I’ve never owned a Ford. Thought about it a few times, but never pulled the trigger and bought one. Over the decades I’ve purchased Chevys, Hondas, BMWs, VWs, and now a Dodge. Heck, I’ve even sprung for a couple of Fiats back in one delusional period. But never a Ford.
Some Fords have attracted me. Those first Mustangs hold a certain appeal. And just about anything that Carroll Shelby has left his impression on sets my soul on fire. I could spend some time with any of the performance oriented versions of the Mustang that prowl the streets these days, if circumstances permitted it. But sit me in a Ford pickup, which I have done prior to buying the Chevys and the Dodge, and I just go all icky. They just don’t feel right. And that’s just fine with the folks who designed and build Ford pickups.
Now, on the surface ya might wonder why those Ford designers would deliberately run me off, but that is not what’s happening here. They’d love it if I liked their product, and bought their product, and laid my hard earned money upon their doorstep. Nothing would make them happier than to have me send them money every few years for the rest of my life. But you see, they’ve got this whole bunch of other guys out there who like Fords and have bought Fords for their whole lives, and that bunch likes a truck that looks like a Ford inside and out, and the Ford folks know that they have to sell to those guys first, and just hope that I’ll see the light some day and join them. So they build a truck that Ford buyers like. And that’s just a different truck than the ones I like.
Way back in the olden days, come the end of summer, the next year’s new model cars used to begin showing up in the dealerships. This was a big deal when I was a kid. The whole process was shrouded in secrecy. Trucks brought the cars in, and they had canvas covers hiding them, and if you were in the car following the truck you would try to sneak a peek up under that cover as the wind blew it about, and catch a glimpse of the 1958 model before the actual release day. An aura of excitement surrounded this, and probably those car guys left those covers just a mite loose just to fan that excitement. Kinda like ladies skirts, if you catch my drift.
The car companies needed to develop each new model, and test it and such before they felt they could sell them, so from time to time cleverly disguised cars could be seen driving around back roads not too far away from the development facilities. These were road test mules built to work out the pre-production kinks. They didn’t want to give away their design secrets before the official release of these new models, so it was all very hush hush. Except something generally happened to give away the identity of these disguised cars. Like the sound of the starter motor.
Any kid knew the familiar cough of a Ford starter. So as soon as that disguised Ford was started, the kids would go, “WOW!! There’s the new Ford!” And you remember the familiar whine of a Chrysler Corp starter, cause in the seventies when the first restrictive smog regulations gave us a whole generation of Chrysler Corp cars that wouldn’t ever start, ya got to know the sound of that starter motor far too well.
Your dad was a Chevy guy or a Ford guy or a MOPAR guy, and that was it. So you grew familiar with how a Ford looked inside and out, and that’s what a car or pickup should be, and the rest just feel icky. This is how brand loyalty gets going, and the car companies like brand loyalty because they know you will come back and buy their cars for the rest of your life if they can just get you hooked.
That’s why they paint a Ford grill on a NASCAR race car. All those cars are virtually identical, so they paint on a bowtie or a tail light so you’ll know you are cheering for a Ford or a Chevy. It’s still win on Sunday and sell on Monday in the car business.
Only now we can also get hooked on a particular driver, and you can wear number 24 on your hat, and the guy with 16 on his hat will look at you like you are nuts. And then he goes out and buys two t-shirts and a jacket with 16 on it, to prove he is more loyal to his guy, and the money goes to the corporation that is that other driver. Brand loyalty.
Are you a VISA or MasterCard kinda guy? Did ya notice how we got sucked into that deal? Do you find yourself reaching for one particular credit card outta that stack in your wallet? You like one better, right? Maybe it’s the airline miles you think you are building up, or the picture of your dog you got printed on the front. Do you like the Chase ad on TV better than the Capital One? Somebody is making a buck off the card you use, every time you use it. Because you like that one better.
Remember when money came from the government? The government had complete control over printing dollar bills and punching out nickels. We wanted money…we went to those guys. Who buys stuff with government money anymore? Now ya reach for plastic. Who’s in charge of the money in this country now? The government? Or the banks? Wonder why the government can’t fix the economy? Heck, they don’t even run it anymore. Want to thank someone for the current sorry state of things?
We the people hire the politicians, but the banks pay them. Guess who they really be workin’ for.
My invisible friend has been reading her Marx again, and she has all the answers. She’s always liked that line of thinking, which leads to some of our more interesting discussions, cause I like other ideas. I find her stuff icky. Guess what she feels about mine? We have our own brand of brand loyalty.
Know what happens when folks like her get their way? All we do is get a different bunch of people in charge of the world. Different than the bunch in charge now.
Funny how that happens. One bunch takes over government here, and another bunch over there. One bunch worships this god, and that other bunch has theirs. Somebody likes the Yankees and another likes the Red Sox. We get the league championship series or Stalin verses Hitler and World War II.
Are you a Chevy guy or a Ford guy? Humans aren’t all that hard to figure. We give our loyalty here or there. And each time we do this, we give up a little of ourselves, our money, our options, and our freedoms.
Not telling ya which car to buy. Am telling ya to check it out first. Trust your icky feelings, but check it out first.
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