Sunday 4 February 2018
Newer doesn't mean better....................from Rico
I well remember those 1969 Road Runners. Big V-8's and a beautiful design.
- I had forgotten the MSRP for them was under $3,000. Today (if you can find one) they are selling for just under $40,000. I was driving a 1963 Ford convertible with a 390 cubic inch V-8 that I'd bought for $300 back then.
I wish I had either one of them now, and would prefer driving them to the rolling cup-holders cum entertainment centers on offer today.
Pick-me-up-trucks today are selling for $50-60-70,000 and 'loaded' SUV's for $90-100,000, so your average Joe Schmuckatelli is driving a variation on a dust-buster design for $26,000 and up.
- And getting a 1.4, 1.6, or 2.0L motor.
Ten times less car for ten times the price. Retch-inducing designs included free.
- That's real progress.
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4 comments:
Part of the price "increase" is due to inflation. Be sure to thank Greenspan and Yellen and the rest for that. Their official goal is roughly 2 percent per year, using THEIR figures which drastically underestimate inflation. Here's a hint: What was the price of gas in 1969?
And then you have the regulatory requirements. Do you think airbags are cheap? Don't forget to add the EPA bullshiite to the list. You get where we are real damn quick.
When I was a senior in high school in 79 I had a 71 Cuda with a 440. It was the base car with the only options of the 440 4-barrel and 4:10 posi trac rear. It handled like it was going to slide off the road at every turn. If you left it running when you were pumping gas into it you would never fill it up. I kept that car for almost a year - I couldn't afford gas for it.
The value of a dollar (and the average paycheck) was almost seven times less in 1969 than today. As a reference, the minimum wage was just over a buck an hour. In today's dollars, that special discounted Roadrunner cost almost nineteen grand. For that amount today, you can get a nice new car that has A/C, power everything, a sunroof, goes 0-60 in 7 seconds, gets 40mpg on the highway, won't rust out, goes 100,000 miles without a tuneup, and will last for 200,000 miles if you take car of it.
I'm as nostalgic as the next guy, but the only thing that hasn't gotten better since 1969 is government.
Look at MPG, Cars back in the 70's were getting fuel economy in the teens, VW Beetle got 22mpg. Today my 2014 Ford Taurus averages 22 mpg and I get 29 to 31 mpg with 288hp with over 130 mph top speed. Reprogram the computer and it would go faster.
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