Good timing for this episode on Car Freedom seeing as the annual Detroit Auto Show is going on this week.
I recall the late 60’s and 70’s when I would go to the Detroit Auto Show every year. Cars were associated with freedom in those days. I would have to say that the war on freedom has been going on for a long time and each year they take a little bit more away.
Back in the 70’s I had a job as a Mechanic doing prototype work in a non-union shop for Ford Motor Co. We got the overflow from the Ford Engine Garage and thus did a lot of the same work for half the pay and half the benefits. Anyway, the people there used to talk about Japanese Cars like they were junk because they kept changing things every few years and you couldn’t get parts for something that was only a few years old. Of coarse this had do with Federal Government Mandates requiring an average of 27 MPG.
At these Auto Shows I would see how the Japanese Auto Companies were putting newly designed engines on the market, often with 4 valves per cylinder and creative valve timing, then they would come out with something newer in a year or two which made the older engines obsolete and hard to find parts for. None the less, I knew they would get it right eventually and they did.
Mean while, back in Detroit they were still using engines designed 10 to 20 years earlier and often a new Model simply had a new front and back design with all of the same guts. I recall the 1978 Ford Granada being nearly identical to the 1977 Granada. Leaving the shop one Saturday I stopped and talked with the head of Environmental Emissions for Ford who was working with the shop welder. He was there working late on a Saturday because Ford had to have that car tested by the EPA the following Monday. Anyway, the quick fix was to have this welder install six (6) Catalytic Converters on this car with a V-8 engine. Retail price for these Cats would have been about $300 each at that time, (more than 10% of the cost of the car). A Catalytic Converter simply burns wasted fuel that is not burned in the combustion camber to reduce HC emissions going out the tail pipe. I never saw that many on a Japanese car.
I got Laid-off from that job because I would be heard saying things like “you can’t keep making junk and expect people to keep buying it”, but hell 1976 was GM’s most profitable year and they were sell mostly junk. I think it was the early 80’s before the shit hit the fan for Detroit Auto makers. So much for silencing decent, eh!
I think that the Toyota Truck for About $13,000 with no Air Bags mentioned in this episode is a great solution but it can not be sold in the USA. That needs to change. These AIPAC paid pawns that pretend to represent segments of the American people (Congress) have to be made to repeal all such unconstitutional legislation.
More/Source: https://corbettreport.com/car-freedom/