Simple Interest Motor Vehicle Contract And: Fill & Download for Free

Q: How did NASA fit the lunar moon buggy into the tiny lunar module?The Apollo Lunar Roving vehicle was not carried inside the Lunar Module, but folded and strapped to its side.[LRV during loading for Apollo 15.]That particular piece of ingenuity came from Ferenc Pavlics and a group of Delco (GM) engineers who had been tasked with designing a lunar rover under contract to Boeing early in the Apollo program. Early on, as weight restrictions and other challenges ballooned, NASA decided it was impractical to continue, but General Motors decided to continue funding of a Ferenc’s small team, hoping it would lead to future contracts.The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle weighed 460 pounds (210 kg) and had to fit in a space roughly the size of a US Military shelter half (half of a two-man bivouac tent). But it also had to carry up to 260 pounds in lunar gravity, navigate rough terrain, and have a broad enough footing to avoid tipping over. Oh—and it had to be dead simple to deploy on the moon.To Ferenc and his team of automotive engineers, that meant it had to fold up from the edges. So they build models and tinkered until they came up with something simple and practical.Once on the moon, astronauts had only to pull a release to allow the rover to swing forward, unfold the aft chassis and its wheels. Then a second line allowed the forward chassis to unfold, and the astronaut to lower it to the ground.According to interviews with Ferenc, by this time NASA had lost interest, and the challenge became convincing them that yes, this could really be done. By the time they got the green light, they had only 18 months to deliver the first flight ready hardware—but enough money to add 400 people to the effort.And here are a few of them, sitting in a human factors model on the occasion of it’s being placed in a museum on their former test site:[From left, engineer Paddy Mills, Investec president Kenny Slaught, and engineers Jerry Compton and Ferenc Pavlics pose with a rover brought over by Mills. (Sam Goldman / Noozhawk photo]

The short answer: absolutely not.Long answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT, but here’s some explanation why.I’ve owned several motorcycles, and many more cars.Harley-Davidson in the motorcycle industry is akin to American vs. Japanese cars in the US.AKA Harleys are junk, and Japanese bikes are superb.Honda did more for the motorcycle industry than they did for cars. Maybe even more than Toyota, or both combined!Honda started making motorcycles in 1949, and became the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer in 10 years - a title it has solidly kept ever since - 61 years now.Honda completely transformed motorcycles, in every way: big and small, weird and normal, fast and slow.AND Honda did it all while also changing the face of cars, 3-wheelers, 4-wheelers, off-road bikes, lawn mowers, generators, boat engines, and just about anything else with a motor.Oh, and not to mention that Honda was dominating in every market in the world. Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson made strictly motorcycles, and could barely keep up in America.It sort of reminds me of a meme about internet browsers.In this example, Honda would be Google Chrome, Firefox might be BMW Motorrad or possibly Kawasaki, and Harley-Davidson is the poor kid eating glue.Harley-Davidson, is quite literally the epitome of “YOU HAD. ONE. JOB.”Literally. One job:Build ONE model of motorcycle - the SAME style for decades.Meanwhile other brands offer standards, sport bikes, super sport bikes, off-road bikes, dual-sports, adventure bikes, oh and they still find time to dominate large displacement cruisers (Harley copycats)Harley has released other styles of bikes over the years, but mostly mild modifications of the “main” bike.They might release a small/larger version, slightly change the rake of the front wheel, or change the type of suspension, but Harley’s entire brand image is “the cruiser” so they don’t deviate too far.Use ancient parts - No need for ‘complex’ innovation or anything that might risk reliability!Harley has used their uneven-fire motor for decades. A rather simple 45deg V-twin motor. In comparison, other motorcycle manufacturers offer 5–10 significantly different engine designs at any one time: a single-cylinder, a v-twin, occasionally a triple, 4cyl motors are very common on bikes as well. BMW has used a flat/boxer motor for a while as well. Pretty unique on a bike.Sell American bikes to the AMERICAN market, where you are literally the ONLY domestic motorcycle manufacturer.the epitome of “home field advantage”Similar to how “the big 3” (Chevy, Ford, Chrysler) remain strong in the US despite being inferior products to imports. The big 3 brands usually fall short in foreign markets, with GM pulling out of Europe entirely and Ford following.And yet… what we get is a poor-handling, low-power, low-tech mess. But, hey, it sounds good.When looking at Harleys, it’s a combination of hilarity and mental discomfort at how bad they are. Their technology/designs lag the competition by decades. Despite using archaic designs, their reliability is non existent. Their engine power output is pathetic at best. Harley intentionally handicaps their engines for the sake of ‘the sound’ and cosmetic image.You’d think, with, like 80 years, to perfect the rather simple two-cylinder motorcycle engine, they would have gotten really good at it.3 years ago, I was at a Honda dealership looking at bikes. We were discussing how funny it is that Japanese bikes entered the cruiser segment and basically stole Harley’s entire niche market. Not interested in shit-talking another brand, the salesperson’s only comment was “Harley has a fantastic marketing team, that’s for sure…”And that is the answer to the question you’re probably thinking - “okay…if they’re so bad, why are they still around? And so prolific at that?”Yeah! How is it that the Japanese bikes enter the scene with an immensely better product at 1/2 or 1/3 the price, but it’s still an uphill battle?In a word? Tradition.Yes, this is true. Not only is Harley-Davidson “still around” but they are an extremely well known brand.Their brand loyalty is beyond compare. It’s really because their marketing and brand image is so ridiculously strong.Think of how many mugs you’ve seen in stores with the fat Harley-Davidson logo?I can remember back to being a small child and seeing this mug in a department store. If I was a more ignorant motorcycle buyer, that experience might have influenced me to consider buying a Harley. Name recognition is huge.When is the last time you saw a “Honda motorcycles” mug in stores?Harleys have also been in several movies. The first that comes to my young mind is the 2007 Wild Hogs movie. While I did not watch the film (because I was not experiencing a midlife crisis that that point in my life), it’s pretty obvious what’s going on there. MASSIVE product placement for H-D…Snippet taken from Wikipedia’s article for Wild HogsHarley Davidson is experiencing their inevitable slump because the information age is in full swing, and younger buyers can easily research how disgustingly bad H-D bikes are. Voila Wild Hogs appears!How effective do you think it would have been if the Wild Hogs movie used Japanese cruiser-[style] bikes instead?What’s better for marketing: “Yeah, my hog is the Harley Sportster 1200” OR “I’m ridin’ a Suzuki Boulevard” huh? A suzuke what?Snippet taken from Wikipedia’ article for Harley-DavidsonAs you can clearly see, less younger people are getting sucked into H-D’s “Buy ‘Merican!” nonsense and choosing to spend their dollars on the much more reliable, well-designed products instead.Another aspect is H-D’s long lasting contract to supply motorcycles to law enforcement. As far as I know, American law enforcement has unanimously used Harley-Davidson motorcycles until very recently (BMWs are now winning the contracts). Again, this is the same thing as with the big 3 automakers. It’s gonna be a looooong time, if ever, before US governments give a large contract to foreign businesses, no matter how superior their products.Again, this should have given H-D abundant funds (and motivation) to perfect their product. Instead, they simply continued to rest on their laurels and lazily collect the easy money.ALSO the price of Harley-Davidson motorcycles is IN-FUCKING-SANE. As of right now, it seems they made their bikes sliiiightly more accessible, but it’s still unreal. Their cheapest bike for sale is listed at $7,600, while the selection quickly jumps to $17k, with a vast majority being in the mid-20s. H-D’s most expensive bikes are the “CVOs” which approach $50,000.By comparison, Honda has several entry-level bikes in the $4,000 range, with their most expensive cruiser being an outlier at $28,000. The majority of Honda’s bikes are between 7–12 thousand dollars.Very accessible to beginner motorcyclists.To give Harley-Davidson their credit:The bikes do sound good. I admit. This alone is a main reason they still sell well. And I can’t fault that. A bad car that sounds good will still be a hot seller.With driving/riding, the audio is an oddly powerful factor to the experience. Adding rewarding sound output to even the slowest of vehicles improves the feeling tenfold.Not only do Harleys sound good, but they are unmistakably Harley in their sound. This is sort of a self-feeding loopThey are American - through and through.If you’re fixated on “supporting American business” at any cost, this is the way to go.Harley-Davidson does also have a LOT of culture to appreciate.Between the H-D story itself, dating back over 100 years, to their roles in pop culture (Elvis), the military, etc.I admit, this also creates a powerful emotional response in some people, which I can respect.Recently, it seems that Harley has “gotten the hint” and has tried to improve themselves. From looking at their website, it seems they are trying to strengthen some of their weak areas, specifically appealing to new (and younger) customers.I assume (and would certainly hope) that their quality of production has gotten up to par by now.Harley has multiple offerings to appeal to a large(r) market. Smaller bikes, multiple engine choices, large bikes, and even an all-electric offering, which I was thoroughly surprised to see.From my anecdotal experience, I feel that H-D has been more ‘involved’.One example is the local H-D dealership (and I think many others participate as well) offered state-approved motorcycle licensing programs.H-D has been involved in other events as well.To sum it up: it’s really weird. Harley-Davidson has been enabled by government contracts and a domestic monopoly to continue producing subpar products. This would not be allowed in pretty much any other industry on the planet. Completely unacceptable with automobiles due to increasingly strict EPA regulations and strong desire from customers for better results. H-D somehow sidesteps these pressures to improve.For some perspective, here is a web post from 2000. This author writes about the Harley conundrum far better than I have done here. And I wish I had found it before I started writing. Oh well.https://www.everything2.com/title/The+problem+with+Harley-Davidson+motorcycles

Five years ago I bought a brand new, built for me, BMW 428i Grand Coupe, I chose a bunch of extras and waited three months for it to be built, apparently nobody drives manual transmission cars anymore, and delivered. And this car also delivered an expensive repair job.When I bought the damn thing I drove it in Eco mode for the first 500 miles, to bed in the clutch and brakes, and didn’t drive it hard at all. I noticed an odd thing though, when accelerating occasionally it would drop power, not a typical revs going up but no power, but it would actually cut the power a moment or two, making it very difficult to reliably pull away during lulls in traffic because I’d never know if it was going to give me power or not.14,023 miles of troubled and annoying driving later, involving near death experiences, crashes, malfunctioning electrics and various quality issues, the clutch failed.Now whilst I love Muscle Cars, I didn’t drive the 428i like a drag racer, it was mainly regular long distance driving. Like a good customer I called the dealer once more to let them know it was being towed to them to check and the next day I got a call from the service department.Them: Hello Mr Holroyd, the team have checked your car and yes the clutch has failed, we’re ready to start work to fix it and we just need authorisation from you on one thing, a charge of £500, in case we discover that it failed due to abuse.Now I thought about that and asked was it not covered under either the main or extended warranty I had purchased from them, and apparently not, but I thought, you know £500 for a clutch swap isn’t so bad hopefully the fly wheel is fine.Me: okay so at worst I am looking at £500 to get it sorted, let’s go ahead.Them: no sir, it’s £500 to perform the inspection, to replace the clutch would cost £3200Me: …Them: sir? Sir? Are you still there sir?Me: You want £500 just to remove the bell housing?Them: Sir? Do you want us to book you in sir?Me: That’s kinda expensive does that include the flywheel? What will it cost if that’s okay?Them: No sir, the flywheel would be another £1600I think my then wife had to scrape me off the floor, when she arrived home from work.Anyway, not being a total innocent to the upkeep and maintenance of a car I had told them to call me back. In the mean time I called my friend Alex, who runs an independent BMW Specialist’s and asked him what it would cost for him to do the job.Alex: why aren’t they covering it under warranty?Me: They ‘might’ cover it depends on if they see evidence of abuse, and I’m morally certain that whatever they pull out will constitute abuse in their eyes.Alex encouraged me to complain, gave me the name and contact details of BMW’s U.K. head of service (they never responded to my voicemail) but told me he’d do it for £460 and whatever the flywheel would cost if that had been buggered.A week later I gave the car to Alex on the grounds that I’d otherwise pay £500 to be told that I’d probably revved the car past 3000rpm at some point, thus constituting abuse. But I could pay Alex £460 and have it done properly.Alex ran diagnostics on the car, and what he showed me was very interesting, the computer could detect when too much torque was being received by the clutch and momentarily cut the power to bring it to a manageable level, it had a huge list of these events. He told me he’d seen this a few times with the new generation of cars, and that from what he’d seen BMW were using the same clutch plate for the 116 that they were using in the more powerful cars…A couple of hours later the car was ready so I dropped round.A smiling Alex greeted me: Mate you’ve saved big time today, the flywheel is fine and it was a dealer only part, you’d have been looking at £1450 for that.I paid up and drove to the nearest store and took back two crates of beer for him and the team.Eight trouble filled (but not clutch related) months later, I cancelled my purchase contract and handed back the keys to the awful Lemon of a car.Now, just to return to the question if Big Auto or any other manufacturers collective manage to get a legal monopoly on the repair of products they provide, then £5k/$6k clutch jobs will be par for the course as will $800 oil changes. On a related note, I hope the folks in Sacramento have deep pockets given the laws now being enforced there as they seem only one small step to dealer only…***edit. Thanks for the upvotes and just to note, one of the other answers states that a clutch job wouldn’t be affected by the linked proposals, and that is correct to a degree, being locked out of the software would not stop a mechanic swapping a clutch. But it would prevent anyone but the dealer turning off limp mode after the clutch plate was swapped.And as the article states, the manufacturers, were seeking to restrict access to their diagnostic and tuning capabilities of their vehicles, (Ford leading the way by suing a manufacturer of diagnostic equipment for reverse engineering Ford’s proprietary software) which would render it impossible to check what was happening the way Alex did, using his Snapon diagnostic scanner. Given the way that system works, there may have been no clutch problem, just a hyperactive algorithm cutting power whenever it felt like it, simulating a form of clutch failure, only the dealer would know for sure, and would you trust Ford, GM, VW or BMW to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth if they alone could see and interpret the data given recent history?It would also stop someone perhaps modifying/switching off the ecu’s propensity to cut the power to save the now removed low quality clutch plate when a stage 2 (Kevlar) clutch plate is fitted than can handle all the torque all of the time.It would also prevent a great many interchangeable parts which connect to the CANBUS from being swapped from salvage/donor cars after minor accidents/wear and tear failure, or be replaced with uprated versions as the replacement parts would need ‘coding’ to the vehicle, the dealer would have the luxury of deciding whether to allow this, and what sort of labor rates it intended to charge for this privilege, which, as I point out, is a lot more expensive than a visit to a back street specialist.In a similar circumstance in the computer industry a few years back HP coded their fuser units, that would work across multiple models of multi function printers and that were in every way identical, to work only in specific models and charged different prices per model.This is the real danger with proposed changes being lobbied for like this, is that idiots thinking only of funding for the next election campaign will pass laws by the backdoor that say you can’t put an otherwise identical electric wing mirror from a parts car onto yours, can’t add on a new multimedia geegaw that wasn’t fitted at purchase but you bought off eBay, no fitting new brake wear sensors, or other such simple swaps yourself. Instead every single change or modification meaning paying to have things coded for your vehicle and possibly having to buy an expensive brand new part from the dealer or ‘authorised’ specialist.It would also put out of business a huge number of small businesses dedicated to providing cheap repairs and motoring for consumers. In my opinion big manufacturers don’t need or deserve that kind of assistance from government.