Automobiles

A few months back Ford Motor Company announced that it will soon cease production of all cars except the Mustang and focus on selling SUVs and pickups.  That was a shock to me.  No cars?  I wonder if other manufactures will do the same?

When in D.C. a few weeks back, I made an effort on a few occasions to consider the vehicles on her roads.  What got me interested was when standing on a street corner a new Ford F-150 drove by.  It struck me that I was not seeing pickups.  While I did not conduct any official survey and only considered vehicles randomly, I think I saw only a dozen F-150’s and a very few GMC trucks and maybe only one Dodge.  Just a few pickups in masses of vehicles!

I remember sitting on a park bench about 6 PM on a Monday evening waiting for a bus so I focused in on the traffic in front of me.  Over and over, twenty or so, vehicles would stack up behind a traffic light and I would do a count and over and over there were more cars than SUVs and pickups combined.  At the airport and a couple of other locations where many taxis piled up, there were far more cars than SUV’s or mini-vans used as taxis.  In the government area of D.C., cars still seem to be the preferred means of road transportation.

Dad has talked about life in the thirties on a small farm in north central Kansas.  His father only had a car – no truck or pickup.  To take a hog to town, they would hitch a wagon to the car.  To take corn to town, they would hitch a wagon to the car.  To take the family into town for Saturday night events or Sunday to church (15 kids but the most home at any one time was around 10), they did NOT use the wagon.  Rather, the older boys, the girls, and the babies would join Grandpa and Grandma in the cabin and the two or three young boys would ride on the outside of the car either on the running boards or draped over a front fender hanging onto a headlight.  What a scene!  Going to church eating grasshoppers!  Hopefully they were not following another vehicle too closely or their hair, faces, and ears were plastered with dust!

In my garage sits a car that is 50 years old.  Doesn’t that sound old?  It is, but to me it doesn’t seem that old just like I don’t seem as old as I am (and often I remind myself and often I am told I need to act my age – humm!).  A hundred years ago, cars were finally becoming a mainstay in American homes.  And so much has improved since those days.  The car in my garage has factory air-condition and crank up windows.  Fifty years ago many, if not most, cars did not have factory AC and only a few had power windows.  Much has changed.

I have not been a big plus for auto dealers in that I have only purchased three cars directly from a dealer.  Furthermore, from August of 1981 to November of 2011, I bought NO cars!  That is 30 years!  That has got to be close to some record.  (During that time I had six cars given to me – nice cars, I’d add.  I don’t think it was because I was whining or because I was driving rust bombs with blue exhaust.  I have just lived a weird life – but then, you know that.)

Today I proudly own six vehicles.  The Mercury Milan that Janet drives (I had interest in this car for it was produced near the end of the Mercury era and both new cars I bought some 50 years ago were Mercurys).  The Blazer that I drive which does not have a lot of miles but it’s 20 years are showing.  The 1976 Pinto which I bought in 1978 from my uncle.  The 1969 Cougar (I bought a new ’69 Cougar).  A 1971 Ford pickup that Janet’s uncle leased from a KC dealer in 1971, sold it to her dad, and I bought it from him.  And a 1968-69-70-71 Ford Highboy pickup.

I am an auto guy with old autos – old like me!