It is important to remember the way things were – as a way to measure how things are – now. It is especially important to convey facts about the way things once were to those who are not old enough today to remember how they were.
So that they may come to appreciate how things are now – relative to the way they once were.
In 1979, my parents bought a new Oldsmobile 98. I remember the day they brought it home because even though I was a kid and not old enough to drive I already was very much interested in cars. But that is not what I want to remember. Rather, I’d like to recall what Americans once took for granted.
Such as full-sized, rear-wheel-drive luxury sedans with V8 engines that cost less than a current-year entry-luxury compact-sized sedan with a four cylinder engine.
A ’79 Olds 98 stickered for $9,424 – equivalent in degraded 2024 dollars to $43,324 today. It was, at the time, second only to a Cadillac Sedan de Ville (among GM vehicles) and comparable in status to a Lincoln Continental. It came standard with a 350 cubic inch (5.7 liter) V8 engine and you could order a 403 cubic inch (6.6liter) V8.
It was 220.4 inches long and rode on a 124 inch wheelbase. A 2024 BMW 7 Series, which is the biggest (and top-of-the-line) sedan BMW currently makes – is 212.2 inches long, comes with a six and stickers for $96,400.
A 2024 Mercedes S-Class sedan – the biggest sedan made by Mercedes-Benz – is only 208.2 inches long. It and the BMW 7 are considered “full-size” sedans today. The Benz S also comes standard with a small six and a huge MSRP: $117,300 or nearly three times what t cost back in ’79 to buy a full-size luxury sedan with a V8 engine.
I reference BMW and Mercedes because American car companies no longer make luxury sedans.
Or even sedans, for that matter.
But what can you get – today – in terms of a new luxury-brand sedan, for about the same money it cost to buy an Oldsmobile 98 back in 1979?
A 2024 BMW 3 Series – chosen as an example of a current-year entry-level luxury car – stickers for $44,500 to start. The term is italicized to make a point about it being BMW’s least-expensive and smallest sedan. It’s a compact-sized sedan – just 185.9 inches long – and it comes standard with a 2.0 liter four cylinder engine.
But at least it’s rear wheel drive.
A 2024 Mercedes CLA250 sedan is Mercedes’ smallest and least expensive sedan. It is even smaller than a BMW 3 Series sedan and it isn’t rear-wheel-drive. For $43,200 – almost exactly what it cost back in ’79 to buy a brand-new top-of-the-line (and full-size) Oldsmobile luxury sedan with a V8 and rear-wheel-drive you get a subcompact-sized (184.6 inches long) front-wheel-drive sedan with a gigantic plastic three pointed “Mercedes” star in its grille.
And a gigantic LCD touchscreen, of course.
Neither of these two “entry-level” small (and smaller) luxury sedans are practical family sedans because they are small sedans. They have four doors and back seats but there is very little space in the back seats (just 33.9 inches of legroom in the Benz CLA). There was ample room for five adults in a full-sized American luxury sedan such as the ’79 Olds 98, which had enough space for three adults in back to sit comfortably or four kids, because in those less neurotic days, kids could sit as many as would fit because it was not required to strap them in place like Dr. Lector from Silence of the Lambs.
The Oldsmobile’s V8 – by ’79 – was not powerful by current standards. The little fours in the BMW 3 and Mercedes CLA are more powerful. But it was a V8 and that’s the point. There is something depressing about spending nearly $50k (today) and driving home with a four in a car that’s so unimpressively small it feels as though it would fit in the trunk of a ’79 Olds 98.
And the Oldsmobile’s V8 was a lot more powerful prior to 1979. By that time, its output had been halved by the very same government regs that operate insidiously, in the manner of social media shadow banning, to winnow down what’s not wanted (by the government) without actually outlawing it.
Just a few years prior to 1979, the Olds 98 came standard with a Rocket 455 V8 (7.4 liters) that made 320 horsepower and more than 400 ft.-lbs. of torque, no turbo needed because there was enough engine. The earlier 98s were even bigger than the one my parents bought in 1979. A 1971 model – with the mighty Rocket 455 – was an almost unbelievable 226.1 inches long.
And it cost less than the ’79.
By ’79, the 98 was smaller and less powerful because of the winnowing effect of government regs that were gradually, subtly pushing cars like the 98 off the market. And not just full-size luxury-brand cars like the 98.
One of the other forgotten things that’s worth remember is that when full-sized luxury cars like the ’79 98 my parents bought were still available for what it costs today to buy an entry-level subcompact luxury-brand car, it was also possible to buy a full-sized non-luxury sedan with a V8 engine and rear-wheel-drive for much less than it cost to buy a ’79 Olds 98 – or a ’24 front-wheel-drive Mercedes CLA250.
Chevrolet and Ford and Plymouth also offered full-sized sedans without the luxury car price. It was common for working class people who couldn’t afford a new Oldsmobile or Cadillac or Buick to drive something very similar made by Chevrolet or Ford or Plymouth.
For example, in 1979, you could buy a new Chevy Caprice sedan for $6,633 – which works out to just over $30k today. For that money – today – you can get into a car that would have been considered a compact, back in the day, such as a new Toyota Camry or Honda Accord. Both of which are about the size of a ’70s-era compact such as a Chevy Nova and (unlike the rear-wheel-drive Nova, which was available with a V8) they are front wheel drive and (now) come only with fours.
The Caprice and its kind were available with V8s. It came standard with rear-wheel-drive, because it was closely related to the Olds 98 (and also the Cadillac Sedan de Ville).
In other words, cars that were much larger than today’s largest and most expensive “full-size” luxury-brand sedans that came with or were available with much larger engines were once commonly bought and driven by ordinary Americans, including blue collar Americans. Today, only very rich Americans can afford a smaller, “full size” luxury sedan such as a BMW 7 or Mercedes S with a six. And the rest might be able to one day afford a compact-sized entry luxury sedan with a four for what it used to cost to drive home in something like that ’79 Olds 98.
It seemed like it would last forever. And then it was gone.
Just like that.
. . .
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You are right. These land yachts were ubiquitous once. I never liked them at the time because of the wallow you experienced especially at stopping. They literally felt like you were on a boat. But now I miss them and a few tweaks to the suspension could firm up that wallow. I’m constantly on the lookout for one of these now.
Indeed, Bryan –
Especially missed (by me) are large, rear-drive “basic” cars such as the old Chevy Caprice/Impala and those like it. For that matter, I also miss rear-drive economy cars (e.g., the old Beetle and so on) because they were much easier to maintain and to fiddle with, if you wanted to. Most of all, I miss cars that were not controlled by computers. Because I like to be in control of my cars!
Eric! This one has your name on it, literally!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIzwQbOOBkY
That’s a great commercial, Graves! It completely synopsizes the situation.
The cars in the old days were better…..new cars keep getting worse….
Jonny Smith RATES the stig’s BRAND-NEW Lancia Delta!
Enthusiasts are trading in supercars for the old smaller, lighter, analog cars from the past…in a lighter car, 300 HP is fast, you don’t need 600 HP…..the old narrower, smaller, lighter cars can be driven quicker down narrow backroads….useable performance…the new heavier, wider, bigger cars don’t fit on the road….
The old analog cars require focus….no computers driving the car for you….
The new automatic, non stick shift cars are boring.
Having a supercar is like owning a race horse, and tying it up in your front yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91CRhlRoyJc
Better then any new supercar….
Lancia 037 Group-B ’83 WRC winning car & Beta VX on-road review. Greatest supercharged Lancias ever….great sounding engine…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcP5EigpHC8
Back to the past….restomods are becoming popular….
Alfaholics GTA-R vs MST Escort MKI vs Porsche 912c By Kamm: The Restogods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pMhaAsp9F8
They have made it clear that they hate us and don’t think we deserve to breathe, much less buy the things that bring us joy. Items that make life worth living are only for them, you see.
From Eric’s interior pics of those cars notice not only the leg room but the American size COMFORTABLE seats! Fabric for the win. I’m not a fan of the leather fetish in modern cars. Cold in winter, hot in summer. Used to be only peasant cars had lame seats (vinyl now leather) that you’d stick to on a hot summer day.
Drove the 91 Silverado yesterday, radio off damn it’s quiet in there. Corrugated fabric seats keep you planted in place super comfy. Body on frame just like the big sedans were in the day. Steering shaft isolator means no vibes in the steering wheel. V8 means no vibes idling at a stop light. “A” arm suspension with isolators at the frame connections no booming sonic road noises inside. You can stuff your MacPherson struts that’s Latin for cheap to build.
“no vibes idling at a stop light.”
Sounds like you need a bigger cam.
Got the Harley for lumpy idle times.
Daughter’s school chums back in the day:
“Why does your Dad dress like a pirate?”
260,000 pennies, zinc core, copper plated, will purchase one Troy ounce of Au.
258,000 more pennies than when you could purchase one Troy ounce of gold with 2000 95 percent copper pennies minted 1981 and older. 1982 pennies were both, some were copper, some were zinc.
260,000 zinc pennies will equal 650 kg of zinc.
A metric ton of zinc has a price of 3131 USD.
260,000 x 2.5 grams per zinc core pennies equals 650 kg.
0.65 x 3131 = 2035 USD
Ergo, buy gold at 2600 USD, 260,000 pennies to buy the gold, 2035 dollars in value by the metric ton buys a Troy ounce of gold using zinc pennies as the means of exchange.
You will save 600 dollars using pennies to buy gold.
That is only 130,000 50 cent rolls of pennies.
What is here now is clearly not the same as what once was.
If you earned three dollars per day in 1900 CE, after five days of work, 15 dollars in pay, no taxes to pay. You would earn an eagle and a half eagle or about 1950 dollars per week in 2024 US dollars, 7900 fiat dollars each month.
At a dollar a day, you would still be paid a quarter eagle, or about 325 dollars in 2024 dollars. Probably board and room to boot.
You’ve been Weimar-ed big time.
Plus, it is still your fault.
Eric – my dad always tells me about how in his student days in the early 70s picked up a used olds 98 with the rocket engine…. (Before the oil embargo) working shifts at a factory. I can’t imagine putting fuel in that sort of engine today on a finance professional’s salary !!
Hi Nasir,
It’s even worse than that! When I was in high school, back in the ’80s, I drove a ’78 Camaro I bought with my saved-up lawn-mowing/snow-shoveling money and I could afford to fill its 21 gallon tank on my part-time minimum wage McDonald’s after-school job. I remember a $20 would fill ‘er up. Today, it costs $70 to fill up the same-sized tank of the ’76 Trans-Am (same basic car as the ’78 Camaro) I have now. I could never afford to drive the TA if I were a high school kid today. Hell, I can’t afford to drive it! It goes out once a month for fun – which is all I can afford now.
My parents bought a 1984 Olds Delta 88 when I was a teen. Dad was a Ford man, but decided to give GM another shot. At 40,000 miles the trans went, mechanic said it was a common issue new trans has a fix. At 60,000 the timing chain went destroying the engine. Mechanic said common issue, plastic timing gears – the new parts are metal. Last GM product dad bought. It was a smooth ride though.
That Olds wouldn’t even fit in my garage. House was built in two thousand five, My T bird which is three feet short barely fits. Would need to go without a washer and dryer to make the Olds fit. Probably should get a Manuel wash machine, and clothes line out back anyway. The way the power grid is going I expect all future electricity to be delivered based on ones loyalty to the regime.
The wife’s answer to the problem would be something like, ‘buy a bigger house/garage, get a shorter car.’ The other answer would be, buy the Olds, and import a twenty something Illegal Alien female to do the job an American woman wont do
Hahaha, Hey Norman!
That Olds, by my bad Sunday math, is 18′ 4.4″ long, so your Thunderbird is roughly 15′ and some change? And it barely fits? The garage I’m putting here is 20′ long, and I’m putting a desperately necessary 18′ bench and pegboard all across the back wall. And boy, I’m excited, by the gods!
My trucks are all 16-17′ long, so that still allows me a little walk-around room. The Olds would be a little excessive, doubtless. Honestly, these days, I’d really like a Miata-sized car for personal-transport driving, rather than a wheeled aircraft carrier, but I get Eric’s point.
Good luck, uh, resolving your difficulties. 😉
>The garage I’m putting here is 20′ long
Make it deeper. you’ll be glad you did.
My garage is 22′ deep (came that way), but if I were building a new one I would be inclined to make it 24′. Lebensraum. 🙂
I might like to, Adi, but things are already set in motion and the concrete is finally poured and ready to go. It should be fine, as I’ll have other buildings for storage and whatnot.
>I’ll have other buildings
Kewl. 🙂
Hey BaDnOn,
Agree with ADI, make it deeper. Mine is only too small because the W/D hook up was plumbed against the back wall by the builder, and I’m too lazy to re-plumb it into our pantry, which would be easily doable through the attic with my plumbing skills. Didn’t mean to bitch about first world problems. Both My car and her MB SL-5oo fit with room to open the dryer. My truck would be hard pressed to fit inside and still close the garage door though.
The wife is mostly wonderful and has become a better and more skillful CFO, increasing our holdings over time, so after twenty three years she’s probably a keeper.
Hey Norman,
“…After twenty three years she’s probably a keeper.” I would hope so. That’s quite an investment!
Like I told Adi, things are already set in motion, so I can’t change up now. Luckily, also as I said, we’ll also have other buildings for storage, and the washer and dryer are going to go in a little outcropping on our new house when we build that, in with the solar batteries and other infrastructure.
I think it’ll be okay. It’ll be a 3-car garage, so I’m certainly not going to complain. That’s pretty rare among the people I know. I’m also hoping to squeeze a lift in there as well, facilitating a lot of mechanic work that has been difficult or impossible to do on my own. In time!
BaDnOn: One chronic problem is the “Ooo, I don’t want to live where stuff in people’s garages is visible as I drive by!” Most garages are marginal, but he architects usually make room to get an F-150 inside. But then the developer turns those into side-entry garages so you are entering in the side, meant to handle the width of two cars with door-opening space. That means the 21′ garage becomes a wide 19′ garage. And the F-150 sits in the driveway. Tip to home shoppers: Always take a tape measure with you.
Our 30yo house is unusual, even for then. Garage is 21’9″ wide, 28’3″ deep. Beats me why, but it sure is nice. I guess I could get 4 Beetles in it at once. Six if I really worked at it. Downside: It encourages the collection and storage of crap you would otherwise pass up or toss out.
For a brief beat we looked at moving to either Bullhead City AZ, Lake Havasu AZ, Or Laughlin Nevada. Lots and lots of houses in those places with huge dream garages. I walked one off in a house we looked at. It was close to forty foot long with openings at each end. Tall enough to put a full sized lift in. Or a Boat, RV, multiple cars, motorcycles, side by sides, whatever. I decided at that point to double down on just being happy with the toys Ive got. Just like with guns. Can only realistically use one at a time.
Sounds nice, Norman. Unfortunately, those places are hotter than fuck in the summer. My parents used to live in Bullhead, and I have a friend who lives in Laughlin. Decent places for water sports which I suspect is what the garages are about, but I wouldn’t live there. Temperatures second only to Death Valley.
Hi Norman,
I am very gradually laying out a small additional garage on the backside of my outbuilding. So far, I have the “box” measured and leveled. Next is gravel for a bed. Then, when I can, concrete. After that, I will frame up the walls and once that’s done get my buddy the roofer to do the roof. It’ll be just big enough to get my truck and maybe a mower in. This will enable me to keep all my bikes in the main garage and have room to work!
Sounds sweet. Its nice when you can do most, if not all the work with your own labor. Using your own blood sweat and tears is satisfying on so many levels. You save a bundle of cash, the quality is much higher. Plus the added benefit of possibly creating a new hidey hole or two.
Building, fixing, creating things is one of those things that generally separates us from the swine on the other side. Their primary natural inclination in life is only geared toward destruction, not creation.
Re: American car companies no longer make luxury sedans.
While I miss them a lot, the modern 4door pickup has become them, and at prices that match, typically $50-70K, ouch. But still very big inside, rear seat area is now sometimes bigger than even the old large sedans (some recline a little). Still RWD, still v8’s (but not all), etc….
Added bonuses of 4×4, high towing capability. Downside is they are much higher than ever, but bonus if you want to drive in deep snow/water.
I would add that some ride and handle better than any old large sedans of the past. Maybe not the old floaty feel, but that’s why they probably handle pretty decent.
Because trucks are exempt from regulations on fuel economy….but cars are not!
All Government is Bad ..
Trucks aren’t exempt from CAFE standards; they only have a different set of standards than cars do. HOWEVER! However, the CAFE standards will sooner or later outlaw ICE trucks; it’s only a question of when, not if, that happens.
Yup, and then we’ll buy Peterbilts………. haha…..
Once RAM introduced that more macho “truck” front end in the late 90s, the writing was on the wall for the big cars. Half ton pickups became cod pieces.
The Crown Vic/Town Car stuck around for another decade until Uncle regulated that platform out of existence. The brief glimmer of hope with regard to Ford putting the Crown Vic back into production in 2020 based on the RWD Explorer platform, to the point of making prototypes, ended with Impeachment.
Indeed, Roscoe –
Current 1500s are so huge – so tall and wide, to be specific – as to be off-putting to me. The full-sized sedans of the past were long but they were much easier to get in and out of. Their trunks were accessible – unlike the beds of the jacked-up rigs of today, which are so high off the ground (and have bedwalls so high) that even a six foot three dude like me cannot touch the floor of the bed without standing on a milk crate. That’s ridiculous – and a hassle.
To really appreciate how cartoonish it’s become, look around for a late ’90s-era Tundra and size it up. It looks smaller than a current a mid-sized truck does today.
>cannot touch the floor of the bed without standing on a milk crate. That’s ridiculous
10-4 on that one. I use my pickup to load and haul stuff, not as an RV.
Damned if I am going to lift *anything* over a five foot tall bed sidewall. No thanks.
Just a compromise Gents. They’re always there.
I’d rather have the big inside, big everything, 4×4, flat rear floor, v8 or bigger than all cars, etc….
Hi Chris,
For me, the sweet spot is late ’90s early 2000s half-tons, which are not all jacked up like current half tons, so you can easily load/unload the bed without a fork lift or a ramp. And just get in (and out) of the cab without needing a step ladder/running board or grab handles.
Also, the massive “big rig” side mirrors increase the width such that it’s often a close shave when two of these behemoths pass each other on opposite sides of a country road!
I cannot imagine trying to load or unload firewood with one of these monstrosities. You would spend more time, and effort, doing so than you did cutting.
I agree with you guys. While they are bigger than 20yrs ago, certainly higher, my side mirrors (ram 1500) are no bigger than any truck I’ve had in 20yrs. And since I have air ride, i can lower the tailgate back down to 20yr ago level. Probably my once fav. truck was what gm called the 1500HD (early 2000’s), which was a 1500 frame with a little heavier duty suspension, but you could get the once great 6.0 engine. I’d buy that again in a heartbeat with modern suspion (better ride/handle). But my current Ram 1500 is hard to beat with what it does, even with it pretty big/tall relative. And we keep a ’99 full 8ft bed farm truck beater for firewood duties.
The whole point though was, IF they made a big ass sedan, I’d buy one, but they don’t, so this is the only way today.
And in the process of working around CAFE by making pickups and SUVs into the luxury cars they’ve ruined pickups and SUVs to their original purpose. I’m looking at replacing my truck and actually *need* a truck but it doesn’t have to be a 1 ton. What would be perfect is a small Toyota with a 7 foot long bed and regular cab. But Toyota stopped making 7 foot beds in 1992 and regular cabs in 2015. I am not opposed to buying used but the market for suitable trucks remains strong and the inventory is dwindling. So if you have one you tend to hold on to it until it returns to its elementary roots, which is what I’m doing. Just takes a lot of time and energy to work all day and then spend off time repairing an old work truck, both wear-and-tear and damage sustained from actually using it. Eventually you just wear them out practically speaking.
Don’t forget “cash for clunkers” which destroyed many good cars and trucks.
Measuring the impoverishment of the Untermenschen: Today, unusually, the NYT carries an article on segregated roads around Jerusalem. Admission depends on one’s ethnicity.
‘We rode along on two bus trips, one for Israelis, the other for Palestinians, that tell a story of separate and unequal roadways.
‘To differentiate who can drive where, cars have different-colored license plates. Those registered in Israel have yellow plates and can move much more freely. West Bank Palestinian cars have green plates, and except for rare vehicles with special permits, they are barred from certain roads and can’t enter Israel or almost any part of Jerusalem.’
‘Born in Panama, Rachel Filus, 21, immigrated to Israel five years ago. Her family initially lived in East Jerusalem, but she said that living near so many Palestinians made her feel unsafe. Seeking a more religious community and more space, her family moved to Beit El, a West Bank settlement. “Here we know that all the people are Jewish people,” she said.
‘After crossing through a checkpoint, Ms. Filus’s bus sped easily toward Jerusalem. She appeared to give little thought to how the road network inconveniences Palestinians, saying simply that they have ways to drive between their cities. In the West Bank, she hardly ever interacts with them.’
https://archive.ph/BPXk2#selection-483.0-483.129
This odious ‘separate roads’ setup has existed for decades. But suddenly the US media is willing to write about it. Something has changed. Anyone can now see for themselves that Israel’s purported ‘democracy’ is an ethnic-supremacist apartheid state. And that US politicians plying Israel with money and weapons are trashing American values.
Can i flush now?
Israel practices official “apartheid” to a much greater degree than that of any other country in the world—the former South Africa included.
Every vehicle driver in the illegally occupied territories (all of Israel) is identified by his or her vehicle license plate as well as personal documentation (identity papers). License plates are coded as to the ethnicity and religious persuasions of the owners, and are used to deny basic “rights” to those who are of “the wrong ethnicity”.
There are roads and thoroughfares that are designated “for jews only”. “Jews-only” roads and thoroughfares are state-of-the-art, paid for with American taxpayer dollars, while roads used by Palestinians are poorly maintained, with many military “checkpoints” which adds further misery to the lives of Palestinians.
Any Arab or Palestinian who attempts to use “jews only” roads or thoroughfares is arrested and heavily fined.
This policy even extends to “footpaths” which are designated by “jewishness”.
Palestinians and other Arabs are forced to go through humiliating “checkpoints”, even being delayed for HOURS, if they are even allowed to pass, at the whim of the jewish “authorities”. This even extends to medical emergencies, where ambulances are routinely delayed by jewish authorities, “just because they can”.
In Israel proper, and in the illegally occupied territories, Israeli officials make rules and laws as they go along, ignoring the (official) laws (rule of law) already in place.
On a whim, any Israeli official can declare that a building, other structure, planted farmland, water wells, and other basic facilities owned by Palestinians are “illegal” and subject to destruction by Israeli forces.
This even applies to buildings, lands, orchards and crop-producing lands which have been in Palestinian possession for centuries. All the Israeli military has to do is to declare the Palestinian-owned property to be a “military zone”. No other laws or permissions are needed to expropriate land from the Palestinians. Quite often, Palestinians are forced to demolish their own homes in order to avoid being heavily fined.
Water is heavily restricted in Gaza and in the Palestinian areas while jewish settlements can use all the water they want.
Sewage from illegal jewish settlements is routinely dumped on Palestinian land without regard to the pollution problems that it causes.
The old belief that jews poison the wells and farmlands of their perceived “enemies” is actually true, as (illegal) jewish “settlers” routinely poison Palestinian-owned wells and croplands.
This is a continuing process that is forcing Palestinians off their land and facilitating the building of jewish “settlements” in the illegally occupied areas. In fact, IOF personnel routinely protect (illegal) jewish “settlers” who force Palestinians off their land.
Let’s turn to the treatment of Christians in Israel proper. In the tourist areas, jewish authorities try to keep the disrespect for Christianity to a minimum so as not to insult their brainwashed Christian zionist tourists. In fact, the hatred for Christian churches, and Christians in general is so pervasive, it is not surprising to see jews “spit” when walking past a Christian church. Not only that, jews consider spitting at Christian clergy and others a “jewish custom”.
The Israeli authorities plan specific itineraries for Christian zionist groups and American politicians so they do not witness the overt, outright hatred that jews have for Christians, You see, “it’s all for show” when it comes to begging for American dollars from the American taxpayers and from these misguided Christian zionist groups.
Keep in mind that Christian Palestinians are subject to the same abuses as Muslim Palestinians. Israeli government practices do not differentiate between the two.
Jews are experts at “graffiti”, calling it “price tagging” which they use to good effect as the authorities generally “look the other way” when the vandalism and destruction of Christian facilities by jews is going on.
The irony of the situation is that the Palestinians (true semites) who have lived in the middle east for centuries and even millennia are reduced to being unwelcome in their own land while jewish interlopers, most of them who are not even “semites”, from the United States and Europe are overlords in Israel and in the illegally occupied territories.
>There are roads and thoroughfares that are designated “for jews only”.
Makes me wonder how long it will be before “Jews only” signs go up @ entrances to US freeways.
Probably use some subterfuge like “EVs only,” because “climate change,” and of course all EVs will cost at least $100,000, so no red necks allowed…
Mark my words.
Jim, I too am curious why this is coming out in the western press slowly now…. I suspect it’s because they are struggling to maintain some sort of influence and relevance as most people just go to social media, forums or twitter for news and nobody takes the media seriously anymore.
> A 2024 BMW 7 Series, which is the biggest (and top-of-the-line) sedan BMW currently makes – is 2012.2 inches long,
I don’t think so, Eric.
Caught that too, did you Adi? People must’ve looked bad ass pulling up in a 168′ car, and you couldn’t beat the leg room! 😉
Size matters. 🙂
Ach!
This is what comes of not enough sleep and too much coffee… thanks for the catch. Fixed!
‘the size of a ’70s-era compact and they are front wheel drive and (now) come only with fours.’ — eric
As engine displacements and cylinder counts shrink, while transmission ‘speeds’ multiply like rabbits, auto makers just highlight horsepower. Engine and transmission specs are buried in tricky graphics-rich web pages, if they are even cited.
After all, in the EeeVee era, power output is all that counts for a ‘motor.’ Otherwise they’re all the same, just anonymous metal cans with induction coils inside. Nothing to see here, folks!
Our world has shrunk into one where three and four-cylinder engines are the norm, while the millionaire down the street might splurge on a six.
Falling living standards are the inevitable result of dissipating America’s economic surplus on ‘defending’ rich foreign countries. George Washington told us not to do that. But pea-brained punk Harry $ Truman ignored him, casting the die with useless NATO and an oppressive, opaque national security state which now meddles in elections [‘the Hunter Biden laptop is classic Russian tradecraft’ — 51 Democrat spooks].
And here we are, f*cked over backward, condemned forevermore to drive costly little generic shitboxes, if indeed we are afforded the ‘privilege’ of driving at all. I PROTEST.
And she’ll have fun fun fun
‘Til her daddy takes the shitbox away
— Beach Boys, Fun, Fun, Fun
Even with decent maintenance, a lot of the late 70s cars rusted apart and were gone within a decade.
The -250 Mercedes strike me as what would have been Chrysler products of the last decade, the pipeline taken back to Germany when Daimler gave up on the merger.
Got logged out again!
If the bureaurats and government agencies did not demand things that the people didn’t want to pay for perhaps we could still afford nice things but that’s a matter of political power over people and I know that I have no say in the matter.
As the dollar goes down in relation to gold everything else goes down in size. Just look at how small those chocolate bars you give out at Halloween have gotten. The only thing that’s gotten larger are peoples waistlines due to the heavily processed foods that are now common place.
I’ve read accounts of people during the Depression saying that everyone where they lived was poor so they never knew they were poor themselves. I know some people who deny it’s happening again but what can you say if people deny the dollar is dying, the government is becoming even more oppressive and the cost of everything continues to go up in price.
Channeling that great sage, kamala, this is an example of what can be is unburdened by what has been.
Seen on another site:
‘I would rather paint my entire house with a Q-Tip than to listen to Kamala for the next four years.’
Where would you place the Genesis G70 on the luxury scale? It’s “only” $50K and spec’d similar to the Deutchslander trägersubstanz.
Much of what you’re paying for with BMW and Mercedes is the hood ornament and customer service.
Hi RK,
While the G70 is a nice car, it’s a compact-sized car and a four cylinder-powered car. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. But it’s still $42,000 to start, so about what it used to cost to buy a full-size sedan with a V8….
Good point. I’m just thinking that in 1979 the only people with European vehicles were older professionals like doctors and lawyers, and the occasional tenured college professor. We drove American cars designed for American pocketbooks.
>We drove American cars designed for American pocketbooks.
And (cheap) American gasoline prices. Europeans were, AFAIK, paying much higher prices for gasoline, which meant they were much less likely to be driving large, heavy, high displacement autos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_250_GTO
This Lucky kid spent disco daze living in europe before it went ghetto too.
First thing I noticed back here in “duh world” was all the trash just at large everywhere along with the xenophobic arrogance of the unwashed unlucky.
In 1913 an ounce of gold would buy a nice suit. Today, an ounce of gold will buy a nice suit.
Hi Arrow,
Yup. But how many Americans have an ounce of gold jangling as loose change in their pockets?
The point is that gold was ‘valued’ at $20… now $2650+. An ounce then is an ounce now, but the value of the fiat is shit. Not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Hi Arrow,
Yes, I understand. I was trying to say that – back then – it was common for Americans to be able to carry gold coin in their pockets. Not anymore.
Hi Eric,
I turned a one ounce silver round into a key chain and I use it to point out to people that if in the last ten years it has more than doubled in value; what does that say about the depreciation of our money? I could have used a gold coin but the cost of a one ounce gold coin is a little to high to take the risk of robbery.
I’ve made some money clips out of silver dollars. Great conversation starters when paying for a meal or groceries. Most people don’t realize how quarters used to be made of silver. Tell them how a quarter, back then, could buy a gallon of gas, and how a pre 65 silver quarter still can, in fiat dollar equivalency. Even in bolshevik pricing, think seven bucks a gallon. Coming soon to a pump near you.
When the switch in ‘65 to the near worthless sandwich coins my buddy’s J. Birch-er member mom sent us out thru the ‘hood asking neighbors for dime, quarter, half dollar coins in exchange for paper money. Most were delighted to get rid of that pesky change. She was a smart one.
Next up was a family ban on “trick or treat for UNICEF” that started around that Halloween time. The grade school sent us home with the UNICEF collection gear she hit the roof and raised holy hell with the school. I thought she was a bit over the top but looking back she was way ahead of the commie curve. “Wallace ‘68” sign in their front yard a couple years later! She didn’t trust Tricky Dick Nixon and knew what a total POS LBJ was. Total anti-Vietnam war as well – wasn’t just the hippies that were against foreign entanglements back then.
>back then – it was common for Americans to be able to carry gold coin in their pockets.
Depends when you mean by “back then.”
Originally, a one ounce gold coin (a Double Eagle) was worth $20, and Americans were allowed to own such things. Then (1930s) Franklin Delano Rosenfeld prohibited possession of gold coins by US citizens (can you say “legislation by the Executive branch”) so he could devalue the dollar. Overnight, the dollar was devalued by 20/35 = 57%. It now required $35 to buy an ounce of gold, which Americans were not allowed to own.
Wretched Nixon “unpegged” the dollar from the price of gold (abolished the gold standard w.r.t. the US dollar). At some point US citizens were allowed to own gold again. By the Carter inflation of the late 1970s, smug “hard money” types sometimes took to sporting Krugerrands (1 oz gold) on neck chains. There were at that time no US gold coins in circulation.
About the same time, silver was removed from all US coins, and replaced with the “sandwich’ alloys we see today. there was a mini industry in scavenging the old silver coins and melting them down for the silver, which had become more valuable than the face value of the coins.
The Eisenhower dollar was the last American silver dollar.
There are probably a few left in the hands of coin collectors, but most would have gone to the furnace along with Kennedy halves, etc.
My grandfather augmented his steel company pension by scavenging silver. I went with him a few times driving from bank to bank where he had about 25 accounts getting sacks of coin then spreading them out on the ping pong table in the basement. Looking for the silver ones. He made about $40,000 but it took years.
Like Trump,,, FDR was an America first too. In the 30s Americans could also see the demise coming but always picked a hero that would save America. Here we are in the twenty first century where the lemmings are choosing between two of the biggest morons that ever existed. They don’t see it coming! Worse,,, most don’t care. Like our cars,,, instead of demanding better most accept the constant degradation and take the lowest denominator.
Ken: “Here we are in the twenty first century where the lemmings are choosing between two of the biggest morons that ever existed. They don’t see it coming! ”
As a “vintage” American, who saw the good times of post WWII, I must admit that sometimes I envy them. We will all be in the same boat (and I include most “preppers”) when it goes down, but the lemmings won’t have suffered through the knowledge of what is coming. A too-true analog is the cow strolling along toward the guy with the needlegun.
I “prepped” in the ’70s with all sorts of survival plans, including land, guns, tools, gold, and silver. By 2000, I realized that what is coming is not going to be a scenario where you come out the other end of a financial crash with your hoard intact. This will be a life-or-death situation where the farmer has a chicken, you have a Krugerrand, and you really want to have fried chicken. Junk silver is much more practical in a war of survival. But even that only works as long as you can fend off the roving bands of starving neighbors who find out you occasionally cook a chicken.
With 3 generations of xorcise machine crammed in front of that ebike. Who can afford an ounce of gold?
Haven’t prices suits lately, but an ounce
of gold is ~ $2,600
https://www.kitco.com/
Hi libertyx,
One may be able to buy a Canali or a Ralph Lauren suit for a gold coin, but a Brunello Cucinelli will set one back at least 2-3 gold coins. A Kiton wool cashmere suit is at least 4 gold coins (and that is if you can find it on sale).
A better example is the ordinary automobile.
The same amount of gold that would purchase a car in 1930 will purchase a car today.
In 1930, 10 ounces of gold would purchase a car. $20 per ounce
In 2024, 10 ounces of gold will still purchase a car. $2600 per ounce
“A Kiton wool cashmere suit is at least 4 gold coins…”
Decisions, decisions: Do I buy a Kiton suit or a used vehicle. 🙂
Gold should not be compared to dollars. Dollars should be compared to gold. Where it took $35 to purchase one ounce of gold in 1973 it now takes $2600. Mostly caused by corpgov borrowing. They are borrowing a couple trillion this year and even more next year. It costs mucho dollars to finance 2 1/2 wars and the governments themselves. Corpgov says America is not funding Genocide while sending tons of genocide tools, weapons, and money. Circular logic Americans miss completely in their quest for a free ticket when their rapture occurs.
Tons of fiat to fly in and support the millions of border jumpers. Americans don’t seem to mind these uneducated and unskilled parasites consuming their wealth. Here we are complaining people hit by the hurricanes are not being helped. Circular logic again.
How in the hell can we help our people in need when the money has been spent on no value border jumpers? Corpgov are ‘borrowing’ billions to replace Americans they don’t like.
Want the real cost? Divide 2600/35=74.3. In terms of gold,,, the dollar devaluation is 74 times.
A $40,000 dollar car today is approx $473 in 1973 dollars under the gold system of the day.
Corpgovs inflation calculators come up with $5633. A difference of over $5000 dollars in terms of gold.
We are being bent over and dry raped. And apparently we’re all smiles.