[V8] The Darker Side of Lightening....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

A while ago I wrote a piece for "The 928 Journal" called something like
"Have All the Best Cars Been Built?".  When Audi came out with the A8
aluminum wonder car, I felt that Audi had turned a corner that the
automotive world would soon turn also.  Lighter bodies and structures make
the cars ultimately easier to pass the ugly fuel mileage restrictions
current at the time, despite the endlessly increasing number of
non-automotive stuff that need to be hung onto the carcass in the interest
of "marketing"....more and more cupholders, gps electronic gizzies and an
endless assortment of airbags that can pop out at you from any and every
conceivable direction at the hint of a crash.

So, now we have a situation where almost ANY vehicle purchased new costs
thirty thousand bucks, and can only be fixed at a shop over which is the OEM
logo.  The independent mechanic who might be very highly qualified and is
likely MUCH more highly motivated that the guy standing in the forth bay of
an eighteen bay factory like garage, simply cannot afford the $2500 make
specific hardware or software that enables diagnosis and repair of that new
Blurbmobile.

BMW is an excellent example of a manufacturer who is trying harder and
harder to make their vehicles unrepairable except at an BMW dealer.  So also
is Volvo, and this concept applies not just to bodies, but to the
electronics especially.  The simple fact that this smacks of restraint of
trade and has attracted some interest at the Federal level here is
notwithstanding the fact that the proprietary approach to automobile
manufacture is become more rather than less the rule and not the exception.
Ever tried to repair the "fly by wire" throttle system on some of the
Volvos?  

Ultimately GM and Ford will probably win.  Maybe Chryslbenz, too, if you can
stand the obnoxious Dodge commercials and the ugly, V8-like wannabe known as
the 300.  The reason is that while it may be necessary to take that
Silverado or Aspire to the Ford or Chebbie garage to be fixed, it probably
won't cost $175 per hour and require a hundred and fifty mile one way trip
to do it.  Time is money, afterall, regardless how it is counted.

For my part, if I could have it all my own way, I would have two or three of
everything.  I would have a couple of V8's and a couple of 200 20-V Avants
sitting in a big barn just waiting until I needed that little gizzie that is
no longer made by an OEM Supplier from Audi.  Neither car would be insured
against physical damage, and for about six hundred bucks a year, I could
keep both cars insured and on the road full time...lessee:  which one do I
really want to drive today?

Roger

Incidentally, I read through the article in Motor Trend today about the new
full size pickups from Chebbie/GMC.  How disappointing:  under the skin they
are exactly the same as the basic Model A pickup that my Uncle Ralph was
driving the day that I came into this world:  steel box on the back of a
rectangular steel frame, with a cab not really big enough for more than two
people with a giant hunk of iron in front with pistons going up and down
being pushed by gasoline ignited by a spark system. 

Of course the new ones will have more cupholders and better stereos.