12/01/2006 (10:59 am)
We love our cars
I was looking over some statistics on car ownership recently and was intrigued by how much Americans love their automobiles.
With all the doom and gloom about the auto industry recently, it’s pretty clear that cars are here to stay despite some inevitable consolidation and retrenchment in the industry.
Did you know, for example, that about 16,663 households in Monroe County have three or more vehicles? That’s about 28 percent of the total households.
As I pondered these facts, my mind drifted back to the first car I ever owned – a Pontiac LeMans, silver, black vinyl roof, power windows, power brakes (when power still was a rarity) and bucket seats.
It was a cool car.
Then I was reminded of some of the cheap thrills I’ve had in cars doing this job. Once I was testing a new onboard navigational system (when they still were relatively novel) on a late-model vehicle and was trying to drive fast enough so that the satellite fed system couldn’t keep up. I did get ahead of it just a little bit at 105 mph on I-75.
Then there was the time I was a passenger in a BMW sedan driven by a professional test driver. The car was equipped with a new brand of Tenneco shocks. “Where’s some real bumpy road?” he asked me. Since we were tooling south on I-75, I suggested we visit the triple rail crossing on S. Otter Creek Rd. He veered into the exit lane and took the circular ramp at about 55. You could feel the outside wall of the front left tire start to crumple under in the turn. We came out of the sweeping loop fine (though a little woozy) and headed west, bound for the tracks. I think we were going 70 when we hit the first one. The car handled it well but still was trying to recover when we hit the second. The car went airborne and we skipped the third rail entirely.
Boy, I’d love to try that again!
2 Comments
Comment by S A
That sounds like fun. I’m sure most of us – Americans that is – have so many memories tied to automobiles. That said, I think the over-ownership thing is mostly related to an inability to efficiently get around without one. After living in a city not-in-Michigan, the Motor City influence was obvious when I returned.
Comment by V. Rogers
I don’t know how old you are but Monroe has an exceptional love of cars. I remember the Dixie drive-in and the parade of cars through there in the late 60’s mostly. It was gone by 74-75 I think. Then there was the parade through the shopping center. Everyone would line up and face Monroe street. Sooner or later a Hemi-Cuda or Camaro from Southgate or Toledo would parade in front of the shopping center on a flatbed trailer and everyone knew there would be a race either on the quarter mile stretch of LaPlaisance or smack dab in front of my parents house on M-50. The pavement in front of our house marked the beginning of that stretch that ended at the light at Raisinville. My parents bedroom window faced the road, and although my dad would jump up and curse, he would always linger long enough to identify the two cars racing, but not to call in a complaint. He was taking in the competition. Somewhere in the recesses of my memory when I was 5 years old, I remember being with my dad in his 57 Ford while racing his buddy, with his young son, in his 57 Chevy down I-75. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be there, albeit, pinned to my seat from the speed. It’s something you won’t see happen anymore, probably for good reason, but I’m glad it was my experience, my memory.
To this day, I love to look at old cars, and look forward to cars of the future. I just read about an electric car that got winging up to 248 mph. Trouble is they haven’t figured how to gear it down just yet. Sounds like the start of the Jetson’s era and little rocket cars which would be interesting, no rubber, no gas!
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