Maggie's Farm

You know, the thing that irks me the most about the Big3 and the UAW and all their whining is that back in '98 I wanted to buy an American car. Out of respect to my old man who fought the Japs in WWII and had yet to even ride in one of their cars, I never even considered them. I had a '91 Cavalier convertible which I loved. But it was getting a bit long in the tooth and I wanted something new with keyless entry, nicer interior, etc. I wanted another Cavalier but one with all the bells and whistles. But, unfortunately 1998 was an election year and of course that means Detroit goes on strike. Only one to be found in central FL and that one was more down scale. Well as luck would have it, Dad had found himself out on church business and his Chrysler POS broke down and who shows up to give he and his buddy a ride but the pastor in his Toyota. Since the ice was broken at that point (though it still took some convincing from the pastor, I'm told) and I couldn't buy the American car I wanted, I bought an Eclipse. I didn't care so much for the Ecliplse beyond it being fun to drive so in 2002 it was between the Mustang or Solara. It was close and I'm sure I probably would have bought a Mustang if I had been able to buy a Cavalier back in '98, but again, the ice had been broken and the Solara said it got better gas mileage with more passenger room, so Solara it was. It's getting time to buy a new car, hmmm why should I now buy from these losers if they're go out of business?

F'em. I hope they go broke. Maybe they'll finally learn something. But I doubt it. Is my cynicism a sign that I know "the cost of everything and the value of nothing"? No, I think that sobriquet applies more to the pollyannas who think they can turn their fortunes around without making serous fundamental changes. And that last bit applies to shrinks to...damn, I did it AGAIN...it's a sickness...really...