After World War II we were faced with the growing threat of communism and the shrunken economies of Western Europe. Equally as important, there were all sorts of countries that were going to need help rebuilding their awesome auto industries. Americans loved their Italian, (West) German, British, French and other European cars. Thus The Marshall Plan was born. We spent billions in Europe and, not only did they end up mostly loving us for a time, they gave us Ferraris, Bimmers and Citroens galore. Anyone who has read Charlie Wilson's War knows that it was proposed that we pour some money into rebuilding Afghanistan while most of the country loved us. We didn't do that. No Afghani cars. In fact, Afghanistan has been nothing but trouble.
We've been waiting for the El Camino to enter the JFG for a while, and we're not surprised at the response. That being said, we were touched to hear that we gave our favorite Jaloper from the South of France, Franzouse, one more reason to heart America:
This is the car that made me discover Jalopnik, the car that made me love V8s, that makes me want to put a truck bed on everything... This vehicle has done more for my love of things american than the Marshall Plan.
A long overdue thank you for the Statue of Liberty, de Tocqueville, General Lafayette and the Citroen SM. Oh, and one more thing. As Harumph points out, we're all about the diversity:
Can we cut the "you don't belong here if you voted no" bullshit?
The best thing about this site has always been its breadth. I feel like the addition of -amino to any word in a comment has just become the refuge of lazy commenting and that sort of narrowing the scope of thought on these pages has made for some real tedium. Discuss the relative merits but the last thing we should be doing is declaring one car to be emblematic of the whole site. That will make for some serious boredom.
That's right. As much as we love the El Camino and all -aminos, it is important to remember that we fought a World War and spent millions of dollars helping Europe rebuild itself so we could enjoy a world free of totalitarian and fascist insistence on thinking one way is the best. What about cars donked, slammed, biodieseled and wagonized?