Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:21:45 -0400
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Welcome to the future!
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,<WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 6/5/2007 12:16 PM, Michael Walsh wrote:
> > omni at omniphile.com 06/05/07 12:07 PM >>>
> >At 6/5/2007 11:23 AM, Michael Walsh wrote:
> >>http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2007/06/1957
> >_plymouth_t.html
> >
> >Seems kind of silly to have such hullabaloo over a model of car that
>
>Actually, it was something of a rustbucket.  My parents bought it
>newish, had in storage when we went to Korea, got it out of storage when
>we came statreside and settled in No Va.  My father was constantly
>replacing bits of the body as it rusted.

All cars from that era were like that.  We had a '63 Mercury Montego
and within 4 years it had rusted through the fenders and we were in
the body work business (fibreglass and body putty are your
friends).  There have been huge improvements in metallurgy and paint
technology since then that have resulted in cars that go 10 years
without a sign of rust anywhere on the body.

People seem to have forgotten that it used to be normal to replace a
car every 3-5 years, and if a car made it to 100,000 miles that was
quite an achievement.  These days any car that doesn't look pretty
much new at 100,000 miles has been seriously neglected, and most will
make it close to that with no major repairs due to mechanical failure
(driver failure is another issue).

On the other hand, cars used to cost about 0.25 times the average
annual takehome pay, while today they cost anywhere from 0.5 to
1.more times the average annual takehome pay.  However, they do come
with much better sound systems these days.

>Oh... the transmission was, are you ready? ... push buttons on the
>dash.  Really ...  see:

I've seen those in Renaults of that era...in that era. ;-)

Since today's automatics are computer-controlled, there's no reason
you couldn't have voice command if you wanted it.  Of course it might
get its name changed to a "problematic transmission" when someone in
the car, while headed down the highway at 70mph, says, "I don't think
the firm should *reverse* course at a time like this..."

-- Mike B.