Hey, for north of $200K, go for it.

Instead of listing the lyrics here is a link to the text and video

Lyrics: http://artists.letssingit.com/simpsons-the-lyrics-canyonero-5pgz4jq

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoPon3xuCjE

Whoa Canyonero!

“Detroit automakers were hit hard. Ford Motor was down 28 percent in June, General Motors was off 18 percent, and Chrysler dropped 36 percent.”

So I guess June 2nd, 2008 counted as May 2008, and July 2nd, 2007 counted as June 2007. That would account for 24 vs 27 instead of 25 vs 26 going by the calendar.

Is there a reason why the previous month’s sales cannot be reported on a Monday?

The M4 Sherman tank that ran gasoline weighed in at about 30 tons and got was less than 1 mile per gallon, maybe 1.5 gallons per mile.

The M60 Patton, which I got to drive, was a bit of a beast at 50 tons. It drank about 3 or 4 gallons per mile. It took talent to drive the thing cross country without hurting machine or occupants at a decent pace.

The M1 Abrams doesn’t even have a gallon per mile stat because of the turbine. It actually burns gallons per hour depending on throttle. Even idle will run you something like 15 gph.

Also, it will burn about anything, so you would have to have a figure like this (with my guesstimate as answer):

Start up to shut down, 35 miles, 35 mph, highway, no stops, JP8 fuel = 245 gallons or app. 7 gallons per mile. (It will go much faster, but usually doesn’t due to safety and the fact that the support vehicles are much slower)

That’s a lot of fuel, and it is an issue on the battlefield. However, they are low maintenance, high power, and if you can keep your speed under control you can roll over lots of stuff that would break lesser tanks while hardly noticing. It is the cadillac of the desert, with excellent suspension, and firepower, and still the best though not the newest. It may be the last US MBT made with a full crew, or with any crew at all.

The tankers LOVE those machines, and with good reason. Given that the US has the greatest Air Force in the world (by far), an M1 is a pretty safe place to be on the modern battlefield (obviously a relative concept).

If you thank a tanker for his service to our country, don’t be too surprised if he thanks you back for paying for his ride.

Not all unit sales are created equal, or even close to it!

Also, most costs care not a bit how many mythical selling days were in a month. Rents, mortgages, insurance, salaries and the like all need to be paid.

So Sundays don’t count, and the first Monday of the next month gets lumped in for some reason? Is that how that works?

The opposite would be to adjust for selling days, for floods, heavy rain, snow storms, forest fires, wild fires….and on and on.

I think TTAC has its work cut out for itself if the auto industry is so full of weirdness that they can’t even report a month of sales without some shenanigans.

Many states make it illegal for car dealers to be open on Sundays. I know thats the case in Illinois.

As for Robert’s podcast; I don’t remotely agree. The number of selling days per month is tremendously important. If you have more days per month, you can sell more cars. Less days equals less cars. Its not a hard concept to grasp, even though some people seem to be trying mighty hard. You could argue that the dealers should compensate for the fewer days, but that would make an already stressful dealer experience for consumers, even worse.

Either way you cut it, this month’s sales were awful, but they weren’t as bad as Robert and automotive news wants us to believe.

3 mpg?!!!! I can’t believe that anyone would ignore that sort of suckage no matter how rich they are. Just the inconvience of having to fill up every damn day would be a turnoff. I don’t know what VW is thinking.

I’m just going on gut feeling, but it seems like companies would sell MORE cars on Sunday than most weekdays. Maybe DSR should be adjusted the other way?