Question #1:

What To Do On A First Date?

First a little background. My name is Ed. I am 68 years old and I am a widower. My wife, Annabelle, passed away some time back after a courageous battle with cancer. I am a successful businessman, executive VP in charge of sales with Excelsior and Associates in College Park, CT.

Tonight I have a date (late supper) with the secretary who works in the other office on my floor. Her name is Bernice. She's 52 and a widow. Her husband was killed in an auto accident nine years ago. We know each other very slightly, as we speak in the elevator in the mornings and the evenings and sometimes I walk her to the parking garage. I walked her to her car this evening and asked if she would like to have a go out for dinner and a drink this evening. She agreed.

So I am supposed to pick her up at 9:00 PM, approximately two hours from now. The problem is that I haven't been on a "date" in over 30 years and I don't know exactly what this young lady wants to do or likes to do. I realize now that I should have gotten to know her better before asking her out. So my first question is, what should we do? Do I take her to dinner and then directly home? I am considering taking her to the Supper Club but would a swank restaurant be a better choice?

Its getting close to kick-off time and I'm nervous. I have showered, shaved (face, sack and between my buttocks) put on deodorant and my boxers. I have my best tuxedo laid out and socks and shoes ready to put on. I drew $150 out of the ATM on the way home so I have plenty of ready cash. Is there anything I'm missing? Should I buy her flowers? Should I get a condom in case we make love? If you can think of ANYTHING else I should do or have PLEASE let me know.

Much thanks, and I will award 10 points to whomever comes up with the best answer in the next 60 minutes. I have a 45 minute drive to her house and have to have everything ready by 7:45.
Thank you kik. I will award your points when I am able to get back online again.

Question #2:

Is this guy crazy: Wisconsin dad drives all the way to Kansas each week to hang on to a job in tough times?

JANESVILLE, Wis. – In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway — 530 miles later.

It's one heck of a haul: more than 1,000 miles roundtrip, 16-plus hours of driving, every week.

"I like to say I gave up an eight-minute commute for an eight-hour commute," he says wearily, running a hand though salt-and-pepper hair as he watches his two sons play basketball for the first time this season.

After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson's choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker's salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.

In his case, it led to Fairfax, Kan., the same place his brother and two brothers-in-law — also GM workers, and now his roommates — landed. For others, it has been Indiana or Texas.

The long commute is not just a story of hard times, tough choices and a shrinking American auto industry. It's also a case study of what happens when an aging industrial town loses an anchor, when workers too old to start over and too young to retire are caught in a squeeze and when economic survival means one family, but two far-flung ZIP codes.

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Hanley is not one to complain.

"GM has been good for us," he says. "This whole town knows that."

For 90 years, the sprawling plant — it started out building tractors — became a different kind of family business. Through the decades, sons followed fathers onto the line, sometimes rubbing shoulders as they built Chevy Cavaliers, Caprices, Tahoes, Suburbans and more.

Hanley's father and brother worked there. So did his father-in-law, two brothers-in-law and an assortment of uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

But as GM's financial troubles mounted, car and SUV sales fell and gas prices climbed, the automaker closed several plants, eliminating thousands of jobs.

Janesville — then the oldest of GM assembly plants — ended production of SUVs in December 2008, months before the automaker received billions of dollars in government loans and filed for bankruptcy. (The factory is on standby status; some hold out hope it will reopen one day.)

Some of about 1,200 remaining workers took buyouts or retired; some began new careers. Hundreds more stayed with GM, relocating, commuting or just waiting for an opening. The automaker has about 6,500 laid-off workers nationwide.

Even before the doors closed, Hanley began preparing for life after GM. He returned to college to complete two credits he needed for an accounting degree, but an offer in Kansas came first.

He didn't hesitate. Auto work these days is like playing musical chairs. You grab an opening where you can.

Hanley didn't want to lose his health insurance while his wife, Laura, was receiving costly chemotherapy treatments for a blood disease that will likely lead to cancer. The medical bills last year, she says, were in the tens of thousands of dollars.

"There's no way I could possibly go through one treatment without him having insurance," she says.

Like many other divided GM families, the Hanleys decided even though the job was important, there were reasons not to uproot everyone: Laura works at their sons' Catholic school, the boys are immersed in band, Scouts, basketball and church, and the sale of a house was an iffy and perhaps money-losing proposition.

Hanley knew it would be a trade-off — financial security for a lonely existence.

His eyes mist as he talks about what he misses: dinner with his family, coaching basketball, going to the YMCA with his boys, wrestling with them at night, attending their concerts and games, watching them grow up.

"It's an adjustment, not being home," he says. "I probably sounded cruel because I said I wouldn't miss my wife as much because she's going to be there when I come back, when I retire. But those years with the kids aren't going to be there. That's the hard part, not being able to be around them. ... I don't know if I really appreciated it before."

Hanley plans to commute another 18 months, until he turns 50, hoping for a retirement package then — something, he says, he "prays about every night."

Laura, meanwhile, does double duty as a single parent. It's all overwhelming — working, shuttling her sons around, keeping an eye on her elderly mother and worrying about her husband's long commutes.

"The kids are tired of seeing mom cry because she's stressed and seeing dad cry when he needs to go back to work," she says. "We're really close — the four of us. You can't talk to

Question #3:

Do You Think The Big Three Car Makers Should Offer 0% Financing To All Credit Types?

Im not saying to everyone, cause some people are credit crooks, but i do feel like those who are current with their payments and want a new car should be offered 0%. I think sticker price at 0% financing is fair and would help sell more cars, along with their reassurance offers they are making now. I agree with credit determining whether you can get into your vehicle of choice but interest should be eliminated for a while. The States will get there money from sales tax and the automakers will get it from the mark up do to paying sticker price. All this paying over sticker and high interest is what got them in this situation in the first place. Stop up selling to people and putting them in a cars they can't afford. Take the time to "consult" with them and let them know why the car of choice is not a "good" choice right now. If the car is $30k but their budget is between $15-20k then let them know. Don't just give the "scumbag" grin and having them sign on the dotted line , do your job, "sale consultant." Paying almost double the price of a car in interest is not right. Giving bad loans to people is not right. And people know that and that is why the auto industry is suffering. On top of being in a bad economy, people don't trust the industry. Also, stop acting like a bunch of sharks feeding when a customer walks in the showroom.


What do you think are some good ideas ?

Question #4:

If all auto manufacturers had a selection of EVs or Hybrids, and priced the same as other cars, would you buy?

Please answer the first part... but to extend on that (if you have an opinion on this)... My thinking is this... in order to justify the outrageous gas prices ($3.75 reg today vs. $1.37 reg seven years ago and oil per barrel, $114 today vs. $18 seven years ago)... we are told that our demand for oil is higher, oil is being tied up by groups fighting over it in Bazrah, Iraq, refineries are on fire in Texas, supply of oil is down, etc...
Okay then, first, is there a market now for fuel efficient vehicles that get up to 100 mpg? Would you be inclined to buy one if there were more choices regardless of what auto dealer you went to and the prices are in the same ball park as other models? Would a boom in EV/Hybrid sales help to relieve our dependence on oil? Would this drive gas prices down?

If yes... why isn't our government (despite being overrun by oil tycoons) and auto manufactures, working together to help us? Our economy is suffering more the longer gas prices keep rising.
.
BTW - If this is this easy, why aren't manufacturers doing something, why isn't our government doing something... in the name of national security if anything?...

Brothers Team Up To Create 100-Mile-Per-Gallon Car
Click Here

MSN video on above story...
Click Here

Question #5:

Cost to repair CV joint click?

2002 Ford Focus San Diego, California. There's a clicking and internet research says CV joint. Auto repair fraud is rampant in this city, I've never had a good auto repair experience. Does anyone know how much I should be charged for this repair so I am at least not financially shafted yet again? And how long it should take, so I can try and budget for the lost wages? Is the internet research true that it would be faster and cheaper to just have a new axle put in? Thanks!

Before you say it, I know I should bring it in for diagnosis first, but in this city that's playing roulette. You spend a big diagnosis fee and lost wages for nothing more than a guess at best or a sales pitch at worst, usually accompanied by scare tactics and stalling. No one I know has found a satisfactory place yet. I used to just visit different shops to confirm/check diagnoses and ended up with a different diagnosis from every shop. Here you have no choice but to throw money at parts and hope for the best.
The last place I went shafted me of nearly $500 in a scam. This place was a member of the BBB, ASE certified, and AAA approved. I couldn't prove it so no one would do anything. So the certifications and plaques on the wall no longer comfort me.

Question #6:

Economics question?

I have a fixed budget for a new car and have decided to buy a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, and has a performance level of 60 (maximum speed) at which a turntable can play Mozart's first symphony without skipping. A sales person asked about my attitude towards the car with different combinations of mpg and ms. I would prefer a car with 19mpgs and 64 ms to the tentative choice but would prefer his tentative choice to a car with 19 mpg and 62 ms. Suppose that the costs of an additional mpg is six times the cost of an additional unit of ms.

Does my tentative choice (20 mpg and 60 ms) maximize my utility subject to his auto budget? If not should he choose an auto with more or fewer mpg?
Wolfgang has a fixed budget for a new car and has a tentatively decided to buy a car that gets 20 miles per gallon and has a performance level of 60 maximum speed at which a turntable can play Mozart's first symphony without skipping. A salesperson recently asked Wolfgang about his attitude towrds cars with different combination of mpg and ms. Wolfgang woulf prefer a car ith 19 mpg and 64 ms to his tentative choice but would prefer his tentative choice to a car with 19 mpg and 62 ms. Suppose that the cost of an additional mpg is six times the cost of an additional unit of ms.
a. Does Wolfgang's tentative choice (20 mpg and 60 ms) maximize his utility subject to his auto budget? If not should he choose an auto with more or fewer mpg?





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