Friday, February 19, 2010

Built to Last??

We bought both of our cars within months of each other in 2003. In the last 12 months, they have almost literally begun to fall apart. We have dropped thousands of dollars into both of them, and they continue to almost on schedule, have problems. Just replaced a windshield on the Alero, the Aztec has a crack below the dash all the way across. Both need new rotars and brakes. One needs a coolant leak fixed the other has some leak that goes into the passenger floor board. That one is ok because it is just water...nothing toxic getting onto our feet at least! The Aztec has a grinding in the front wheel axel. Hey Detroit...or should I say, US Government or whoever bailed out the car makers (us?), stop making crumby cars!!! Americans can't be expected to purchase a new car every two or three years. Well, I guess they do and so we do keep buying cars every two or three years. It is ridiculous. A car is something that should last. I would be appalled if my refrigerator bailed out on me every two or three years. We expect those to last many, many years, and yet a car, that costs 10 to 20 refrigerators, needs to be replaced often. I don't think two items that we paid almost 40,000 dollars to purchase should be falling apart in seven years. I wonder if the government will bail me out when the cars eventually die, or when I go broke trying to fix them, or better yet, maybe the government could just give me the money that they gave to the car dealers so I could buy a car now then turn around and buy another one in three years, then again in another two years, then in three years... I think the auto industry is just fine; they haven't skipped a beat in sticking it to the American/worldwide consumer.
Now, lets talk about the banks and their rising credit/loan rates...