12th Dec 2012, 15:55
OK, so which '55 Mercury model do you own, because according to the Standard Catalog of American Cars, the '55 Mercury was 206 inches long. Just because you say your car is 22 feet long, doesn't make it true. I suppose you measured it with your tape measure in the garage?
12th Dec 2012, 16:45
Again with the misquoting, nobody is blindly saying that cars from the '70s are straight up better in every way. Fuel injection was a great invention that helped the big '80s Lincolns meet the stricter CAFE standards. But do cars today really need built-in movie players, computers, and internet?
The sad truth is that back then, people viewed their cars with pride, as an extension of themselves; hence, the styling had to be great and bombastic. Today, lots of people don't think much about their cars, and only see them as petty appliances to get them from point A to B. Back then, people actually worked on their cars and took care of them. Today, a lot of people just suck up the costs and take them to the overpriced dealers and mechanics for almost every repair. Why should cars be styled elaborately, when the market doesn't care and just wants a boring, reliable, efficient commuter car to get them around without problems? I'm not saying that the big cars from the '70s were unreliable, they were quite the opposite, but the market of today has to commute and drive around a lot more, and as a result, practicality is now a huge factor in cars.
CAFE standards played a huge role in destroying the larger cars; hence the switch to SUVs, which are completely impractical, but great for hauling stuff. But the market of today is being driven by other factors as well. Because of the lack of good jobs nowadays, people often have to commute long distances everyday. Most people, other than the better paid executives, need practical vehicles and don't have the time to pay personal attention to their cars anymore. It doesn't help that today's workforce in the US also works longer hours and gets paid less than previous generations.
If you have the time and money to pay personal attention to your cars and work on them yourself, good for you, you're one of the last people around who can do that. Practically all of the kids I graduated school with a few years back didn't know crap about cars, and didn't want to either. They just let some mechanic do all their work for them, and bit the bullet on servicing costs.
12th Dec 2012, 11:06
What is the appeal to prompt you to keep your 4 door Mercury for many years? What do you like most about it? It seems you are the resident expert. The cars you mentioned earlier are big buck cars, which I have owned and grew up in that era. I also made a lot of money off them.