On the 15th-16th of March 2024, Idaho State University (ISU)-College of Technology Automotive Program held its ‘Chrome in the Dome’ car show.
There were several cool old cars in the parking lot outside the (now formerly) Holt Arena, on the Idaho State University campus. Here is a sampling;
1962 Chrysler, for sale:
Oldsmobile Cutlass and Chevrolet Impala:
Chevy Nova-2 Rat-gasser:
Holt Arena 2024: 
CHROME IN THE ICCU DOME, part-1
On the 15th-16th of March 2024, Idaho State University (ISU)-College of Technology Automotive Program held its ‘Chrome in the Dome’ car show, probably for the last time in ‘Holt Arena’. That’s because in January 2024, the first in the U.S. fully enclosed colligate sports arena got a name change, for the third time since 1970.
The new name is ICCU (Idaho Central Credit Union) Dome, due to the arena’s recent refreshment being funded largely by the financial institution. In 1970, it was called ASISU (Associated Students of Idaho State University) Minidome to honor the fact that students (whether they knew it or not) had funded the construction through increased student fees. In 1988, the name was changed to Holt Arena to honor the athletic director who pushed for the creation of the Minidome.
My children all had their high school graduations in Holt Arena, and I attended my own graduation from ISU in Holt Arena. It’s also used for many things other than sports and graduations, such as the Pocatello Spring Fair, farm shows and car shows, let’s go!
Custom trophies for custom cars! Trophies were made by Idaho State University-College of Technology Automotive Program students.
Walk-around part-1a:
Walk-around part-1b:
Walk-around part-1c:
Walk-around part-1d:
Holt Arena 2024: 
The Duke is really part British Austin Ruby-7 and Japanese Suzuki Samurai?!
“We think this is a situation that we will have to deal with for the foreseeable future.”-Bob Shanks, Ford CFO
“We have overcapacity now in Europe. It isn’t going to come back fast and we aren’t going to be saved by volume.”-Alan Mulally, Ford CEO
02 August 2012, Ford and General Motors (GM) reporting falling profits despite earlier reports of increased sales.
GM reporting a drop in profits of 41% compared to the same time last year. Ford reporting a 57% drop! Both blame crashing sales in the European Union. GM lost $361 million USD in Europe, Ford lost $404 million!
GM’s biggest European brand, Opel, has been losing money big time. German newspapers are reporting major changes in the works, such as reducing pay for employees, layoffs and even ending some production in the United States, shifting that production to Europe then shipping the cars to the U.S. for sale (of course that would mean layoffs for U.S. workers).
Chrysler, now controlled by Italy’s Fiat, was the only one to see an increase in profits. However, Fiat is hoping to use Chrysler to offset Fiat losses in Europe.
Ford also had profit losses in South America and Asia, which is worrisome since those are the two big vehicle sales markets right now. When asked if factory closings and layoffs were in the works, Ford’s CEO said cuts to “all areas of the business” were being considered.
23 May 2012, after losing it’s former supporter, Ford, Mazda is now desperate for help from a bigger car maker. In steps Fiat.
Fiat already owns most Italian brands, like Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Mazarati, and they’re majority owner of Chrysler.
NHK reporting that a deal between Mazda and Fiat would see the two seat Mazda roadster (known as Miata in the U.S.) being equipped with a Fiat engine and sold as an Alfa Romeo.
Mazda and Fiat would work together to produce more fuel efficient engines, and Fiat could incorporate Mazda technology into its Fiat 500 mini car.
Back in March, Mazda reported their fourth straight year of huge losses!
“U.S. vehicles benefiting from subsidies and dumping on the China market have substantially damaged China’s auto industry.”-statement from Chinese Ministry of Commerce
General Motors and Chrysler will suffer the most from Chinese economic action against vehicles made in the United States.
Anti-dumping duties on GM vehicles are 8.9%, and 8.8% for Chrysler vehicles.
GM vehicles will also face anti-subsidy duties of 12.9%, and 6.2% for Chrysler vehicles.
The tariffs target cars with engines bigger than 2.5 liters, and made between December 201 through December 2013.
German car makers BMW and Mercedes will be hit with much much lower tariffs.
Chinese officials say the United States is violating the trade rules of the U.S. dominated World Trade Organization.
GM and Chrysler officials are not to worried. Why? Because the majority of the cars they sell in China, are actually made in China (another reason for growing unemployment in the U.S.), and the tariffs do not apply to the cars they make in China.
“Fiat is intensively examining St. Petersburg along with Nizhniy Novgorod. No decision has been made yet. Most likely the Italian automaker will select a green field site. We expect that they will make a decision on the site in the fall.” –Dmitry Levchenkov, Russia’s Economic Development Ministry
Fiat, the owner of Chrysler, is actively looking to start factories in Russia, to build cars and spare parts. The reason? Car sales are booming in Russia.
Just in the first 8 months of 2011, Fiat saw a 59% increase in sales in Russia. That’s impressive when you realize that most Russians are hesitant to own a Fiat: “Few Russian drivers opt for Fiat because the service and spare parts are difficult to find in Russia. However, if Fiat builds an assembly facility and handle the production and create a unique distribution channels with service centers its world popular five door hatchbacks could invade the Russian cities frequently.”-Alexandr Tsipin, journalist
Fiat has already made deals with Russian car maker GAZ. Fiat hopes to build 120 thousand cars per year in Russia.
The major reason for Fiat’s huge jump in sales, they’re the cheapest foreign car in Russia.
I wonder what Fiat will do with it’s Chrysler operations in the U.S. and Canada? Canadian labor unions have been warning that Fiat will shut down Chrysler factories.
Ford and GM reported profits in July. They also reported increased U.S. sales. Ford claims 9% increase, GM an 8% increase, while Chrysler claims an incredible 20% increase in U.S. sales.
This while Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda reported that their U.S. sales crashed by more than 20% each.
Despite Chrysler reporting a 20% increase in sales, they claimed a net loss in profits, from buying back stocks from the U.S. taxpayers (interestingly the U.S. taxpayer also lost money).
Ford reported a small 9% increase in sales, but a big increase in profits. One reason is because they jacked up the prices of their cars. According to one report, the price increases accounted for $900 million of Ford’s profit. Profiting by inflation. Ford’s Chief Financial Officer, Lewis Booth, said they expect a drop in U.S. sales in the second half of 2011.
GM reported a small 8% increase in July sales, with a profit of $2.5 billion. Remember GM still owes U.S. taxpayers for the bailout. However analysts say now would be a bad time for taxpayers if GM decided to buy back its taxpayer (U.S. Treasury Department) held stock. Just like the Chrysler buy back taxpayers would lose big time. Most of GM’s sales came from pickup trucks. The problem is that GM still has a surplus of pickup trucks, equal to a 115 day supply. In order to get the surplus inventories down GM will continue with planned factory shut downs, that means more people out of work. GM officials also expect the second half of 2011 to be hard on sales.
Mitsubishi reported an amazing 41% increase in July sales, while sales for most other Japanese companies stalled or crashed.
German car makers did well: Volkswagen reported a respectable 21% increase (not counting their AUDI brand). Mercedes had a 13% increase. BMW increased by 11%.
British companies Jaguar and Land Rover went in opposite directions, with Jaguar down 0.3% and Land Rover up 22%.
The problem is that you can’t go by percentages. Here’s an example: Even though Toyota’s U.S. sales for July were down 22.7%, they still sold 130,802 vehicles in one month. Compare that to Chrysler’s huge gain of 20%. In July they sold 112,026 vehicles, still less than Toyota.
For another example of how percentages can deceive, let’s look at Mitsubishi and GM. Mitsubishi reported an amazing 41% increase in July, but the actual number of vehicles sold that month was only 7,972. GM reported a 8% increase in U.S. sales. Sounds small, but the actual number of vehicles they sold in July is 214,915. That makes GM the sales leader, however GM officials pointed out they’re still stuck with a surplus of vehicles to sell.
So, is the auto industry on the rebound, or not? Overall light vehicle (cars & pickup trucks) sales indicate that the auto industry stagnated in the month of July. Car sales down 3%, pickup truck sales up 4.8%, almost cancelling each other out.
Data from Autodata Corp
Both Ford and Chrysler are reporting increased sales revenues, but both are reporting decreases in profits. The culprit, inflation.
Inflation is driving up the cost of materials used to build their cars, and even with retail price increases the result is lower profits.
Now Ford is preparing to deal with Union contract negotiations in the United States. Obviously workers are going to want more money, because inflation is driving up their cost of living.
Taxpayers in the United States lost $1.3 billion when Fiat bought back all the remaining Chrysler stocks held by the U.S. government (U.S. taxpayers lost at least $14 billion, between Chrysler and GM).
Now Chrysler/Fiat is claiming they lost money too. Chrysler would have reported a profit for the second quarter of 2011, it weren’t for the stock buy back, which they claim cost $551 million.
Chrysler is also reporting a 30% increase in sales revenue (compared to the second quarter of 2010), but don’t think you can buy some of that Chrysler stock, they’re privately held by Fiat and Union trust funds.
Some idiot at CNN called the huge billion dollar car maker bailout loss for U.S. taxpayers “Excellent!”.
He justifies his statement by saying it’s better than the originally projected loss of $40 billion. What this idiot doesn’t seem to realize is that most taxpayers were against the bailouts, because they knew they would lose.
In total, between Chrysler and GM, the U.S. taxpayers lost $14 billion dollars in the auto maker bailout joke. But this guy at CNN thinks it’s great, calling it “…a mere $14 billion”.
The idiot goes on to claim that the U.S. government (taxpayers) would have lost huge tax revenues if Chrysler and GM went out of business. Hello, most of their sales are now outside the U.S., which means they’re not paying U.S. taxes on those sales.