Thread: Sad Day for Mercury

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I think what peeves me off so much with the car companies, is that I have to buy stuff I don't want.( i.e. Package 1, Package 2, ect.) If I want cruise control, I have to buy it in the package with the aluminum wheels and heated Butt cushions. They need to let you order stuff the way you want it. I don't need 500.00 electronic navigation, I can read a 3.00 map. I don't need airbags, I married one, and if the Mother in Law comes along, I have dual airbags. I don't need heated windows, I own a ice scraper. I don't need 4 DVD moniters at 300 a pop for the kiddies to watch, I'll buy them dollar coloring books (throw in 50 cents for crayons). And the killer.... I don't need 150 mph rated tires, I only do 70 max. All I need is a heater, lights, and wipers.

They claim that new vehicles are user friendly. Well, maybe to the driver, but if you have to work on it, because you can't afford 90.00 an hour service at a dealer, you are screwed. Make it so we can fix them, and back the warranty time off to a year or two to bring costs down.

Don't get me wrong, I know alot of what manufacturers have to do under the hood is not their fault, it is standards set by the Gov't, and they need to stay out of it.

I feel your pain, Diesel

The automobile industry, for the most part, stopped listening to the consumer a long time ago. With the exception of Ford Motor Company, all took government bailout money to stay alive. The reason they were dying is because they were not making enough of what consumers were willing to buy (hence the demise of Mercury as no one is buying them) - couple that with bloated salaries for the executives and union demands for increased wages and benefits and the model becomes totally unsustainable. The “packages” were one of Detroit’s ideas to recoup some of the loss. By combining cruise control with heated seats, electric mirrors and sound absorbing carpet the automobile manufacturers could increase their margins and oh by the way, you need to have leather seats to get heated seats and the sound absorbing carpet only comes with premium six CD audio with Bose speakers.

One of the reasons that Ford has done better that GM or Chrysler is that they are a great truck company that happened to be the first to market with the snappy “retro” in their Mustang. When the “new” Mustang GT was introduced you could go to your local Ford dealer and buy a car that had some get-up-and-go, nice appointments and remind the 50 plus generation of our youth for less than $30,000. Now that was innovation. The other two came late to the party and needed to charge more, etc, etc.. I’m not going to debate the Mustang versus the Camaro or the Challenger, but Ford had a five year jump and it proved very successful.

I’d like to think that car manufacturer’s will come back to a consumer driven commodity but I can’t believe we’ll ever be able to again go into a dealer and “check boxes” like the “good old days”… It’s just not feasible – especially with government mandates on fuel standards and the “politically correct” thinking that wants to eliminate gasoline powered cars altogether and have us become a nation of Prius and Honda hybrid drivers.

On the bright side – cars are safer, more comfortable, more fuel efficient and typically last a lot longer than they used to. That 90 bucks an hour is a real bite – but if I can drive my cars 250,000 miles and not see that mechanic very often it’s not so bad.

But hey – that’s why we build hot rods, eh?

Regards All,
Glenn