This is the only car I'd ever need, 1949 Mercury.
Posted on 04/18/2002 3:40:20 AM PDT by 2Trievers
ONE CAR COMPANY is running ads in which its suave 44-year old CEO underscores his love for the outdoors by saying, “I won’t even stay in a hotel if I can’t open the windows.” Another car company, its tone set by its 70-year-old vice chairman — an ex-Marine aviator — is putting up three billboards. One shows a 1957 Chevy’s grille—think of Teddy Roosevelt’s grin in chrome — and says: “Proof your parents were actually cool once.” Another shows the rear deck of a little red 1963 Corvette Sting Ray and says: “They don’t write songs about Volvos.” The third shows the gritted-teeth grille of a 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS and says: “Not everyone wants a car with a bud vase on the dash.” Guess which company is doing best. Bill Ford’s problems at the company his great-grandfather founded are bigger than odd advertising. And there are many reasons why GM is soaring like the jet fighter Robert Lutz flies for fun. But institutions are the lengthening shadows of strong individuals, and Lutz is, in the elemental argot of Detroit, a “car guy.” When GM lured Lutz back into the car business last summer, The Detroit News headline (“Lutz Rides In To Rev Up GM”) was of a size usually reserved for Pearl Harbors or two-game Tiger winning streaks. But are Americans still “car people” the way they were when Lutz was young, in the 1950s? Then they were automobile voluptuaries, Detroit was in its rococo period and its great stylist was GM’s Harley Earl, “the Cellini of chrome,” of whom it was said that if he could have put chrome on his clothes, he would have. Cars had front bumpers that were protuberant, not to say nubile, and tail fins. Cars looked, a wit said, “like chorus girls coming and fighter planes going.” Indeed, Buick’s LeSabre emulated the F-86 Sabre jet. Lutz, tall and trim, knows that today’s Americans generally have a less erotic relationship with cars. They look upon many cars, he says, “as more or less an appliance.” As mere transportation. Utilitarian. Boring. Furthermore, 20 years ago a “premium” car meant one substantially more capable. Today premium technologies (e.g., high-tech engines, overhead cams) are everywhere. But, Lutz says happily, your car is still “an extension of your psycho-motor system.” More than the other stuff we surround ourselves with — do you know the brand of your refrigerator? will you replace it before it breaks down? —your car “continually makes an instant statement about you, even to complete strangers.” So, Lutz insists, design is still central to success in the automobile business. Art is supposed to “evoke emotional responses” and cars are art — “a mobile sculpture.” He also believes that when everybody else is doing it, don’t. Most cars today have rounded aerodynamic lines. But the new Cadillac CTS, with angular lines, is described in ads as “edgy.” And when Lutz was at Chrysler a few years ago, he pushed through the development of the popular PT Cruiser, an echo of a 1937 Ford. Why? Surely not nostalgia. Probably most of the (mostly young) people buying these cars do not know who was President in 1937. Go figure. Lutz believes that “aspirational aspects overwhelm the functional differences” when car customers make their choices. When that happens, the “left-analytical brain has been defeated again,” the “right brain” has prevailed and Lutz rejoices. But this does not mean people plunk down large sums merely for high-status brands. Chevrolet sells more vehicles costing more than $30,000 than do Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Audi combined, but this is partly due to the popularity of light trucks, a category that includes sport utility vehicles. Today an “extremely high-end demographic” — e.g., investment bankers and stockbrokers — are buying GMC SUVs. Some Americans (let us avoid the term “liberals”) hate fun, such as cheeseburgers, talk radio, guns, Las Vegas, and cars that are larger than roller skates and that look more interesting than shoe boxes. They hated 1950s cars that looked — as a sniffy critic said — like juke boxes on wheels. Such people love guilt, and want people to feel guilty about cars because cars have made possible suburbs, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and emancipation from public transportation. GM’s “car guy” knows that Americans generally keep their cars longer than they used to — creeping utilitarianism — and do not define automotive fun as they did in the gaudy 1950s. But he is betting that lots of them still are guilty of letting their right brains rip when purchasing a car. George F. Will is a columnist with Newsweek and an ABC commentator.
This is the only car I'd ever need, 1949 Mercury.
True, those things were atrocious. They should've come standard with a mullet haircut, Led Zep IV cassettes, and on the radio, Bud bottle caps instead of knobs.Last week I read that Pontiac/GM was bringing back the GTO. If they can do as good a job with that as Ford did with the Thunderbird, I'd think of buying one. Until then, I'm completely satisfied with my F-150, and completely heartbroken at the loss of my first true love, a 1972 Porsche 911 T. Targa, of course.
Well since you asked. I want what I've always driven. It has to have a V-8, sportscar preferrably, American made if possible. It has to have at least 350 HP, do standard sub 5 0-60s, run at least in the 11s on the quarter. That's about it. And yes it also has to be convertible, and not a Chevrolet
As for the high-end GM cars, others in my family drive them and are constantly dumping money in them. So maybe there's the problem.
Wicked fast...Motor Trend clocks it as the quickest production car its ever tested.
I LOVE F-250s ... sounds like you & I could go places together! LOL
I regularly put 2 tons of wood on that truck and I couldn't count the number of times I snapped chains and steel cables dragging timber. It never even made a funny sound, unlike another manufacturer's truck , whose name I won't mention.
My Chevy workhorse. A 2000 S-10 ZR2 King Cab. It's pretty AND tough. Towing capacity of 5500 lbs, and it'll go anywhere I'm willing to take it. I LOVE this truck. It came down to this and a Toyota Tacoma when it came time for me to buy. The Chevy was $3K less, and had 1500 more lbs of towing capacity, which was important to me since I have several towable toys. (boat, jet ski's, etc.). Oh and another handy feature is this thing is fast as a thief! Plenty of power to pass! This is the third S-10 I have owned. The first was an '87 S-10 4x4 when I was in high school, the second was an S-10 Blazer in college and I had nothing but good experiences with them too (I did have to replace the transmission in the Blazer at 161K miles!). This is a solid truck that I plan on keeping for at least 7 yrs. It rides smooth, never given me the first problem with 32K miles now, and it just looks MEAN!
I'd pay the guy just to let me HEAR IT or at least give me a ring when he's leaving the house.
I'd probably mow his lawn for life just to drive it around the block.
Unfortunately, since nobody knows what it is, I'd get frustrated driving it when people didn't evacuate the road in front of me and pull over to the shoulder, like they should.
A strong candidate for the finest automobile ever to wear license plates, absolutely. Yours for what, $1.5 Million or so? A Bargain.
If the trievers are labs and you look like Ashley Judd, Freepmail me!
Aztec? Ron-Day-Voo? Astro Van? Escalade? OMG, who is responsible? How much tacky plastic can you possibly use in a car's interior?
Controls subcontracted to Fisher Price.
Corvette Z06 is world class, and the Silverado HD pickups are truly contenders in the big pickup category. Saturn is a contender in the no frills transportation category
Buick? Pontiac? Cadillac? Not a chance.
GM has a long and storied history of giving the people what it thinks they should drive, rather than what they want.
That might have worked in 1975, but Toyota-Lexus, Honda and even Daimler Chrysler have put the screws to that business plan.
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