Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:23:41 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Manufacturing Vanagons in private? - musings on the
practicality thereof
In-Reply-To: <ac1f198b0801290948n5099e4fdud59f5623965a6ee8@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
( psst..........its' not a rant. It's 'musings.' I'm not furious or yelling
or anything like that here)
Well, I was going to mention the cost of such adventures in manufacturing,
Then thought not to say anything,
But then............in the article they mention that Tesla had *losses* of
43 *m i l l i o n* dollars 2003 to 2006. Ahem.
Chances are, overall, fairly good I'm sorry to say... ............maybe
barely maybe will that company actually ever be truly profitable. I hope I
am very wrong about that, and the economic and fuel availability climate can
always shift and make a pure electric car the 'only way'...........but boy
...... starting out with a 'fun expensive car' instead of a practical one,
we shall see. Reminds me of Delorean. Or Bricklin. And many others.
Vector in the USA.....a US designed and conceived 'lamborghini'
............where is Vector now ? I don't think they exist anymore, and
the founder even got shoved out of his own company by investors I think.
But I hope Tesla does well, but they are selling a Toy Fun Car with
their first model and Pizzaz sells 'sometimes." Their driving range is
maybe 40 miles I think also. Who besides Hollywood actors and rich
executives will buy one anyway ?
There's danger of a world economic crisis even developing lately,
what with the oil/iraq/democracy in the middle east/ economic mishaps here
and their globally, Pakistan all that ..........never mind china., and now
banks and stock markets getting shaky.
.I'd say it's time to get serious about good solid simple basic life
needs for a while. The global consumerism bubble is unsustainable. There
is no way around that, not until there's a huge global shake out, and start
all over not polluting so much this time.
Not to ramble too much - there's a company here in Ashland making tube frame
street sportster type cars, essentially a semi-open 4 wheel two person
motorcycle ........they cost 80 grand, and they can't get them legal for the
street here either.
That's a Pure Luxury Toy, and people can't even sell their houses now
.............that does not look like a very practical economic project or
business I would have to say, in these times.
I am not a pessimist. A bit cynical, which I try not to be, but yes
perhaps. And not to get all political, but it is getting more clear and more
clear by the day, that the current consumerism global thing, combined with
lots of war going on , and .........here's the real thing that 'kills
us'...............it's the insane need for the oil we need every minute, to
keep this huge consumerism-based thing rolling, and 'other people' have the
oil we need. It's a dead end street under the current system. Those
things combined - a consumerism-based economic system, the need for oil,
instability in the world and the attending war going on, and top it off with
global warming and overpopulation.......... You couldn't write a better
doomsday novel or Hollywood plot. It so exactly matches the worst strange
set of characters and factors that any writer could ever make up
..............it's just uncanny.
All I'll say is it would be pretty smart now to focus on basic needs
and modesty and something sustainable, cause what's happening now, it is
inevitable that it can't keep going this way just forever.
It's incredibly simple too, if you told a smart 12 year old girl what is
really happening ( as near as we can tell from our media that is )
...........she's say, 'oh, that can't work forever.'
Meanwhile, how lucky we are to get anything to run our vanagons on, and that
we live in a beautiful and safe place. I am thankful for that every second.
Every hundredth second.
Americans have no idea how good they have it compared to the rest of
the world, and.........so stupidly, they don't' even recognize we use 1/4 of
the world's resources, and that just can't go on forever. And we use them
so unnecessarily too. Toll booths alone, TOTALLY unnecessary, I wildly
gueesstimate waste 1 million gallons of fuel per workday. It's a joke
really, the whole thing. And humans KNOW better, but they do it anyway.
That's a sad part too.
Lest anyone think this is a 'rant' ...........if I ranted, it would be 100
times more 'awful' than these shared thoughts and opinions. Thnx.
But cheers !
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jim Akiba
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 9:48 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Manufacturing Vanagons in private?
And another barrier falls away, or at least a precedent now exists..
and this is since the thread started a couple days ago. It's all
happening right now.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUyCqfp_Q6vJTJJrxxzcwlZHcZBgD8UF5RBO0
Jim Akiba
On 1/28/08, John Meeks <vanagon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 28, 2008 4:27 PM, Jim Akiba <syncrolist@bostig.com> wrote:
> <snip>
> > After we finish nailing down and streamlining the
> > powerplant to exploit, it's on to the suspension and braking, then the
> > interior and wiring, leaving the chassis as the last section to be
> > re-engineered and replaced. A tubular space frame, with paint film
> > molded composite body panels is the direction I'd like to see...
> >
> > Jim Akiba
> >
>
> Thanks for sharing your plans for future development of the Vanagon
> platform, Jim. It is certainly a vision worth supporting.
>
> If my 200K mi WBX gives me the least bit of trouble, I'm on board
> for a Bostig conversion!
> --
> John Meeks
>
> '91 Multivan, '85 GL bits
> Northern Michigan
> KC8ZFN
>
> Vanagon Rescue Squad
> http://www.vanagonauts.com/Vanagon_Rescue_Squad74.htm
>
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