Posted on 09/09/2012 9:23:53 AM PDT by count-your-change
It's that time of year. The auto dealers face a wave of 2013 vehicles and must clear out the 2012 models to make room and avoid the inventory tax where it exists. Pretty much the same as last year and if you're in the market for a car you might be able to strike a good deal for brand new one year old car.
But one thing you might have trouble finding is an American auto that is NOT just plain ugly. Ugly and uninspired, ugly and bland, ugly and really ugly seems to be the rule.
I offer in evidence the 2013 Chevrolet Spark. No, I won't post a picture, I'll have mercy on the people that love the classics.
Firstly the front end looks like most other econo thumpers in the $15,000 range, squinty eye, swept back head lights and an overly busy grill area framed in plastic. PLastic! I'm sure it would hold up to an impact with cotton candy fairly well but anything tougher will require a call to your insurance agent.
Open the door and experience the true ugliness of today's offerings: Their tiny entrances. All you have to do is turn backwards, bend double and hope your knees will bend enough to allow you to drag your feet in. Wonderful! Now try getting out.
Moving to the rear of the typical new car gives the impression that the designers just gave up and tried to get the thing finished so they could leave early at the end of the week. Just hit the computer key that says, "Add some lights and acres of plastic" and punch out for the weekend.
But one may object, "You get what what you pay for." You sure do!
Consider the 2013 Chevrolet Corvette. The same squinty eye, wrap around head lights and the rest of the cars exterior a study in blandness, a bar of soap worn down to roundness with a couple of tail lights to keep the drivers behind from falling asleep just looking at the car.
For this you can pay handsomely, up to a hundred grand if you're a wealthy masochist or believe the slinky women in the commercial will ignore your double chins and "portly" avoirdupois. In case they don't the car does go fast so you'll be able to leave that embarrassing situation quickly and feel the breeze in your Hair Club for Men.
Me? The last car that I truly enjoyed driving and found really comfortable was my 1975 Ford LTD. It was big, heavy, feared no car on the road and ate at least one Fiat. And it had character by the ton.
If I were inclined to spend fifteen to twenty grand on a car today I would find one of the older models that were like Cleopatra's barge on wheels and have it restored or at least made serviceable.
The ugliness, the blandness, the uninspired sameness of today's auto designs is, what I believe, drives the popularity of the restoration market. What else would drive a person to pay thousands of dollars for a rusty, thirty or forty year old car and spend tens of thousands of dollars restoring it to its new condition when it sold for under three thousand dollars?
I would go kick a new car's tires but I'm afraid one kick might total it.
It's good that you understood it wasn't you that the girls liked.
I just got one of these used so I could double the mileage of the Yuke.
23mpg and I can still fit the dogs and plywood in the back.
[it seriously needs some flames or sumthin', though] LOL
It has a surprisingly 'sporty' feel in the handling.
[which means I'm racing around corners almost on two wheels]..;D
Way back in the day, I dated gal who drove a purple one
I used to drive across northern Arizona in my old LTD at 70-75 mph. with the classical music station on, just floating along like sitting on my couch at home. Those were good times.
I drove a '73 Buick 225
He calls it the "most unreliable car ever made" as he never mamaged to complete a return journey in it.
I had a Gremblin X.... 304 v-8, four on floor,.....It kicked a lot of chevy, and Ford as$. Paid 2500.00 NEW!
Whoa..that was the “X” Gremlin!
Mine was...get this..”Trans Am orange”.
Talk about desperate advertising attempts.
If I could find one, I would happily buy an AMC Javelin or AMX.
They were wicked things.
:)
Weird Gremlin trivia:
“Bill Clinton drove the back roads of Northwest Arkansas in his green AMC Gremlin” during his 1974 campaign for the only attempt he made for a seat in the United States Congress.
An AMC Gremlin with a Levi interior was owned by the George H. W. Bush family and driven by George W. Bush in 1973 while getting his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.”
When I was a kid working in the filling station my boss had a 73 Olds 98. Big old boat but I loved driving it. It was like you said cruising on your couch.
Some us look first at a car for its utility.
I want it comfortable, I want to be able to get in and out and not have to do a contortionist skit, and I don’t want the neighbor’s dog to be able to tear the front bumper off as happened to a police car.
Having to pay a garage $200 to replace a battery makes a car not so good looking to me despite all the flashy plastic and fake chrome.
I had a '76 Monte. I replaced the transmission in it twice and replaced the engine once because I loved the darned thing so much. I think I drove that car for close to 16 years.
My very first car when I was a high school kid was a '72 Cougar XR7
Mine was forest green with a 3/4 white vinyl top. It had a white all leather interior. The dashboard instrumentation was ahead of it's time. No idiot lights, lots of gauges. It gave you the feeling of being in a cockpit when the dashboard was all lit up at night.
Even though it was really on the luxury car side of the balance sheet, it had the 351 Cleveland engine in it and few of my friends Camaros could keep up with me (got a lot of tickets in that car).
Wish I still had it.
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