The Cressida in particular hits home. Hard. My first car was an '85 Cressida that was a hand-me-down through multiple generations. My grandparents bought it as a dealer demo in '86, when I was 2 years old. My parents bought it from my grandparents sometime in the mid-90's ('92-'94?), and then it was given to me as my first car when I turned 17. For as long as I can remember, I LOVED that car. I can remember riding with my grandfather as a little kid and pushing the "ECT" button next to the shifter to A)See what happened and B)Hopefully go faster. I remember it was the only car my family had that rode smooth enough, I could do handwriting homework ('gotta love catholic grade school) in the passenger seat. Any chance to ride in it, I took. In an act of teenage stupidity, I stole it and drove it around for hours when I was 16. When I started driving it, it was the coolest damn thing in the high school parking lot because it was the only one. I drove that thing in all of its smoking, cam bearing failure, sticking caliper, doesn't always have 4th, sings-you-happy-birthday-on-your-birthday glory until literally the flex plate bolts sheared off. Compared to some other luxo-sedans of the era, I though it to be pretty ahead of its time. I could talk for hours about my Cressida. The Volvo's death scream made me well up a bit. The CFC Cressida almost made me bawl, in a "WTF is wrong with people?" sort of way. So it continues, that I kick myself everyday for selling the Cressida. Thank god CFC is over.
I love Jalopnik and all, but you guys still don't get why you see these cars in the wrecking yard do you? To the everyday, average American Consumer, what the economy within this country is built on by the way, couldn't turn a wrench to save their lives.
The Average American purchases probably the dullest, most mind numbing vehicles offered on the planet. Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords, Saturn Ions, Toyota Corollas, Ford Taurus, V6 Dodge Chargers, the list goes on and on. If they want something with a little prestige, they turn to the Toyota of Luxury, Lexus. Why else would anyone pay $15,000 more for a Camry Clone?
Anyway, when the car starts to run funny, or they forget to change the oil a few times, or they run the brakes until there isn't any pads left, and the tires with no tread and steel cords sticking out, they get rid of it. There is no love for the machine, just contempt.
Buckle up boys, this is the reason why we don't have the G8 anymore, or Standard Transmissions offered in anything sporty, or cars that weigh 1,000 pounds more than they should, and CUV's instead of honest to god wagons. The Average American Consumer doesn't care anymore.
@UDMan: You are 100% right, but we still like to have a moan.
You can say the same thing about domestic appliances: thanks to a global economy, these days it's easier to throw it in the bin and get a new one rather than try to fix it...but that doesn't make it hurt any less when you see a new bike with a flat tyre lying in your local garbage tip.
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I accompanied Murilee to her local Pick N Pull not 45 minutes after first meeting her in Alameda last month. The place was chock full of German metal and Jag XJs.
So I wandered down to my favorite yard here in Detroit, Parts Galore, which regularly stocks more than 2000 cars, hoping to snag a super cheap door sill plate for the XJR, which has a slightly bent section. Not only was there not a single cash for clunkers car in the yard, there wasn't a single Jag. I was so sad.
However, I did claim some excellent prizes. The City of Royal Oak retired their fleet of Jeep CJ3 and CJ4 snow removal vehicles and I got a cockpit worth of toggle switches and the coolest gauge I've ever seen.
I try to feel bad but spending a pile of money on a over priced Toyota and then it becoming so torn up, worn out and useless that you trade it in on whatever you where suckered into in the clunker bill? I'm not surprised and I'm sure their new car will be a pile of crap in a few years also.
Do you have a thing for completely trashy Japanese cars (Lexus, Toyota, Acura, and Infiniti, that is)?
You screamed over the ugliest Toyota from the late 80's. Either way there is something seriously wrong with you because A) it is not a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or B) you are THAT broke and wants to drive it in the middle of the most boring road in America under a 103ºF sun.
Oh, not to mention, driving that garbage will upset the treehuggers.
@Theimbellis: We get depressed when any workable vehicle, except the Chinese, is destroyed in such an ignominious way. That is why we cheer on LeMons. At least those cars are destroyed doing what they were[n't] designed to do.
We obsess over vehicles -- cars, aircraft, etc. -- that make greenies anxious. We are obsessed with cars that others find revolting. While we are also obsessed with the beautiful supercars, los Jalops would never turn down a Trabant, Gremlin, or obscure Volvo.
You have to understand. Jalops are not your mainstream car guys. We're misfits. We're the outliers. We. Love. Cars. Cars of all kinds. We will rip on certain cars, but if someone were to hand us the keys to a Bangelized BMW, we wouldn't turn it down. Some might just sell it and buy a Wartburg or '76 Jag XJ complete with Lucas electrics. If that's a sickness, then I have it. I don't think that makes me a hypochondriac.
@engineerd: That is the most eloquent piece I've ever read on here. I now have a tangible reason why I surf this at work every day, and why my Microcontroller and Signals homework has difficulty being finished on time. Before I just did, never had a reason.
@Greg Zimmerman: You know why your Microcontroller and Signals homework has difficulty being finished? Because only the rare "involved and available" professor has the stones to set his students loose on a robotics competition. Neither signals or controls are complex subjects, but they require study and personal innovation to understand.
@FP- Your Volvo is awesome! Anyway: Considering that most of these cars were initially made of melted down awesome American cars, it seems somehow appropriate.
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred
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@FP: Your Volvo is awesome! Anyway: But all the steel out of our junkyards goes right to the Port Of Oakland and thence to China. Maybe they turn around and sell the steel to the Japanese as car parts, but this stuff goes right to Guaungzhou.
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09/20/09
The Average American purchases probably the dullest, most mind numbing vehicles offered on the planet. Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords, Saturn Ions, Toyota Corollas, Ford Taurus, V6 Dodge Chargers, the list goes on and on. If they want something with a little prestige, they turn to the Toyota of Luxury, Lexus. Why else would anyone pay $15,000 more for a Camry Clone?
Anyway, when the car starts to run funny, or they forget to change the oil a few times, or they run the brakes until there isn't any pads left, and the tires with no tread and steel cords sticking out, they get rid of it. There is no love for the machine, just contempt.
Buckle up boys, this is the reason why we don't have the G8 anymore, or Standard Transmissions offered in anything sporty, or cars that weigh 1,000 pounds more than they should, and CUV's instead of honest to god wagons. The Average American Consumer doesn't care anymore.
09/20/09
You can say the same thing about domestic appliances: thanks to a global economy, these days it's easier to throw it in the bin and get a new one rather than try to fix it...but that doesn't make it hurt any less when you see a new bike with a flat tyre lying in your local garbage tip.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/21/09
09/20/09
I accompanied Murilee to her local Pick N Pull not 45 minutes after first meeting her in Alameda last month. The place was chock full of German metal and Jag XJs.
So I wandered down to my favorite yard here in Detroit, Parts Galore, which regularly stocks more than 2000 cars, hoping to snag a super cheap door sill plate for the XJR, which has a slightly bent section. Not only was there not a single cash for clunkers car in the yard, there wasn't a single Jag. I was so sad.
However, I did claim some excellent prizes. The City of Royal Oak retired their fleet of Jeep CJ3 and CJ4 snow removal vehicles and I got a cockpit worth of toggle switches and the coolest gauge I've ever seen.
09/20/09
09/20/09
09/20/09
Do you have a thing for completely trashy Japanese cars (Lexus, Toyota, Acura, and Infiniti, that is)?
You screamed over the ugliest Toyota from the late 80's. Either way there is something seriously wrong with you because A) it is not a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or B) you are THAT broke and wants to drive it in the middle of the most boring road in America under a 103ºF sun.
Oh, not to mention, driving that garbage will upset the treehuggers.
09/20/09
09/20/09
Oh, dear.
09/20/09
We obsess over vehicles -- cars, aircraft, etc. -- that make greenies anxious. We are obsessed with cars that others find revolting. While we are also obsessed with the beautiful supercars, los Jalops would never turn down a Trabant, Gremlin, or obscure Volvo.
You have to understand. Jalops are not your mainstream car guys. We're misfits. We're the outliers. We. Love. Cars. Cars of all kinds. We will rip on certain cars, but if someone were to hand us the keys to a Bangelized BMW, we wouldn't turn it down. Some might just sell it and buy a Wartburg or '76 Jag XJ complete with Lucas electrics. If that's a sickness, then I have it. I don't think that makes me a hypochondriac.
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09/20/09
09/20/09
You totaled it.
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