The Wall Street Journal talks about the cost of living middle class.
The vehicles we're driving nowadays are super fancy compared to what existed in the 1970s. People had cars, not SUVs and pickups.
Cars don't actually cost that much more (adjusted for inflation) than in the 1970s and you get a lot more safety, reliability, and features:
Although I take exception to the article title, since it doesn't list anything for the year I was born, nor I expect for many of us here.
Cindy Hamilton
In my experience the 1970's was the era of the worst North American cars .. I owned a Vega to use just one example. John T.
True! Detroit's Big 3 were in a competition with each other to see who could build the worst POS.
Add the Ford Pinto. A lot of things we have now are better than back then. Computers, microwave ovens, phones, the internet. Some of those didn't exist for people for practical terms. Very few had them even if they did exist. Farm equipment is another example. Farmers of my dad's generations sat in the open. Guys sit in environmentally controlled lazy chairs now.
About that time I was at a AAA tow yard and the guy in charge said, look around, you don't see any Japanese cars here that are still under warranty. He pointed out a Buick that was 6 months old and towed there three times.
I am not sure about microwaves. My 1972-3 Monkey Ward is still running.
Obviously well made, but what did you pay for it in present day dollars? Amazing the features you can get now for less than $100.
Drive by a high school today and compare the parking lot to what it was in the 70s. Back then, not many had cars. Today it's a traffic jam when they all try to leave. Or the driveways of most homes. Used to be one car, some with two. Now most it's two, some with three or more and like you say, they aren't just cars, lots of SUVs.
You buy shit, you drive shit. I had a '73 Mustang I was fond of. I switched to Camaros and Firebirds when FMC screwed it up. it only took them about 40 years to repair the damage.
Nothing like taking a ride to nowhere on a Minneapolis-Moline. This one had the advantage of a leaky gas tank so you got a buzz to go with your tan.
1970? If your Mitubishi Colt broke you left it on the should after removing your personal effects and the plates.
It was $169 in the early 70s it would be almost a grand now. The thing that saved it is no clock. We used to see lots of "bad" microwaves because people assumed we could fix anything and virtually all of them had a bad clock (something on that card). Without the clock, they won't run. The part costs more than a new one. I took one really nice Amana, drilled a hole through the center of the key pad and installed a spring wound timer in there. (all the interlocks were still there). We used it until they closed the office.
I have a small pickup (Ford Sport Trac), an SUV/crossover (Lincoln MKX) and a Honda Prelude in my driveway with only one driver.
I had a 75 Monza, A vega in a sport jacket, and it wasn't horrible. It was certainly on par with the Firebird and Camaro that followed it. In 75 they did finally get around to sleeving the block and they probably fixed a few other things. After tricking up the engine a little in a rebuild, I do believe it was faster than the 3.8l Firebird or Camaro.
Mine too. but mine is a National. No sign of reduced power either, still does the frozen peas and corn mix in the same time etc.
What you mean...you went to town after finished the day's work!
I replaced a 10-year-old microwave (about $300) with one that was about $100. If it lasts 3 years, I break even compared with buying another
10-year, $300 microwave. If it lasts longer than 3 years, I'm money ahead.Admittedly, the $300 microwave was nicer, the door closed more smoothly and quietly. But the $100 microwave cooks my oatmeal and heats up my leftovers just fine.
Cindy Hamilton
The SUV story is very sad, IMO.
The government imposed fuel mileage requirements for cars, so the car industry invented SUV's which were soemthing like station wagons but built on a truck chassis, so they qualified as trucks under the law and were not covered by the mileage requirement. So people who wanted big engines or who wanted cargo capacity like a station wagon all bought SUVs even if they didnt' want the other characteristics of an SUV.
So this was an unintended result, unintended consequences, and I fully understand that legistlatures can't always foresee what will happen after they pass a law.
But they could have amended the law a year or two later, or 5 or 10 years later. But they never did, even when the same party controlled Congress as did when the law was first passed. And here it is 40+ years later and people who would prefer what used to be sold are still stuck buying SUVs
They have a lof new speed bumps around here as of a few years ago, and I see these big SUVs slow down to a crawl when they approach one, and I finally figurte it out that their suspension is so stiff that they'll get an uncomfortable bump if they go at even 15 mph**. My compact passenger car will let me drive over them at 30 without it being uncomfortable (When I had a full size car, bumps were even less annoying.)
**Speed bumps around here, Baltimore County I think, are like that. Speed bumps in some other n'hoods, Baltimore City it might be, are higher and even I have to slow down to 15 maybe it is.
Then there was the day I pinched a tire turning too tight. That might not have been too bad except the tires were ballasted with calcium chloride for traction. The tire guy wasn't about to go out in the field so I drove it back to the barn, getting a chloride wash down every revolution. As I recollect, I took a long shower and went to bed early. Town was thirty miles away, unless you call the post office in back of the store at Huson town.
There's rich man farming and then there's cowboy farming trying to keep the mules fed.
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