Between environmental regulations and insurance company profiteering, it spelled doom for the auto industry, particularly the US auto makers by the early 1970's.
It's been all downhill since.
There are literally 100's of computers and computer related components in even the simplest and cheapest vehicles.
CAN Buses make it impossible for an average owner to diagnose and fix.
The last of your local garage "fixable" cars rolled off the assembly line in the 1990's.
The chances of any car or truck made today making it to a 50th year car show are.... zero.
Support for their computers and sensors will evaporate shortly after the warranty expires, until their production stock is depleted.
Worse yet, critical components such as cooling system components, intake manifolds, and all the clips and support brackets that hold it all together, are made of plastic.
The kind of plastic made to disintegrate in a specific time frame.
And I am not talking about an entry level Kia.
Porsche, Alfa-Romeo, Maserati, Audi all suffer from this self-destructing plastic.
Cars that cost six-figures new are now selling for $5k, less than ten years later, because the cost of replacing all the broken plastic exceed the cars value.
That plastic won't last either, because Chances are, it's as old as the ones that were originally made.
I saw a video of a man who bought a 7-year-old Porsche Cayenne for $5K and showed, detail by detail, why he regretted buying it.
He dumped another $7K into it before he had to give up on it.

He should have bought a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass. He'd still be driving it ten years from now.

"Let automakers build the cars people want rather than the ones authoritarians seek to force upon us."

Great idea, but it's never gonna happen. Big Brother knows what's best; just ask him. That genie is never going back into the lamp.

All of those "enhancements" have their places, but the important part is that they should be voluntary.

Whenever hubs and I go anywhere, I drive. We go in his car, though, because it's newer and safer. But the first thing I do when I get in the car is turn off that damned lane assist. That thing scares me to death. Hubby likes it and uses it when he's driving by himself. But that's not even important. What IS important is to have the choice.

So, even though my choices would be different, I'm with you in that we should get that choice.

A response that's more direct than the one I left on Freedoms post:

"The Many are Punished, because of a few and in Favor of a few, by those of the few and not of the many."

With freedom of choice, many of these items may have become a wanted standard feature but most importantly, should never be considered illegal to be without those features.
Both choices get worked out in a free market, To Have or Have not . . .

Heh heh. Cynical me expects DOGE to be soon forgotten and dismantled so DC business as usual can move forward, but in the meantime maybe some good can come out of it.

RE: your last comment:
Don't count on DOGE. Buy more ammo.
D.C. is a target rich environment. ;^)

Eric Peters hits the nail on the head every time I've read any of his articles.

Indeed. I absolutely HATE vehicles that shut off at every stop regardless of how short the stop may be as I was forced to have when renting a vehicle on a trip. On another trip I ended up with a vehicle that had lane correction and almost had a sideswipe collision. I was in the second lane on a four lane section of highway when the person on my right started encroaching on my lane so being clear I just started to move to my left to avoid collision - the damn car "grabbed" the steering wheel and tried to force me to the right back into the lane. Scary piece of Schiff!!! At least I was able to override the computer and force the car to the left anyway. I was later told if I put on my left signal the computer wouldn't have taken over - yeah, right, I'm about to get smacked and I have to worry about an effing signal to appease a computer.

Way too many busy body control freaks allowed to run lose in government. I hope DOGE fires them all!!!

The more I see of newer vehicles the more I like our 1992 D250 with the Cummins Engine. Best small-truck engine ever made.

So one day at Walmart a guy says to me, "I had one of those and like an idiot I sold it. You want to sell me that one?" I replied, "Do I look like an idiot?"

My brothers once had a '57 Chevy station wagon. The good ones on eBay look like they are going between $30,000 and $180,000. Had we but known!

Good article, LibertyPen. 👍
You have an ally in Eric Peters at https://www.ericpetersautos.com/categ...