Usually these chronicles of mine are the result of reflections I make on the way to work. It takes about 30 minutes, which I share evenly between activities such as listening to the radio, thinking about the long day ahead, driving (when traffic permits…) and «traveling in mayonnaise». Which is like saying, thinking about the most profound or absurd things (sometimes both at the same time…) while I don't reach my destination. And in Lisbon, at 8:00 am, in front of a traffic that insists on not going forward, what I do most is really “travel in mayonnaise”.
And on the last trip of this week, surrounded by traffic on all sides so as not to vary, I observed with different eyes the various generations of models from the same brand and the same segment over the years and the evolution is remarkable. There are no bad cars today. They were extinct.
You can go around the car market as much as you like, you won't find any objectively bad car. They'll find better cars than others, it's true, but they won't find bad cars.
Fifteen years ago we found bad cars. With reliability issues, horrendous dynamics and hideous build quality. Today, fortunately, that doesn't happen. Reliability now comes standard on any brand, as well as active and passive safety. Even the simplest Dacia Sandero makes many high-end cars blush with shame a dozen years ago.
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Comfort, air conditioning, electronic aids, convincing power and an attractive design are all items that are democratized. We no longer pay for it. And it's funny that it was the market economy and the ill-loved capitalism that provided us with these “acquired rights”.
Basically, the most substantial differences between models from different segments have blurred. The disparity in build quality, comfort and equipment between the basic B-segment and the luxury E-segment is no longer as great as it used to be. The base of the pyramid has evolved by leaps and bounds while at the top of it, the margin of progress has been relatively more difficult, expensive and time-consuming.
Is today's car for “all life”?
On the other hand, today no one expects their car to last forever, because it won't. Today the paradigm is different: that the car lasts without problems or hassles in its useful life cycle. Much shorter than in the past because in this world of trends and constant news, where everything starts with "i", the outdated is premature . And interest in the automobile is also easily lost. Except for some very “special” models.
So much so that many specialists have even decreed the “end of the era of classics”. A current of thought that none of today's cars — I'm talking about conventional models of course … — will ever achieve the status of a classic model.
It makes sense. Today, cars are mostly "appliances" , which do not wash dishes or clothes (but some already aspire…), extemporaneous in essence and without a character worth remembering.
This is the bad part of the evolution of some sectors in the automobile industry, mainly for “machine” fans like us. The good part is that today all cars without exception meet "Olympic minimums" of quality, safety and performance that leave us all with a smile on our faces. For a while of course...