Ouch! as a bean counter who runs a buisness that hurt! There are lots of reasons for the "quality issues" of todays cars But to be fair (and I love the old ones)the thinner metal and plastic cars built today with engineered crush zones, airbags,etc are safe cars that go a long way with no required maint.(my wife's 97 chrysler has rolled 100K and only needed tires and brakes)few if any of the older car can claim these types of worry free runs.True they are mostly shapless globs but chrysler is doing neat things with thier cars ie pacifica, prowler, pt crusier and ect. SO there are some foresighted beancounters out there. Thou true enough none of the new designes will ever again match the art of the old imperials; --- dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Much of the reason for that is that the average > customer is not a car > enthusiast, so they don't care for character or > styling. Also, they don't plan > to keep the new car for very long, so they don't > care for quality of materials. > The US industry in particular has sunk compared to > the competition, primarily > I believe because the comanies are not run by > engineers as it used to be, but > by bean counters and MBA's with little to no > technical knowledge. > > D^2 > > Quoting "Woolf,Richard" > <richard.woolf@xxxxxxxxxxxx>: > > > The biggest problem with today's cars are the fact > they have no character or > > soul. Years ago you could tell what kind of car > was coming at you on the > > road. You would know the make/year/model. Look at > the character of the > > Imperials from the mid fifty's to until the early > seventy's. > > > > When will Detroit wake up? > > > > Rich Woolf > > > > > >