What Really Matters
I enjoyed your article about the children of Baby Boomers not aspiring to vehicle ownership the way their parents did (see WAW - Jan. '08, p.5).
My friend (he is a Baby Boomer) tells me his daughter is ready to start her life with her soon-to-be fiance. She wants an i-Phone, spends 2,700 minutes on the cell phone every month, wants a Land Rover SUV and wants her boyfriend to buy her engagement ring at Tiffany's. She wants it all, and she wants it now.
I spoke to my friend about his daughter's wants, and he said she is being influenced by her peers at college and her high-school friends.
I think we are all going to be surprised when society again returns to a time when friends, family and experiences are valued more than material things.
Carl Garbacik
Livonia, MI
No Real “Blind Spot”
I continue to be amazed the perception persists that there is a need for a new, expensive and complex system to deal with the “blind spot” problem (See WAW - Jan. ‘08, p. 25). The solution to “blind spots” already exists on present- day vehicles. In my experience, “blind spots” are the result of incorrect rearview mirror adjustment. Invariably, when I get into a vehicle that someone else has been driving I find that all three mirrors (left and right outside, and center inside) are aimed to view the area directly behind the vehicle.
While driving with these mirror settings, a vehicle following directly behind will appear in all three mirrors, and little, if any, of the lanes adjacent to each side of the vehicle will be included in the field of view; thus the “blind spots.”
These “blind spots” can be easily eliminated by setting the inside mirror view straight to the rear and rotating the side mirrors outward until a continuous uninterrupted panoramic view is obtained.
With these settings you will then pick up the overtaking vehicle in your peripheral vision before it disappears from view in the side-view mirror.
Thus, following and overtaking vehicles are always in view and no additional driver head movement is required beyond that necessary to view the outside mirrors.
James Feiten
Birmingham, MI
Cadillac: Bring BLS to U.S.
Jerry Flint's commentary asserts that there is no market for a smaller American luxury car.
While it may be true there is only a small market, let's not forget that Cadillac already has a small luxury car in production built alongside the Saab 9-3 (Cadillac BLS.) Cadillac is having a hard time moving this model in Europe, so why not supplement sales of the model with an “exploratory” introduction in the U.S.?
The assumption that such a creation would not sell because of previous attempts is flawed in that the Catera, and to a much greater extent the Cimarron, were just plain awful cars.
GM didn't have problems selling those models because they were small. It was because they were ill-conceived and poorly executed.
Paul O'Gorman
Kansas City, MO
Hats Off to Steely Resolve
WHILE TOYOTA PLAYS “MEGATRON” TO the American “Optimus Prime,” please forgive us if a brief, wry smile creases our usually dour faces.
The Japanese monolith that continues its relentless pursuit of world automotive domination might actually need to have its joints oiled, bolts re-torqued and PM performed on its circuits.
Given the spate of recalls, rebates, and recent rebuffs from such influential publications as Consumer Reports, who knew that the license to print money actually had a “best by” date?
Michael Lallone
Rochester Hills, MI
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