I'm really pleased you've had good luck with your
Fords, and I'm not trying to convince anyone of
anything. If you love Fords or he loves Jeeps or she
loves Chevies, I'm happy for all of you.
My point is only that in my personal experience, and
despite all the ink that has been written about how
much better American cars have become over the past
decade or so, I still think they have a LONG, LONG way
to go.
Below is a short list of things I hate about American
cars:
I rented a Pontiac not long ago for a road trip. I
threw all my luggage in the trunk and set off in the
rain. When I stopped at a restaurant, I needed to get
something out of the trunk, and when I opened the
trunk lid, rain water poured in a huge deluge down off
the slanted rails of the trunk lid all over my
luggage, which was in the CENTER of the trunk.
Stupid, stupid, stupid engineering. I find this kind
of stuff ALL THE TIME on American cars but almost
NEVER on Japanese or European cars. Don't American
enginnering teams ever drive the cars they are
building? Don't they own them and live with them?
My wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited is loaded with
every "luxury" option they make. The word luxury is
in quotes intentionally, because all of the features
result in the ANTITHESIS OF LUXURY! The dual zone
climate control never seems to work the same way
twice, so you have to constantly fiddle with two
separate switches to try to balance the correct
temperature for the passeneger compartment. The
delayed wipers have a million different positions you
can select with detents, but only about two of them
are legitimate speeds - the others are far too slow to
ever use. So I wish I had more positions, even though
I actually do have a million already, none of them are
useable. The exterior temperature sensor is
dramtically affected by the interior temperature of
the car. So if the car is parked, it might read an
exterior temperature of 108 degrees, but once you're
rolling with the A/C on, it quickly drops to 88 or 90.
What good is that? The interior has leather
slathered all over every possible surface, but it is
the cheapest, crappiest leather EVER MADE and no where
near as durable or comfortable as the good vinyls used
nowadays. The automatic headlights will occasionally
turn themselves on in the middle of the night and
drain the battery flat, but no one can duplicate the
problem or diagnose it. In short, you are driving and
living with the Jeep FIDDLING WITH CRAP ALL THE TIME,
and the result is NOT luxury. In my opinion, luxury
cars should help you get places effortlessly,
comfortably, easily. Not bother you with fiddly,
gimmicky BS. American car makers have never figured
that out.
I have never driven an American car that had a decent
transmission. Never. Maybe they exist, but like God
and the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster, I'm skeptical
and will beleive it when I see it for myself. Every
american automatic transmission I ever drive surges,
jerks and kicks down like a mule booting me in the
back. I once had a 1967 Cadillac Convertible and even
THAT transmission was better than some of the new
Chevy trannies I've sampled. It's almost as if
Amercian transmissions are getting WORSE.
Anyway, sorry to rant, but it's a real bee in my
bonnet.
If anyone wants the Jeep, let me know. It's for sale.
And if anyone has a good, low-mileage '00 or '01 Land
Rover Discovery for sale, email me offline. This damn
Jeep is my last American car for a long, long time.
=====
Paul Misencik
1971 MGB Vintage Race Project
www.sopwithracing.com
Huntersville, NC USA
www.paoloroman.com
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