Garland Pollard

Detroit: Please Bring Back the Stripped Car

Thanks for all your GREAT comments. Valley Outsider, you ask the question..do I drive a stripped down car? Well sort of...I have that $13,500 Yaris. While it has AC and a great stereo, it still has crank windows and a manual transmission. It's fine for what I need, getting around town.

From 1990 to 2004, I drove a Honda Civic 1990 two door, that had 200K miles on it. it drove forever. Big pain cause it didnt have AC, though it did have a good stereo.


On Jan 08 11:03 AM Valley Outsider wrote:

> This is the most baby-boomer minded article I've read in a while.
> "Where is my manual transmission, AM radio, hand-crank window model?"
> Is there anything that sounds more dated? Garland, do you actually
> drive such a car? I didn't think so.
>
> After going for years without power mirrors and driving at night
> with the right mirror shining in my eyes and having no way to move
> it while driving, I swore I would never buy a car again without power
> everything. No one wants to drive a stripped down model, and this
> has been 'priced into the market' as they say. Detroit just follows
> the trends that the consumer research tells them, and they cannot
> be faulted for that.
>
> A stripped down model is the way of the past--it has no role in the
> future, sorry.
>
> You could compare it to the Netbooks vs Laptops marketplace.

>
>
> Netbooks are widely successful in the PC arena not because they are
> stripped down, but because they went back to the true reason people
> liked laptops in the first place--they are portable! Ask anyone
> who's lugged an 8lb laptop thru an airport if they wish it wasn't
> a third the weight. Of course they do! Yes they are stripped down
> in terms of features and cost less, just like a Plymouth Fury, but
> no one has to carry a Fury. The few number of features is not the
> primary reason they are successful--the weight and size is. Even
> the words "Desktop Replacement" make my shoulder hurt.