Having driven a number of Toyotas to more than 100,000 miles with little if any problems, and now driving a Hyundai Santa Fe with 104,000 miles and few, if any, problems, I used to wonder what was wrong with American car companies.
Why couldn't they build a car that lasted? That's engine ran as smoothly at 100,000 miles as it did when it was new? (And I'm telling you right now, the Hyundai, at 104,000 runs as smoothly and easily and quietly as it did new.)
Then I spent three weeks in a Ford Focus.
American car companies are doomed. They can't even make a decent cup holder.
My Ford was a 2006 model, 38,000 miles on it, which I ended up driving after my kid got hit by a girl in a parking lot and the rental company wouldn't rent him a replacement car (he's 18) but would rent me one, if he could drive my car. And for those who read the GEICO SUCKS diary, my son's car still isn't fixed. It's almost been two full months. Geico really sucks, but that's another subject.
Anyway, I end up in the Focus, and I always thought the American problem was one of basically coming up with an engine that would run smoothly for a long, long time and keep stuff inside the car from rattling after a while.
I thought, Can't they just buy a Toyota and take it apart and figure out how to build it themselves? That doesn't sound so hard. They can buy a hundred. A thousand. Whatever it takes. Surely if you can have something and take it apart, you can figure out how it works and how to duplicate it, especially if you're an automotive engineer.
So I was a little surprised and disappointed to find that even when it's only two years old, less than 38,000 miles, the engine on the Focus already sounds like it's laboring. It makes an annoying noise, sounding like it's in pain. Not take-me-to-the-garage pain, just... I don't get around as easily as I used to. That sort of pain. And it doesn't have much power.
But the more I drive it, the more little things stand out. The turn signal is annoyingly loud. Really annoying. I noticed it more than I ever have in any car. It's just loud! I didn't even want to use it, and I hate people who don't use their turn signals.
Then, the cup holders start to really annoy me. They're in difficult to reach places. Two way behind the emergency brake, so that I have to twist my arm around to get a cup in there, and these are the normal cup holders.
The other two are even worse. They're way down in front, kind of by my right leg while I'm driving and that cup holder is enormous. For a Big Gulp or something ridiculous like that. It's huge. And it has an odd feature... a quarter of it is missing. Just cut out. (Made that way, not vandalized.) I mean, you have three-fourths of a circle and then a big gap, and I guess if you had a Big Gulp and always drank that, it wouldn't be a problem.
But if you put a normal-sized drink in there, it falls out! Onto my leg that's working the accelerator! Not a good place to have a drink spilling and then the cup rolling around.
Why would anyone build a cup holder that doesn't hold cups? I don't understand.
There's a not-so-huge cup holder on the other side, way in front, next to the passenger's left leg. It's not normal size, but not huge. I try that one, but it, too, has a quarter of it missing. I lose another drink, spilling onto the floor mat. It just slides out.
Why would anyone design a cup holder this way?
So I have two with holes in the sides and two that are nearly inaccessible from the front seats. Ridiculous.
Then I get gas.
The guy who decided to put those little plastic rings around gas caps has no doubt saved millions of people from driving off without their gas caps at gas stations. What a great idea! A tiny ring of plastic, and nobody ever loses their gas cap again. This is innovation at its best. Makes sense. Easy to use. Inexpensive. Saves tons of people money and the inconvenience of needing to replace a gas cap.
The Focus has no little plastic ring. You could take the gas cap off and hurl it into space or do anything you want with it.
How the hell can they not have a plastic ring on their gas caps in 2007? I mean... how much thinking does it take to realize, this is a great idea. A great, cheap, money-saving idea? How much?
And they still don't have one on a Ford. I really don't get that. Are they just not even trying?
I had a rental in Dallas this summer. Can't remember the make and model, but it was an American car. It had what I'm sure some guy thought was a great safety feature.
Every time you got into the car and started it up and took off, if you didn't lock every door in the car, the car did it for you. I'd just be starting to drive, and I'd hear this big pop all around me. It was the car locking all the doors.
Startled me every damned time it happened. They must have made it a bit louder, to let you know they were locking your doors, that they'd made that helpful decision for you.
I don't lock myself in when I'm driving. I've been hauling kids around for 18 years. They're usually getting in or getting out somewhere with me driving. If I'd bought that stupid car, I'd have been constantly unlocking doors that I hadn't locked in the first place, so the kids could get in and out. I would probably have been losing my gas cap and spilling drinks for lack of a complete, well-placed cup holder, too.
And taking my car into the shop and being annoyed at the loud engine.
If I'd bought an American car.
Amazing. And they wonder why they can't compete?
Couldn't believe it when I gave up the Focus and got my Hyundai back. It purrs. Smooth as can be. It has complete cup holders I can reach easily. No holes in the sides. A gas cap I'll never lose. It doesn't lock my doors against my will and scare me while I drive. Nothing is rattling.
Oh, forgot the steering wheel on the Focus. It's one of those hard plastic ones, and it's already showing wear and tear. Just little holes worn through here and there. Nothing like that on the Hyundai yet, at 104,000 miles. (Ford couldn't melt down a steering wheel and see what it was made of? And use something that didn't wear down?)
Apparently, they couldn't.
That's not to mention their incredible stupidity over gas mileage. Ford has a new commercial where a guy looks into their biggest SUV and says, "If you fold down the seat, you could put a bed back there. It's that big!"
Because I need to drive around everyday with enough room for a full-sized bed in the back of my SUV. Just in case. With gas at $90 a barrel.