New Leica Compact

Bill W wrote:
On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 20:57:31 -0400, Mort wrote:

Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

You must be very, very, old. Like me.

My birth certificate is very old, but I myself am only entering early
middle age.

Mort Linder

Hi,

As a follow-up to these remarks, please be advised of the following. At
one time, the U.S. Government was preparing to sue G.M. and to break it
up, as a monopoly. The G.M. powers that be then decided to fully
integrate their lines,and do badge engineering. Then they could tell the
authorities that breaking up the company would be a disaster, as the
various nameplates could not survive separately. Then you had, e.g.
Cadillacs with Chevrolet engines,and a Chevrolet disguised as a Cadillac
= Cimarron.

Similar badge engineering still goes on today. One needs to know the VIN
country code these days, to really know what country a car is made in,
albeit many parts are from other countries.

Mort Linder

Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-06-14 01:07:26 +0000, Bill W said:

On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 20:57:31 -0400, Mort wrote:

Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

You must be very, very, old. Like me.

Not that old.

I believe there are a bunch of us of similar vintage in this room who
are well aware of the GM shell game which persists to this day.
The relationship of Australia's Holden and Germany's Opel to various US
GM vehicles is downright incestuous. Holden provides us with the
Caprice, Commodore, and Chevrolet SS. The Opal Insignia is currently
rebadged as the Buick Regal. The Buick LaCrosse is a long wheelbase
version of the Opal Epsilon II.
The Saturns were rebadged Opel Astra and Opel Vectra.
The Opal J-body was the basis for the Chevy Cavalier and the Cadillac
Cimmaron. There was one othr Cadillac. The Cadillac Catera was a
rebadged Opel Omega.

Then never forget that Chrysler gave us the "K" cars, and Ford brought
in the Taurus, Capri, Merkur XR4Ti, Scorpio, Contour (known in Europe as
the Mondeo) and Mercury Sable in from the Cologne, German subsiduary
Ford of Europe. The Ford Escort came from Ford UK.

GMs business philosophy was to get the cars off the assembly line fast
and ship to dealers. The dealers were then stuck with the adjustments
and repairs that had to be made, and GM's reimbursement was grossly
insufficient. I remember when a number of cars came in with
horizontal,brown lines in the outside paint, from the workers spitting
tobacco juice at the cars. Sometimes doors had to be removed and taken
apart to find the source of rattles, oftentimes due to a tool left
inside the door panel, or empty soda bottles.

All that, however, was child's play compared with the current Takata
airbag disaster.

Drive safely,

Mort Linder

Bill W wrote:
On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 19:59:40 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2015-06-14 01:07:26 +0000, Bill W said:

On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 20:57:31 -0400, Mort wrote:

Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

You must be very, very, old. Like me.

Not that old.

I believe there are a bunch of us of similar vintage in this room who
are well aware of the GM shell game which persists to this day.
The relationship of Australia's Holden and Germany's Opel to various US
GM vehicles is downright incestuous. Holden provides us with the
Caprice, Commodore, and Chevrolet SS. The Opal Insignia is currently
rebadged as the Buick Regal. The Buick LaCrosse is a long wheelbase
version of the Opal Epsilon II.
The Saturns were rebadged Opel Astra and Opel Vectra.
The Opal J-body was the basis for the Chevy Cavalier and the Cadillac
Cimmaron. There was one othr Cadillac. The Cadillac Catera was a
rebadged Opel Omega.

The Catera was certainly an Opel, but I believe the J cars were all
American garbage. Those things used strictly domestic powertrains,
which were uniformly awful, along with the suspension. The Opel might
have been a rebadged Cavalier. I made my living fixing GM's disasters,
and I still feel like puking every time I think about some of these
cars. The Saturns did have their own powertrains, separate from the
usual GM crap of the time. Of course, that doesn't mean they weren't
crap, too.

And Holden seemed to be the company that made the good GM cars, like
the GTO & Cruze. I hate to see them go.

Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-06-14 00:57:31 +0000, Mort said:

Savageduck wrote:
Then you haven’t checked on the Sony RX100 II posing as a Hasselblad. In
their case the “artware� is the camouflage done on the camera body.
http://www.hasselblad.com/compact/stellar-ii


De gustibus non disputandum est.(Spelling?). Fake camera coverings do
not make art to me.

Regarding a Sony in a Hasselblad wrapper, remember that you can put a
sign on a cow's forehead that reads, "I am a racehorse". It is still a
cow. Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

Actually the Cadillac Cimarron was a rebadged Opel, but it is GM, so who
actually cares.



Nope, it was a Chevrolet Cavalier. A piece of junk by any other name---.
Its siblings included:
Buick Skyhawk
Olds Firenze
Pontiac Sunbird

They were all made in Michigan and Wisconsin, and are a classic example
of so-called badge engineering.


A few years ago, when Ford owned Jaguar, some lesser Ford Corp. products
were rebadged as Jaguars, but not many people were fooled. In fact, the
X model was originally a front wheel drive car, so they hurriedly made
the X into an all wheel drive car to avoid complete humiliation.

Remember that almost anything can be sold. The Bronx Zoo sells
illustrated paper bags of animal droppings at high prices, for use as
garden fertilizer.

Mort Linder

On 2015-06-18 01:40:28 +0000, Mort said:

Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-06-14 00:57:31 +0000, Mort said:

Savageduck wrote:
Then you haven’t checked on the Sony RX100 II posing as a Hasselblad. In
their case the “artware� is the camouflage done on the camera body.
http://www.hasselblad.com/compact/stellar-ii


De gustibus non disputandum est.(Spelling?). Fake camera coverings do
not make art to me.

Regarding a Sony in a Hasselblad wrapper, remember that you can put a
sign on a cow's forehead that reads, "I am a racehorse". It is still a
cow. Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

Actually the Cadillac Cimarron was a rebadged Opel, but it is GM, so who
actually cares.

Nope, it was a Chevrolet Cavalier. A piece of junk by any other
name---. Its siblings included:
Buick Skyhawk
Olds Firenze
Pontiac Sunbird

They were all made in Michigan and Wisconsin, and are a classic example
of so-called badge engineering.

They were all variants of the German GM Opel Ascona, better known as
the GM J-car. To your list of US built J-cars you can include the
Pontiac Sunfire, J2000, and 2000.

The plague was spread globally In the UK it was the Vauxhall Cavalier,
Australia had the Holden Camira, Japan the Isuzu Aska, Korea the Dawoo
Espero/Aranos, Brazil the Chevrolet Monza, and built in Fremont
California the Toyota Cavalier. The Fremont factory was bought by Tesla
and now produces the Tesla S.


A few years ago, when Ford owned Jaguar, some lesser Ford Corp.
products were rebadged as Jaguars, but not many people were fooled. In
fact, the X model was originally a front wheel drive car, so they
hurriedly made the X into an all wheel drive car to avoid complete
humiliation.

Remember that almost anything can be sold. The Bronx Zoo sells
illustrated paper bags of animal droppings at high prices, for use as
garden fertilizer.

Yup!


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 6/17/2015 9:40 PM, Mort wrote:
Savageduck wrote:
On 2015-06-14 00:57:31 +0000, Mort said:

Savageduck wrote:
Then you haven’t checked on the Sony RX100 II posing as a
Hasselblad. In
their case the “artware� is the camouflage done on the camera body.
http://www.hasselblad.com/compact/stellar-ii


De gustibus non disputandum est.(Spelling?). Fake camera coverings do
not make art to me.

Regarding a Sony in a Hasselblad wrapper, remember that you can put a
sign on a cow's forehead that reads, "I am a racehorse". It is still a
cow. Similarly, a Cadillac Cimarron is still a Chevrolet.

Actually the Cadillac Cimarron was a rebadged Opel, but it is GM, so who
actually cares.



Nope, it was a Chevrolet Cavalier. A piece of junk by any other name---.
Its siblings included:
Buick Skyhawk
Olds Firenze
Pontiac Sunbird

They were all made in Michigan and Wisconsin, and are a classic example
of so-called badge engineering.


A few years ago, when Ford owned Jaguar, some lesser Ford Corp. products
were rebadged as Jaguars, but not many people were fooled. In fact, the
X model was originally a front wheel drive car, so they hurriedly made
the X into an all wheel drive car to avoid complete humiliation.

Remember that almost anything can be sold. The Bronx Zoo sells
illustrated paper bags of animal droppings at high prices, for use as
garden fertilizer.


For the New York Conservation Society, that is not a bad thing to do.


Some people still have their pet rocks. Cans of sunshine could be
readily purchased at a FL airport.



--
PeterN

Savageduck wrote:

They were all variants of the German GM Opel Ascona, better known as the
GM J-car. To your list of US built J-cars you can include the Pontiac
Sunfire, J2000, and 2000.

Look up Wikipedia. They were not all variants of the Opel Ascona. The J
cars were all designed at the same time, to be produced in many
countries. They were brothers, so to speak, and not fathers and sons.

Mort Linder