Lemon aid

Jon Stewart follows up on Fixer's post. I'm surprised he didn't do any 'FIAT' jokes like 'Fix It Again Tony' or 'Failed Italian Attempt at Transportation'. Maybe he will, this is going to be with us for a while. Or maybe they're just too lame for the young folks who might not even get the reference to the Guinea crapcans of yore.

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Carmageddon '09 - Lemon Aid
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Does anybody but me see the awful, awesome, cynical irony in the FIAT deal? How is a company that couldn't make it in partnership with Mercedes-Benz going to do any better with FIAT? I'd really like to know. I'd buy a Plymouth- or DeSoto-badged Vespa if that would help!

By the way, I happen to like Chrysler products and have owned several of them over the years and was happy with them all. My first car, in '61, was a '50 Chrysler that my Dad bought new, and I've had a Plymouth and a few Dodge trucks including the '92 Dakota I'm driving now, which I like even though an awful lot of little things like the transmission* and cooling system are a lot newer than the rest of it.

*I blame my sister-in-law, from whom I bought the truck, who would never understand that the gear ratios and shift points were selected for CAFE purposes and 'D' is for light loads and flat roads. Either that, or she screwed it up on purpose, planning to sell it to a librul. I use the 'OD lockout' button every time until I'm up to cruising speed. I do the same thing with my Tacoma and use '4' around town and '5' on the highway.

While I was doing a little research, I came up with a lot of answers to questions I didn't even know I had, like the Vespa reference above. Another subsidiary of FIAT made the electrics for the Sherco I bought a few months back which might help explain why I haven't coaxed a spark outta that thing yet! Maybe also why the bike was such a good deal. I found about 5 things wrong with its ignition system, only one of which cost any money to fix, but she no-a run yet. I put it away when it got too cold in my work area, aka my driveway, but I'll take another run at it when the ice and snow quit dripping. I'm running out of possible problems to correct, I think. The whole wiring system is only about three feet long, components and all. Victory over Wop electrics will be mine I tell you!