Irony--Funny or Spooky?

An Italian opera promotes a Chrysler product. Fast forward to June 2009. An Italian company owns all Chrysler products. I wonder if Fiat ever saw this commercial back in 2008. I wonder what they think of it now?

Maybe if GM had made a foreign-language commercial, they could have found a suitor instead of having to beg for handouts from the U.S. taxpayer.

All Kinds of Water Run This Car

Honda came out with the new hybrid Insight this year and is offering it at 1.89 million yen (less than USD $20,000). Toyota released its third-generation Prius and it's available for a little over 2 million yen. On May 22, 2009, Nikkei.com reported that orders for the new Prius were in excess of 80,000 units! Green means money and both Honda and Toyota look to make profits with these products. What's even better, they are meeting the needs of the market, keeping men and women on the payroll, paying their taxes, and helping to ensure that Corporate Japan might come out ahead when this recession finally breaks.

I look at Detroit's Big Three and sigh. The Japanese don't have better engineers or better technology. I dare say (albeit in a slightly nationalistic tone while being secretly jealous) that Americans are just as capable of developing advanced cars that are reasonably priced, stylish, and fully capable of meeting market demands while further lessening both our addiction to oil and carbon footprint.

I'm no economist, but my gut feeling tells me that American capitalism, especially since the advent of Reaganomics, placed greater emphasis on short-term profits, encouraged obscene executive pay, and favored shareholder value over long-term corporate health.

If we had paid our CEOs the equivalent of what a Japanese CEO makes, and then pumped the remaining millions into R&D, do you think GM and Chrysler would be in the mess they are in now? Hindsight is always 20/20 I know. But what about the future? I'd love to see our engineers put as much effort into developing green technologies as we put into developing high-tech weaponry. Maybe then, the Chrysler, Ford, and GM will once more be the Big Three and not just that of Detroit.

Electric or Hybrid Car

Took a picture of the car that was stopped in traffic in front of me. I can't quite figure out what kind of engine this Daihatsu Mira minivehicle has. I looked for an exhaust pipe, but could not see one. The first character is den, which means electric, and the last one is sha, which means car. But my dictionaries don't help me if I look up hybrid car or electric car. Anybody out there who knows what this kanji says?

I don't think this is an electric car nor a hybrid. I wish I could read kanji in these situations! If you know, let me know by leaving a comment.

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