Go from building this in the beginning of the 20th century;



To building this in the end of the 20th century;



And now this?

 

I owned two K-cars like that.....a Plymouth Reliant and a Chrysler Lebaron, although I wasn't satisfied with either one, and didn't keep either one very long (only about a year). The Reliant was more reliable and slightly better-built than the lebanon, but had a cheap feel to it inside and out. The Lebaron was more classy inside and out, but was a lemon from Day One. After that (and earlier lemons from both Chrysler and GM), I converted to Japanese cars for a long time.

Like it or not, Detroit simply built a LOT of lemons in those days.....particularly smaller designs from GM and Chrysler.

 

My eyes. Owww my eye.

 

With all due respect, Och's thread has nothing to do with reliability of the cars he referenced.

 

He did use the word "build", not "design". But based on the limited context and the photos, as well as the recent thread on the XM, I think he did mean "design".

 

Last one kind of reminds me of Pumba from the Lion King

 

Yes, I meant built from the design standpoint. I am not an automotive history buff, but from what I see many cars from the early 20th century up to the end of the muscle car era had radical, yet tasteful designs with attention to details. Then at some point many cars became plain, miserable looking like the k-car, as if were designed by someone with zero imagination or love for esthetics. Then we had an era of automotive design renaissance, mostly started by the Japanese and followed by the Europeans, with so many gorgeous cars from the 90ies up until recent. But now it seems we are entering an era of automotive design degeneracy, with vulgar designs only plebs can appreciate.

 

Och, on this i'm with you that much automotive design has gone off the rails now, from the new 9000lb hummer, to some awful bmw designs, to truck front ends high enough to be prison guardiing towers, all because it feeds the egos of those that buy them. i mean WHY does the front of this need to be so high?

 

Sign of the times, lol. Soon enough this meme will become an actual design.

 

Also with due respect, I have to at least partially disagree. Och's words (and the thread-title) were how humanity could build something like the K-Cars....and my reply (which I don't see as off-topic) was how humanity could build cars with the kind of reliability/build-quality which K-Cars, Omni/Horizon, Volare/Aspen, and early-production GM X-Bodies represented.

 

Yeah Mike, sometimes you completely miss the point, lol.

I mean from the design standpoint, beauty standards have changed, and not just in auto design.

 

We had a 53 Olds when I was little.

 

How about this (putting on my flame suit now)

 

In reference to the Tundra and Silverado, I agree those massive grilles and front ends are ridiculous. Part of it may (?) be to just leave room underneath for big-block engines, but a more-likely reason is simply the Macho-Image the designers wanted to project. Somehow (and I don't necessary agree with this)...they seem to think that one's manhood is proportional to grille-size.

 

For those of us with severe OCD, one good thing about the massive grilles is we don't have as much paint to have rock chips to occur on.