Backyard wrote:

It's definitely just you.  For decades Craftsman has  promoted tool
sales with this no questions asked return policy.  Unless they're
offering a buyback of all the tools they've sold in reliance on that
promise, it's a breach of contract for them ever to change it.  Just
another grain of sand in the continuing erosion of American industry
and corporate ethics.

Speaking of the geniuses that run corporate America, did anybody see
the September auto sales stories?  Not good for the home team, not good
at all.  Impending disaster, really.  Years of abandoning market
segments where the domestic product has to compete with imports, in
favor of the light truck/SUV market, is bearing it's inevitable fruit:
the total collapse of the domestic industry.

Here's one such story, from the LA Times:

GM, Ford sales fall; Asian cars sell well
SUVs falling out of favor as gas hits $3 a gallon

Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Detroit -- Americans' passion for sport utility vehicles cooled in the
face of $3 per gallon gasoline last month, helping drag down September
sales for General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. as their Asian
competitors enjoyed double-digit sales increases, the companies
reported Monday.

Sales declines of 24 percent at GM and 19 percent at Ford, compared
with September 2004, also were impelled by popular discount programs
that pulled many of this year's sales into mid-summer.

America's Big Three automakers offered sales incentives during the
summer that promised the same prices provided to company employees.
Sales shot up for about two months, but market observers predicted that
sales would slide after buyers were sated.

"They exhausted their customers and their inventories in July and
August," said auto analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities Inc. "This
is the hangover from the employee-discount pricing."

"Expect a very weak fourth quarter as well," said Steven Szakaly, an
economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Perhaps more troubling for manufacturers was cooling interest last
month in the gas-loving SUVs that have been profit stalwarts.

Sales of the GMC Envoy and Chevrolet Tahoe fell more than 50 percent.
The Cadillac Escalade, Mazda Tribute, Ford Explorer, Ford Expedition,
Toyota Sequoia and Nissan Armada dropped 18 percent or more. The Dodge
Durango slipped 11 percent.

New SUV models on the horizon could improve the picture, Healy said,
but he predicted a long-term decline in sales of large SUVs.

The run-up in gasoline prices, compounded by recent hurricanes on the
Gulf Coast, hurts more than just SUV sales, said Szakaly. Higher fuel
costs also cut into families' disposable incomes, he said. "Consumers
are saying they are not going to keep spending at the rate they were
before gas prices went up," he said, adding that some probably will
delay buying new cars.

Standard & Poor's expressed similar concerns about rising gas prices
and falling auto sales Monday. The credit rating agency said it is
reviewing its debt ratings of GM and Ford for possible downgrading.
Lower ratings would make it more expensive for the auto makers to
borrow money, adding to the financial woes of the country's two largest
auto manufacturers.

GM spokeswoman Deborah Silverman predicted that October would be
another month of payback for hot summer sales, but that the declines
would be offset by the 6 percent increase in sales during the
four-month employee-discount program that ended Sept. 30. It reduced
inventory from 1.2 million vehicles to 800,000, about 300,000 less than
the company had this time a year ago.

GM will emphasize more transparent pricing in the months ahead, she
said, so that buyers who start their shopping on the Internet can more
accurately compare costs.

The company is experiencing strong sales in several new models
including the Hummer H3, Pontiac G6, Cadillac DTS and Chevrolet Impala
and HHR. The HHR is a so-called crossover combination of SUV and
passenger vehicle that uses a car chassis instead of a truck chassis.
Such vehicles are growing in popularity as buyers shy away from
full-size SUVs.

Rising gas prices didn't stop buyers of pickups, though. Sales of
DaimlerChrysler's Dodge Ram were up 5 percent for its best month ever,
and Toyota Motor Corp. saw sales of its Tacoma climb more than 21
percent.

DaimlerChrysler beat the other U.S. auto makers with a 4 percent
increase in overall sales, led by a 26 percent boost in car sales. The
Dodge Neon, which DaimlerChrysler stopped making two weeks ago, saw a
69 percent increase.

Nissan Motor Co. sales were up more than 16 percent and Toyota's
climbed 10 percent, both on increased auto sales. The hybrid Toyota
Prius jumped 90 percent. Honda Motor Co.'s sales rose 11.7 percent,
largely due to consumers' embrace of the redesigned 2006 Civic.

Hyundai Motor Co.'s sales rose 9 percent.

Good luck finding an open snap on store on sunday.

Maybe if you can wait a week and work somewhere the snap on guy calls on....

My tools are Snap-On. Their guaranty sucks. They will never see another
dollar of my money. But they already have over $3,000:) One of my fine
Snap-On tools is a 30 inch long 1/2" breaker bar. It's made out of a new
type of steel, must be 50% rubber. Broke the pin that the end is held on
with and they charged me to replace it. All my 3/8 ratchets slip and trying
to get them to replace them is torture. At least if you buy tools at Harbor
Freight you expect them to be junk AND they are cheap. Snap-On is in the
finance business, pay by the week like a "rip off" used car lot.

Al