I have a theory about American Cars....

[David Barnett]

My favorite American cars to drive and to maintain have been a first-generation Ford Taurus and a first-generation Dodge Caravan, although the Caravan did not have a durable drivetrain. A bad transmission at 70K and Burnt valves at 180K are major failures in my mind.

I'm going to agree with this. I had an '88 Taurus for a while, and it was decent to drive as long as it had good tires and fresh brakes. And we once rented a 1st-gen Caravan as a 2nd vehicle for a band's six-week van tour and it was always decent. It was a V6 long wheelbase, the four cylinder ones were sorrowfully slow and the short wheelbase ones were sort of pointless. Funny that the Caravan was a K-car, and the other K-cars like the Aries and Reliant were charmless.

 

[doghouseman]

Hahahaha! Once in a while they might produce something that isn't a POS, but "great product"? No.

 

[imwjl]

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That's a classic and it only took them a few years to turn it into a perfect example of malaise era craptacular stuff. That's fond memories and hands on experience via a cousin having an early and late Coke bottle type.

Still, for that Class of '77 thread, I thought I was pretty cool stuff when he let me drive the yellow '77 that by then I believe was a small block with automatic.

 

[David Barnett]

That's a classic and it only took them a few years to turn it into a perfect example of malaise era craptacular stuff. That's fond memories and hands on experience via a cousin having an early and late Coke bottle type.

The industry's reaction to environmental and safety regulations was what did those cars in. 5MPH bumpers and and smog-controlled carbs weren't necessarily bad ideas, but they were executed so amazingly half-assedly. American cars didn't approach acceptability again until port fuel injection became the norm. If it's any consolation, the US-market versions of many imported cars were pretty miserable between 1974-1986 too.

 

[imwjl]

The industry's reaction to environmental and safety regulations was what did those cars in. 5MPH bumpers and and smog-controlled carbs weren't necessarily bad ideas, but they were executed so amazingly half-assedly. American cars didn't approach acceptability again until port fuel injection became the norm. If it's any consolation, the US-market versions of many imported cars were pretty miserable between 1974-1986 too.

I was with hands on in the industry then and into summer of 1989 to know all that stuff well. For a time I had production and quality responsibilities for parts that went to GM and Honda still in the 1980s. I really know just how slow, stupid, rigid and non-collaborative GM was same time other firms we supplied were different.

Maybe we'll see some old GM stupidity return because they just announced no Android Auto and Car Play in the upcoming vehicles??????

 

[omahaaudio]

View attachment 1105182

That proves my point.

 

[Ascension]

Today all cars are disposable. They are built by not engineers who want to build a great car but by accountants who want a cheap product. They are absolute nightmares to work on and while may drive good at first over years are a nightmare to own long term. They are not built to last decades but built as cheaply as possible to last just long enough to get out of warranty and be thrown away in a few years. Add that is now all of them not any specific brand. Many have electronics that are married to the particular VIN and when it breaks it's a nightmare to fix and can only be done at a dealer or a shop that pays many thousands a year to access the factory software.
This is why 3 months ago instead of buying a newer car as my daily I bought a 34 year old Mercedes. A solid car that needed some serious attention from setting up for many years in a garage and I am now in the process of restoring it. I know how to work on these cars can get parts cheap both used and new and intend on driving this car for many many years to come.
Today the car runs like new is super smooth and quiet. At this time even after putting more $ into the car than I paid for is worth a couple grand more than I paid for it and will never decrease in value. I simply refuse to play this game anymore on cars!
My pair of W 124 series Mercs. The Green E 420 runs mid 14's in a quarter and will cruse all day at speeds well above 100MPH silently and effortlessly while knocking down well over 20 MPG doing it. At a steady 70 MPG last time I road tripped the car got 27. Have owned it for the last 8 years or so.
The wagon is the new one it's slower but handles and drives just as nice. The wagon is a super simple machine that is super easy to work on. If you can't get at least 350K miles out of one of these cars your doing some thing WRONG.
Both are going UP not down in value.
I no longer play the corporate loosing disposable car game.