The Dodge Retort

A story a few days ago about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in The Economist pointed out:

“When The Onion starts making fun of your company’s problems, you’re in trouble. It means that those problems are well-known enough to be funny to a mass audience. That’s the sign of a badly damaged reputation.”

Indeed, the hilarious online news parody did cover the most recent delay in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner whose first commercial deliveries will commence in the first quarter of 2011 instead of the fourth quarter. My only comment is that The Economist is UK-based and, as a result, is pro-Airbus – translation – anti Boeing. Financially, Boeing is humming along these days with its reputation quite in tact (my bias, perhaps).

“CHICAGO—With the airline industry continuing to suffer under the ongoing recession, the Boeing Company was forced Monday to lay off Al Freedman, the only guy left at the corporation who knows how to keep wings from falling off planes. “We used to have a whole team of engineers who knew how to make the wings stay on, but those days are long gone,” Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr. said. “We’ll make it work, though. The wings are not necessarily the most important part of the plane, anyway.” McNerney added that at least they were able to save the job of the guy who knows how to prevent jet engines from exploding.“

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A week ago, I did something uncharacteristically impulsive…or stupid: I bought a 1967 Camaro Sports Coupe at the 33rd annual Owls Head Transportation Museum auction in Maine.

The 200 cars up for auction were going for short money. A mint 1989 Jag XJS convertible with a V-12 and only 34k original miles went for $13,000. Many, many deals and I am hoping I got one of them…no sense in hiding what I paid because you can look it up on the auction’s web site (mine was car # 135). The good news is that it was appraised, according to it owners, for $36,000. I paid about a third of that.

As for impulsiveness, I totally got caught up in the moment. After a desirous 1967 and 1968 Chevelle SuperSports 396s went for well above my budget, I still hankered for a car. The Camaro came up and I prevailed against two other bidders. It pays to come to one of these auctions as a spectator, but I didn’t exactly follow that advice. It’s very easy to get caught in the moment.

I agonized all last week because I had never driven or sat in it before I won the bid for it. I had never even heard it run except from a distance. All I knew if that it made it onto stage on its own power and that it was in excellent condition in appearance.

On Friday, I picked it up after the usual rigamarole getting insurance and tags. It far and away exceeded my expectations. It ran like a top. The first 60 miles from Owls Head to Bath were no sweat and it wasn’t bad on gas despite a 355 CID V-8 (350 bored) with a lots of racing components. It turns out that just like the owners said, it has been lovingly restored.

It sounds like a hot rod with a deep throaty sound. Puts my wife to sleep, but she’s been great about this latest acquisition.

I took several side trips in beautiful weather around Bath this weekend and brought my 81-year-old aunt and 86-year-old uncle home from a cocktail party last night (see photo). It was a fun evening and we had to stay over with them as we could not return from Birch Point to Bath because someone didn’t make a curve and took out a utility pole blocking the road until 3 a.m. the following morning.

I drove the car 110 miles back to West Newbury, Mass. this morning without a hitch – down I-95 all the way cruising at 60-65 despite the former owner’s wife telling me last week that I should shift from 3rd to 4th at about 90 MPH. No thanks…not yet anyway.

The 1967 was the first year for Camaros and was GM’s answer to Ford’s wildly successful Mustang which had been introduced two and a half years earlier. Ford apparently spread the world that Camaro in Spanish means “tiny little shrimp” or “loose bowels.” Regardless, GM sold 220,000 of them that year.

This is not a 100 percent original car. It has a newer engine and can run on unleaded regular. But other than the engine, it appears to be original. For me who turns 61 tomorrow, 1967 seems “so close but so far away” as the song goes.

GM made a Sport Coupe and a Convertible in 1967 and mine is the former. It’s easy to tell it was a 1967 because that was the only model year that had fly windows.

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You’d think FAST LANE makes life easier getting you through tolls faster. But if you’re account does not stay current which can occur quite innocently, FAST LANE makes you’re life slower – and harder.

My account briefly was not current because a the expiration date on my credit card was not updated. I thought I had updated it in time, but apparently not. So we got three tolls violations in New Hampshire.

I wrote about the experience a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the update.

I called Mass FAST LANE this morning to find out if my updated and functioning account would cover the three violations which total $9 (three $2 tolls plus a $3 processing fee). She said is perfect bureaucrat-ese “Oh, we don’t cover New Hampshire, but I can give you the number.”

I fumed. I had been on hold listening to irrelevant instructions for 15 minutes. I asked if violations get picked up automatically by my credit card on file. She talked right through my question about something I did not care about.

So I am sending New Hampshire a check for $9 because I can’t stand calling to so-called service center. Maybe this is all working according to the FAST LANE plan – be such a thorn in your side, you won’t screw up again. But it’s infuriating.

So you think firing all the toll-takers and installing FAST LANE gear is cheaper. Think about this: there’s a whole new FAST LANE bureaucracy behind the scenes, processing violations, credit cards and generally being a pain.

I’m giving back my transponders and getting back in line.

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If only the track gangs building the trans continental railroad in the 1860s had this kind of technology!

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The bureaucracy and rules behind the Massachusetts FAST LANE could well be termed the HACK LANE. That’s because it punishes good customers (me!) and then makes them jump through hoops to get the fines reversed.

Granted, the FAST LANE is a huge convenience. I whiz through the Hampton, N.H. tolls at 60 miles per hour (yes, the Live Free of Die state charges two dollars for use of about a dozen miles of  I-95). It beats the numb glare of the toll taker, but this is also an altogether too easy way for taxing authorities to take money our of your pocket.

Here’s my beef: I neglected to update the expiration date of my credit card so I went over my balance. FAST LANE outrageously charges a fine of $50 every time you go through a toll and have no credit balance.

That’s because rather than giving you the option to charge your credit card for every toll, FAST LANE takes $45 and then draws down the tolls. So my wife goes through the Hampton tolls today and the orange light goes and says “call service center.”

We had no balance left and FAST LANE could not charge my card $45 to refresh my credit balance. By the way, take those orange lights seriously and don’t wait to call the service or check your account online.

I thought I had updated the credit card expiration date earlier this week before we went over our credit balance. It didn’t take, apparently, because I did not re-enter the card number, too.

I did it correctly this morning about 10 minutes after my wife went through the toll that zapped our credit balance. The service center rep said we will probably get fined, but it did not show up on her computer because there’s a two day lag time for the recording of violations.

She added that I will probably get a letter about the fine and an appeal form to possibly overturn it. The process, she said, takes 30 to 60 or 90 days to process. When pressed, she said I would probably be forgiven, but will be charged $5 for processing.

I’m thinking this is a lousy way to treat a good and regular customer. If Amazon or even Verizon treated customers this way, they would not survive. It’s the heavy-handedness and arrogant behavior of bureaucrats who seem to report to no one. Maybe, I should give back back my transponders and get back in the lines.

While I was online, I checked my annual FAST LANE balance – it’s quadrupled in the past four years mostly from toll increase. The former Mass. Turnpike Authority, which was folded in the Mass. DOT last year, was a cesspool of patronage and mismanagement. It was always broke, too.

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This one gives me goosebumps….nice video, Flightblogger….

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The Boeing 787 Dreamliner steals the show at Farnborough International Air Show. This video offers glimpses of the 787′s interior and is narrated by Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. His full comments oddly headlined “Opportunities” can be found at his blog, Randy’s Journal.

Most notably, Boeing announced $13 billion in orders at Farnborough, but none were for 787s. [updated: the 787 drought ended this morning at Farnborough when Royal Jordanian Airlines ordered three 787s. Thanks to Flightblogger Jon Ostrower for the update.]

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After closely following Toyota’s unintended acceleration problems for SmartPlanet.com in late 2009 and for the first three months of 2010, the joint government-Toyota tests saying drivers were to blame for accidents caused by allegedly stuck accelerators far from exonerates Toyota.

Which got pressed? credit: leeloveshottrends.com

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that black boxes known as “event data recorders” from vehicles showed that the brakes were not applied at impact while the throttles were wide open. I have no problem with the information assuming it can be verified. There’s a lot bad drivers out there who mistake the accelerator for the brake (when depressed, they react sorta differently, don’t they?).

Here’s my questions if driver error turns out to be the leading cause of the accidents:

1) Why did a rash of this happen with Toyotas and not other car brands?

2) Has Toyota done an exceptionally poor job in the engineering of the juxtaposition of brake pedals and accelerators? Are they too close together or similar in feel that one could be mistaken for the other?

3) What is the reliability of event data recorders?

4) How important is data at impact relative to the circumstances leading up to the crash?

5) Can that many drivers be at fault in what are believed to be thousands in unintended acceleration incidents?

6) Why was Toyota not as forthcoming about the magnitude of the problem early on?

7) And if these latest findings are true and are the driver error is leading cause of the crashes, has Toyota been unfairly maligned?

Or did the accelerators just get stuck as predominantly alleged? The path to the truth has many twists and turns and these latest findings are one more example of that. It’ll be years before this mystery is solved.

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The fifth Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA005) took its maiden flight yesterday from Paine Field. Here’s the video as it leaves its birthplace at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington. Follow me on Twitter.



ZA005 First Flight from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

Airline crews just flew the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the first time, according a post in Randy Tinseth’s Journal. Tinseth is VP of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

credit: Boeing Commercial Airplanes

The All Nippon Airways crew took ZA001, the first 787 ever to fly, up over Washington State for two and half hours. Four 787s are presently flying with ZA005 and ZA006 in production. The quartet has wracked up 267 flights and 830 hours and 45 minutes, according to flight 787flighttest.com.

ANA is expected to take the first commerical deliveries of the 787 in the fourth quarter. I grabbed a few of the photos of the event off Randy’s post. Enjoy!

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Taking off from Boeing Field in Seattle. credit: Boeing Commercial Airplanes

ANA Capt. Ishii, left, and 787 chief test pilot Mike Carriker. credit: Boeing Commercial Airplanes