Well, a lot of them are. I remember taking a job in the US in 1979, and was looking forward to driving and owning an American car. Big disappointment. I had sold my Ford Cortina 2000E in England, which had a 2 litre four cylinder engine, and bought a Chev. Camaro Type LT in the town where I was based – Springfield,IL. The Camaro had a 5 litre V8 engine and I thought I could burn rubber with that. Nope.
It seems that those big American engines back then were in a fairly low state of tune. My Cortina could have out run that Camaro. I kept it about a year, but then bought a newer one – a 1980 Camaro Berlinetta. Was OK, but the build quality was awful, and the whole front section of the car was made of plastic.
I had to return it to the dealer on
numerous occasions in its first few weeks to get snagging faults rectified. The speedometer didn’t work properly. Both headlamps blew. The driver’s door window would not close properly. Vibration would cause the ashtray to open and eventually fall on the floor. Microsoft had designed the wipers, which could not be switched off from high speed at will – you had to wait a minute because the car thought I might be making a mistake. Other than that, it was OK. I later drove it from Chicago to San Francisco, and even stopped one night at Winnemucca, NV
So much for my own cars. A work colleague had a Plymouth Volare. A $6000 car which needed $3000 worth of work soon after he had it. Chrysler lost SO much money on the Volare. A neighbour had an Oldsmobile – one of the new ones with transverse engine. He had so much trouble with that that his boss told him to throw it away and get a new car. 1980 was the nadir for the US motor industry, after the oil problems in the Middle East etc. I drove a lot of cars in the US in the years that I was there, but the 1980 ones which were
”downsized” for fuel economy, and to compete with sensible cars like the Mazda 626, were crap. There was the Mercury Zephyr I hired with a friend – drove it from Springfield to Lexington,KY (I55 to St. Louis then I64). It was automatic but had only three gear ratios, and its tiny engine could not cope. It was either revving its guts out, or else would change into top such that the revs dropped to little more than idle, it seemed.
There were little Cadillacs – GM didn’t know how to make small cars, so they shortened the front and rear ends and kept the passenger box pretty much the same. The result was a car that was a joke. Little sawn-off Cadillacs – hilarious in pink – LOL! There was the classic faux pas with the Buick 231 cu. in. engine. So anxious had GM been to reduce the former V8 engine to a V6 that they did just that, but without redesigning the crank shaft properly. The result was an engine that instead having a firing stroke every 120° as any 6-cyl engine should, the firing interval was 90° and 150° alternately. Surprise, surprise – levels of vibration at idle were unacceptable.
It was about that time that Ford had the debacle of the cars which would jump from Park into Reverse when the driver slammed the door closed.
I have hired various cars over the years that I have revisited the US, but the very worst one was a Chrysler Le Baron. It’s engine sounded like that of a 1966 Morris Minor. It lowed and bellowed like a cow. At 20mph, there was a horrible vibration that caused the body shell to vibrate. I was not happy with that at all. I went round the car checking the wheels, and found that the rear wheels were rocking about on the axles like a load of bad teeth about to fall out. The wheel bearings were shot. I had to get a fix up done, then returned the car for a new one.
Some of the later V6 models were OK, but I never got the feeling that American cars were designed by drivers. There would be idiotic features like a piece of netting in the boot (trunk), but no remote trunk release – you had to take the key out of the ignition.
And the central locking always cracked me up. You had to unlock the car with the key first, then open the door to get at the central locking switch - LOL. On my current car, I just press the remote once to unlock the driver’s door, or twice to unlock all doors.
The steering and handling on American cars leaves
much to be desired. Most do not provide any "feel" through the steering, and the suspension can be terrifying. I hired something not that long ago in Washington, and was on my way to see a friend in Delaware. I came off the highway on a ramp road and was only doing about 50mph, but this car gave me the impression that I had overcooked it. I slowed to 45mph, but geez - the car was wallowing all over the place. I could have taken that same bend in my V6 Golf at 70mph with consummate ease.
So now when I visit America, I ask if they have a Japanese car, like the Mitsubishi Mirage (OK, I wouldn’t buy one myself) or the Toyota Camry (remote trunk release, can take four suitcases easily because of sensible trunk shape, no stupid netting etc.) Last rental car I had was last Christmas – a Nissan Altima. It was fine. I'd love a car like Ripsnort's bimmer, but don't have a family to put in it.
OK, your turn to flame British motors – except that there are hardly any left to flame! LOL. Seems unreal that 50 years ago, Britain was the biggest car exporter in the world. We never imported American cars because they all came with the steering wheel on the wrong side, and because most people wanted to get more than 10 miles per gallon.
ROFL
