Given that some MBAs are insightful and invaluable managers, I wanted to find a word to describe the specific type of MBA that is the issue, the Rick Wagoner type that wallows in self pity and uses statistics, indecision matrixes and PR fluff to dilute responsibility and justify why they should be paid exorbitant amounts while the companies they are supposed to manage lurch from one crisis to another.

The term I’m currently using is Bovine MBAs – for their unique ability to sit through a six hour meeting without showing the slightest signs of boredom or original thought.

But at least he didn’t use office double-talk.

The C3 is below that, more like a Honda Fit/Opel Corsa/VW Polo/Renault Clio/Peugeot 207 competitor.

Obviously it gets rather confusing because of all the different variants every brand makes these days.

The C2 is the 3(2)-door version of the C3 and then there is the C1, a really small car that they developed together with Toyota and is also sold as Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 107.

The C4 itself has 2(!) Picasso versions of it’s own, a 5 seater and 7 seater version, that have slightly different styling and the 7 seater is longer.

And then…(yawn) there still is the Berlingo, which is passenger version of a small van (called monospace) that has about the same functionality as a 5 seater C4, but is uglier and probably slightly cheaper.

So, if this C3 Picasso gets the green light Citroen will have about 4 cars that basically do the same thing.

Hey Rick, if you just make your proclamations and announcements as complicated sounding as possible while saying nothing, you can confuse most people into thinking that you’re smart and on top of your game. All the while you’re really hiding and saying/doing nothing. Nice try though.

I ran a sentence from GM fluff through a readability analyzer.

“We will consider opportunistically executing financing transactions in the global capital markets, although we have nothing to announce.”

… you just can’t make this stuff up. This beats “aggressively conservative” which used to be my favorite.

My boggling mind just boggles on. Don’t they have warning bells clanking away when sentences get this silly?

I ran the whole statement through the Flesch readability test. You need to go to school for about 18 years to start making sense of it:

Number of characters (without spaces) : 251.00
Number of words : 38.00
Average number of words per sentence: 19.00

Indication of the number of years of formal education that a person requires in order to easily understand the text on the first reading
Gunning Fog index : 18.13

Approximate representation of the U.S. grade level needed to comprehend the text :
Coleman Liau index : 21.53
Flesh Kincaid Grade level : 18.53

Flesch Reading Ease : -3.91