Today, the movie Fun with Dick and Jane was in the telly and the main character drives at the start a BMW E30. At a scene at the start of the move its neighbour buys a brand new S500, and shows the main character how the car starts remotely by a button in the key.
This made me wonder. In the olden days those car manufacturers which are now considered premium, a word that was probably invented by someone who doesn’t like cars, were just manufacturers of high quality cars. There were pretty much no gizmos to be had, and marketing wasn’t as advanced as it is now.
So cars couldn’t rely on intangibles, and therefore they were made to be good. Take my car for instance. It has no special features. Leaving aside the wrong mechanical layout (and associated silly handling characteristics) it is just combination of good ingredients nailed together in the best possible way. As a result even 17 years and 152.000km later the car feels as tight as a drum and it goes, stops and grips very well.
Does that happen with today’s, so-called, premium cars? I don’t think so. There undoubtedly good cars to be had out there, but today most of all they are just badges. There’s no high quality ingredients put together in a no non-sense package. These days everything has to be justified and shown to the world with big shiny badges and names, otherwise it’s just seen as useless.
Of course in today’s impatient world, and easily accessed internet information, figures, features and acronyms are more important than ever, but perhaps we should take a bit of time to properly enjoy what matters and not devour all new cars at the speed of light.