Nevermind that the kids get 3 months off throughout the year, and the parents only get 2-3 weeks vacation, they still think they deserve the time off. That's not to mention all the times they want to head home early for the dance recital, swim meet, piano lesson, whatever. I certainly don't remember my Dad taking that time off. He got his two weeks vacation, and that was it.

Then we wonder why American companies would rather use foreign labor.

If you want to fix America, worry about something you can influence - your own kids.

Whew, done with that rant.
BKH

BuffaloBFN wrote: And another group of girls in the midwest somewhere made a pregnancy pact...so they'd have someone to love them unconditionally?!!?

That was Massachusetts. Unbelievable. 17 girls pregnant, all under 16. Perhaps it doesn't matter whether jobs remain in America. It seems more and more that the next generation does't want to work anyway. BKH

Nate, Eric is right about your opinion changing with time...you are also right about having an opinion! That only shows that you aren't afraid to think for yourself.

Eric, what are we going to do with all of these kids being raised by the Spears sisters?!!? I just read an article last night where 40 something percent of kids in high school(don't remember where) couldn't find England on a map, but they can sure tell you who won American Idol!

And another group of girls in the midwest somewhere made a pregnancy pact...so they'd have someone to love them unconditionally?!!?

OK, I had better quit here!   LOL

Nate, you didnt dis respect me, Im use to battling with the under 25 crowd, we have 3 at work and i suppose i was as strong headed as you are when i was that age.
If i had a crystal ball back then i wouldve never gave into a new nip truck that i bought back then (once and once only)btw, it rotted to the ground.
your conversation 20 years from now will be different because your opinion of things will change with time, its a different world nowadays and not so easy as it once was and when you have kids you'll wonder what it will be like as they age.
the hype back then was Jap cars were better and to a point they were and everyone started to buy them, but again the world was a better place back then too, anyone of my age has seen the collapse of the auto industry and the steel industry and that really is what drove this country and if i could just get one person to change thier minds from buying a foriegn car and you could get one person not to buy one maybe the people instead of the government can change what is happening in this country. My mother drives a Hyundai, it really doesnt bother me and guy's on this site drive foriegn cars which i really could care less, its not about what you are driving because you are entilted to your freedom of choice, its about what my kids, your kids and everyone elses kids will have in thier future and i think if people realize that American cars are as good or better then they will buy them again and lets face it, money drives the economy

Nate,you gotta get in the last word.
Too bad your not just lurking, check back when you have something positive to add or useful info to share......Boat dr

Well actually Nate I did re-read your posts a couple times prior to mine, particularly where your tone and comments were disrespectful towards Eric, so as you would imagine your latest comments came as no surprise. Nice Stuff.
Perhaps my next lesson could be on respecting elders, looking forward to it.

hey Quinner, good point, because once again check my posts & see if i wrote anything about stuff made here being POS'...thanks for your oh. so. insightful comment. re read posts before you write bull*************** like that...

Nate

Nate, thats all I was trying to convey, the quality is back and everyone is still fixated on the quality of foriegn cars and my choice is to buy American now because the quality is there, my family members own Hyundai's Honda's Kia's and I ask them why and the answer is they are better cars and at this point i ask them how do they know they are better cars and they cant answer me, But you know I can tell them the same I told you, my car has 199 on it and i wouldnt hesitate hopping in it and driving to Florida. and thats the message. it is a quality car and nobody could tell me any different. and what the hell apples for apples i want to put my neighbors and alike back to work

No i dont think at this point that there's any significant difference in value or quality, maybe in some of the interiors (the newer am. cars i've been in lately seem to be just a large block of plastic) but overall, i think the american companies have closed the gap. Their only problem right now is trying to get into peoples head to make them realize the quality's there now after years of hearing otherwise.

Nate

I picked out that you were driving a nipper mobile and i just was waiting for the better value thing and better quality, thats all

Nautique2001 wrote: Those days are gone forever. Ken

Thank goodness. 80's American cars had hilarious interiors aesthetically and ergonomically- it was as if the designers were restricted to only using a ruler for the interior design.