In article <1142599955.400430.124930@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups .com>,
"butch burton" <spacetrax@wi.rr.com> wrote:

> In the past 10 years there have been precious few real advances
> in autos -

the SOLE reason to trade up every 5 years or so, at least so far, would
be safety. Advances in safety are very meaningful. A car that was
ultra-safe 5 years ago could easily be bested today by a safer model.

Other than that....I've come to the conclusion that I want a car with
power locks and windows and mirrors, and cold A/C, and a good stereo,
and leather seats, and an automatic transmission, and.....that's it.
Period. All the other crap? Dual zone climate control, navigation,
fifteen way seats, etc, etc, are things destined to break.

So take the money and time and effort that went into the bells and
whistles, and put it into making the car WORK WELL and BE RELIABLE.

I want a car that WORKS. Every time. Without my even thinking about it.

Pay attention to consumer goods. Take treadmills, for example. The
sub-$1000 treadmills are chock full of blinking lights and buttons and
programming that no one will ever use--but, like peacock feathers, those
are the things that attract people.

Under the hood, though, are wimpy motors and treads.

Now go find a treadmill that has no bells and whistles, has nothing but
a speed control and an incline control. I bet it's $3000 or so. Why?
Because that treadmill's incline motor is twice as beefy, powerful, and
reliable as the $800 units's tread motor. And the expensive one's tread
motor is godawful heavy and designed to be used and designed to last.

Many years ago, Sony released to the Japanese market an integrated
amplifier with no tone controls whatsoever. It was very expensive; Sony
claimed that it was so good, there was no need for tone controls (kids,
this was prior to "equalizers") and in fact they didn't want users of
this equipment messing with anything like tone controls.

Their US consumer stuff, on the other hand, is nothing BUT bells and
whistles--with nothing under the hood to speak of.

But hey, those bells and whistles attract people who are willing to part
with their money, so...