How can someone have passion...for a car that looks like every other car on the road, is a technology laden piece of “something” that can’t even be worked on?
Passion? Hemi ‘Cuda. Mustang and Camaro. 55 - 57 Bel Air.
Who can have passion for a car that is no longer fun?
BTW I have a 69 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Talk about FUN!
Drove a Mini the other day...fun little car. Wouldn’t buy one but they are fun to drive
You’ve hit on something. Used to be that cars were distinct from each other, had “prsonalities”, and were evocative of pleasant/nostalgic thoughts. In recent times it’s become a market of one-size-fits-all, no “personalty”, evocative of the gray, drab East Germany of yore. Hard to get excited about cars that all look and feel alike. I personally have a hard time telling cars apart on the road.
The answer is in your quote:
“is a technology laden piece of “something” that can’t even be worked on?”
Being able to work on a car, tune ups, oil changes, was fun back in the day (71 El Camino). Those were the days. Now I take it into the shop, I don’t think I ever opened the hood on my newer cars F150, Jeep Wrangler.
“How can someone have passion...for a car that looks like every other car on the road, is a technology laden piece of “something” . . . .”
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I fully agree. Nothing stands out any longer. There is no beauty or style and even Maserati has an SUV. Everything looks cookie-cutter. What is there to be passionate about? But I agree with Prager - young people do not pursue knowledge or mastery over anything because they can always look it up on their smart phones.
Good point! Most of the cars on the road today could pass for vacuum cleaners!
100% agree.
All the cars today are close substitutes for each other, seemingly assembled from the same components from the same suppliers. With too much nanny-state electronics that fail to engage the drivers, instead putting them to sleep. Not surprisingly, most people drive like they’re asleep. Most are. Probably Dennis Prager too. So why should there be passion? Should it be a surprise if we’re at “peak auto”?
It started with CAFE - ironically I think it was a President named “Ford” who signed that tragedy into law, right?
I still remember the good old days when a Pontiac and an Oldsmobile were two entirely different cars. That kind of diversity was a great thing ; )
Liking my 2002 WRX - the car just begs to be driven hard - but what I really want is a ‘66 GTO. Ragtop. Stick. 389 Tri-Power... some day...
Make America Great Again!
How can someone have passion...for a car that looks like every other car on the road, is a technology laden piece of “something” that can’t even be worked on?
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A good salesman, one who actually wants to make a commission, will know the cars he’s selling inside out and can approach the potential buyer with answers that fit the buyers interests.
There is nothing more useless than an unengaged salesman. It says they don’t want to be there and really don’t care if you’re there. Now Im not talking a pushy salesman, but I am talking a salesman who sizes up a potential buyer and speaks to their interests. If a buyer is looking for safety in a car or reliability, a good salesman should be able to talk about those aspects of the car. Whatever aspect the buyer is interested in, the salesman, a good salesman, should have knowledge to help the buyer. Otherwise, why are they there at all.
And all that technology in modern cars? It has made today’s cars far safer and more comfortable and reliable to drive. If your wife or daughter was out driving the family car, you’d want that car to be reliable. You’d want the car to have traction control, brake-assist, and GPS to prevent possible accidents and ensure they get safely back home.
“BTW I have a 69 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Talk about FUN!”
Me too. ;-) Agree 100%.
This.There was a time when people were passionate about railroads - because they were new, and had distance-shrinking speed and power.
In fact, as a side note, I enjoyed reading an old socialist tract because it argued so assiduously that a worker’s council could help make the right decision on whether/when to transition from the production of steam locomotives to diesels! It was written just as the airlines were about to eliminate the market for long-distance rail passenger service . . .When you and I were young, Maggie, automobiles were still the big thing. Detroit was at its zenith - but the reality was that if you were just starting out, it was time to go into software/digital electronics. Not cars - or airplanes, either.Another funny side note to the issue of knowledgeability of auto salesmen:
I was buying a minivan and the salesman was pretty good - but when he got to the point in his pitch where he explained the controls for the A/C it was plain that he was in over his head. As a mechanical engineer, I waved him off and explained A/C operation to him.When you turn on the A/C, the fan has to be on or the evaporator will frost up. He knew that much, I think. But I explained that the A/C compressor automatically works as hard as it needs to to chill the evaporator to a set temperature which is colder than you actually want the air in your environment to be. If it were designed to chill the evaporator only down to the temperature you want to live in, the relative humidity would skyrocket, probably to 100%.
But to understand A/C operation, the first rule is that the A/C works as hard as you tell it to according to how high you select the speed of the fan. Because air moved thru the evaporator warms the evaporator - and the compressor automatically works to keep that temperature down. The higher the fan speed, the harder the compressor will work.
When you first start up the A/C, the car will ordinarily be hot, and you will be fine with the cold blast of 100% humidity air that the A/C puts out. But if the cabin of the car gets comfortably cool, there can be a reason to actually add heat to the air coming out of the evaporator to reduce the humidity in the car (of course that heat comes from the engine coolant, so it doesn’t cost anything).
Exactly. In the next few years cars will drive themselves. The very best thing about a car is driving it.... and they're going to take that away too.