Valley Outsider

Detroit: Please Bring Back the Stripped Car

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.