I have to say, Sunday a few weeks ago was a real hoot.
The third Sydney AutoSpeed meeting - a cruise - had been organised; and considering that it was starting less than fifteen minutes from home, it seemed like a good opportunity to attend and meet a couple of the guys. (As an anti-sexist comment I'll add "and gals" here, although when I say "guys" it's usually not sex-specific. Well, you know what I mean!).
Anyway, I'm not going to go into the boring details of where we met, where we stopped, what I ate for lunch, etc. Nor will I go into the details of how my revenge will be exacted upon RS Turbo for having his RS when I lost mine (because then he'll be expecting it when it comes), nor how the quad round tail-lights of a Skyline coupé are one of the best designs to see in heavy fog (which they are). Nor will I report how a certain bunch of people are unable to control themselves given a RWD turbo car, rain, and a roundabout; nor how a certain RB30E-powered Skyline Silhouette allegedly couldn't accelerate faster than an old Volvo (ooh, that'll get back!). But suffice to say the AutoSpeed readers seem like a great bunch of guys, and when we've finished insinuating into key positions of power in the communications and political arenas, the world will become a better place.
Oh, and I'd recommend going along to an AutoSpeed event, should one pop-up near you. You might even get to see a Fiat with an FJ20T implanted into it! (evil grin, knowing the in-joke was stolen from someone else ...).
I've been thinking about the other end of the car market; the shallow end of the pool that I have little interest in paddling in. This is the end where such luminaries as Excel (Accent), Satria, Festiva, Barina (Corsa) and Ka play; and unless my senses are wrong, the water seems a bit less clear, a little warmer and shallower. To put it bluntly, it smells slightly of ... well, urine. The reason I'm thinking about these cars is that they seem so temporary, with built-in obsolescence becoming more and more obvious until it seems to actually have become a design feature.
As a case in point, I'll gesture towards the new Ford Ka. Now, I haven't driven one, so I can't hassle the thing on its dynamics (because I've heard and read that they're fairly good). And I can see the merits in "appropriate technology", so I don't really have a problem with the Ka having pretty much the same engine as my 1970 Escort had, with fuel injection bolted on (and less power, I might add, than my mate's '71 Escort GT!).
But what is the deal with those nasty fall-apart plastic exterior panels?
Ford had a Ka in their Discovery Centre in Geelong, which I checked-out as a part of a recent trip down the Great Ocean Road. I had a good poke around it then, and the first thing that struck me was how crappy the front and rear ends are. They've got these enormous plastic panels that wrap around the sides of the wheel-arches, and which seem to discolour even if you just look at them too hard. If they are painted, the paint matching never seems right on these sorts of plastics, and if they are unpainted, they always look daggy before long.
For an example, have a look at a CC Mitsubishi Lancer (not in white, white seems OK) with original factory paint; look at how the colour of the bumpers doesn't quite match the car, probably because of the bumper-bar's texture. And for an example of the mess the unpainted ones get into, have a look at a Barina (Corsa), or even worse, the Combo van that's based on it ... If it has been sitting outside for even only a year or two, the grey plastic around the wheel-arches will have gone almost white, it'll be water-marked and just generally nasty-looking.
Of course, this sort of thing isn't going to make any of these cars any less reliable, but it has to hurt the often already-poor resale prospects. I suppose some buyers might like the style of those large plastic parts, and the shapes might be hard to produce in metal. Mind you, I don't know how
large the vapid "it's so cute" market really is, anyway. My mid 20's sister isn't particularly interested in cars, yet thinks the new budget mobiles like Ka and Toyota Echo (Yaris) to be joke designs...
Why does any of this concern me? Well, the Volvo needed a bit of a polish before anyone on the "cruise" saw it, and I was lamenting the appearance of new rust and spread of the existing metal-cancer. It annoys me, making me wonder if I should just get a new car ... but really, all I can
realistically afford is one of these low-end cheapies that seem increasingly designed to get into a state that I'm trying to avoid. And I'm just as likely to say "I was wrong all these years. 4WDs are great. Go and buy one." So it looks as though the Volvo might get something done to it; or more
specifically, I'll use another car that's not much more than a shell.
It'll probably cost me as much as a new 4-door Excel all-up, but once it's done, it'll be something that (relatively speaking) can last forever, be more interesting to drive, and if it's good enough, it'll be better on depreciation than a one year old Excel.
And maybe people will believe me that the Volvo version of Mr Snuffleupagus does actually exist; there can be such a thing as a fast Volvo. Well, fastish...
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