MyCarIsRed

You folks must mean this posting: http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/1880751332.html ;)

so far so good, opera on my saga runnin very well. i'm mobile only this week so great timing!

The biggest issue i have with this is that (at least up in the NE) I'm not hearing anything from the people in Arizona outside of politicians. I know of many of the factors which have brought the situation to this point, but I know nothing of the evolution of the mindset of the people who have passed this law. It makes me wonder who supports it. Oddly enough, the most vocal proponents of it here that i know are recent immigrants who worked very hard and are very pissed that some people cheat the system and not work for it like they did. There are huge numbers of "immigrants" in eastern Mass, and the huge majority of them are working hard and providing services that the lazy suburbanites can't be bothered to do. They follow the rules, and take advantage of every single social benefit they can. It's not greed, it's smart. Working together to help everyone is a community value that this country has largely abandoned, many of them embrace it. Sure there are some bad people in that group, but you get that in any social sampling. The folks I see now are no different from those in any other wave of immigration that has come to this country. I can't imagine a law like this here, it just would not happen. I'm certain the profiling and stereotyping exist, there's no question about that. But putting it in writing, making it official? No way. There are areas where not being white makes you suspicious to the fuzz, and driving a lowered riced out honda WILL get you pulled over in many places, but you're not getting yanked out of your car on rt 1 and having someone demand your papers just because you look different. Do check your bulbs before you visit tho ;)

Back on topic... I spent a few years working in a factory making seals for ford, gm, etc. After a period of time, the molds and tools would sometimes be sold off to another supplier. I've seen more than one aftermarket part with mold marks removed from the finished part that aren't from overflow or mold repairs. My hope is that all the old molds and tools at Volvo might be available, allowing other companies to make the parts. There is no shortage of older volvos around here, and people want to keep them running. Demand for parts isn't going away, and volvo's habit of using the same parts on multiple platforms makes each one viable for longer. Even without the molds it's 100% possible for a supplier to make a product that is an improvement over original quality, but with the smaller demographic, having the tools makes it much cheaper to produce. I'd rather choose from 3 suppliers who make good parts than from 20 who make crap; I don't want more support, i want better quality. It has always seemed to me that aftermarket support for volvos (and bmws, saab, etc) has been much stronger in europe, and even there Volvo isn't super well supported. Is that more a result of Volvo's (the company) choices or does it stem from the demographics of the Volvo owners and what they traditionally want out of their cars?