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lowering


On 10 Dec 97, Keith Park wrote:

> Not to mention that the handeling was TERRIBLE, it wandered all over the road in the
> wind cause it had negative caster and you felt every bump.

Is there any way that I can appropriately express my total revulsion 
at the thought of the destruction this does to the car?  I have the 
feeling that people do it because they feel that it allows them to 
express some originality in their car.  Well, perhaps it WAS original 
to someone, sometime, but it's now hackneyed and bad engineering.

The response I usually get down to is usually, something along the 
lines of "But it's so COOL, Dude!"  Well, if your idea of cool is 
poor handling, bump steer, and rediculous ground clearance to the 
point that it is no longer a useful vehicle, then I really have to 
part company.

In the end it boils down to who do you choose to copy: Someone who 
carefully designed something that worked well or someone who designed 
something that looked "different."

My wife now drives a 96 Taurus wagon.  That was a car that was 
completely ruined when the stylists got hold of it.  In the name of 
style they designed a rear window that provides almost no rear 
visibility, but it looks cool.  It has seats that have lots of 
bolsters and a lumbar support and bells and whistles that make you go 
Ooh and Aah, but make your back sore in drives of more than an hour.  
It has a Cool stereo in the style of the car with a balance control 
that has arrows that point L and R and a fader control that is 
oriented L/R and has arrows that also point L/R (this control 
controls front/rear balance!)

It has a rear window wiper control nicely labeled and lighted, but 
located  where only the eyeball on your left knee can see it.

All this was done in the name of style without thought to function.
I believe Miles van der Rohe said "form follows function."  Ford 
forgot that.  If we forget that we end up with nice bookends for our 
driveways.  I love these cars; I love how they drive and how they 
look and how they are economical and how they are useful.  Don't 
settle for one out of four.

Sorry, rant mode off.

Jim
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       Melissa Kepner                                    Jim Adney
                             Laura Kepner-Adney
                         jadney@vwtype3.org      
                             Madison, Wisconsin
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