Something for nothing?

Chrysler Headquarters,
Auburn Hills, MI,
Image via Wikimedia CommonsS0... Fiat (late of greenmailing GM not to merge with them after GM foolishly signed up, to the tune of 2B USD) gets 35% of Chrysler.

What did they give in exchange? Billions of dollars? Some factories? 35% of themselves? Nope. None of the above. They gave nothing except the promise of some future advice and access to technology.

Great work if you can get it...

Tell you what, Mr. Nardelli, give me .0035% of Chrysler and I'll give you some advice. Or maybe I'll just give it to you for free. You should have actually come out with the Durango Hybrid back when you first started talking about it. You know, in 2000? Then you'd have some technology experience by now. And stop giving away your company for nothing.

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Cleveland rocks?

Except when it doesn't.

I had a bit of a fright on Thursday trying to get to the CLE airport from my client, who is somewhat to the east of the airport. Seems 480 westbound got stuck somehow and of course I was running late. So I took surface streets, counting on my GPS to steer me right, but in this case, surface was also backed up.

Cleveland, which claims to be where the traffic light was invented, hasn't quite figured out light timing... I would get a green, go the limit, and get ot the next light just after it turned red. This continuned for 10 miles, with more traffic streaming onto the surface road at every cross, until all of a sudden, it was like a cork was let out of something, and it was completely empty roadways for the last 5 miles. It was due to a light that was way too long in the other direction and too short in ours.

Fortunately I had a Mazda CX7 so I was able to out accelerate all the laggards whenever there was a break in traffic.

I just made it, but next week I'm leaving earlier!

From the "read the fine print" department

If Chrysler still made this
maybe I'd buy it!
Image via WikipediaIn case anyone hasn't noticed, we in the US are now paying 4.00 USD or close to it per gallon for our gas... (yes, I know, the one European in my readership has been paying way more than that for years... we get it, we were lucky)

The US auto industry has been hit hard (and that means Michigan has been hit very hard) by this. Automakers are scrambling to compensate for the lost sales.

Seems Chrysler has come up with a gimmick to move some metal languishing on their dealer lots... 2.99 gas! The basic idea is that you buy a new car, they give you a passthrough credit card that you buy gas with, and they don't charge you more than 2.99 for it, up to a certain number of gallons per year, for 3 years.

Seems like a not too shabby gimmick, as far as gimmicks go. Until you read the fine print. This only counts for 87 octane gas. But Chrysler's own owners manuals suggest 89 for most vehicles and there are a few that require 91, no less. Chrysler will subsidise your gas, but only if you buy the kind that violates your warranty. If you want 89, that's 15 cents extra. If you want 91, it's 30 cents extra. Since the markup usually is 10 or 11 cents per grade step, that's a bit less of a deal.

No thanks. I think I'll stick with my 11 year old Stratus a bit longer.

(OK, two car posts in a row, what's up with that?)

Have you seen any silly gimmicks that make you scratch your head lately?

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Alvin!

My car is a bit more silver
and has better wheels :) ... ]
but it's rustier too!
Image via WikipediaSo my 11 year old Stratus (don't laugh, it's paid for and it gets 34 mpg on the highway... keeping a car for 11 years is actually a rather green thing to do compared to buying a new one every 2 or 3) started having electrical problems... first the tach would randomly cut out, then the odometer too.

Took it to the local dealer, Grand Chrysler in Lowell, (who has been very good to us over the years) and they said it was electronics behind the dash... 500 USD to fix. Meh.

I decided I could live with a tach that cuts out, I shift by ear anyway. But last week, enroute to Holland to my client I noticed the idiot battery light on, and random other dash lights too. Fortunately the battery had a good charge, I was able to make it back to the dealer in the afternoon, just barely (by not running anything, it got hot and stuffy in there) on what the battery had in it.

They took another look, and reported... "you have a mouse problem"... apparently something had chewed the ground wire enough to make things erratic. So no circuit board replacement, yaay! When I told my wife we had mice, she laughed and said she had seen chipmunks exiting the hood area of the car several times.

So you darn chipmunks, that's the last time I say you're cute, you almost left me stranded. I'll be putting mothballs in the engine compartment, find somewhere else to stay warm.

Can you top that one? What's the strangest car repair story you've got?