Auto Motives

In all first world countries, but especially the US, it is difficult to get by without a car except in large cities – and not all of them. Los Angeles is only the most obvious example of a motorized metropolis. Where I live in the outer suburbs (sometimes called exurbs) of NYC, autos are the only practical transport. There actually are public transit options such as buses and commuter trains, but you still have to drive to the stations. This is not some big mistake. (Some social engineers consider it one, but from the perspective of the drivers it is not.) People who live in the suburbs and beyond choose to do so, for the most part, even if it means a long commute and auto payments. We like our cars. We spend much of our lives in them. Alarmingly, 1 out of 107 of us die in them according to the American Safety Council.
 
I recall the eagerness with which I and my classmates in high school anticipated getting our driver’s licenses. A license meant mobility. It meant freedom. There seems to a change in attitude about this among 21^st century young people – one that is baffling to their elders. Nothing illustrates today’s version of the generation gap so well as the tendency of teens to delay getting licensed: according to a Yale study 70% of eligible teens currently delay licensing by at least a year. There may be less to this than meets the eye. They do get licensed eventually at the same rate as their parents. They just do it later – sometimes years later. They do a lot of things later for reasons I won’t try to fathom. The time comes when they do drive however, and most will buy cars when they can.
 
Though between 17 (legal age for a license in NJ) and 20 I drove vehicles owned by my dad (my mom’s car was off limits), the first that was in my own name was a 1973 Ford Maverick. Aside from the brawny engine, a 302 (5 Liter) V8, it was a basic model lacking even AC. It cost $2900 in August 1973. I have fond memories of it. It took me all around the USA and was an intimate component of my 20s, the most experience-rich decade for most of us – definitely for me. Oddly I can find only one photo of it, and its presence is incidental: it happened to be in the background when I took a snapshot of a cat. Also in the background is a green 1965 GMC pickup. This, too, was a workhorse vehicle for me at the time, but it was in my dad’s name; when he bought it in 1965, after all, I was still several years from getting a license. The first truck in my own name was a 1979 Ford F150. It, too, was a basic model and also was powered by a 302. Ever since, I’ve always owned both a car and a truck. I don’t need the latter as much as I did when still in business with my builder father, but I continue to do enough of my own work to have use for a vehicle that can carry lumber, roof shingles, wheelbarrows, portland cement bags, or what-have-you.

'73 Maverick and '65 GMC pickup
in background

What brings all this to mind is that for the first time since…well…ever, both my vehicles are new. (Well, one is several months old now, but it is a 2021.) This has dented my finances, to put it mildly, but I’ll enjoy the new car aromas while they last. I tend to keep my vehicles a long time – over 20 years in two cases – so I may not get another such whiff in this decade. (We’ll leave to one side how many decades are in play at my age.) My old 1998 GMC 2500 Sierra pickup reached the end of its road last autumn: at that time my mechanic advised against sinking more money into it to keep it running. So, late last year I looked up nearby inventories of 2021 GMCs of the exact same model. The prices were simply ridiculous, averaging $73,000. I’d be afraid to use such a precious vehicle for the purposes I need a pickup: hauling blocks, gravel, plywood, etc. I opted instead for a very basic no-frills Chevy Colorado; even this was priced in the mid-20,000s, which is enough. It is 2WD, however, which made this past winter my first in decades without 4WD. It was missed. My other vehicle was a 2014 Chevy Cruze, which was a satisfactory runabout on dry roads but worse than useless in snow. So, last week, though there was nothing really wrong with the Cruze other than being over 7 years old and 2WD, I bit the bullet and traded it for a Chevy Trailblazer: an SUV with All Wheel Drive priced similarly to the Colorado. My wallet is far lighter, but I’m comfortable with the choice.

new Trailblazer

That my three most recent vehicles are Chevys is not due to brand loyalty. They are in fact the only Chevrolets among the dozen cars and trucks I’ve ever owned. (See my 2013 blog The Road Worrier about 10 of them.) They just happened to be the right vehicles at the right prices (by today’s standards) in the right locations; given how long I usually keep my vehicles, considerations such as resale value retention that might have favored another make (e.g. Toyota) didn’t really factor into the decision. Nonetheless, the historian in me rather likes that the brand has a deep past.
 
The company was founded in Detroit by Billy Durant and Swiss race car driver Louis Chevrolet in 1911. It was one of 270 (!) auto manufacturers in the US in 1911, from which only 5 brands survive: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC (trucks), Cadillac, and Ford. Durant had founded General Motors in 1908, but corporate politics forced him out of management in 1910; he regained control in 1916 but his time in exile is why Chevrolet was formed in the meantime as a separate entity. Billy bought out Louis in 1913 and in 1918 the company was absorbed into GM where it has remained since. The initial Chevy models were upscale and pricy, but the company soon shifted strategy to take on Ford directly with moderately priced vehicles aimed at middle class buyers. This started with the 1916 Model 490 priced at $490 ($12,100 in inflation-adjusted 2021 dollars). The first Chevy truck, based on the 490 chassis, was introduced in 1918. By the end of the 1920s Chevrolet sales had overtaken Ford though the numbers swayed back and forth in the years that followed.
 
I didn’t grow up in a Chevy oriented household. My parents liked Pontiacs for whatever reason. My mom even had a GTO, though she sold it when I got my license: I think there was a connection between those events. In addition, my dad always had a Jeep truck for work and occasionally a GMC as well. Their one atypical purchase was a 1968 Mercedes Benz 230 with 8000 miles on it that my dad bought at a steep discount; the original owner had a disagreement with the IRS, lost the argument, and needed money pronto. But while the bowtie emblem (which dates to 1913 btw) wasn’t to be seen in our driveway when I was a kid, my parents’ very first car well before I was born was a 1941 Chevy. I have a photo of it taken on a Florida beach in 1947, the year they were married. So, there is a certain two-generation completion of a circle in coming back to the brand. Then again I have a photo of my grandfather with a Model T, so maybe I should squeeze in one more Ford in my lifetime, which would be a circle on a first as well as a third generational level.

my mom and a 1941 Chevy

my grandfather Bellush
c.1922

 

Chuck Berry - Riding Along In My Automobile