Morning Fix: Adjustments

8 Comments

Comment by Albuquerque Commentator on December 2, 2008 at 8:02am

Smart Car

I can see the attractiveness of gas milage regardless of the price of gas, it is still a petroleum based vehicle. There were some concerns about the driver side door in the safety crash tests eevn though it received a 5 star crash rating.

Forbes Auto Review: Smart Car

The price and availability of the car may work against it in the long run with competition from companies such as Hyundai. I know one person who recently got rid of their SUV in favor of a small 2009 Hyundai Accent at 35 mpg highway which ended up costing much less than the Smart Car ( $12,000 vs. $17,000 ) The 9 miles per gallon difference compared with the $5000 price difference translates into something in the order of driving The Smart Care 30,000 miles before breakeven. Thats before taking into consideration the financing cost comparision.

The Smart Car comes from a division of Mercedes, but the Hyundai has had the best reliability ratings for the class.

I don't sell cars or own stock in either company or the petro industry.

The appeal must come down to more than economics, reliability, availability, and safety.

Comment by shotsie on December 2, 2008 at 8:29am

NMSU - hire Rocky - he'll do the most with the regional talent...

Comment by Bret on December 2, 2008 at 8:41am

The company I work for here in Albuquerque is currently in the hole about 50K directly from Eclipse and about the same amount indirectly through subcontract Eclipse work from another shop who is in the hole about 400K directly. We fortunatly got paid by a third shop we did Eclipse work for here in town but word is they are in the hole for about 1.8M directly. These debts are expected to be paid .10 on the dollar from this bankruptcy if at all.
How is it that Eclipse is going to remain to do business in this town after screwing all the local venders and suppliers. Also the fact that they are building a plant in Russia already does not make it look like New Mexico is a consideration at all. The only one who is going to profit from this is Roel Piper.

Comment by andrew on December 2, 2008 at 9:21am

The appeal must come down to more than economics, reliability, availability, and safety.

I suspect you're right, AC. Having once owned a Hyundai, I can report that it is about as much fun to drive as a dishwasher.

Comment by cc on December 2, 2008 at 10:28am

Bret, I sure wish this kind of info you are sharing would make it into the local TV news. I know when our independent book industry experienced the bankruptcy of middlemen distributors in the 90's (Inland, Bookpeople, and locally Gannon) publishers just had to say goodbye to thousands of dollars of inventory. Folks need to be reminded of all the links in the chain, the strands in the web that are affected by the loss of one entity.

Comment by John on December 2, 2008 at 10:35am

I can't seem to get away from hearing something about the Steelers. Ever since I was in Pittsburgh those crazy Steelers fans seem to be following me...they're everywhere...

Comment by Steve Whitman on December 2, 2008 at 1:40pm

All the local suppliers to Eclipse are part of what is called the "multiplier effect" that is used to boost the economic cost/benefit analysis to justify investing public dollars in the project. Of course, if the deal goes south the same multiplier needs to be added to the damage inflicted on the local economy. Most local media people don't understand how these deals are structured well enough to critique them when they're being proposed, much less when they go bad. Many local officials understand even less than the media.

Comment by cc on December 2, 2008 at 1:54pm

How about that, Steve! Interesting to hear it from a city planner's standpoint.
As we all grapple to understand basic economics concepts these days, as they say in Spanish, "a la fuerza"!

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