Rescue package for UK car firms

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:05

Miss Madam wrote:Oh, I could never fix cars with a spanner and a hammer.... do you mean whacking it, swearing, having a hissy fit and stropping off wouldn't do the trick?..Curses... I think I am sensing where I've gone wrong. But yeah deliberate fostering of dependance on 'experts' and designed obsolescence (that has to be spelt wrong) are massive hissy fit triggers of mine.

My Dad used to be the foreman at a local garage, when cars were simpler, and he would have repaired them with loving care, and given the owner an unpatronising (I think!) lesson on how to avoid the problem reoccurring.

You got obsolescence right, but dependence wrong, according to my spelling checker

Miss Madam · Post by **Miss Madam** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:11

Damnit as I'm learning more and more traditional chinese characters (I learnt climate change, middle, region and month today - whoop whoop) I swear my English spelling is receding into the middle distance.... Thanks John!

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:15

The problem in the car market is that the damn things dont break like they used to.

I've got an 8 year old suzuki swift, 60000 miles, 1 litre enginge, runs like new (90mph)
No reason it wont do over 100,000 unless I get bored with it before then.

Compared to a Ford Cortina....

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:16

Spelling checker?

The kids today.

Miss Madam · Post by **Miss Madam** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:21

Aurora wrote:Spelling checker? The kids today.

Ok say that again when I'm closer than 9,000 miles away....

but I bet you can't draw the chinese symbol for autumn....

when our chinese overlords (this is a culture that is soooooo playing the long game) arrive, I'll at least be in with a chance of working in the greetings card industry even if I can't persuade the govt here to give a rats ass about climate change

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 15 Dec 2008, 16:33

DominicJ wrote:Compared to a Ford Cortina....

I had two Cortinas, both quite high mileage ex company cars, and they were OK. At least they were fixable. It's when I got an XR3i that I gave up doing my own maintenance, but that was mostly lack of time. I wouldn't dare touch a modern car.

chrisc · Post by **chrisc** » 15 Dec 2008, 22:48

I expect that there are plenty of cars on the planet to last for the transition to the post-fossil fuel economy already.

All car production should be stopped and more sensible things should be produced instead.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 16 Dec 2008, 14:38

As DominicJ wrote elsewhere, the world is oversupplied with cars. I'd say it's part of the overall problem - or is it a symptom - that we're oversupplied with thousands of things, not just cars but everything from cafés to AK47s to people to oil to cows and back again.

Shortages of certain things might be a good idea.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 16 Dec 2008, 16:42

Miss Madam wrote:Damnit as I'm learning more and more traditional chinese characters (I learnt climate change, middle, region and month today - whoop whoop) I swear my English spelling is receding into the middle distance.... Thanks John!

Oooh what is Climate Change in Chinese?? (PinYin will do) not just tian-qi bian-hua is it?

PowerSwitch

Rescue package for UK car firms

The planet doesn't need any more cars