|
I'll say this, I've noticed over the last ten years things have changed a lot in the automotive world. When I was growing up in Michigan I absolutely hated Ford, Chrysler and the Japanese automakers as I grew up in a GM family. I had family working in all types of capacities for GM, so you stayed loyal no matter what. We were all as assed backwards even to drive some of last body-on-frame rear wheel drive cars. Hell, my favorite cars growing up were my the C3 Corvette, IROC Z Camaros and sadly enough the Monte Carlo SS. All I ever wanted was something rear-wheel drive that was at least sporty.
After driving two GM vehicles right out of high school and early adulthood there was a problem. My 97 Silverado had finally reached its time to be put out to pasture. GM made a lot of stupid decisions in the late 90s like investing too heavily in trucks/SUVs and not putting money into making desirable cars outside the Corvette which, at the time was not something I could afford. The final straw came when the Camaro and Trans AM were finally killed off. GM thought people like me really wanted junk like a front-wheel drive Monte Carlo SSs but they were wrong. Thankfully, Ford did the right thing and kept the Mustang going with the SN95 platform after almost axing it in the early 90s after the Fox Body needed a replacement. So in the end I put my GM loyality go and went with a Mustang.
I'll say this about that little 02 Mustang, I had that thing for 6 years and was most reliable car I ever had. It was a V6 but with a curb weight just slightly over 3,000 pounds it was still a reasonably fun drive. Finally GM got its act together and brought back the Camaro. Had the 2010 Mustang had a 5.0 engine I may have gotten one but the 2010 Camaro had such an edge power wise I couldn't pass it up. It was kinda a bittersweet day to see that little Stang pulled into the dealer used car lot and see my brand new Camaro SS roll up to replace it. I still look for that damn Stang in Autotrader and if I find it I might buy it back so I can turbo charge it. Even still when time came to get sub-compact for my job and the Aveo was still a peice of junk, it wasn't such a difficult pill to swallow to buy a Fiesta.
This is my take on today's automotive landscape. For me the old automotive world is long dead. Its my opinion that its the right thing to do to support your domestic automakers. I've found that you should at least be able to find something worthwhile among the Big Three. To me its better to support companies that still support my family through retirement rather than resorting to a foreign automaker. I find it easier to get along with Ford and Dodge guys nowadays, I think a lot of fans of each brand have come to the same realization as I have.
|