Saturday, June 6, 2009

Detroit: Understatement of the Year

Welcome to Detroit.

Cars available.


I'm only on the ground in Detroit for five minutes and I'm already spotting signs with unintentionally deep meanings. There's been endless analysis of the auto industry and the national economic outlook, but this alternating LED at the airport pretty much sums it all up.



10 comments:

  1. So you're in Michigan huh? You should do a seminar for all of the fans of the blog that are still here, and charge $50 a head to get in and hear you speak...

    I kid, but it would be cool to get the regular readers together at Angelo's at some point.

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  2. Heads up: Roger Penske is buying Saturn. Besides this being a GM-related deal, many of the Saturn engines are built in Flint, so it's sort of Flint-related, too.

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  3. OT for Gordie's visit, pertaining to Anonymous's post on Saturn:

    The convoluted part of that deal is that the Aura, currently made by Opel at (I think) their Antwerp, Belgium plant, now will have the additional costs of moving the tooling and equipment to one of Opel's German plants, and will be sold by Magna of Canada and the Russian bankers to Roger Penske, with GM presumably getting a cut as the dealbroker.

    If GM couldn't make money selling Saturns, and the labor costs, dealer cut and designs haven't changed, how are Penske, Stronach and the Russkies going to swing it?

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  4. I'd be up for the Torch... I miss the Torch.

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  5. Hell, anything works. I think I'm a little younger than the main base of expats here, but I'm not too young to get in anywhere. I'm game.

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  6. The Aura is made in Kansas City. The Astra used to be made in Belgium, but it was cancelled.

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  7. OH OH....I want to meet you Gordie...what day will it be? Please let me know ok?? I owe you some $$ for this blog...

    RoadsideDinerLover

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.