To GM, Ford, Chyrsler (Fiat... but that's another letter)
As an automobile enthusiast, lover of old cars, O'Reilly Team Member, and ignorant of the current federal automobile laws... I emplore you to make a basic, stripped down, easy to work on car. Manual gear box with a stick, not floppy paddles. No electric stearing or gearbox. Minimal sensors, carborated would be sweet, but cars need O2 sensors now, so toss on a simple EFI. I'm thinking actual coil pack and plug wires, not coil on boot.
The idea is to make a car that is fun to drive, easy to fix, easy to troubleshoot. Not a car that to change a spark plugs step 1 is "remove motor from car" or "remove motor mount". Granted for this to be true RWD is preferable, unless you can come up with a way to put a forward mounted motor in a front wheel drive car (there's a challenge for you, actually not so much. Take 4wd truck, drop rear drive shaft and change the shape/function of the gearbox.)
Everyone is pushing for the latest and greatest tech in cars today. That has it's place, but... For the love of cars! Us shade-tree mechanics want a car that works and is easy to work on, without needing $5k worth of special tools.
Biggest gripe right now with autos is the difficulty to repair/troubleshoot problems. Is it a bad sensor or is something actually wrong? Is that sensor required, or does it just give info to the PCU so other programs run better. Do we need seven different sensors to monitor the same system? (hypothetical, but not far from the mark)
Recently at my store we had a car that died in the parking lot. Changed plugs, wires, battery.... One of the OBD codes was knock sensor, changed it out and the car started and drove away. Did the Nissan with over 200k miles need the engine rebuilt? Wouldn't hurt. Did changing out a sensor fix the problem? Yes. So why is the sensor there? Oh right, to tell you that loud knocking noise means you need to fix the engine. For the record, the engine didn't knock, the sensor was just bad.
You see what I'm talking about here? Cars have many sensors that go bad and throw codes before there's actually an issue. Not everyone wants the best tech, back up monitors, lane change monitors, traction control, how hip is my beard monitors.
Please, for the love of cars make something nostalgic in more than just name. Make it bare bones and easy to work on. Touch screen GPS active... driver can bring their tablet if they want that. Make a drivers car. Make an old school mechanics car. Make something we can enjoy driving, physically driving, and not have to troubleshoot a dozen sensors to figure out why this here 03 dodge ram doesn't shift properly (yup, changed all those sensors, all that is left is replacing the transmission or the guage cluster, and why do I need to change a guage cluster for the transmission to shift properly?)
Do you see what I'm saying? More is not always better. Yes, safety is cool and crumple zones are good, but my car with ABS still slides off the road on slushy winter days so it's no better then a contolled foot on a non ABS car.
Bottom line, hand on stick, two feet on pedals. Remember why you love to drive. Strip it down to the basics and keep it simple. If you want to add the extras (launch contol and oh crap I can't dive, help me control this beast) that's up to you. But give us the option of old school or not cool.
Sincerly,
upper 30's car enthusiast who would rather drive a 60's anything then a 2k+ electronic nightmare
As an automobile enthusiast, lover of old cars, O'Reilly Team Member, and ignorant of the current federal automobile laws... I emplore you to make a basic, stripped down, easy to work on car. Manual gear box with a stick, not floppy paddles. No electric stearing or gearbox. Minimal sensors, carborated would be sweet, but cars need O2 sensors now, so toss on a simple EFI. I'm thinking actual coil pack and plug wires, not coil on boot.
The idea is to make a car that is fun to drive, easy to fix, easy to troubleshoot. Not a car that to change a spark plugs step 1 is "remove motor from car" or "remove motor mount". Granted for this to be true RWD is preferable, unless you can come up with a way to put a forward mounted motor in a front wheel drive car (there's a challenge for you, actually not so much. Take 4wd truck, drop rear drive shaft and change the shape/function of the gearbox.)
Everyone is pushing for the latest and greatest tech in cars today. That has it's place, but... For the love of cars! Us shade-tree mechanics want a car that works and is easy to work on, without needing $5k worth of special tools.
Biggest gripe right now with autos is the difficulty to repair/troubleshoot problems. Is it a bad sensor or is something actually wrong? Is that sensor required, or does it just give info to the PCU so other programs run better. Do we need seven different sensors to monitor the same system? (hypothetical, but not far from the mark)
Recently at my store we had a car that died in the parking lot. Changed plugs, wires, battery.... One of the OBD codes was knock sensor, changed it out and the car started and drove away. Did the Nissan with over 200k miles need the engine rebuilt? Wouldn't hurt. Did changing out a sensor fix the problem? Yes. So why is the sensor there? Oh right, to tell you that loud knocking noise means you need to fix the engine. For the record, the engine didn't knock, the sensor was just bad.
You see what I'm talking about here? Cars have many sensors that go bad and throw codes before there's actually an issue. Not everyone wants the best tech, back up monitors, lane change monitors, traction control, how hip is my beard monitors.
Please, for the love of cars make something nostalgic in more than just name. Make it bare bones and easy to work on. Touch screen GPS active... driver can bring their tablet if they want that. Make a drivers car. Make an old school mechanics car. Make something we can enjoy driving, physically driving, and not have to troubleshoot a dozen sensors to figure out why this here 03 dodge ram doesn't shift properly (yup, changed all those sensors, all that is left is replacing the transmission or the guage cluster, and why do I need to change a guage cluster for the transmission to shift properly?)
Do you see what I'm saying? More is not always better. Yes, safety is cool and crumple zones are good, but my car with ABS still slides off the road on slushy winter days so it's no better then a contolled foot on a non ABS car.
Bottom line, hand on stick, two feet on pedals. Remember why you love to drive. Strip it down to the basics and keep it simple. If you want to add the extras (launch contol and oh crap I can't dive, help me control this beast) that's up to you. But give us the option of old school or not cool.
Sincerly,
upper 30's car enthusiast who would rather drive a 60's anything then a 2k+ electronic nightmare