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GM on the mend!
General Motors has just posted first quarter earnings of US$3.2 billion, its fifth consecutive profitable quarter and its best quarter in more than a decade.
General Motors was one of the most high profile bankruptcies of the GFC. But after a massive sell off and plant closures it has now emerged as a meaner, greener and substantially more profitable outfit.
It’s not out of the woods yet though, as it still has massive debt to pay back – the US taxpayer still owns more than a quarter of the stock. However it is heading on the right track, particularly after the world wide success of the Cruze compact – which is now made in Australia for the local market. GM execs claim it won’t be long before they regain the mantle of the World’s largest auto manufacturer.
Dining and driving
For a lot of us, the desire to travel is stacked up heavily in our genes. Then there are those of us who would much rather stay at home. Some of us may be partial to eating rather well. And then there are those who are happy with cold chicken noodles and the odd flaccid carrot. So what happens for those people where much travel and eating heartily go hand in hand? First of all, count yourselves rather lucky and see yourself as one of a very special breed. The pleasure of both seeing the sights and eating out go together like a duck takes to water. So what are the favourite food outlets for the serious traveller? And what’s easy to eat while driving?
Googling for my answer found me arriving at inverts.com.au. I was very pleased to see that nearly 23% of voters were of the ‘Don’t be lazy’ category. These were the people that made their meals at home. How easy is that to do on a journey, though? Do many of you go to lengths to carry fresh ingredients on any trip of great length? Are you prepared to put some forethought into your meals and prepare your food before setting out? It makes a lot of sense, and definitely saves on cash, if you can take some sandwiches, fresh fruit, water and slices that you have prepared before setting out from home, the motel room or the tent. I guess those of us who have a campervan will carry all the ingredients to make a first-class meal at any time of the day. If you are travelling by car and are, perhaps, on your own, you can still purchase a lot of good food from a supermarket and store it in the boot – obviously the things that need to be kept cool can be placed in an eskie. Sure, preparing your own food means that you have to be a little more organised; however, you may well eat healthier and save yourself a few dollars.
Sandwiches and filled rolls are also convenient to eat while driving, as they are perfectly designed to fit in the hand. The same goes for many other home-made bits and pieces, as most of them stay together and don’t need tricky wrappers to be removed with one hand while at the wheel.
Pizza and Subway© were similarly the next favourite takeaway, mentioned. Subway is definitely one of the healthier takeaway options, and would have to rate highly on my favourites. The beauty of a takeaway is that they are so convenient while on the move. The problem is if we ate nothing but takeaways for each meal while taking in the sights, our girth measurement is going to enlarge itself rather quickly. If you like drive-through meals, though, you’ll have to look elsewhere, as pizza outlets and Subway can’t do drive-throughs. Those long submarine sandwiches can be tricky to eat at the wheel, but it is possible.
Indian and Chinese takeaways are the next favourite dishes. Very tasty! However, if you eat them in great quantities, you are going to be a rather fat little hobbit before too long! It can also be rather tricky to eat this sort of food inside your car. Chopsticks and gear sticks don’t mix very easily.
Then there is the rest of the takeaway variety. I’m sure you can fill in the popular contenders. For one of the more interesting dishes: I’ve heard that Adelaide does a great pie floater dish. This is where your favourite pie is served floating in pea soup and then is quickly sunk with lashings of tomato sauce poured on top. Put a few of the pie floaters away and you’ll be sinking a few ships! If you’re going to eat this in your car, stop first. Pea soup is not all that nice to clear off the upholstery. Plain pies are a bit easier, but beware of gravy welling out of the pie and getting all over the wheel and your clothes. Take small bites.
Fish and chips are easy enough to eat at the wheel – tear a hole in the newspaper wrapper (if your local chippie still serves them this way) and pull the chips out one by one. If the chips are too hot, then hold them to the air vents rather than out the window.
If cash isn’t a big deal, then a restaurant meal is definitely a great place to go for a classy meal, good food, and atmosphere. You have to incorporate a few of these meals on your travel, especially if romance is on your agenda. If you can afford it, one restaurant meal a day would sit nicely. Don’t forget the pubs. There are some great pubs tucked away that provide value for money meals, nice food and great company. Obviously, you can’t eat restaurant or pub meals behind the wheel, and remember to be sensible when it comes to drinking and driving.
Before You Hand Your Teenager the Car Keys
It’s a big moment in anybody’s life when they first get handed the keys to the family car. How well I remember my first drive in the family’s VW Beetle… It’s also a big moment for parents when they put their teenager in the driver’s seat of the car and let them head out onto the road for the first time.
While your teenager is on their L licence, everyone in the family knows their roles and responsibilities: your teenager isn’t allowed to drive unless there’s an experienced driver in the car with them (preferably in the front passenger seat) as they clock up the hours in their log book. The only debate that might crop up at this stage is who counts as an “experienced driver” – your teenager might try to convince you that their best friend’s big brother counts. But it’s when your teenager gets their P licence and can drive solo that you need to set some family rules.
First of all, congratulate your teenager on passing. It’s big achievement for them, and it’s important to focus on this positive before getting into the more controversial stuff and the rules. They’re another step closer to being a fully independent adult! (Try to forget that time when they were four and rode their bike straight into the only tree in an open space).
Many of the rules and restrictions are already spelled out by law. These will govern the sort of car your teen is allowed to drive with P-plates (if you’re not sure whether your teenager is allowed to drive your family Holden Commodore, to take one example, have a look at this VicRoads database. It saves a lot of arguments). The peer passenger restriction also makes it strictly illegal for your teen to cart their friends around unless someone over the age of 23 is in the car. (Note: the rules in this paragraph apply to the state of Victoria; other states have other rules, but they’re all pretty similar). The important thing for parents here is to be sticklers and enforce the laws of the land strictly.
And you’ve got to set some family restrictions. Being able to drive solo is a huge responsibility and gives a larger measure of freedom to your teenager. It’s highly likely that your teenager is driving the family car rather than their own, and as your name is on the ownership papers and you have to pay for things like the insurance and all the rest of it, you get a say in how the car gets used. The exact rules that your family sets will be unique to your situation, but it is probably a good idea to discuss the following points and make the rules clear:
Who pays for the petrol? And who is responsible for getting the car topped up? Does your teen have to do any of the car maintenance that you can do at home (rotating tyres, checking and topping up the oil, etc.)? Who pays for any repairs if your teen has a ding?
What responsibilities come with the privilege of using the family car? For example, if your teen is allowed to drive to school, do they have to take younger siblings? (If the answer to this is yes, it might pay to have a talk with the younger sibling about acceptable behaviour when Big Brother/Sister is behind the wheel).
Will the car keys and the ability to drive be granted automatically to your teenager? Or do parents have the ability to withhold driving privileges if, for example, your teenager has been behaving badly at school?
What will be the consequences of violating the legal rules (whether or not your teenager gets caught by the cops)? What about violating family rules?
Don’t make this conversation too heavy. Remember to begin and end this conversation with congratulations and a positive attitude.
All the bells and whistles.
Kids love to send the electric windows down at any time of the day. “Helicopter wobbing” – as we call it – is the loud vibrations in the air waves from windows that have been sent down while travelling at highway speeds. There’s nothing more irritating! Well, almost. A high-pitched scream from the aftermath of a squabble in the back seat features right up the list of most unwanted noises on a long car trip. Hey, I love our kids. And I enjoy the electric windows – especially the one-touch switches that go all the way up after one flick of the switch. The anti-pinch function with electric windows is also something I love, having had my finger squeezed in electric windows without this safety feature – the experience lets you know what that medieval torture device known as the thumbscrew felt like. Electronic luxuries, even the luxuries that are not linked to electronics, can be a car owner’s delight – delights that will make the car trip a pleasure, delights that set the standard, and delights that you can show off to all your mates. What are the bells and whistles that you could never do without?
The days of the horse and carriage are over – at least for now. Though I reckon you still could combine high-tech carriages with solar power and horses easily enough, and market them as being the most fuel-efficient, least harmful to the environment vehicles in the world. But even the horse and carriage of the nineteenth century had the finest luxury materials of the day. The leather on some of the premium carriages was so beautifully crafted that it has a charm and warmth completely missing from most of today’s high-end car interior upholsteries – though Jaguars of the 1980s and 1990s could match them. That was what made the Jaguar of this era so charming. The warmth of the interior welcomed you with soft sumptuous leather seats. You could forgive the Jag’s appalling reliability, and revel in the car’s awesome luxury. Leather seats rate highly on my list of luxury features you just can’t do without.
Premium sounds get the big tick on my list, as well. There’s nothing like cruising the motorway with crystal clear sounds. A good audio system is a must in my cars. And steering-wheel mounted audio controls are up there: though I can live without them, I’d prefer to have them.
You just gotta have air-con, too! Especially in Australia, where the heat of the summer sun can blister paint or fry an egg. Most flagship models for Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, BMW, HSV and Lexus have zoned climate control, where one occupant on one side of the back seat can have a different temperature and climate to the occupant sitting on the other side of the back seat. Not bad, eh? This is the sort of luxury item I like – though for some, what’s wrong with the manual wind-down windows?
Heated seats, televisions, seat massagers and GPS are gadgets that are starting to get over the top – don’t you reckon? These are the sort of ‘Bells and Whistles’ that only the snobs have, right? And what about parking sensors… this luxury feature just proves how badly you handle a vehicle in a shopping mall car park. I mean, surely, what sort of real man is going to brag about his parking sensors! Though I do have a weakness for heated seats…
One of the high-tech ‘way cool’ features that my dream car wouldn’t be without is the system that can change a flat tyre on the move. Forget the silly-sounding talking GPS unit or the automatic light- up sun visors for touching up lipgloss (do it at home, girls – much easier). Wouldn’t you rather be with a car that can change its own tyre, have the latest high-tech airbag for your knees and keep your morning coffee hot in the temperature-sensing driver’s cup holder?
Level 2, 9 Help Street