My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on December 1, 2011

U.S. built 2012 Volkswagen Passat – Motortrend Car of the Year 2012

Volkswagen reported strong sales for November 2011, up 40.7% over last year. The new Passat contributed over 6000 units and the Jetta 11,131 units (a 58.9% increase year-to-date). The somewhat unique to North America 40+ mpg clean diesel models contributed to nearly 20% of all Volkswagen sales … which was up 36% year-over-year. The TDI sales numbers are especially impressive considering that the they are priced at a slight premium, are excluded from promotions and are only available in a couple of models.

HERNDON, Va., Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Volkswagen of America, Inc. (VWoA) today reported 28,412 units sold in November 2011, a 40.7 percent increase over prior year sales. Year-to-date sales are up 25.3 percent.

"November has been a tremendous month for Volkswagen," said Jonathan Browning, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. "With the 2012 Passat named Motor Trend”s Car of the Year, anticipated improvements in J.D. Power’s Sales Satisfaction Index and once again double-digit sales growth, the proof points of German Engineering and our commitment to the U.S. market are all starting to come together."

In its first two full months of sales, the Chattanooga-built Passat outsold 2010’s volume and acheived 6,018 units for the month of November. Jetta sales, including Jetta SportWagen, totaled 12,891 units, a 15.6 percent increase over last year. The 2012 Beetle sold 1,656 units.

GTI sales increased 33.3 percent while Golf sales rose 37.5 percent versus last year. The Eos and Tiguan SUV posted 53.0 percent and 11.4 percent sales increases, respectively. Volkswagen’s high-mileage, clean diesel TDI models accounted for 19.8 percent of all November sales, up 36.0 percent year-over-year.

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: diesel, sales, tdi, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on December 1, 2011

I’ve posted on Yves Rossy  and the Breitling team since his original flights over the Swiss Alps and here’s his “new feat: Flying in formation at full throttle together with 2 jets from the Breitling Jet Team … at their minimum speed. Beautiful images for an outstanding achievement!”

Category: Aviation, Video | No Comments »
Tags: aviation, breitling, flying, jetman, yves rossy

Posted By RichC on November 30, 2011

A very impressive day on Wall Street after the central banking news this morning. Many expected an end of day weakening, but buyers continued to pick up shares of companies who’s stock has recently been beaten back. The positive move continued the trend of volatility that has marked nearly the entire year.

After an “off to the races” start in the morning, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P500 all landed gains of over 4% today and putting the averages back in positive territory for the year. After a few days ulcer kind of news last week, yesterday and today’s medicine should help … but can’t the gains hold?

Category: Financial | No Comments »
Tags: dow, investing, stocks, trading

Posted By RichC on November 30, 2011

The financial markets woke up to a jolt this morning as several central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve unified to shore up the global financial system. The debt crisis in Europe has continued to put downward stress on world markets and economies; the cheaper U.S. denominated loans available to European banks is expected to make them more liquid. According to Wednesday’s Fed statement, "The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity." (my read … “kick the can down the road” … but I’m hoping it works)

The financial markets opened strong this morning on the news seeing the Dow up over 400 points by mid morning. I suspect a significant portion of the jump may have been short covering, since the mood has been relatively sour as the U.S. economy doesn’t exhibit growth or many signs that confidence has returned. Optimistically though, even with our problems here in this country, we are much better off than entitlement burdened Europeans or countries believing nationally controlled industries can compete with the efficiently and innovation inspired by free markets and capitalism.

Category: Financial | 3 Comments »
Tags: banks, europe, finance, markets

Posted By RichC on November 30, 2011

Its good to archive a few photos from a family gathering … in this case Thanksgiving at my brother’s house last week. Besides enjoying the time with family, we checked out the new man-toy in Ron’s barn – a new John Deere mower. A few new markers for the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday: the “no shave” November for my son Taylor (above) and meeting my niece’s boyfriend Ben. (very nice to meet him, below right)

Dinner was excellent and the work to prepare it most appreciated … thanks Claire and Ron. Mom was able to enjoy the day, although she is in pain and nervous about her upcoming back surgery. It is definitely needed as she is tried all other treatment options since the injury in May — the pain doesn’t ease much. We are confident that surgery is the best option to put her on the road to good health.

We had a great time together and I’m thankful to have such a close and caring family.

Category: Holiday, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: 2011, family, Photos, thanksgiving

Posted By RichC on November 29, 2011

Category: History, Misc | No Comments »
Tags: History, printing, publishing, type

Posted By RichC on November 28, 2011

No wonder I instinctively avoid I-75 downtown Cincinnati during rush hour.

Two stretches of I-75 in the Cincinnati area have been identified as being among the 328 most seriously congested in the country in a recent report by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.
The single most congested stretch of highway in the area is southbound I-75, from the Interstate 74 exit to West Seventh Street, or exit 1.The 3.4-mile stretch of road connects the area known as Pill Hill, where many of the region’s largest medical centers and universities are located, to downtown Cincinnati.That stretch of road ranked 21st nationally in terms of being unreliable.

via Congestion on I-75 some of worst in U.S..

Category: Local, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: cincinnati, ohio, traffic

Posted By RichC on November 27, 2011

Most Volkswagen Jetta owners have experienced the “low front valance” problem with their cars (probably other models too) … be it a bump in the road, steep drive or the infamous parking curb. In my daughter’s case, it was a parking curb with the steel hold-down rebar protruding way too high and catching enough to give the entire valance and bumper a good yank when she backed out. Low and behold the damage was more than just snapping off the valance.

The “yank” pulled the bumper cover, tore the valance in half and split the front fender where rust had weakened it at the top of the wheel well. My project for the Thanksgiving day weekend was to shore up the valance (added aluminum backing with airplane rivets), refastened the valance with small stainless steel bolts and nuts to the bumper cover, added a new reinforcement for the cover and added new metal and body filler to her fender. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to do much more than prime the repair … still it is sturdy and should prevent any additional rust. (thought of my friend Jacob who owns my old TDI and was “just” dealing with a similar rust problem this past week)

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Volkswagen | 4 Comments »
Tags: repair, tdi, valance, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on November 26, 2011

I not the only one with indigestion … and it isn’t from the Thanksgiving day eating or the leftovers (or even the Black Friday frenzy) … but the crushing financial markets that have haunted investors since Halloween. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has turned in its “worst Thanksgiving week performance since markets began observing the holiday in 1942, falling 4.8% to 11231.78, capped by a 25.77-point slide on Friday.” In fact, “the Dow has fallen 7.6% over the last two weeks and is now down 3% for the year amid increasing uneasiness over Europe’s sovereign-debt problems and the failure of U.S. lawmakers to reach a deal on reducing the budget deficit.” (LINK) It is debatable, but markets would be far better IF politicians on both sides of the Atlantic could come together and address the debs and deficits … or at least in our country come up with an economic plan that is encouraging. Are we really in for trouble or is there something positive on the horizon? (a little positive cheerleading from the Whitehouse would be helpful)

Category: Financial, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: djia, finance, investing, markets, stocks

Posted By RichC on November 25, 2011

My daughter tested the Glympse app on her Android phone on her way home to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving this past week. She sent the link to my phone and shockingly I was able to open the moving map based web page perfectly on my aging Palm Pre smartphone. As her progress closed in on home, I decided to record a short video which illustrates the accuracy of  the realtime updates and travel speed. 

Although the video shot with a handheld Kodak Playsport Zx5 in “macro focus mode” is less than stellar, it demonstrates how well Glympse works.

If you watch the “silent” clip to the end, you’ll see Katelyn’s VW Jetta TDI drive around the neighborhood and up our driveways as the arrow on the map updates a few seconds behind.

MISC:

Speaking of real time locating and tracking, check out the Wolfram Alpha search and locating airliners and “flights overhead” – hmm, I’m not sure why I really need to know this??? (be sure to click on flight link for more information than most of us need to know)

Category: Cellphone, Technology | 3 Comments »
Tags: android, app, glympse, GPS, smartphone