Detroit Can Make Much Better Cars

So, the Big Three are looking for a bailout...

No that's not a picture of me below, but the guy in the picture is standing beside a P1800 very similiar to ours. This is the famous (in Volvo circles) Irv Gordon who owns the same make and year of Volvo Gwen and I have - a 1966 Volvo P1800.

To make a long story short, I have no decent pics of ours and at the moment its not here to take a picture of it - the car is at another place having its engine and transmission installed.

But when I used to drive it a few years ago (house construction took over from this other long term car restoration project) I remember being constantly amazed at the fuel mileage the Volvo offered given its age, and forty or so year-old technology!

The last forty years has seen a large advancement in computer technology, etc; so what happened to cars and there engines!!!???

What happened to the technology GM and Saturn developed when they first released the EV-1 to the public 10 or so years ago? Of course, this is a rhetorical question. Most of us all know exactly what happened. There's no political willpower to change the path of greed our system fosters...

2.48 Million Miles On A Volvo

Record-Breaking Volvo Driver Irv Gordon Clocks Four Million Kilometers in His Trusty P1800.

Irv Gordon, Volvo's "Two-and-a-half Million Mile Man," just became the "Four Million Kilometer Man," breaking records in the same shiny red 1966 Volvo P1800 he has been driving for more than 40 years.

Some stats:

• 710 oil changes. Irv recommends changing your oil every 3,500 miles (5,632 km).
• 100,000 plus miles (160,934 km) per year since retiring in 1996.
• 0 false starts. Zero. Zip. Not even on the coldest of mornings.
• 0 replaced engines. The Volvo P1800 still has its original engine, though it was rebuilt at around 675,000 miles (1,086,307 km).
• One new starter.
• $4,150. The cost of Irv's Volvo P1800 back in 1966. "The best $4,150 I've ever spent."
• 99 tune-ups (every 25,000 miles, or 40,233 km).
• 8,285 tanks of gas (The Volvo gets 25 miles, or 40.23 km, per gallon

Found the above stats and pic at: http://j-walkblog.com

Warning!: System Failure due to Human Error in Canadian Government

After winning a recent Canadian national election which saw the re-election of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister of Canada and gave him back what he didn't necessarily want ... another minority government (which is why he called an early election in the first place when he saw the opposition was very weak -so okay, some might say this is acceptable political strategy, but it still doesn't allow Harper to look like he's taking the high road here...)

But he's also forced to make nice with the other parties involved, or forever fear the threat hanging over the head of every minority government - of being defeated by a non-confidence vote....then for as yet an unexplained, and unfathomable suicidal tactic decides on a very combative course in a time when Canada should be pulling together to ward off a major economic downshift, by lobbing a political hot potato into the political arena during the release of the new budget which promises to cut off public funding ($/vote) for political parties.

Canadian/Newfoundland CBC man of letters,  political punster, and wry wit Rex Murphy said it all, when he asked the question on national TV, "Is what Stephen Harper did, the height of arrogance, or the depth of ignorance?" (Actually, I ad-libbed here a bit...Rex said something very similar, but with the same general meaning...)

Are these surges in stock prices true?

Hello... been away on a little hiatus...painting and making a living...