26th Oct 2009, 12:46
You said in the review that most of what went wrong with the car was because of your tinkering and experimentation, so why the 6 out of 10 for reliability? You also said that the cockpit was rather comfortable and then gave it a 5 out of 10.
It's just too bad that we didn't have foresight when we were younger. I was lucky to purchase my car slightly after high school, and am equally lucky that my dad cared enough about me to help with the car, otherwise it would be in someone else's garage right now. If we could only see the future and all those zero's on the checks that purchase these cars today, I doubt anyone that sold them back in the day would part with their ride, knowing it would be next to impossible to buy one now for the average person.
But I guess that's part of why the value is so high right now, everyone wants one, the ritzy rich, the average, to the people living below the poverty line.
The new Challengers are still out of the price range for most of the potential buyers. If the government and auto makers want to restrict the purchasing of performance cars, why don't they make it an even playing field instead of allowing only the wealthy to dictate the market. It happens all the time; one person believes they know what's best for everyone, and convinces other people to follow their cause like lemmings. Idiot politicians and bureaucrats, who probably haven't ever driven a muscle car, stopping or at least waning the sales of muscle cars, forcing the auto makers into making production changes, is one of the biggest reasons so few cars such as ours exist today, in turn adding to the value.
Even the automakers ruined some of the models like the Cuda/Barracuda by offering smaller, lighter, cheaper performers such as the Duster. I guess when we keep giving them 800 billion dollars every time the economy turns to crap, they just stay in control. Since Obama was elected, over 1.5 trillion dollars has bailed out companies that were in trouble. 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS! How many people live in the world, 6 billion, how about the next time the government has a brain fart, they give the money back to the people that have been paying taxes their entire lives. 1.5 trillion divided by 330 million, hows that for economic stimulus.
28th Sep 2006, 11:35
Update to the original post:
My barely one year ownership experience was due to the car needing increased maintenance attention when I had school and work to contend with. The crummy mileage didn't help either (turns out there was a hole melted through a piston, and not by me) so I traded the Cuda for a Honda. My economy tripled overnight and the maintenance requirement went to almost zero. Of course the performance and fun factors also went to zero, but life is flawed. The Cuda was an experience that won't be soon forgotten and I'd have one again today were it not for the astronomical prices they are fetching.