I'd estimate that a little less than half of my collection is American. America has made some pretty great cars.
Now if they'd learn to make a good interior...
They've got reliability and performance figured out, but a Dodge Viper shouldn't have a cheap plastic dash and the same goddamned controls you find in a Caravan.
It's my nostalgia for when I lusted after the tire melting hot rods of my youth. I don't much care about looks or comfort, and the saying "Watch out for the guy with an ugly car, all his money is in the engine" makes me feel pretty inside.
EDIT: "It's my nostalgia for when I lusted after the tire melting hot rods of my youth." I meant when I was still too young to have a license.
Ain't nothing wrong with roasting some tires now and again. Like a week ago, I spent the week driving around in a Mustang. This week is was a lovely un-restored Jaguar. So, I love variety. I love the different ways the cars excel, learning where the balance point is, and exploring their envelope.
Basically, they're also all investments. Well, most are. They appreciate better than many other investments. While I have no desire to sell most of the cars I own, I do see them as stores of value.
At the same time, I love the engineering and history behind them. In my life, I've driven many vehicles - and I can almost always come up with something nice to say about them.
I'd say the vast majority of performance improvements of the last few decades are due to computers, from computer aided design of slippery bodies and tuned intakes and exhaust, to the computer control of fuel mixtures and timing, along with them learning about quench areas and such (all good things). OTOH, I hear a lot of problems with Hemis suffering camshaft failures due to some part of the casting shadowing the oil splashing onto them, or transmission failures for Mopars and some weird Ford multiclutch thing. (although back in the '60's Ford had quite a rep for bad trannys to the point where they had TV ads showing someone smoking the tires between Drive and Reverse for an extended time to show they didn't break anymore). I also watch a lot of "Uncle Tony's Garage" on youtube where he's posted several times about even brand name parts for lifters, breaker points (for old cars) etc. breaking within a few days or even minutes. I guess I'm just a glass half empty kinda guy. I also guess that's why I seem to like poal.
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