Full Circle
on 04/27/2006 at 09:23 AM
I remember this, but barely. I was still very young. My parents ended up purchasing a ‘71 Datsun 510 wagon that we drove for years. I hated that car. Totally reliable, but about the most uncomfortable thing to ride in.
I had just bought a 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado (gas-guzzling beast) for my wife to drive while I was out on the road. We ended up trading it in real fast for a tiny little Mazda with a rotary engine that really sucked. I never heard the end of complaints about that car. The company car I drove all over the countryside on calls was a miserable Ford Maverick. Argh! I still have nightmares ...
I remember it well. I finished a project in upstate New York, where there were gas lines but no odd-even gas days, and drove to Richmond Virginia, which had odd-even tag gas days but I didn’t know it. Running on fumes, I pulled into a station, and they refused service even after I told my story. I left the car, walked to a friend’s house about a mile away, borrowed his tags, changed tags and filled up, changed tags back and drove off. What a bureaucratic joke that was.
Sometimes I think government seeks out authoritarian, non-logical people to hire so they can come up with and promulgate such lame-brained ideas.
I was not quite 13 when that started. We had always been little car people (poor or cheap, what’s the difference?) and had recently moved up to a “big” Chevy Vega from the VWs we used to have. Talk about a piece of junk car!
One thing I can say for the automakers, Skipper, is that the cars they sell today are so much better made than what was for sale in the early ‘70s. My present ride is 9 years old with 170K miles on it and is only on its 3rd set of tires. Doesn’t have any rust, doesn’t hardly burn oil, still gets good mileage, all the bits still work fine, it starts right up every day, and has never needed a new part aside from plugs, wipers, shocks and one brake job. Back in those days it was a miracle if you could get 100K from any car. It was also an act of love, because to get that much life from it you had to pour new parts into it left and right.
I was fortunate in one respect: due to the fact that we serviced electronics equipment in hospitals all of our technicians received official waivers from the government to buy gas on any day, regardless of tag number. Even then, we still had to contend with long lines and stations out of gas.
Cars are much better built today, Drew, but not because of the gas crisis. By the late 70’s the Japanese automakers were eating Detroit’s lunch with solidly built cars. The shoddy crap coming out of Detroit had to be re-tooled or go under. Chrysler almost went away (if not for Congress bailing them out).
On top of all that we had to contend with Jimmy Carter in the White House. Dark days, indeed. Thank God for Ronnie Raygun!
Those were dark days literally in Britain which resulted in power cuts and a three day week. Most of this was due to commie inspired union punks. Thank God for Margaret Thatcher and the Gipper!
I agree with you Skipper we don’t seem to have learnt much and though I have to agree with Drew the cars are vastly superior we still have an addiction to oil which we buy from tin pot dictators. Still at least Brent Crude comes from a good source!In Britain the leader of the opposition is showing his green credentials by planning to buy a hybrid car. I wouldn’t mind if the electricity came from renewable sources, but most electricity in Britain is generated from gas and coal. Only 10% is nuclear and these stations are on their last legs. The government is too spineless to build new nuclear stations because the tree huggers will scream bloody murder. They all bang on about wind farms but the output is pitiful. You would think that since the US put a man on the moon in 1969 we would have made some progress on developing better energy sources.
We seem to be only marginally better off. Mind you my diesel VW gets 48 miles on an imperial gallon so that cheer me up. Especially when a litre of diesel is over a £1 AAAHHHHJUST what I need, a whole hundred bucks. < /sarcasm> That’s about enough to fill my van 1 time. I’m handicapped and need a van for transport, either that or ride the stupid chair. Don’t think I’d ever make it the 150 miles to my cardologist
04/27/2006 at 02:01 PM
