Whoa! All of the things you mentioned in your followup, Wayne, are
simply trade-off points. The decision on which areas of a car's
envelope to emphasize and which to weaken are not a reflection on
the quality of the engineering done so much as an assessment of
what the market wants. The engineering just extends the possibilities
and gives management more room to trade off.
I remember some years ago, Ford (and probably others) started offering
a lot of "owner maintenance" features. They bombed. Americans want
to look under their hoods as infrequently as possible. So enter the
highly reliable and predictable electronics and fuel injection and
all the other things that make 7500 miles between checkups possible.
Maybe Miata's success will force the bean counters to reconsider.
I think the biggest problem with the mainstream cars is boredom.
Despite all the flashy ads, sitting in a Buick has all the excitement
of sitting in your favorite TV chair. Maybe Americas ready to have
fun again.
Of course, opinions are like noses: everyone has one! Them's mine.
- Dale
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