So... NOBODY here: watched "Rollover" last night on PBS?

Post #29,440 by Ashton 2/22/02 5:30:59 PM Reply	So... NOBODY here: watched "Rollover" last night on PBS? Pity. blush I screwed up! My tirades against these accidents-just-waiting.. have understated both their incompetence as vehicles AND the ongoing duplicity and Billy-like behavior of, apparently - damn near ALL Corps. In ascribing purely ethicless-behavior to most all the ones we recognize by name, I was being generous! to those of the ilk of Ford and other hawkers of Urban Assault Vehicles: vastly overpriced bodies glued onto cheap truck-beds = immune from previous automobile safety requirements. The gutting of the fuel-efficiency and safety standards began exactly with Ronnie Reagan and his appointees, starting with the puny 2\ufffd MPH "bumper" trashing the 5 mph previous.. and declining fast - CAFE was gutted, etc. All in the name of, "Freeing the Corps from those Evil Safety Considerations - to Make a Profit" Immensely profitable too: One anecdote described (I think Lincoln Navigator, that sub-part of Ford) - as being the single most profitable Corp enterprise Anywhere. After all the sound & fury though: it turns out that, anyone who schleps their children around in these deathtraps - after being made aware of their utterly unacceptable behavior in any sudden traffic maneuver: doesn't give a SHIT about those children. The numbers were there, and the history - and the certainty that suited Execs KNEW what they were releasing. It's impossible to exaggerate the cupidity of the Suited Ones -- from before the Pinto gas tank through the Bronco II and through today: unnecessary heaped dead (sometimes burnt) bodies.. (It's also unnecessary to comment on the mindlessness and easy psychological manipulability of the unwashed who have flocked to these deathtraps. Perhaps it is Darwin at work..) A.
Post #29,441 by drewk 2/22/02 5:48:43 PM Reply	[raises hand] Yep. Some choice quotes (from memory): Re: The "most profitable" bit: "A single factory [where they make Lincoln and Ford versions of the same UAV] is the single most profitable factory in the world, and is more profitable than all but a couple of dozen entire corporations." Re: Schleping their children around in these deathtraps (from a mom with toddler in arms): "Cars are built to be safe, so I know whichever one [UAV] I buy is going to be safe." Re: Are they actually "safe": "The Ford Explorer is 18 times more likely to cause a fatality of occupants in the other vehicle in a collision than a typical car." Re: Why didn't Ford follow the recommendation of their engineers to widen the track of the first Explorer by two inches: "Ford was in a fight against the Chevy Blazer at the time, and no one wanted to be the one to tell the Ford chairman and CEO that we would have to delay 18 months." You're right about understating the culpability of the manufacturers. Their own engineers told them the vehicles were unstable and they made them anyway. The NHTSA staffers told the administrators about it, and were told to "modify" their reports to "reflect the position of the agency." For all the attention that the Explorer/Firestone rollover story got, those deaths represented 1/40th of the total rollover deaths of SUVs. No, that's not a typo: 1/40th. ~300 out of ~12,000. We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html\|Thomas Friedman]
Post #29,443 by Ashton 2/22/02 6:16:26 PM Reply	Thanks, Drew I took some notes too.. but I thought - if nobody here even thought it was worth looking at Frontline - WTF should I bother to recap? And you have grokked perhaps the most insidious aspect of the entire UAV hysteria, perfectly IMhO: Re: Are they actually "safe": "The Ford Explorer is 18 times more likely to cause a fatality of occupants in the other vehicle in a collision than a typical car." Yes.. the start of the Arms Race - get biiger armaments against the Other Road enenmy. Lust after a HumVee, later with gun port. ---> no end to that mindset, in sight. How aptly they described the lobbying; showed that smarmy flak, Jerry Curry (sp?) who launched the Bigger is Better counter to the Bryan Bill.. which would have restored a semblance of sanity re both fuel efficiency and overall safety = also for the NON-UAV drivers. {sigh} The implications are staggering. It's like leaving the reactor-safety design for a fleet of passenger ships to: Dan Quayle and Ballmer. Enough defunding and ennui next - and PBS shall disappear (Frontline and Nova with it) and we shall have 100% Corporate Infotainment 24/7. (Except for small subscription organs one might ferret out, send for). I believe we are actually in danger of that occurring, such is the disconnect between the daily mind-numbing ad-barrage and: actual human conversation and exposition. Are we that near to surrendering to the Suited manipulators, entirely? No proof possible.. but the daily rhetoric causes me to 'feel' that we just might give up on er 'The Open Society'; it's too much trouble to look beyond the daily Disneyland BS - for too many folk, apparently. Ashton glad I saw this. depressed at what I saw.
Post #29,455 by a6l6e6x 2/22/02 9:14:34 PM Reply	>RAISE HAND< Having mentioned it, I watched it as well. So, 2000 rollovers /^\\_/^\\_ a year is an acceptable risk to the manufacturers. Makes sense when the profit is up to $15K per vehicle. You can build up quite a war chest for out of court settlements. Simple arithmetic, pure economics. If the SUV drivers didn't hit others, the gene pool would definitely be improving! Alex "Of course, you realize this means war." -B. Bunny
Post #29,526 by boxley 2/23/02 11:54:19 PM Reply	why do you blame the makers for stupidity of the drivers? Short wheel base, High center of gravity != sharp turns at any speed. Common freakin sense. thanx, bill "I'm selling a hammer," he says. "They can beat nails with it, or their dog." Richard Eaton spy software innovator
Post #29,537 by Ashton 2/24/02 2:20:13 AM Reply	So you'd let M$ off the hook too?
Post #29,602 by boxley 2/25/02 9:17:59 AM Reply	If the government mandated they make Windoze, yes Dont forget where these sport yutes came from. They are a direct result of the government CAF legislation. When was the last station wagon made? How come you dont see any new ones? CAF is why, so under the Federal Mandates only trucks could be designed to carry enough passengers efficiently so blame all the deaths on government regulation because the federal government stopped the automakers from making station wagons, one of the safest vehicles on the road and insisted they make sport yutes which kill people. Legislation kills :( thanx, bill "I'm selling a hammer," he says. "They can beat nails with it, or their dog." Richard Eaton spy software innovator
Post #29,611 by drewk 2/25/02 10:00:05 AM Reply	Wagons are coming back The American manufacturers are making small and mid-size wagons. (Ford Escort and Taurus, Saturn) Several Japanese and European sedans have wagon versions: VW Passat, Toyota Camry, several Volvos, Audi, Mercedes even, plus more. But you're right that there aren't any of the "Family Truckster" variety like the Caprice Classic/Buick Roadmaster: V8 and 7-passenger plus towing capacity. I had been looking at minivans because I've got a dog, two cats and a toddler. If we're going anywhere for a weekend we have to at least drop the animals off somewhere first, so we need to fit everyone in the vehicle at once. I started looking at wagons when I saw a really clean Volvo 850 Turbo on a used car lot. We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html\|Thomas Friedman]

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