Saturday, May 17, 2008

 

Some Lead, Others Follow....

As anyone who knows me well can tell you, I am a big fan of the Mustang. Of the seven cars I have owned over the years, four have been some form of Mustang. (This includes my Mercury Capri, which was essentially a Mustang with a Mercury nameplate.)

So it should not be surprising that I have a certain disdain for the Chevy Camaro, which GM originally produced to compete with the Mustang. When Chevy announced a few years ago that they were discontinuing the Camaro, along with the Pontiac Firebird, my first reaction was, "We win!"

At the time, GM said that they planned to bring the Camaro back in a few years, and last year I heard that the new version would be out for the 2009 model year. So today I searched for some pictures of the reborn Camaro. Bottom line: I wasn't bowled over. Essentially, Chevrolet has taken one of the classic versions of the Camaro ('69) and updated it a bit. Sound familiar? Yep, that's what Ford did with the Mustang -- updating the 1971 pony car that was made famous by Steve McQueen in the movie Bullitt. The big differences here are:
  1. The Mustang did it first.
  2. No Steve McQueen (or anything even remotely equivalent) for the Camaro
  3. I ain't a Mustang.

I could also add the absence of Carroll Shelby, who returned to Ford a few years back. But Automobile magazine delivered an unintentional, yet truly backhanded compliment that also smacked DaimlerChrysler's entry in the retro muscle car market:

"Just to prove that German automakers aren't the only ones who plan products based on what their rivals have done, GM comes out with the Camaro--a retro-styled, two-door coupe with a honking big V-8 that harks back to the glory days of Motown. If that sounds familiar, that's exactly what Ford did with the Mustang. Hot on the heels of the Pony car's success, DaimlerChrysler has dusted off the Challenger and Chevy has produced a new Camaro, a nameplate that was more recently interred."

Ford, usually for the better and occasionally for the worse, has never done anything with the Mustang based on what its rivals have done. The Mustang was the original pony car, and when design changes were reactive, they were based on general changes in the market or what Mustang enthusiasts wanted (oops, demanded), not what the competition did. (I also have to wonder how that "honking big V-8 is going to fare in a market dealing the $4 per gallon gasoline -- I do intend to eventually get another Mustang, but I will pass on the GT version.)

Thus does the original remain the original 44 years later.

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

 

Now here's a candidate with a REAL problem....

OK, so you thought Obama had a problem with his pastor? McCain has a problem because the moderates in has party think he's gotten too cozy with the Religious Right and the conservatives don't trust him? Hillary has a problem because...well, because she's Hillary? Now here is a guy running for office who truly has a problem. And the bigger problem may actually be that he doesn't think there is a problem, since he's actually still considering running.

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