I AM looking at a Tour X wagon, though.

Yep.  And it sounds like that guy has ‘new car syndrome’, which is understandable.  I was young once.

There’s a ‘Catch-22' in there somewhere if I can just word it right.

Sure. A supposed memo, not published, from a pure leftist group with no evidence. And the article begs you to contribute rather than giving out any real information.

My Uncle had great Korean War stories about the Turks.  They fought hard.  “Kill Chinee!” was one of their favorite sayings.

If Trump came out with a vial, and said; “We now have the total cure for all cancer!”, the dems would condemn him for ‘taking away their right to die of cancer’.

Nice.  So you hand-pick the most extreme examples you can find just to disagree.  Okay, fine.  If I looked hard enough, I could probably find a 2-year-old Ferrari for $50.  With repossessions, trade-ins, lease sales, etc... you can’t just nail one number down and say; “THIS is what all these cars are worth.”.

“Semi-affluent”  is a range more than a specific.

A good question. German luxury cars (and others) plummet like a rock, value-wise. Generally, as soon as it’s off warranty and needs a $7,000 transmission job, they get dumped. In Atlanta when I lived there, you could get your choice of any 5-year-old BMW for as little as 5 grand. Rich people don’t care that their car…

Right now, it sounds like the union wants more, and isn’t even taking into account GM’s gestures.  You want to know which side your bread is really buttered on?  Let GM cancel their very generous health care during the strike.  The union gets to make all kinds of ‘exemptions’ to help them win.  Raise strike pay?  Let…

Hmmm.... I can predict the future...

Part of it is Obamacare. For us... more mature... workers, there’s no way in hell companies are going to hire us. As a contractor, I have plenty of work. But I know I’ll never get hired as permanent.

Yes.  Temp is different than Contractor, though.

Here’s how some companies get around that... You get a new contract every 6-months or a year.  When you do, it’s the same as being a ‘new hire’.  So, legally, you haven’t been a contractor for 3 straight years.  You’ve been a contractor for 3 consecutive 1-year contracts.

3rd: Does BMW really think it’s that simple? Are they really that arrogant?

In some ways, this whole thing with the UAW looks like a ‘no win’ for everyone. They make fair money, I wouldn’t mind working there. They have better benefits than a lot of people.

I just like my buttons uniformly shaped, and in a straight line. I don’t like the curved-edge, trapezoidal mess in a v-shaped row.  I think it was a Fiesta I sat in, took one look at the dash, and left.  That and vents...

Some of that isn’t all bad, though. I’m thinking about a Frontier because I need to tow a small trailer, and the fact that’s it’s an old platform means it’s got to be pretty bulletproof by now. I don’t care for a touchscreen. I just need a reliable small V6 truck.

When you live and deal in only one Country, you only deal with local inflation. It’s not as noticeable.  Same in Japan.  When I was there, the value of the Yen didn’t change hardly at all.  But the ratio of Dollar to Yen changed dramatically.  And since I was paid in American money, it was a really big deal.  But no,…

I wonder if they mean food served in general.  There are way more local eateries in Japan than, say, America.  Literally hundreds of small one-counter jobs all over the place, and most serve really good, inexpensive, quick meals.  I figured a huge percentage of workers ran out for a quick bite at lunch.  Loved it.  In…