Our tulips are starting to bud — spring must be here! On this spring day, enjoy the blog posts I liked most from around the blogosphere this week.
💻 If you grew up in the ’60s or ’70s, the traditional large American reer-wheel-drive car was a big part of your experience. Long, low, wide; terrible to park and terrible on gas. Paul Niedermeyer has done considerable analysis of sales data and concludes that these years actually marked the big car’s decline, and he knows exactly who to blame. Hint: not OPEC. Read Automotive History: Who Killed the Big American Car?
Jim – I did grow up in the 60’s & 70’s and do remember the Classic Cars from that time. According to the book “The End of Detroit” written by Micheline Maynard there were many different factors that spelled the end. Many mistakes were made by the Big 3 Automakers and all contributed to the fall of our Classic Car. For many years the American public loved the big cars, even though they were gas guzzlers. The style of the cars was another draw, but as time went by and the invasion of the Japanese cars that were built better and cheaper, the Big 3 failed to realize what was happening and where the automobile market was heading. Back in the 80’s when Lee Iokoka took over Chrysler he said “If you see a better car than Chrysler . . . then buy it!” The American consumer did just that.
The “Muscle Cars” of the 60’s were a big hit for a long time. The Teenagers, like me, loved them. However, gas was only 32 cents a gallon back then. After getting out of the US Navy, I bought a 1968 Dodge Charger that had a big MOPAR engine in it. I loved it! It didn’t last long. Gas prices were increasing and I married, thus ending the Muscle Car. Slowly gas prices went up and the Crisis of the 70’s didn’t help at all. Cars such as the Packard that were built in Detroit got way to expensive to buy, even though it was a very good car that was built. The Packard Auto Plant still sit’s rusting away in Detroit to this day. It was one of the biggest Automotive producing Plants in the USA.
As for me, I am truly sorry that it had to end this way. The American built car with all of it’s style and grace will never return again like it was long ago. There is no other cars that were built as good as they were.
Especially GM quality was at its peak in the 1960s. But quality slipped badly at all the domestic automakers in the 70s. It was painful to watch!
Thank you for mentioning my post, Jim!
Liked that one about radio in Zambia. We had a guy working in Sierra Leone speak in church last week. They want to finish their building and get a better radio transmitter, current range is only 4 miles. We had an additional offering yesterday, I hope we came up with enough money!
People who don’t get snow are usually thrilled to see it. Where I work we have an office in Bogotá and when guys from there come to visit in the winter they are just wowed.