At Least The Wheels Were Round

I've only owned four cars in my life, a 1971 Mazda RX-2, a 1974 Mazda RX-4, a 1985 Honda Civic and a 1993 Toyota Corolla. I have a lifelong fascination with cars, but obviously when it comes to actually owning one, I don't place a lot of value on having the latest and greatest. Of the four, my favorite was the Civic. It was a hatchback with an amazing amount of space, easy on gas, (it averaged almost 42 mpg on a cross country trip), very reliable and the handling was phenomenal. Unfortunately my ex wife drove it into the ground, and with her driving style, that was almost literally.

The two Mazdas were early rotary engine models, fun to drive but reliability left something to be desired. I sold the RX-2 to my dad, who found his mechanical skills came in handy enough to keep me from being written out of the will. The RX-4 was better, though it eventually became the guinea pig for learning the basics of auto mechanics. I learned how to rebuild carburetors, (yes, cars actually came with those at one time), change brake pads, and scour junkyards for spare parts. Because I swear Mazda sold maybe nine RX-4's, most auto stores didn't stock many spare parts.

My biggest worry was coming out of a junkyard to find someone canabilizing my car thinking it was part of the trashed car collection. It's nickname was &!@#$*^ (not going to translate, gotta keep this blog at least PG rated), in its later years. I finally donated it to Salvation Army, and I swear on all that is holy only three weeks later I saw it being driven in Fremont. I just hope it hasn't followed me to Texas.

My current ride is the Corolla, which continues to perk along quite nicely. When I do finally replace it, I'll probably look at another Toyota since I've had very good luck with this one.

Some ask if I would think of buying an American design.

Probably not.

I've had several GM, Ford and Chrysler cars for rentals over the years, and in general they do not overly impress me. GM cars especially seem to have the right pieces at least, but not enough of them. For example, I recently had a Chevy Cobalt for a week. The car had good power, decent handling and brakes, and seemed rather well built. But the seats provided little lower back support, meaning it got uncomfortable after an hour or so. GM's other idea for a small car is the Aveo, which I thought was atrocious, cheap and made no bones about it.

GM does make some good cars, and the Corvette is an institution. But a small, well built economy car that doesn't feel cheap is not one of their offerings. They are also way too slow in reacting to the marketplace. While car sales for everyone is down, companies like Toyota and Honda can take solace in knowing if sales of say the Avalon, Tundra and Maxima are off because gas is too expensive, they can fall back on the Corolla and Sentra to keep them going.

GM on the other hand keeps on churning out huge SUV's in hopes the fickle tastes of the public will change before there's too much of a glut of these behemoths on the market. And when that doesn't happen, they don't have much of a fall back plan. Now they're pinning hopes on the Volt, an upcoming plug in hybrid management is convinced will save the company. Several problems, first it's going to be expensive, average price will be close to $35,000. Second, I think it's shape is hideous. More importantly is its technology is a huge gamble and may not work that well in real world conditions. The lithium batteries it will use produce a lot of heat, so they'll have to be well shielded. Finally, no one knows yet just how economical it will be. It just may get amazing gas mileage, but that could be canceled out by the amount of electricity it'll need to be recharged at home.

Also, Toyota and Honda are also working on plug in hybrids, and could launch them in time to steal the Volt's thunder. Still it is an intriguing concept, but GM's desperation that it will be the savior of the company could leave people too cynical to give it a chance.

But even though it is very unlikely I would buy a GM product, (or Chrysler or Ford, though I love the looks of the Mustang), I want them to succeed. The ripple effects of one or more of them going under would be devastating to an already shaky economy. But it's up to the companies themselves, and not the federal government, to make the adjustments needed. That means getting products out that are more flexible in meeting the demands of the marketplace.

I'm now thinking of the future, like maybe five years from now when the merger of Chrysler and Fiat produces a redesign of the Dodge Charger... on the Fiat 500 chassis. Now that I would buy!