Re: Packard in the New York Times

Posted by PackardV8 On 2011/4/26 22:10:43

THe passing of American legendary icons is definately not limitied to Packard or even other legendary cars.
With the onslaught of hand held electronic devices, GPS, Blackberries, Ipods etc even such names as Elvis, Beatles and Coca-Cola are passing into lack of popularity. THis has occured over the last 10 to 12 years.
Historically, the success of the automobile in America in general was due to it's relatively unlimited adventure on demand service availability. Witness names of cars from the beginning up thru the late 70's such as Adventurer, POntiac, DeSoto and at least 20 others we could all name off real quick. Since the mid 80's these names have been replaced with such candy ass car names as Prius, Sophia, celebrety etc.

No longer, since about 1980 does the car represent anything of an adventure. The hand held e-device has taken that place.

However, it becomes a question of which cam first, the chicken or the egg???? To a great extent the loss of the automobile as a sign of adventure after the mid 70's is due to it's rather diminutive size and lack of comfort and hauling capacity. Even Coca-Cola no longer tastes as good as it did for decades up until about 12 years ago. Rarely see anyone of any age group drinking more than one coke a day. Bottled water seems to be the rage as irrational as that seems.

The average American stands up and complains of $4.00/gallon gas while holding a $2.00/gal bottle of water while gas there in the EU is what, about $6.00/ gallon???

The only adventure now is as far as a Blackberry or GPS will take us on a tiny CRT. God forbid we have to find our way out the driveway with out a GPS.

The passing of legendary American icons is direct result of an attempt to social immobilzation.