Quality Weenie

Happy New Year

May 2010 be a hell of a lot better then 2009!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

From the Weenie Family to your family, Merry Christmas. May the day be just what you want it to be.

Elfed

Singing

Disco style

Ford To Return Lost Benefits to Salary Workers

Ford has announced that it will be returning benefits to salary workers that they have had taken away the past couple of years.

"Our plan is working," said Ford Americas President Mark Fields in a note to white-collar workers Thursday.

The note said Ford would resume matching employee 401(k) contributions effective Jan. 1. That program, through which Ford kicks in 60 cents for every dollar an employee contributes to a retirement account up to 5 percent of their base salary, had been suspended in January.

Ford also said it will begin offering tuition assistance to salaried workers again on March 1. And the automaker said it would resume merit pay increases April 1.

So Ford is returning benefits (perks) such as 401k matching and tuition assistance to it's Salary workers.

Must mean that Ford thinks it's doing pretty good financially to be able to put money towards those benefits (perks).

Huh, that would mean that when Ford just a couple months ago demanded that hourly workers take more cuts because if they didn't Ford had a good possibility of going bankrupt must have been *gasp* a lie?

If the hourly workers didn't vote down those additional cuts a couple months ago Ford would be looking at some big problems from their hourly workers right now.

Japanese Hiding Truth Again

I have done numerous posts about American verses Japanese truth in mileage estimates.
Independant groups have done studies and have found American mileages estimates to be truthful while the Japanese mileages have always been found to be more then untruthful.

And once caught with those lies the Japanese never own up to their lies nor do they care about their customers who got caught up in the those lies.

More than half of the nation's state attorneys general are objecting to a deal to settle a 2007 class-action lawsuit against Honda Motor Co. over claims of inflated mileage for a hybrid vehicle.

In March 2007, John True, an Ontario, Calif., jazz pianist, filed suit after he bought a Honda Civic hybrid but couldn't get the gas-electric hybrid's advertised mileage: 49 miles per gallon in the city, 51 mpg on the highway.

After 6,000 miles of driving, True said he averaged just 32 mpg in mixed city/highway driving. True's frustration with the actual mileage of his hybrid as compared to the advertised mileage echoes that of other owners and reflected the findings of some independent tests, including one by Consumer Reports.

I would have to say that 32 mpg is far from a small error of Honda's claims of 50 mpg.

And what would those Honda owners get for being out and out lied to?

To settle the case, Honda would send nearly 160,000 current and former Civic Hybrid owners a DVD containing tips on improving fuel economy.

Owners who trade in their Honda Civic hybrid for certain Honda or Acura vehicles could get up to $1,000 rebate on some vehicles or $100 in cash if they had made a complaint previously. Others who no longer owned their hybrid would get a $500 coupon.

Wow!

A dvd or $1000 towards a new Honda. Sounds like Honda is getting the best of this deal.

Japan Unfair To US Automakers

Back when the US had their "cash for clunkers" program they tried to put in a provision that give US auto makers a step up in the program.

Japan had a shit fit and report the US to the WTO, WTO threatened sanctions and the US backed down.

Well guess what Japan is doing with their "cash for clunkers" program ...

"Any car can enjoy this program as long as they satisfy the same fuel efficiency standards, regardless if it is domestic or imported."

Miura said 43 percent of imported vehicles qualify for the program in Japan.

In a letter to the deputy U.S. trade representative Thursday, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC called the program "another example of Japan continuing efforts to discriminate against imported vehicles."

And 87% of Japanese auto makers vehicles qualify for the program.

Under Japan's program, no U.S. vehicles are eligible because of special import rules; 87 percent of Japanese-built vehicles are eligible. But the Japanese government noted that program is voluntary, and U.S. manufacturers can qualify if they use the same import guidelines that other companies use. (emphasis mine)

And of course Japan sees nothing wrong with putting in provisions that will exclude all US vehicles from the program. As always they follow do as I say not as I do motto.

The Offical Christmas Photo

Of course there were about 25 other photos that didn't make the cut, but there were 3 real good ones I had to choose from.