Whilst driving to visit my family on the weekend, I managed to capture not one but two CCs on my dash-cam.
Only after uploading this video did I notice the (sold in Israel as) Oldsmobile Alero, video-bombing the Audi. Those were marketed here as pseudo-luxury cars, supposed to be upmarket automobiles, but predictably, nowhere near as good. The local importers tried their best, choosing to bring them into Israel as Oldsmobile and not Chevrolet but to no avail. Still, as you can see, some survived, being owned by punters much like the clientele in this Lumina post.
As for the Audi, these 1980s Audis are getting quite rare these days, although I did find another one and posted it here already. I have but one photo of another, similar vintage Audi 80, and although it’s also black I doubt it’s the same car. This was taken some years ago.
The Audi 80 has a resemblance to the Brazilian VW Fox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Gol#/media/File:1st-Volkswagen-Fox-Sedan.jpg
I’m always utterly amazed that anyone outside the US was willing to buy lame American sedans like the Alero and Lumina. If they want a bland generic car, why not opt for a Toyota that at least won’t fall apart in a couple of years?
The Alero was discontinued in 2004 making the car at least 13 years old. It has clearly lasted more than a few years.
I have noticed that people sometimes value domestic cars less than foreign cars. For example some people in Sweden will take what we in America consider an old beater over a new Volvo. People in Japan sometimes will purposely get a foreign car with the steering wheel on the wrong side, like a Chevy Astro over a domestically built model with the steering wheel on the correct side, like a Toyota. Some people in Europe will ignore a new Mercedes or Porsche, but go crazy over a Corvette or a Mustang, while in America the reverse would happen. Some people in Cuba chose 50+ year old American cars over brand new Ladas, Skodas, Dacias, etc. Some people in China think Buick makes the best cars, while in America it’s seen as a car for retirees.
People are sometimes blindly loyal to a brand or country of origin. There was a time when people regarded products from Japan as junk. Truth is cars today are global and many manufacturers buy parts from the same suppliers and sometimes even share the same design. Takata airbags is an example of this. American cars are sometimes not made in America, Japanese cars are sometimes not made in Japan. More and more they are both made in Mexico, soon they will be made in China.
I think you’re right about people’s desires. While many cultures would fawn over something iconic like a classic Mustang or Corvette, I understand Sloomis’s puzzlement over why anyone would desire a teenaged General Motors sedan that to you and me just represents uncompetitive and indifferent Middle America. I also understand how such a car might be a novelty for someone in Europe or Japan, or an outright point of pride and aspiration for someone in China. In a similar fashion, we Americans think Mercedes-Benz diesel sedans–old and new–are cool; meanwhile I’m sure Germans find them boring, since they’re used as taxis and are generally appliances there.
As far as your second paragraph, in 2017, I think the philosophy of a company’s headquarters or nationality matters far more than where it’s assembled. A 3-Series made in Mexico, if BMW is doing its job correctly, is going to be built to standards similar to one made in Germany and will likely drive the same. It will also be just as finicky.
What *is* a bigger factor, though, is who owns a particular automaker and supplies it with components. Going back to BMW, they own Rolls-Royce in full, and have for quite some time. Thus, Rolls-Royces are no longer old-fashioned superluxury cars hand-built entirely in some English railway town using parts from a menagerie of suppliers; they are high-tech, precision-engineered machines–as is the German way–with British coachwork and styling.
Yeah, I guess novelty alone is enough for some people. I did after all meet a guy once who spent the “fun car” fund that he saved up on a mint-condition ’89 Trabant…
Rolls Royces are now also pretty disgusting Statement cars made for Russian kleptocrats/Russian Mafia and Middle Eastern oil “shieks” and wealthy Italian and Russian Americans, no matter how well engineered they are and how well they work.
The last real British one, maybe one with the BMW engine if you like (did some come with that like some Bentleys?), is the last good one. Same thing with Bentleys which of course when they were really British were the same thing.
About your second paragraph…
Sometimes the cars built for certain markets, i.e. United States, tend to have lower quality parts as to be price-competitive.
My brother noticed the huge difference in his ex-wife’s Volkswagen New Beetle for the US and European markets. He had replaced lot of cheaper and unreliable parts with German-made ones for German market: the reliability improved dramatically and common issues such as spodical stalling disappeared.
The VWs have never been regarded as reliable in Europe, like Volvo or Mercedes, and (in the 50s-80s) the american cars. They have always been at the middle of the road, even less than middle of the road when it comes to reliability.
I noticed the difference between my Mexican-built 2015 Golf SportWagen TDI and my boss’s 2016 Golf R…too. Although the former was still competitive with other compact vehicles in our market. The Golf R just went that little bit *extra*, not to mention classy Euro-market options like a powered parking brake and more LEDs on the front lamps.
I think at this point after a whole model cycle of all Buick sedans and crossovers being Opels except the largest sedan and largest crossover which are bigger than any Opel, plus the advertising, a lot of people in the US are getting over the Buicks are for the Sun City crowd thing.
They want them because they’re considered, at least here in Israel, as the last “real” American cars (never mind that you and I would still pass over them in a heartbeat). I’ve explained that in the Lumina post (link above).
The Lumina is actually very reliable, but indeed very boring, much like a Toyota.
There must be some background music by Arik Einstein that would fit. I’ll have to look over my 40 year old records …..
Thanks, Yohai !
Actually, I was playing this through the car’s stereo, but YouTube’s copyright machine deleted the audio, so I had to pick a tune from the their audio library:
https://ok.ru/video/302561102532
The first rental car I ever drove was an Olds Alero, probably an ’03 or ’04 model (this was in January 2004). I had just graduated from college and was flown down to Florida for my first job interview. At the time it seemed like a big deal, having flights, rental car, and hotel all paid for by the company. I didn’t get that job, but if I had it would have meant I’d probably be living in Florida now, so maybe it was for the best.
My impression of the Alero was that it actually seemed like a pretty nice car, almost on par with an Accord. Driving it I was thinking GM finally had a car that was competitive with the Accord and Camry. Actually a coworker where I was an intern in college had an Alero as well, and as occasional passengers in it when we went out to lunch my coworkers and I had a similar impression of his. He seemed to regret buying it instead of an Accord, though. I can’t remember why; it might have been resale value or something like that. I mean, reliability might have been a different story compared to simply driving an almost new rental and being a passenger in one, since I never owned one I can’t comment on that.
Believe it or not, those were sold here in Austria at the time and if you’re lucky (?) you may get to see one at a curb, as some survived.