Let Bob Take the Wheel

Bob Chamberlain was a car kid.  Southern Michigan, in the 1950s, was full of boys who loved all things auto related.  Most dads worked for companies that either made, sold or fixed cars for the "Big Three": General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.  Bob's dad had the local Chevy dealership in the little town of Leslie where I did my grade school time.  Bob was the guy who was always building a go-cart or attempting to rig up a motor for his bike.  Since he lived next door to us, I was often a stooge in his many attempts at gasoline greatness.  In particular I remember him slapping a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine onto a piece of purloined plywood he had requisitioned from a nearby lumber yard.  After  nailing the wheels from his brother Dick's radio flyer wagon to a random 2X4 and attaching it to the front of the plywood frame, he was ready to roll.  A couple of pieces of clothesline rope would do nicely for a steering wheel.  (This was high tech compared to the field expedient clutch he concocted from an old fan belt and washing machine pulleys.)  Bob's total capital outlay for the project was about eight cents.  That's what he paid "Pike" Pixley at Pixley's Hardware store for the nails needed to secure the wheels.  

Eight cents...and the damn thing ran.  It didn't go far.  As I recall, a trip around the block was out of the question because of a massive clutch failure and frequent stalls, but it was an eight cent ride.

Bob and his adventures in the world of motorized transportation popped into my head the other day when I heard the news of a slight glitch with the the new Chevy Cruze. 

Chevrolet has recalled more than two-thousand  Cruze models because___

If you don't like the steering wheel here, you can always move it.

THE STEERING WHEEL FALLS OFF!!!!

This is what happens when, instead of letting a poorly managed business simply fail, the federal government decides to spend billions of your tax dollars to prop up a sclerotic company and its bloated union so that they might continue to manufacture cars we no longer want to buy.   Nice going Chevy!

This news should make you feel better as you prepare to send more of your tax dollars to the mentally challenged mendacious holdup artists in Washington, D.C.  Just remember that no matter what they say there is NO way this money will ever be repaid by GM and Chrysler.  The dough, your dough, has only served to prop up the UAW and insure us a continuing supply of cars featuring removable steering wheels.

By the way, in case you're one of the lucky few who have taken delivery of a Chevy Cruze, I know that Bob still lives in Michigan and has cornered the market on clothesline.