It’s About Making Babies!

Jay Leno wrote a piece on American car makers.

Nothing really earthshaking - stop ‘dumming down’ cheaper car lines, rely on quality of this car to bring the buyer back for his next car. Jay mentions several world-class vehicles from the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado to the Corvette Z06, pointing out that no one builds better.

But he points out that car makers deliberately switch to tinnier sounds, less workmanship for the cheap models. If the sound the car makes when dinging to buckle the seat belt is the only difference between models - fix it. Make every vehicle special and satisfying for it’s customer.

Dodge didn’t do badly with the import Dodge Colt. Let the Japanese make the cars they make best rather than reinventing the wheel just to put the Dodge label on it Relabel someone else’s cars rather than compete for the low end. Unless you can present another Model T or VW Beetle - marvels of value for the cost.

Both GM and Ford have swapped making Toyotas with Toyota.

Only, I think Jay overlooked a minor little point. The Big Three Detroit car makes have twisted and flailed at EPA regulations requiring them to improve fuel mileage. Instead of keeping pace, thy have played games. Made ‘X’ number of small, efficient cars, move assembly of high-end vehicles to Canada and Mexico so they don’t count toward EPA requirements. Now that business sense is to drop the low-margin small cars, Ford, GM, and Chrysler would face stiff penalties. Dropping the fuel efficient lines would leave the Big Three exposed to EPA ire, when the remaining vehicles average below EPA mandated efficiency. Note that the goals were set in the 1970’s, this is no surprise for the auto industry. The problem is that Detroit found weasel ways to avoid meeting the spirit of the regulations instead of doing what would have been less painful 30 years ago. Or 20 years ago. Or even in 1992, when my Ford Escort Wagon LX was made.

Toyota seems to have less trouble meeting changing needs, and producing a quality car for the money. And they have been serving that example for a lot of years.

If Sharon Astyk (Casaubon’s Book) is to be believed, we are entering an extended time of increasingly expensive energy - hydro, nuclear, and fossil fuel. Car makers that can turn out a wood-powered Stanley Steamer, or alcohol stills for home use and vehicles to burn it, may be the next winners on the world stage.

So, I picked up Peter F. Hamilton’s “Pandora’s Star” at Hastings the other day. The prologue was an interesting little vignette, a bit abrupt for a short story.

I just finished chapter three (3), and I can’t tell you how many short stories there have been in these 88 pages. And I do not care for the book. 88 pages, out of 988, is more than enough for me to be sure - I can trash or trade this book and never miss it. I have no interest in finishing the book.

This story (collection?) is science fiction. I can’t tell if the world-building is consistent or entertaining - the story skips from wold to world so rapidly, that there are myriad snippets about this character on that world.

I should have realized what kind of dry, social agenda-related, redeeming social value package I picked up. I mean, right there on the cover Nancy Pearl commends the book, writing for National Public Radio, “Should be high on everyone’s reading list … you won’t be able to put it down.” I do not listen to NPR, nor have I heard of Nancy Pearl.

Hamilton has been writing a long time, I can recall seeing a number of his titles, so I know there are people that enjoy what he writes. Evidently I am not one of those people. If someone that enjoys Peter F. Hamilton novels, please leave a list of other authors you enjoy in the comments. I can be wary about buying books from those authors, too.

There is a story line. Probably. It may take reading the whole book to discover where the start was, or understand the progression - but I don’t care enough to find out. Hamilton is casual about killing characters. There are many, many bit-characters, instances of George Carlin’s infamous “I told you that story so I could tell you this one.”

I guess this joins my short pile of books I didn’t care to finish. I know others have enjoyed “Household Gods” by Judith Tarr. But. I found the historical accuracy and details of living cross-time in barbaric Rome, but I found the story line (you know, the people acting and striving and contending and experiencing) overwhelmed. Occasionally a book that I don’t care for seems interesting after six months or three years. Most of my novels are appealing at any time, some few only rarely appealing. I am not interested in this book enough to score it on the ‘maybe later’ scale.

And, no, I don’t anticipate picking up “Judas Unchained.” the conclusion of this author’s sequence.