August 07, 2006

News You Can Use

Straight Talk about GM
Did you know that GM is the industry leader in its commitment to the American economy? We help support the livelihoods of more than a million people in North America. That's more than any other car manufacturer.

Facts:

• Every day, approximately one million North Americans earn their living helping GM build and sell cars in North America
• More than 1.1 million people receive heath care benefits from GM
• Toyota employs only about 38,000 people in North America

Whether it's quality, safety, fuel economy, technology or design, GM has a strong story to tell.

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Foreign Vehicle Lovers Click Here

And then scroll down to read the recent recalls by the Japanese.

Submitted By Don Thomsen

This Governor Needs To Be Held Accountable For Her Actions!!! Tell Her What You Think Below:

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Koji Sasahara / Associated Press

Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm speaks before reporters in Tokyo Thursday on a week-long business visit to Japan.

Governor pleased with results from Japan trade trip

By Kathy Barks Hoffman / Associated Press

LANSING -- As she wraps up a weeklong trade trip to Japan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said her visit has given her the chance to tell people there that Michigan workers are eager to build Japanese cars, not smash them with sledge hammers as they did in the 1980s.

"The (trip's) real benefit has been to say to Japanese companies, 'You are welcome in Michigan.' They needed to hear that. They wanted to hear that. I think a lot of old stereotypes remain," she told The Associated Press in a telephone call from her Tokyo hotel.

The governor spent Friday encouraging a few more Japanese companies to locate or expand in Michigan. Two Japanese auto suppliers, DENSO Corp. and Tokai Rika Co., committed this week to creating 500 new engineering, manufacturing and research and development jobs in the state in addition to ones already here.

Granholm said she will leave Japan on Saturday with more commitments to create new jobs than she collected on her trade trip to Germany last November. That's partly because the state is making its pitch not only to those in the automotive industry but to those in the life sciences and biosciences, she said.

But it also represents the breakthrough her visit has made with Japanese companies.

"In Germany, we didn't have to do the convincing to German businesses that they were welcome in Michigan that we needed to do in Japan," she said.

"The fact that I am here -- the governor of the North American automotive capital, the U.S. automotive capital, the home of the Big Three -- that I am physically here in Japan to tell the Japanese suppliers and automakers that they are welcome and their investment and jobs would be welcome is extremely significant to them."

Granholm said it has helped to have the presidents of the state's three major research universities -- University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University -- on hand to talk about their eagerness to join with Japanese companies for research and commercialization of the results.

"A lot of that is planting seeds for partnerships and relationships down the road," she said. "That is a new area of focus and a new window for us."

The governor said her meetings with Toyota Motor Corp. officials early in the week went well, but added she's aware that landing a Toyota manufacturing plant down the road remains a challenge.

"I just have to be realistic that there are many other governors who are coming to woo them," she said. "But because of what happened with the Toyota tech center in Ann Arbor, they believe that Michigan is welcoming to them. ... I've been encouraged by their interest. I don't know that it would have happened a few years ago."

Granholm met earlier this week with Tokai Rika Chairman Yoshihei Iida and President Kiyoshi Kinoshita in Nagoya, Japan. The governor's office said Thursday that the auto supplier plans to invest $50 million to expand its operations in Battle Creek, Jackson and Plymouth.

Tokai Rika, which deals with research and manufacturing tied to auto-related products ranging from locks and keys to switches and seat belts, already employs more than 1,100 workers at three Michigan facilities: TRAM Inc. in Plymouth; TAC Manufacturing Inc. in Jackson; and TRMI Inc. in Battle Creek. It plans to add 30 engineering jobs in Plymouth and 100 jobs each at its plants in Jackson and Battle Creek.

Michigan's largest Japanese employer, DENSO Corp., announced Tuesday that it will spend $36 million to expand its North American headquarters in Southfield.

It currently employs 4,500 workers in Michigan in four locations: DENSO International America Inc., in Southfield; DENSO Manufacturing Michigan in Battle Creek; ASMO Manufacturing in Battle Creek; and Michigan Automotive Compressor, a joint venture with Toyota Industries Corp., in Parma.

Both Tokai Rika and DENSO are member companies of Toyota.

Granholm said such investments are what she's looking for as she builds on Michigan's reputation as the North American auto powerhouse, and what she was hoping her trade trip would produce.

"The silos of domestic versus international production are no longer valid in a global economy," the governor said. "And that's what my message to them has been: 'You can benefit from the synergy from locating geographically where all of the action is with respect to the automotive world.'"

On the Net:

Gov. Jennifer Granholm: http://www.michigan.gov/gov

Tokai Rika: http://www.tokai-rika.co.jp/en/index.html

To Governor Jennifer M. Granholm - Michigan

You do not have the best interest of the people of Michigan or America with your plans to send more money to the Japanese! You know all bottom line profits of Japanese products made here in America go back to Japan. Ford and GM bottom line profits stay in Michigan and America! You are a disgrace to America and you will be held accountable at the polls! You can tell the Governor what you think about the above article by clicking here:

http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-65331--,00.html

 Who Are The World's True Stars? - A Good Read - Take The Time To Enjoy This!

Subject:Ben Stein's last column

For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's."  (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.)  Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life.  Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                     
Ben Stein's Last Column...                                                                                          
===================                                                                                                 
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?                                                                                                                                                     
As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it.  This heading is "eonline FINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it.  I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started.  I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it.  On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to.  It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars.  I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie.  But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.         
                                                                                    
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened.  I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important.  They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated.  But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.                                                                                           
                                                                                                                     
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?  Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.                                                                                                                                                                        
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.  A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq.  He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets.  Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.                                                                                                
                                                                                                                     
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad.  He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.                                                                                                                                                                                   
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station.  He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded.  He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.                                                                                                                                                
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.                                                                           
                                                                                                                     
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines.  The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.                                                                                                                                                                   
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.                                                                                                                                          
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament... the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.                      
                                                                                                                     
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse.  Now you have my idea of a real hero.           
                                            
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters.  This is my highest and best use as a human.  I can put it another way.  Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a  comic as Steve Martin... or Martin Mull or Fred Willard -- or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald.  Or even remotely close to any of them.                                                                                                                                            
But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me.  This came to be my main task in life.  I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help).  I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years.  I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.                                                                                                                                                 
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path.  This is my highest and best use as a human. 

                   
Faith is not believing that God can.  It is knowing that God will.                                           
By Ben Stein                                                                                                        
                                                                                                       
                                           We truly take a lot for granted.                                          
                               Forget the Hollywood "stars" and the sports "heroes"... and pass this on!

Submitted By Dave Casey

www.overthehillcarpeople.com

Updated: 01:42 PM EDT  06-29-05

Survey Finds GM Customer Satisfaction Soared In June

By Ann Keeton, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, Dow Jones

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Not only did General Motors Corp. (GM) hit a home run with sales on its "employee discount for everyone" promotion in June, but the world's largest auto maker greatly improved customer satisfaction among those who visited GM dealerships, according to a study by CNW Marketing Research, an industry researcher.

New car buyers generally seemed satisfied to get the same discount off sticker prices as GM employees, CNW said.

In a survey released Wednesday, CNW said visitors to GM stores showed a 28% improvement over last year, when asked if they would recommend a GM dealer. This year, 87.6% of visitors said they would recommend a GM dealer, compared with 68.3% last year.

The research group conducted surveys in 27 major consumer markets and nine small and medium-sized markets.

CNW found that customer satisfaction with the way GM salespeople handled the discount offer reached the highest level since the research company began tracking that component in 1994. CNW said it measures the effectiveness of incentive programs on such things as the ease of explaining the program and the ability of shoppers to understand and respond to the deal. Compared with an average industry score of 5, sales personnel satisfaction for GM in June jumped to 9.13, CNW said.

More than 27% more of showroom visitors this year said they were satisfied with the sales process in purchasing a new GM vehicle.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Toyota isn't immune to problems

Despite reliability image, automaker has had five recalls in the United States this year.

By Jeff Plungis / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Longtime quality champion Toyota Motor Corp. showed this week that it too is struggling with an industrywide increase in vehicle recalls.

The Japanese automaker is recalling 775,000 trucks and SUVs after customers told government investigators the vehicle's ball joints collapsed without warning, leading to a loss of steering control and sometimes thousands of dollars of damage.

The move, which Toyota describes as a "special service campaign," comes as industrywide recalls continue to climb. In 2004, automakers recalled a record 30.6 million cars and trucks even though overall quality is improving.

"We're seeing many more vehicle recalls today than we probably would have 10 or 20 years ago," said Chance Parker, head of product and research analysis at J.D. Power and Associates, a California-based consumer research firm.

Industry officials say improved warranty tracking systems and a giant government database created following the 2000 Firestone tire recall have led to greater scrutiny and a quicker trigger in ordering recalls.

And while Toyota has garnered a reputation among consumers for reliability, the truck recall shows it is not immune to quality problems.

The recall covers certain 2001-02 4Runner SUVs; 2001-04 Tacoma pickups; and 2002-04 Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs.

Most of the trucks are in the United States, but worldwide, the recall will affect approximately 880,000 vehicles.

Toyota said it would notify affected customers by mail beginning in late June. Dealers will replace the lower ball joint at no charge. Truck owners can contact their Toyota dealers with immediate questions about the recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating the problem since November.

Consumers told NHTSA that their lower ball joints had separated, causing the suspension to collapse and them to lose control of their vehicles.

In one complaint, attached to official correspondence between NHTSA and Toyota, a truck owner in Buskirk, N.Y., said his ball joint gave way at 20 mph, causing the wheel to fold under the truck.

"This truck is well cared for, and there were no obvious signs of a problem prior to failure," the complaint noted.

It is the fifth recall Toyota has instituted this year.

In a statement, Toyota said it has only confirmed six cases of ball-joint failure causing loss of steering control.

"The front suspension lower ball joint is a wear item and must be periodically inspected and replaced in accordance with the vehicle's scheduled maintenance guide," the statement read.

Overall, Toyota said it has conducted five recalls this year in the United States affecting approximately 900,000 vehicles. In 2004, Toyota conducted nine recalls affecting 1,056,939 vehicles, according to NHTSA.

Toyota has also recalled this year:

• 92,577 Celica coupes from the 2000 and 2001 model years, to adjust daytime running lights, which could be too bright for oncoming drivers.

• 22,228 model year 2005 Tacoma pickups to tighten a lock nut on the parking brake pedal.

The ball-joint recall was the second time in a week that Toyota had a high-profile safety issue in the news. On Monday, the company said it would look into 13 complaints NHTSA has received about a possible software glitch that could cause the Prius hybrid car to stall at highway speeds.

You can reach Jeff Plungis at (202) 906-8204 or jplungis@detnews.com.

CRAWFORD, Texas (April 25) - President Bush on Monday pressed Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah to help curb skyrocketing oil prices that are hurting the budgets of American families and businesses.

''The crown prince understands that it is very important ... to make sure that the price is reasonable,'' Bush told reporters before the Saudi leader arrived at his Texas ranch for a couple hours of talks that also took in new Middle East peace initiatives, the pace of democratic reform in the desert kingdom and counter-terror efforts.

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