Sunday, October 05, 2008
Bad Cars
I see Jerry Clarko endorses my own insight into the fabulous ineptitude of the Chrysler Sebring. He says it's the worst in the world, I say it may be the most dangerous - its lateral instability is downright scary. The poor quality of American cars is, indeed, a wonder to the rest of the world. But as I also said, the day of the decent American car may not be far off. I have high hopes for the Chevrolet Volt.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Ah, a wet and windy autumn Sunday and the Inner Stig begins to stir. If you want a good burn-up I'd suggest a YZF-R1 which will leave not only all American cars but all cars for dust. As for the naffly named Volt, no way. You'd always feel you'd bought the wrong car, especially when its Japanese rivals turn out to cost less, last twice as long and cost half as much to run and service.
ReplyDeleteBut I think I know the problem. Because America is a new country, the people who live there have no sense of history.
ReplyDeleteOh, puleeze!!
Americans get a concept in their heads but the execution is poor.
ReplyDeleteWell, that Sebring is a sucky car, but it looks good (at least for the first couple months after it leaves the factory). I had one once as a rental car and the mere fact it's a convertible lends it charm. Happily, not all American cars are that lousy, although few of them can measure up to their Japanese or German equivalents.
ReplyDeleteWait, I may take that back about the VW Jetta. I know tons of people in their 20s and 30s who own one of those (something about its look beguiles them) and they tend to spend most of their time getting repairs done.
The greatest mystery is why, when Ford USA own Ford Europe and GM own Opel and there is daily contact at all levels, the Americans simply do not get the message, bearing in mind that many of the models are cross platform, add to that the number of Detroit designers who passed through Coventry/RCA and the problem points to one of in house culture.
ReplyDeleteAlthough in the near future some high tech diesels will emanate from Detroit the goalposts are rapidly moving. Both Daimler Benz and BMW have in the pipeline near revolutionary petrol engines. It's all about technology and the sharing of it, Porches financial domination of VW is all about the intelligent sharing of technology, look at the fuel consumption figures of the latest 911.
Any rate, Clarkson is a latter day baby grumplin and is shit scared of the Nordscliefe .