The Wingnut
One Too Many
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I'm a Chrysler man first (rebelling against my parents, Mom's from a GM family and Dad's a Ford man), but if it's used, it's just a machine...it's only foreign if you need parts, and if it's old enough, the parts aren't necessarily foreign(remans and repros, etc). I was taught by my parents to NEVER buy a car new and always pay cash.
I love my Datsun, I loved my Plymouths, but I honestly wouldn't buy anything new from any manufacturer. The auto industry has progressed to the point of loading vehicles with so many gadgets, gizmos, bells, whistles, safety features, creature comforts and whiz-bang selling points that cars are bloated piles of overly-complex parts waiting to break. They're no longer something that your average citizen with a factory service manual can troubleshoot and fix in the garage on a weekend...all of that changed in the late '70s and early '80s. Manufacturers make more on servicing and producing parts for cars they've sold than they actually do for the cars themselves.
No longer are people getting transportation for their specific needs, now it's all about the image, lifestyle and convenience all wrapped up in something that in some areas of the country costs close to what you'd pay for a modest house! That's absurd. Even trucks are overboard now. You can't buy a stripper model with cloth bench seats, no AC or radio and crank windows anymore. Pickups used to be working vehicles, now they're just another choice when shopping for transportation. Cars that cost less than $10,000 are either used or something most people would be embarrassed to be seen driving.
It's a mess. Practicality and longevity has been overrun by emotion and entitlement in the choices made by the western world's consumers. It's slowly eroding the infrastructure that made the western world the pinnacle of civilization.
I love my Datsun, I loved my Plymouths, but I honestly wouldn't buy anything new from any manufacturer. The auto industry has progressed to the point of loading vehicles with so many gadgets, gizmos, bells, whistles, safety features, creature comforts and whiz-bang selling points that cars are bloated piles of overly-complex parts waiting to break. They're no longer something that your average citizen with a factory service manual can troubleshoot and fix in the garage on a weekend...all of that changed in the late '70s and early '80s. Manufacturers make more on servicing and producing parts for cars they've sold than they actually do for the cars themselves.
No longer are people getting transportation for their specific needs, now it's all about the image, lifestyle and convenience all wrapped up in something that in some areas of the country costs close to what you'd pay for a modest house! That's absurd. Even trucks are overboard now. You can't buy a stripper model with cloth bench seats, no AC or radio and crank windows anymore. Pickups used to be working vehicles, now they're just another choice when shopping for transportation. Cars that cost less than $10,000 are either used or something most people would be embarrassed to be seen driving.
It's a mess. Practicality and longevity has been overrun by emotion and entitlement in the choices made by the western world's consumers. It's slowly eroding the infrastructure that made the western world the pinnacle of civilization.