The 1st major snow fall of the season, got to "test drive" my new "used" 4X4 Nissan Frontier. Handled it like a champ! The usual 10 minute drive only took 15 minutes (as I drove a bit slower due to the snow). Work place is on a hill, no way to get around it, even the long way still requires up-hill trek. Not the worst of weather conditions, given this is the Midwest in winter. Was the 1st time I actually needed to use the 4X4 features. Arrived at work 20 minutes early (a rarity for me)! This was precisely why I bought a Nissan - reliable, dependable, useful, and looks so damn good! As I walked onto my unit, day shift began asking, "How are the roads"? My answer, "not bad, but I don't have an American-made vehicle". Then it occurred to me, just why it is the American auto industry is in the shape it is in. I had a Ford (ex got it in the divorce tho), funny tho, something always went wrong with it. Although Nissan may be "foreign owned", my truck may have been made by US labor, in a Southern plant, in a "right - to - work - state (therefore, probably no UAW). The Big 3 Auto Bailout failed, in part, because the UAW refused to lower their wages, to be more divorce with "other" auto markets. Do I feel less "American" for NOT owning a Big 3 auto? NO. Do the Southern auto plant workers feel less "American" for working there? Probably NOT. Granted the cost-of-their-wages vary from state to state, but after hearing what they make per hour, AND the GREAT health care benefits? I work in health care, had to take out loans, to get the educational benefits, to get were I'm at (and ironically, still have CRAPPY health coverage, not to mention the ridiculous cost for family coverage, a rant best left to another blog). UAW workers make more than I do, have better health coverage, work for an industry that had NO FORESIGHT, and produces a crappy product. Now they want to whine, and beg for my hard ridiculous tax dollars. I say, screw them. They don't want to work for wages comparable to the rest of the hard working Americans. Let the Big 3 fail, and let them see how the rest of us live. The Southern auto workers aren't bitching; fair-to-good pay for fair-to good benefits, while making a QUALITY product worth MY investment (not to mention, front runners of operating "green", enviormentally sound plants; yet another blog). Just my opinion, Am just as American as the rest, still proud that I have a reliable auto made by my Southern brothers and sisters! Grew up in the south, never truly understood the principles of "right-to work" till recently. Am not completely anti-union, but the UAW has just gone to far this time, and the Big 3 makes crap that I just don't want. Why do I have to help bail out an industry that makes crap products and overpays their employees? I grew up POOR, am fortunate to be working middle-class (in the global scheme, am living a life of luxury); through HARD work I got were I am, when needed altered my life's course and education. Although I understand the ramifications of the US economy, screw them a job with lower wages was better than no job at all. Meanwhile, I get to gloat to co-wrkers, need a ride? Just don't call me un-american, cause yo "American made" piece of crap couldn't get u there.