[marsalone]

TX Jim,
I checked out the Genesis in person when my wife was looking at the Hyundai SUV's and have to say that it was even more impressive than the hype that I had heard on the net and in the car magazines. The interior is absolutely gorgeous. The leather incredible. It seems like a much nicer version of the BMW 7 series. Not really a direct competitor to the DTS and Lexus as a pure luxury car. It is more sports-luxury. It is only $35k which is cheap compared t the competition but expensive for a Hyundai. I don't know how it'll sell. If people had open minds and didn't care about the name on the car, they'd do great. But most people wanting a Benz or a BMW wouldn't want to be seen driving a Hyundai. It'll take time for people's perceptions to change. Until recently I thought that they stunk too. I had a couple friends who bought Hyundai's in the early 90's and their interiors were indeed garbage, so I thought that they were cranking out cheap looking interiors. A few years ago on a whim we looked at Kia when my wife was looking for a car and ran into the Amanti which she bought. It is a nice car. The interior is luxurious on par with Lexus and the exterior looks like a Lincoln Town Car was out on a bender and had unprotected sex with a Jaguar S-Type and the Jag smoke some cigs and drank a little too heavily during the pregnancy... Hyundai has come a long way since the Rodney King era models.

JJM,
I was thinking the same thing about how silly this whole thing is with China. For years as a kid I heard how the US and free market capitalism made it great and how communism would self destruct economically, after all the USSR did. What a line of BS I bought. Look who seems to be the economic powerhouse now, Red China. Not saying that I'd want to live there. Something in my stomach turned when China bought HUMMER. Who knows what else they own? I heard that they were upset about their US investments. Because now we're underperforming. It's their damn cheap labor and our addiction to cheap crap that's made them the economic powerhouse.

When I tiled the floors in my house, instead of renting tools, I ran out to Harbor Freight (they sell dirt cheap no name Chinese tools) and bought the questionable demolition hammer and tile saw because it was cheaper than renting the pro stuff from Home Depot for one day and the project took my about four months. I'm guilty, I like cheap stuff too but what else could I do, I bet that even if I bought the expensive stuff at Home Depot, the Bosch, Hitachi, etc. it would've been made in China too.

Also, although I hated G.W. Bush and how he helped run down the economy and my savings and retirement (did he do anything but be obsessed with Iraq, I think that his dad had the right idea about Saddam. At the time I wanted Schwartzkopf to go into Baghdad and get him and I was upset with Bush senior. But now I realize that he was right to try to keep the place stable and leave Saddam alone. Now the without the Iraqi checks and balances, Iran is running wild too and Iraq is wasting our resources), I think that this BS that Obama is laying on us, seemingly every week, is even worse. The tight CAFE standards, the FDA and Tobacco, the glee about the automobile bankruptcies, and the control of GM, the banks, and the AMA/Healthcare issue. Right now this country looks like its headed the way of the Roman Empire. I am very disappointed right now; lost half my retirement and my freedoms are being taken away.

D.