If there was any doubt that we were going through a second Malaise Era, those doubts should be dispelled by the fact that I just passed a Toyota Avalon with a Landau roof package installed. What, the Avalon isn’t ugly enough on its own, someone thinks it needs help?
In these times of trials and tribulations, companies are looking for new and unique ways to rape, pillage and plunder leverage their respective brands and products in the hopes of finding some new and unique way to whore them out turn a greater profit. The problem that generally arises out of these tawdry hookups interrelationships is the fact that they are usually either a partnership of two failing brands, or the outright molestation charity work unequal and unbalanced agreement resulting from one successful and one not-so-successful brand. Neither one will usually result in anything that exactly gets any potential buyer tingly in their naughty bits interested.
So in this collapsed gradually recovering economy, how should automakers solve their financial woes? The news today is full of examples. Saab, for instance, is being carved up like a Christmas goose and sold piecemeal to platform sharing with the Chinese. Chrysler is being roundly mocked assisted by Fiat. And Ford is… wait, no, Ford is just doing some things right. Nevermind them.
Our solution? More Landau roof options.
What does all this have to do with today’s Name That Part? Not a damn thing, really, but the hints are generous and many.
Tim Odell 
Robert Emslie
Oakley sunglasses holder from an Eagle Talon?
It's a starter motor. Looks like a Ford, so I'll say it's off a Synergy Drive Toyota.
Wow, that would have made a whole lot more sense, wouldn't it?
I'm choosing your coattails to ride on. Giddy-up!
No really, his guess is my guess.
Hey look! There's my foot!
Dammit, I was going to guess Dearthair's foot. Here's how:
Your mom and dad, realizing they could not procreate alone, hooked up and produced something
magicalhorrifying. Then they had your sister.(OK, I can't remember if your sister is older or younger, but it doesn't matter for my joke.)
You've overdrawn your strikethrough account.
I'm leaning towards something from the Daimler-Chrysler era, and it looks like a pretty big example, so probably V8 or truck related.
Thus: either Sprinter or LX-car.
My eyes went kafuzz from the strikethroughs. I was playing mad-libs while reading.
Also, why is Michael Jordan's shorter younger brother amongst those congratulating me?
I got a strikethrough Christmas bonus from my other job.
As long as it's not coming out of my cost center.
It is a Paradigm shifter… it moves fuel to an outside the box gas tank. This increases efficiencies between mechanical departments.
Why is the guy in the center giving me thumbs up when all the other guys are clamoring over him to try and punch me?
'cause that's what marketing guys do… draw you in with purdy smiles and thumb-ups, then sucker punch you right in the wallet.
I think the guy in the middle is using his thumb to aim with…
A starter that you can hold in one hand long enough to take a picture, so that eliminates on off a Chevy V-8.
That's not a Chevy or Cadillac starter, I've changed plenty of them and this is different. Bolt holes are in the wrong place.
A starter for an OshKosh.
B'Gosh.
Could be from a Corrado, but given this thing's size, I think that might throw off the precision-engineered Prussian weight balancing.
I'm going to guess a Starter Motor from a GMC Sierra, I mean Chevy Tahoe-Silverado-Suburban-H2-EXT-Escalade-Avalanche-Yukon-XL-ESV.
Chrysler, with a boatload of cash and recently refreshed models but no real future prospects, joined up with Daimler in a "merger of equals". This led to several cross-platform vehicles such as the Sprinter and the Crossfire. The Crossfire, while a competent car, was always seen as too expensive for something bearing the Chrysler name and was summarily executed. Chrysler should have been next in line for the executioner's bullet, but good ol' George W. saved it with TARP money. Now it has been joined up with a "merger of not so much equals" with Fiat. Fiat has already said that they will be branding some of their cars, such as the 500 and the Alfa Romeo 147-successor, as Chryslers in North America. In the mean time, they are refreshing many of the Chrysler cars, such as the hood on the Sebring. So, with a lot of hand waving much like Fiat did to arrive at their profitability projections for Chrysler, I have arrived at the answer:
Starter motor for the VAG 2.0T engine used in Volkswagens and Audis.
Yep. Looks like the one in my TDI. Good call.
Right, wrong or indifferent, your conclusion caused me to dribble coffee on my keyboard as I attempted to not spit it on my monitor. Do you have any idea the corporate hoops I had to go through to get an ergonomic keyboard from IT?
Actually, I'm adopted. Good try though. 😉
Damn. I'll never understand Canadian family dynamics.
Dearthair did you buy a new starter for your Corrado and you're just leading every one on?
How about a starter for an AMC something or other, built by another company, of which I have no idea, because at AMC's end there, they had to get parts from whoever they could, to keep cars rolling off the line.
Malaise era? ……check
Parts sharing? ……check
Landeau roof? (on some Eagles, yes)….. check