Month: November 2002

election 2002

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the election in los angeles is over. the democrats keep the seats in state government, and the schools get their money to build classrooms. the los angeles county museum gets its money to destroy the LACMA campus, and install a new vision that is earthquake resistant. in 2014, the new LACMA will rise from the rubble, and a new day will be born. in the national side president bush gets control of both the senate and the house, hopefully to keep the USA in peace, but it seems that his war advisors want destruction.

have you followed the military buildup in western asia? do you want a summary? the USA, us, the military has established a war machine at diego garcia in the indian ocean, along with a massive base in qatar. last week several aircraft carriers, including the battle group USS constellation, left their bases in san diego, and the largest transport vessels, including the USNS bellatrix, also left fully loaded from military sealift command. drone aircraft are murdering terrorist suspects. senators are dying in plane crashes. this war on terrorist is going full bore, with the murder of russian citizens in moscow, a bombing in indonesia, murder of diplomats in lebanon, and now bush has control of congress. messiah come!

s class anew

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on 27 march 2003 saturn corporation launched the successor to the s class of cars with the ION class. with two body styles, the sedan and coupe, saturn wanted to re-enter the small car market with a popular configuration of a small car with a big 2.2 liter ecotec engine. they succeeded. i tuned into saturnfans.com and saturn regularly to find updates. i broke into the corporate auto journalist sites like saturnmedia.com to download pictures and more press releases and specifications. i read the usenet postings. i had eight months to prepare and research every detail of the car before it even went into production. on 29 august 2002, in spring hill TN, the s series went away, and the ION was born. initially only the sedan would leave the factory floor, and sometime in march 2003 the coupe would come. even though mom is single, she needs a four door model, to take her daughter-in-law around town when she comes to visit (hint hint). the trunk from the picture seemed very large, and the details fine this was the car i recommended to mom, but she would have to wait an entire summer and a little bit of fall to get to market. it was worth the wait.

ion car options

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there’s been only one good experience in my lifetime looking for a car. usually it’s at a public auto show, where the booths have corporate sponsorship. if GM is selling chevrolet, then as a consumer you get to see every chevy and every color available in a certain product line. when it comes down to it, a automobile is nothing more than a bar of soap with a particular scent. if you like how it feels on your body, and you don’t mind the slimey film and lather, you get the car.

on our visit many years ago with dad, van nuys chrysler plymouth (now called center) tried to upsell mom into a cirrus or sebring, even though she came into see the breeze or status. she’s always had a weird, but accomodateable request to have a fully functional top of the line model, but with conventional rolldown windows. why spend $1000 extra for a power window package, when you just bought a very complex device, and here are four more motors that can go bad? unless you live in a fastfood hell or never get out of your car, when does anyone leave the comforts of the air conditioned bliss of a car interior? who rolls down a winder anyway? if you go through a toll booth daily, maybe power windows make sense, or if you park in a secure garage with a parking ticket machine. so, she’s will not buy a car with a power or convenience package, and that pretty much eliminates 95% off all available cars.

mom would love to drive a volvo or BMW, but when they come over from europe, they only come in power. honda’s only come in power above the stripped version of a car without HVACR. now who wants a stripped car? mom could afford a $40,000 car easily, maybe two at that price. this is the accomplishment of a lifetime of thrifty living, and sound financial planning (i had a hand in some of this good planning over the last ten years).