The Russians and the Chinese aren't this foolish, IMHO.
Extra points for rhyming. :-)
1973 for me.
I have found that dealers are often ignorant of older models. One Dodge dealership could not do a front end alignment on a Dodge Dart. A Chrysler dealership, despite my warning, confused my car, a rwd V-8 Chrysler 5th Avenue, With the FWD-4/6 cyl Chrysler New Yorker (which had a trim line called Fifth Avenue).
Amen. I drive "Check Engine " lights into the ground.
I appreciate your well thought out post; I stopped buying “detroit” products because they were basically junk. My last one was a 2001 corvette. I sold it to a friend of mine, it had 8000 miles on it in 2005. It was a complete disaster for him. And 8000 miles is correct, not 80,000.
I guess if you want a car that pukes fumes, gets crappy gas mileage, boils over in the summer and needs an oil change every 3k miles, you should stick to your beliefs.
Most of the time it's the sensor? You mean like O2 sensors that tell the engine how rich or lean to make the mixture based on the current air temperature and pressure? Other than that, most OBD computers are really good at nailing down the problem.
Plastics? You mean your dash that doesn't crack in the Arizona heat any longer or the interior doesn't impale your face in a crash?
I don't have any problem working on older cars if that's your thing, but I drive a 265hp 4cyl that gets 25mph and corners on rails, all of it due to the items you enumerated above.
I gave up on GM when a $2.00 bad switch on a automatic shifting mechinism could not be replaced. whole thing had to be replaced @ $400.00. Pontiac RIP.
I agree. I would be happy with a sturdy functional vehicle that I could work on with basic hand tools. Planned obsolescence, safety standards, EPA compliance, and needless crap make me not want to buy a new car again, ever.
I can agree with a lot of this. We have a lot of nostalga for Detroit muscle and trucks, but the fact of the matter is, I just see a big difference in quality when it comes to your average cars. I understand a LOT of this is due to government regulations, having to put so many safety or environmental gadgets and doo-dads into the cars to meet whatever standard that they forget the driver. There, however, is just a simple quality difference as well.
Just sit in a BMW 1 series or a similarly priced Chevy Impala. Yes, the BMW is smaller, but the overall fit and finish is miles ahead, as is the power- all for the same price.
It is that low to mid priced range vehicle we are losing. Even some of the econo boxes in Europe and Japan have a tightly made car whereas some US cars in the same price seem glued together.
When it comes to performance vehicles, the comparison is tighter but you still notice the difference in fit and finish. A Chevy Covette is a beautiful vehicle but sit in it and then a Porsche 911 Carerra and you won’t sit in a Vette again unless you just have an emotional attachment. (Albeit, I do have an emotional attachment to the latter myself)
I don’t believe the constant changes that prevent interchangeability of parts was an accident; they don’t want you going to the junkyard. They need you to replace your car every 3-5 years, or they’re out of business (which is exactly what happened; people bought Japanese and European cars that lasted 10+ years, and that was the end of Detroit). I just got rid of an American minivan that wasn’t ten years old but behaved like a 30 year old POS; when I looked online, I saw many (formers) owners had junked theirs with significantly less mileage than I had for the same problem (transmission was shot). The only good American “cars” are those that cost about $10K brand new; you could pay $18K for the same performance with a different “American” car.
“...European fairies...”
The Europeans who do not elect Muslims to run their countries? The Europeans who have not allowed mu*lims to take over their intelligence agencies, govt and put sleepers in their military to massacre their own troops?
The Europeans who do not watch TV where all the 6 networks have Islamic investors/sharholders (Fox is 7% owned by the Saudi kings nephew), joint ventures and multibillion business deals. The idiots who lap it all up to watch ball games while the networks conpire for sharia in the USA. In between the “stupid white man” commercials?
Sadly idiots who watch TV in America gave away liberty for a clicker.
I agree with most of what you write. My specific complaint is with a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado P/U. No more than six months passed after I bought it (in 2007) that the entire console panel had to be replaced. All those bells and whistles, I am sure, contributed to that. Extra built-in crap that can—and does—go bad.
All reasons the old Volvos are dear to my heart.