Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Who Says???
A little under a month ago, I managed to get some pictures of the odometer of my car as it was rolling over to 200,000 miles.
Here's one just as it turned to 199,999.
Here, it's just rolled over to 200,000 miles.
Now, the younger people amongst you might thing "So what??"
Modern cars are pretty impressive. At least they are if you're as old as I am. I'm here to tell you that people used to throw parties when their cars made it to 100,000 miles. Now, that's just getting broken in.
In my case, I bought the car in 2003, with 28,000 miles on it. It was a lease return. Since then, it's been rock solid reliable. Other than the usual tires, brakes, spark plugs, etc, the only maintenance I've have to do is replace the serpentine belt idler pulley. It still has the original exhaust system.
The car is not a Toyota, or Nissan, or Mazda. Nope, it's a 2001 Buick Regal.
Now, it's true that in the past, Detroit built some truly gawd awful cars, while the Japanese auto makers were handing them their butts. The bean counters that were in charge at the time figured Americans would keep on buying their crap no matter what. They were wrong. In the process, Detroit pissed a log of people off. Many I know will never set foot in a Detroit showroom again, and I guess I can't blame them. But, don't tell me that Detroit still builds junk. If you do, I'll look you in the eye and tell you flat out you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ..."
Isaac Asimov
Here's one just as it turned to 199,999.
Here, it's just rolled over to 200,000 miles.
Now, the younger people amongst you might thing "So what??"
Modern cars are pretty impressive. At least they are if you're as old as I am. I'm here to tell you that people used to throw parties when their cars made it to 100,000 miles. Now, that's just getting broken in.
In my case, I bought the car in 2003, with 28,000 miles on it. It was a lease return. Since then, it's been rock solid reliable. Other than the usual tires, brakes, spark plugs, etc, the only maintenance I've have to do is replace the serpentine belt idler pulley. It still has the original exhaust system.
The car is not a Toyota, or Nissan, or Mazda. Nope, it's a 2001 Buick Regal.
Now, it's true that in the past, Detroit built some truly gawd awful cars, while the Japanese auto makers were handing them their butts. The bean counters that were in charge at the time figured Americans would keep on buying their crap no matter what. They were wrong. In the process, Detroit pissed a log of people off. Many I know will never set foot in a Detroit showroom again, and I guess I can't blame them. But, don't tell me that Detroit still builds junk. If you do, I'll look you in the eye and tell you flat out you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ..."
Isaac Asimov
