Driving off a cliff

     People are always amazed when I help them discover how older cars were superior to the "modern" concoctions from the corrupt Big Three Automakers of America.  Ten years before the indestructible JEEP of the 1940s, the Chrysler (and De Soto) "Airflow" cars were well-made, sturdy, safe, beautiful vehicles!  

     The company founder, Walter P. Chrysler, was its biggest supporter.  Similar to what happened to the amazingly innovative Tucker car (named the Torpedo), the Airflow never dispelled nasty untrue rumors of safety.  
     If social media existed, the truth might've saved many upstanding American businesses from being beaten/overtaken by corrupt ones.  If people had been less gullible--not to believe the lies/rumors in American media--such losses would've been avoided.
     In addition to its avante-garde sleekness of wind-resistance (fuel efficiency), it had roominess & double-doors!

     Alas, Mr. Chrysler died in 1940, and post-war America promptly succumbed to cheapness, veneer, inferiority, and over-priced crap.  
    You won't believe this until you go online and watch a video "1934 Chrysler Airflow Goes Over the Cliff and Drives Away | Road and Track":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFl5pEe-7uo


     It shows such an early all-steel car with shatter-proof glass, seat belts, roll-over protection, and the car's ability to drive away after being flipped and pushed off a cliff!  

     Modern cars could never do that.  They're not meant to survive; they're designed to make owners pay for repairs... or buy new cars.  Nowadays, "crumple zones" instantly create a wrecked car--even after a minor bump.  Plastic and poorly-made electronics ruin cars.

Who profits from that?

(That explains why America never wants to take precautions against pandemics, weather disasters, or vehicular accidents. Too many greedy industries make profits from repairs, so they don't want preventive things to stop the calamities.  Why do Americans pay taxes for such a system?)

     Unfortunately, Americans believed the rumors/false advertising and shunned those well-made products.  Instead, they opted for huge hunks of steel, laden with shiny things.  

That's why only American society has elderly drivers who can't maneuver the super-sized vehicles that they still cling to.

     Instead of consumers embracing fuel efficiency and well-made construction (like Europeans and Asians did),

... they went for inefficient, poorly made, "muscle cars"... and drove their paychecks--and the economy--into the ditch.

I guess humanity hasn't matured much during millennia.

See more about it in my prior blog entry:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2016/04/where-did-great-american-cars-go-into.html