Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] computer and car prices (was Re: [MLUG])

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Mike Miller wrote:

> The 10 worst cars of the Millenium, courtesy of Car Talk:
> 
> http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Worst-Cars/results1.html
> 
> Very funny stuff.

Indeed. Now, I'd always thought it would be incredibly easy to get
the US public behind an invasion of Serbia in the mid-90s, not for
rectifying human rights abuses or punishing genocide, but for giving
us the Yugo.  In the very late 80s, some people knew we were in for
a serious recession and/or debt crisis when banks actually wrote
5-year car loans for the Yugo, whose life expectancy was about half
that.

One problem I have with this list is that it makes US automakers of
the 60s and 70s look good by including two Renault models, a VW, and
the Yugo.  If they'd kept it all domestic, we probably would have
seen more interesting sucky cars, like the Plymouth Neon, the AMC
Pacer, the Ford Tempo (among others), or the original deathmobile
SUV, the Bronco II.  As a compromise, they could include foreign
brands that were made in the US, like the Volkswagen Rabbit (bad
car! bad car!).

Another point is that, probably due to the timing of this poll, bad 
Korean-made cars are under-represented.  That would include, if 
memory serves, the Ford Festiva, several early Hyundai models, and 
(using glob wild cards) Kia *.

So my personal car history is fairly gruesome until now (this 
includes cars I've owned or driven regularly):

1972 Plymouth Fury    (humongous engine, pathetic quality throughout)
1979 VW Rabbit        (used to routinely top Consumer Reports lists 
                       of unreliable cars)
1980 Chrysler LeBaron (inherited from grandma...)
1986 Chevy Spectrum   (worst acceleration of any car in any class;
                       diffracted in a particularly hideous fashion)
1993 Subaru Impreza   (Yes, one of these things is not like the 
                       others, fortunately. :-))

Another notable car we had in the house was a 1975 Toyota Corolla
hatchback, aka the car that could not die.  We once went about
60,000 miles between oil changes, believe it or not.  Got totalled
in an accident where my brother was tail-gating a gasoline rig, so
its life was prematurely ended at the 130-something thousand mile 
mark.

jking




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