Ok, there’s a lot to unpack in your reply...

It is extremely shitty for GM to hire “temp” workers and not elevate their status to full-fledged employees after years have passed, however GM is not alone in doing this. A family member of mine worked for a Tier-1 parts manufacturer as a “temp” for five years before she was finally brought on board as a real…

I don’t find it all that surprising. A communist government doesn’t want their citizenry to have too much (or any) power, and there is strength in numbers, ergo unions are not welcome. 

Money is an issue in terms of cost per unit. It takes X hours of labor to produce a vehicle, and every part of that vehicle has been designed and sourced based on a specific budget allowing for a certain amount of profit margin based on a target sales price. Everything in vehicle production has the cost squeezed out…

This is mostly true, however if your car breaks down and AAA brings your car to a shop for immediate repair, that shop can’t charge you 10x the normal cost of that repair because “it’s an emergency” - you’re still paying something close to market rate for the part and the labor. 

Corporations are always going to find a way to make whatever profit they want/need, so we should focus on developing policies that are the best for the largest amount of the population and the market will sort itself out. If a single-payer system funded through a combination of corporate and individual taxes is the…

I’m sure they get pressured from every labor group they deal with. It’s almost as if GM is a global manufacturer that has to consider appeasing a lot of different groups of people in many different markets and controlling costs wherever possible, instead of bowing down to one special interest group or another at every…

What’s the difference, really? Large, thuggish, corrupt organization pushing around others, using threatening tactics if necessary, to get their way.

Ha. Look at me laugh uncontrollably at your tired Alfa reliability joke. Much original. So fact. 

Not only can they make cars at less cost elsewhere like Mexico, etc., they’re not held hostage by the workforce every few years over wages and benefits. Even if wages were equal in other countries, it’s in GM’s best interest to mitigate the risk of a strike on production by utilizing a non-union workforce where they…

You’d think the UAW would be trying to somehow unionize the Mexican and overseas plants, which would then raise their operating costs and make it slightly less attractive financially to manufacture things outside the US. Plus it would give the UAW more members under their overall umbrella.

I love that museum. It really gives you a taste of what subway life was like back then, and seeing the evolution of train cars over the years was interesting to me. I also love the period-correct advertisements in each car. I just wish it was easier to get to! 

And in Chicago they call it the El even if it’s underground! 

Also in the 500 HP Club are the Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Giulia in Quadrifoglio spec. 505 HP, RWD, and handling that’s probably better than anything else on the list above (except maybe the NSX... MAYBE.)

On the flip side, the screen is always available and won’t ignore you while trying to man three stations at once. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into a McDonald’s or similar establishment and stood there at the counter, first in line, being ignored for what feels like 5-10 minutes while I watched people…

Counterpoint: My first “real” job was at a fast food establishment and I think being exposed to face-to-face interactions with Customers that early in my working life has been very beneficial. Did it suck? Hell yeah. People were rude, people smelled bad, I smelled bad after work, but... I learned how to deal with…

It often IS faster to park and go inside in a number of the fast food establishments in my area, but being able to sit in my car and listen to music while I wait is better to me than whatever time I might save (unless I’m genuinely in a hurry, which is rare).

I’m gonna go ahead and say they all lucked into being right in this case, and that it wasn’t a conscious, well-thought-out decision to simply stand there and continue staring at him. 

Speaking from experience myself, Tom is right about the lease scenario.

My fleet vehicles all have “lifetime fluid” in their transmissions. That’s probably not how the manufacturer intended it, but we never have transmission services performed and it’s never an issue. So for some fluids it probably doesn’t make much of a material difference in longevity or performance.