What's that Grinding Sound?

OK, my mom sent me this old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon

as a corollary to the auto industry internal think… kinda funny and kinda right.

Odd thing is I was JUST not ten minutes before driving my car pondering some related stuff. I drive a 1988 Honda Accord, that’s not a typo for the year. It has 10k shy of 200k on the odo. We also have a 1999 Ford Windstar with about 90k on it. Full disclosure: I got the Accord from my parents who bought it new so I have done much of the damage done to it myself (aside from lodging birds in the grill while in Florida and having it sit in a P&W parking lot for a day… not sure I’ve done much other than abude the tranny and engine), the Ford we bought used in… uh, 2003?-ish, and I have a 2004 Honda CBR1000rr motorcycle which might explain the lowish mileage but I don’t rise the bike THAT much.

THE POINT!!... what was it? Right, I drive a 20 year old car. I, by which I mean my wife, Cathy and I, have never bought a new car. New bikes yes, motorized and human powered, but no new cars. I’m 41. How un-American can you get? I have had the Honda’s head gasket replaced, the front right half shaft and the clutch replaced, and there is a leak in some window seal somewhere that has let water inside causing condensation to accumulate on the interior and then transmogrifying into a unique stink. It’s 20 years old… stuff wears out. But I love the car.

The Windstar… yeah, thus begins the litany: power steering pump failed sending ribbons of steel into the rest of the steering, Anti-lock brake sensor lights up randomly (no apparent fault in the actual braking), engine light ditto, automatic locks don’t quite work as advertised, cup holders in the front dash retracted never to be extracted, cup holders mounted to middle row of seats dismounted themselves (although given the gargantuan amount in a fast food cup they may have just killed themselves for fear of another litre of sugar water being crammed into them), an oddly loud front right axel (I’m betting a wheel bearing has gone) and finally… the paint. Paint is not covered by warranties. Did you know that? At least not Ford warranties anyhow. Wonder why?

Is it cuz their paint DOESN’T STICK??? I’ve seen loads of Windstars circa 1998-2002 with the peeling paint syndrome. To which Ford says, “Weather and other circumstances may lead to results which we cannot account for…” or… Bite me, sucka!

Fords I do not love.

Perhaps the make more/sell more cars paradigm is the problem with the industry. The yard stick is all wrong. Currently the value of the company is based on revenue from selling more cars. To sell more cars there needs to be a demand for more cars. Ok, I build an excellent car and that customer won’t be back for a decade since the car is fine. I build a shit car and… Yugo anyone? So… I’ll build a mediocre car, pass it off as “Quality is Job 1” and Joe Consumer will be back to buy himself a spiffy F150 with side step rails, the jacked up suspension and off-road options (though he lives in suburbia) in just a few years because we told him we’ve improved the cars we make…

Unhunh.

The Ford Model T got 33 miles to the gallon in later versions and until Prohibition could run on ethanol… hunh. 100 years ago…

What’s my point? Ms. Daimler-Benz didn’t have gas station on every corner whilst she tooled around Bavaria. There were more unpaved roads than paved in the US until the mid-60’s. The economy of building shareholder value instead of building a good business has apparently tanked, hard.

My point? Listen closely enough and you can hear the paradigm shifting without a clutch.