Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ugly American Cars (My Vanity Rant)
count-your-change | 9/9/2012 | count-your-change

Posted on 09/09/2012 9:23:53 AM PDT by count-your-change

It's that time of year. The auto dealers face a wave of 2013 vehicles and must clear out the 2012 models to make room and avoid the inventory tax where it exists. Pretty much the same as last year and if you're in the market for a car you might be able to strike a good deal for brand new one year old car.

But one thing you might have trouble finding is an American auto that is NOT just plain ugly. Ugly and uninspired, ugly and bland, ugly and really ugly seems to be the rule.

I offer in evidence the 2013 Chevrolet Spark. No, I won't post a picture, I'll have mercy on the people that love the classics.

Firstly the front end looks like most other econo thumpers in the $15,000 range, squinty eye, swept back head lights and an overly busy grill area framed in plastic. PLastic! I'm sure it would hold up to an impact with cotton candy fairly well but anything tougher will require a call to your insurance agent.

Open the door and experience the true ugliness of today's offerings: Their tiny entrances. All you have to do is turn backwards, bend double and hope your knees will bend enough to allow you to drag your feet in. Wonderful! Now try getting out.

Moving to the rear of the typical new car gives the impression that the designers just gave up and tried to get the thing finished so they could leave early at the end of the week. Just hit the computer key that says, "Add some lights and acres of plastic" and punch out for the weekend.

But one may object, "You get what what you pay for." You sure do!

Consider the 2013 Chevrolet Corvette. The same squinty eye, wrap around head lights and the rest of the cars exterior a study in blandness, a bar of soap worn down to roundness with a couple of tail lights to keep the drivers behind from falling asleep just looking at the car.

For this you can pay handsomely, up to a hundred grand if you're a wealthy masochist or believe the slinky women in the commercial will ignore your double chins and "portly" avoirdupois. In case they don't the car does go fast so you'll be able to leave that embarrassing situation quickly and feel the breeze in your Hair Club for Men.

Me? The last car that I truly enjoyed driving and found really comfortable was my 1975 Ford LTD. It was big, heavy, feared no car on the road and ate at least one Fiat. And it had character by the ton.

If I were inclined to spend fifteen to twenty grand on a car today I would find one of the older models that were like Cleopatra's barge on wheels and have it restored or at least made serviceable.

The ugliness, the blandness, the uninspired sameness of today's auto designs is, what I believe, drives the popularity of the restoration market. What else would drive a person to pay thousands of dollars for a rusty, thirty or forty year old car and spend tens of thousands of dollars restoring it to its new condition when it sold for under three thousand dollars?

I would go kick a new car's tires but I'm afraid one kick might total it.


TOPICS: Travel
KEYWORDS: uglycars
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-184 next last
To: golux

Older Jags don’t command very high prices and if the engines gives much trouble kits are available to put older GM engines in them without torch work.

The purist may bulk at the idea but it does work.


141 posted on 09/09/2012 2:08:54 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies]

To: max americana

My brand new 1957 Chevy Bel Air hardtop high school graduation present gave me a four wheel personality the girls really went for. Now my super clean and shiny 1994 Camaro still turns heads and draws compliments from the ladies.


142 posted on 09/09/2012 2:16:24 PM PDT by sockhead (Socialism means equality . . . everyone is equally miserable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: RandallFlagg

Those first two cars of your look like old police cars. I was wondering if you bought them from the Mount Prospect Police Dept. and if they had cop engine, cop suspension, cop tires, and could get from Milwaukee to Chicago in just half a pack of cigarettes.


143 posted on 09/09/2012 2:29:14 PM PDT by sockhead (Socialism means equality . . . everyone is equally miserable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: smokingfrog

This car sounds *so* healthy...:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNE77kEYJy8

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEGqTQD318

[and now I’m depressed]

:-|


144 posted on 09/09/2012 2:31:05 PM PDT by Salamander (Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: SJSAMPLE

Almost bought one but got the Taurus instead.

Had less miles and needed no repairs.


145 posted on 09/09/2012 2:33:41 PM PDT by Salamander (Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: Cowman

Aw geeze...why doesn’t anybody ever offer me something like that?

Hubby built/restored street rods professionally for decades.

He coulda got it home.

:-P


146 posted on 09/09/2012 2:36:11 PM PDT by Salamander (Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: Proud2BeRight

I just never understood why anyone liked a car that sounded like someone farting in a bathtub Lol!


147 posted on 09/09/2012 2:40:14 PM PDT by Lees Swrd ("Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: nanetteclaret

I had no choice.

My life was “you can’t have a car until you get a job” and of course, I couldn’t get a job unless I had a car.

My first full time job I spent a month car-pooling with a kooky broad and one day I came home from work and there sat the Gremlin with my name on the payment book.

I was mortified.

Prior to getting the job, I’d been given a ‘40 Dodge business coupe to fix it up.
[by myself...I hate sanders, Bondo and primer to this day]

Then my grandfather gave me his ‘63 Studebaker Lark which ran like a maniac but my dad sold it out from under me.

Then an uncle gave me a big 60’s Plymouth land yacht that I can’t recall the model and dad sold that too.

He didn’t want me to have anything ‘too fast’.

If he knew what I did with that Gremlin on weekends he’d have a heart attack.

Then I had a Porsche 924 turbo for a while and my favorite car of all time, an ‘84 Scirocco.

Drove ‘em like I stole em.

Then I had a ‘boring housewife spell’ with just stuff like VW Rabbits, Foxes and Golfs and then SUVs.

Now I’ve got the Harley and it scares my parents to death.

Ha.

:)


148 posted on 09/09/2012 2:48:50 PM PDT by Salamander (Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: central_va; Cowman

Ya’ll are forgetting about the New Testament which tells us the apostles came together in one Accord ;-)


149 posted on 09/09/2012 2:54:43 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: Fresh Wind

That looks like a sewer pipe.


150 posted on 09/09/2012 2:58:12 PM PDT by Proud2BeRight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: count-your-change

The greatest thing about the early smog control efforts was the way the engine would “run on”, that is, once you shut off the ignition, the damn thing would keep running, very badly, maybe on one or two cylinders. If you had a stick, you could kill the thing by putting it in gear and popping the clutch.

Then there was the regulatory genius who decided that the way to keep people from being tempted to “see what she can do” was to limit the speedometer to 85 mph.


151 posted on 09/09/2012 3:05:17 PM PDT by Fresh Wind ('People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.' Richard M. Nixon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: Proud2BeRight
That looks like a sewer pipe.

Yeah, but it would knock a couple of seconds off your quarter mile times.

152 posted on 09/09/2012 3:07:24 PM PDT by Fresh Wind ('People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.' Richard M. Nixon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 150 | View Replies]

To: smokingfrog

Ohhhh that’s nice.....1970?


153 posted on 09/09/2012 3:16:11 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: sockhead

They were old police cars. Bought ‘em both in the Denver area, though.


154 posted on 09/09/2012 3:29:31 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (Obama hates Mexicans (Fast and Furious))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies]

To: sockhead
I saw a Hot Rod article a while back where they took out a Lamborghini Aventador and a chopped and channeled model A rat rod for a road test.

They found that the gals loved the A but didn't care about the Lambo.

155 posted on 09/09/2012 4:09:51 PM PDT by Cowman (How can the IRS seize property without a warrant if the 4th amendment still stands?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 142 | View Replies]

To: golux

When I lived in England (’89 - ‘90) I had a white ‘73 Sovereign with a huge moon roof that looked just like that. Wonderful car. I would have brought it home, but I didn’t want to spend the money to turn it into a left driver.


156 posted on 09/09/2012 4:14:10 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: count-your-change

I own a 2008 Shelby GT500 and a 2012 Infiniti FX35 and I think both are beautiful.


157 posted on 09/09/2012 4:27:00 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: count-your-change
Chuckles. Indeed!
158 posted on 09/09/2012 4:51:05 PM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: blueunicorn6

‘69

http://www.dragracecentral.com/drcstory.asp?ID=89344


159 posted on 09/09/2012 4:55:04 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 153 | View Replies]

To: Salamander

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99hJ_SwG09Q


160 posted on 09/09/2012 4:59:19 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-184 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson