Reply #34: Allow me to rant... [View All]

I'm a bit of a car guy. I have a 2008 Jeep Wrangler, a 1950 Plymouth, and a 1972 Honda CB500 motorcycle. The 1950 Plymouth (with the stock drivetrain that was rebuilt in the late 70's by my great grandfather) runs better and spends less time with someone under the hood than the Jeep does. Now I like the jeep, radio, a 6 speed, and airconditioning are nice, but Jesus on a stick this thing has under less than 40k miles on it and isn't very reliable. It's like this thing was designed by a bunch of retarded drunken monkeys and assembled by unionized retarded drunken monkeys (I apologize to the retarded drunken monkeys, it is probably unfair to associate you with the incompetent twats that put this car together). I've owned a few GM cars before and it was the same story as the Jeep, utter crap. Transmission went out in one at 75k, and all the little plastic 'amenities broke'. I spent this weekend helping a buddy of mine change a headgasket in a 100k mile 2005 Impala.

Now the Plymouth has over 100k (maybe 200k or 300k... the odometer doesn't go that high) on it. It's been modded a little bit (electronic ignition and a 12V electrical system) but the stock powertrain is there and it cranks up consistently. The Honda motorcyle is 39 years old, has 20k on it, and after fixing the previous owners fuckups (left it sitting with gas in the carbs for a decade and from the looks of things, he attempted a carb rebuild and went a little crazy with the vice-grips), runs like a champ. The internals of the engine haven't been touched since before I was born. I did make it a point to buy American last time out (Jeep) and figured since I had zero of the amenities (no power windows, locks, etc... because those always went out on me) I would be OK. That was the wrong answer. Some electrical gremlin kept the car in the dealership for 2 months and I was stuck driving the 50 a hundred miles a day three times a week. If this is the quality of work I can expect from the jobs that I am creating by purchasing a "Union Made" car; then they probably ought to find another profession. If they made a car that was worth a damn, that I could keep running (with reasonable maintenance and repairs... that I could do myself), I would buy it in a heartbeat. That being said, if given the choice between a car that takes 3 hours of work to change the thermostat or a more stylish and reliable car that I built in my garage for the same or less money out of junkyard parts, I'm going to do that instead.

Build a car that's worth a shit, then get back to me on how many jobs it creates.