Things Detroit Did That Did NOT Work.

[RockJustRock]

The untold price we all had to pay, was the malaise styling....

Funny thing was by '82 they were starting to get it begrudgingly right. Hard to consider the Gen 3 Camaro and Firebird ever had a 5 MPH bumper, but they did.

[Dan Barlow]

On the big railroad tie bumpers ,the cost of 5mph crashes were down big the cost to fix the car in higher speed crashes now cost more to fix . And the insurance companies aren't going to tell the government they made a mistake , they are going to come up with more costly red tape to fix that problem .. I do like warnings for leaving the heading lights on though . But really why not have it where you turn the key off , it shuts the lights off . I know some vw were like that .

[squirrel]

We've had a few automatic headlight trucks for 20 years now....so having the warning on the miata (with manual headlights) is kind of helpful.

[RockJustRock]

Thinking about it whenever Detroit is forced to make a change they seem to make it convoluted on purpose. Look at the hardware they implemented to make steering columns energy absorbing in '67 and what it took to do the job later. They did the railroad ties because they were pissed. They jacked up the prices because they were pissed. In '75 the Monza was the first American car with square headlights. Back then a sealed beam was under $5, the square ones started at $20. The parts department sure showed the styling department, didn't they?

[squirrel]

I doubt it was intentional...sometimes, it just takes a while to figure out the easy way to do stuff. If you want convoluted, compare the internals of the first Laser disc player to a modern cd/dvd player.

[RockJustRock]

I doubt it was intentional...sometimes, it just takes a while to figure out the easy way to do stuff. If you want convoluted, compare the internals of the first Laser disc player to a modern cd/dvd player.

Home Electronics companies do it just because they CAN. Remember $1,000 VCRs? Remember paying extra for VCRs with FEATURES? Remember VCRs for $39.95 with ALL the features? They rationalize it with prototyping costs on IC chips, but face it, they skim and soak. VHS tapes started at $20 and got down to less than $5.

Lotsa teens scratching their heads about now. I, (we?) are too damn old.

[cobra]

thats still ugly

[RockJustRock]

But it's also still an Aztek somebody loves. Actually I think it's just a render.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

Home Electronics companies do it just because they CAN. Remember $1,000 VCRs? Remember paying extra for VCRs with FEATURES? Remember VCRs for $39.95 with ALL the features? They rationalize it with prototyping costs on IC chips, but face it, they skim and soak. VHS tapes started at $20 and got down to less than $5.

Lotsa teens scratching their heads about now. I, (we?) are too damn old.

Many of the old VCRs would last for years of heavy use. The last of the consumer-grade VCRs were lucky to make six months. In other words, some of the cost reductions came at the expense of quality. The bean-counters are always looking for a way to cut costs and the engineers seemingly seldom say no.

The VHS tapes got better for a while and then got a lot worse at the end. Very flimsy in the last days. Close to extinct now.

[squirrel]

I guess there just aren't many engineers here, who understand how it works.

Oh well.

[RockJustRock]

Like even in audio back then digital readouts and push buttons were more expensive than mechanical controls and dials. Even back then I seriously doubted that.

[antmnte]

Caddy 4100 and Caddy Northstar. Some good some not so good. The 4 6 8 is fine though. If it acts up just disable the system that shuts down the cylinders. Runs better like that anyway. Northstar head gasket situation is legendary.