Used Car Shortage?

This is the year 2020 and so far, since the first day of January started, I have a slogan for this year. “2020 Embrace the Suck.” Did you know we have a “Used Car Shortage?” Did you also know, we have a “Parts” shortage to add insult to injury.

What happened? Well, as bad as the truth hurts, newer cars have become complicated for the driver to understand how to drive it. Secondly the Corona virus mess caused a great deal of problems for car parts manufacture’s. People got sick, deathly sick, especially in China where we get a LOT of parts.

Here is an illustration that I really don’t think anybody can disagree with. I’m going to use my own 1996 Oldsmobile Delta 88 vs a brand new car. Buckle up, your going to love this.

If I want my air conditioning to work on my old 96 I have a separate setting on my dash with BUTTONS you push. Its so simple a 3 year old could do it. You press, “AC” then you turn the KNOB to “Recirculate” Then there is a dial knob for the fan settings. You turn it with out looking at it, and turn it up or down. Your done. You have nice cold air coming out.

TODAY. Every single thing you want your car to do is now on a 12 inch TOUCH screen. Some newer trucks have a 32 inch screen. Why don’t you just duct tape a 85 inch Flat screen to your hood? While you’re doing 75 MPH on the New 31, you’re looking down at that screen trying to find A/C which is the Air Conditioning. You found the tire pressure for all 4 tires. NO keep going. You found the oil life, NO you keep going, the car is getting hotter inside with every mile. You find the radio and the radio function. NO you keep going. You keep this up until by sheer chance, you found ‘Heater and A/C settings. Keep your eyes on the road. Set the air temp to COLD. YEAH OKAY. Be careful, if you screw up, you’ll lose that screen and something else you don’t want will come up on it. After about 10 or so miles, you got really lucky. You didn’t have a wreck and you got the A/C to come on. You go back to the radio and you hit the wrong button. Start over. Take a deep breath. It’s just technology trying to make your life more easy.

The old 96 Olds. If I want to get into my car, I use a silver key. If I want to start it up, I can use a gold key. If I have a key fob, it only locks and unlocks the car. Just too easy.

Today. You have a complex key fob. Without it, you’re not getting in your car, or you accidentally set off the car alarm, and once you panic and get it to go off, you cannot drive your car without it. The FOB has to be in the car, hanging on a hook you made, cause the car maker sure isn’t going to add that. Then you press a button hoping it starts. If this experience is the first time for you, you will wonder how to shut it off. You press your foot on the brake. Make sure the car is in Park. Then hit the same start button and the car should shut off. Isn’t this fun?

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH USING A KEY !!!!!!!!?????? New cars have a sensor for everything. Some new trucks have over 156 sensors. My old 96 Olds has about 8-10 sensors. Take a good look at a brand new car. How many things on that dash can you do without? You will count for a long time. Take a look at my 96 Olds. What’s on my dash is what the car needs. I even have a separate area for a real Stereo. No touch screen. My radio antenna goes up when you start the car and it magically goes down when you shut the car off. Newer cars have the radio antenna in the rear glass or have an ugly black little flag pole on the roof.

We have a used car shortage, because people don’t want a new car. Maybe some day, car makers will wake up and say, “We’ve gotten more stupid that we ever thought we could.” ? Nah. I’m only dreaming. DRIVE SAFE everybody. joseywales2@gmail.com