Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I remember reviews of Top Gear showingAstons and TVRs with aftermarket stereos for a time as well. ??‍♂️

Aston Martin is a small manufacturer and TVR is bordering on kit car territory. Mitsubishi is a volume car maker.
 
It'll be interesting to see how that affects the small pickup market, Mitubishi have been popular over here with the L200. If certain companies had anything about them they could take the chance to fight back against Japanese pickups, but they won't.
 
I remember reviews of Top Gear showingAstons and TVRs with aftermarket stereos for a time as well. ??‍♂️

It's for the best TVR didn't make an integrated stereo. The volume knob would be in the boot, and the CD changer would be integrated into one of the tires (if you where lucky).
 
In 2005, an aftermarket stereo was almost always the much better choice compared to a factory option.
 
In 2005, an aftermarket stereo was almost always the much better choice compared to a factory option.

Depends on the factory. :p Plenty of 2005 cars have good sound systems that don’t look like an aftermarket eyesore.
 
Depends on the factory. :p Plenty of 2005 cars have good sound systems that don’t look like an aftermarket eyesore.

Well sure, but any car from that era until about 2011-13 you would be stuck with this integrated stereo that didn’t have a cassette so you can use a tape adapter to play phone music or an aux Jack. Some cars did the six jack thing but it was as common. So you’re left with burning CDs which some find that ok, others won’t I’d you live in music streaming.
 
Depends on the factory. :p Plenty of 2005 cars have good sound systems that don’t look like an aftermarket eyesore.
And have a distinctive lack of features. In my opinion only in the past few years factory infotainment became something resembling "good".
 
And have a distinctive lack of features. In my opinion only in the past few years factory infotainment became something resembling "good".

I've had a factory stereo in a 98 and a 2004 Volvo and they both sounded really good... and were excellent at playing CD:s and cassettes. :lol:

Yes, it's not the best if you want smartphone connectivity. But in 2005 when the car was new and the word "infotainment" didn't exist, integrated stuff sure looked better than some aftermarket Blaupunkt. It just looks like nobody at Mitsu cared about their product.
 
Well sure, but any car from that era until about 2011-13 you would be stuck with this integrated stereo that didn’t have a cassette so you can use a tape adapter to play phone music or an aux Jack. Some cars did the six jack thing but it was as common. So you’re left with burning CDs which some find that ok, others won’t I’d you live in music streaming.


Who was streaming music via phone from 2011-13? Nobody! It was still MP3s all the way.
 
In my Focus which I had from 2009, the phone was hooked up to the AUX in of the car stereo.
In the car before that, I had a shitty looking JVC radio bought in 2001, but the looks were outweighed by the combined CD/MD capability.
 
I'd agree that factory should be enough by 2005, I'd say some factory sound systems were good enough by 1998. As good as the upgraded stereo in Bugsy was the original looked better and I kind of regretted swapping it out. Ignoring the fact that it had tape it also had a changer input that could be tricked into becoming an aux in. Same in the Smart.
As a last resort there was that thing that Davetouch did in his first Saab where you hack the radio to feed a line input through it, quite impressive actually. My dad's low-spec 2008 Fiesta had a factory aux socket so there was no excuse to be without aux input after that.

I was technically streaming audio in 2009 but that was internet radio so it doesn't really count as you could've just used FM in a car. Realplayer on Windows Mobile 6.5 on my first HTC, crikey that was crap.
 
Ford was in trouble before the 2009 financial crisis, and the loan bridged the gap only to create a continuing problem.
 
TL;DR:

Government offered loan program for improving production on fuel-efficient vehicles, only availabe to financially solvent manufacturers.

Ford took loan, improved production on fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ford is paying the loan back as scheduled.

Apparently this is worthy of a scary headline.
TL; DR: Media gonna media.
 
Ford was in trouble before the 2009 financial crisis, and the loan bridged the gap only to create a continuing problem.

Financial crisis was 2007-2008, this loan was a year later and only available to makers who didn't need a bailout in 2008. Ford was certainly in some trouble before the crisis but they weathered it better than most. It's no secret that automakers are still struggling, but zeroing in on this loan as being some kind of particularly bad business deal is such a strange take.

TL; DR: Media gonna media.

As ever.
 
TL;DR:

Government offered loan program for improving production on fuel-efficient vehicles, only availabe to financially solvent manufacturers.

Ford took loan, improved production on fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ford is paying the loan back as scheduled.

Apparently this is worthy of a scary headline.
Even more than that. Under a purely capitalist economic system, if your corporation isn't maximizing its debt, it isn't efficient.

Responsibly paying ahead of the scheduled date (indeed, paying ahead of the first penalty that exceeds average return the corporation could achieve by not paying) is contraindicated by capitalism, because the return on that other course would exceed the losses from paying, and maximization of net returns is the goal.
 
Financial crisis was 2007-2008, this loan was a year later and only available to makers who didn't need a bailout in 2008. Ford was certainly in some trouble before the crisis but they weathered it better than most. It's no secret that automakers are still struggling, but zeroing in on this loan as being some kind of particularly bad business deal is such a strange take.


Yes, but it doesn't change the fact they were in trouble. Remember, they owned Jaguar and Land Rover and sold them off in 2008.

From the Article:

Then-CEO Alan Mulally is praised for having the foresight to mortgage everything just prior to that crisis, including the Blue Oval, because Ford was in trouble before anyone else and took action before anyone else.

Also:

During good times, automotive analysts said, Ford could have socked away money and paid off debt in anticipation of bad times. That didn't happen.

So when they could of put some cash in the bank, they didn't, they also didn't pay off debts. So,:

"They'll have to come up with a way to pay, otherwise they'll ultimately pay more for the privilege of borrowing," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "This is the sort of thing that keeps people up at night. This is a 3 o'clock in the morning problem for the management team."

Part of this also comes down to Ford having to pay for vehicle recalls over the same time period. The transmissions in the Fiesta and Focus is still haunting them.
 
So Mitsubishi is leaving Europe.

I figured this would come sooner or later after the circa 2005 Lancer that came from the factory with an aftermarket Blaupunkt and a spordy steering wheel from some accessory catalog. Everyone else had an integrated stereo by 2005 but it's as if Mitsubishi couldn't be bothered.

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The Subaru BRZ initially came with an off-the-shelf Fujitsu double-DIN unit that had "Subaru" silkscreened on it.
 
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