Topic: Future Lemons Candidates
I haven't seen this posted before but if it has been, just ignore this.
Judge Phil's fantastic series on "cars that should do well in Lemons but don't" and "cars that should should suck in Lemons but don't" got me to thinking about which cars that are currently being sold (or recently sold) as new on dealer lots will 1)make their way on to a Lemons course after another, say, ten years; and 2)will find reasonable success at leading the Lemons field once their time comes. Of course, they will have to occupy that sweet spot of sucking bad enough to be obtainable at the $500 or less price while still enjoying some combination of strong sales (and thus plentiful junkyard spares), a loyal following to glean information from and fairly straightforward wrenchability. Now, making them faster and more reliable will be the mysterious secret sauce to Lemons builds for as long as Jay finds his Frankenstein project a worthy distraction so that will never be a concern, I wouldn't think. But what current cars are going to make up the Lemons grid in 2023?
There are some that immediately come to mind for me. A bunch of penultimate year Pontiacs, for instance. I also can easily see the Nissan Altima as a stalwart. Absurd credit non-requirements and fire-sale pricing made these the go-to for anyone looking to combine a shiny new car and a sub-500 Beacon score. Most got the $#!T beat out of them and are worth decidedly less than their rolling stock in many cases. Wrong wheel drive and CVT be damned; the fact that you will be able to pick up three parts cars for your hooptified LeMonized POS for the cost of a fill-up of CY2023 premium should make the Altima a Lemons lemming. Pretty much anything currently wearing a Mitsubishi badge in a dealer lot is game, I would think. By 2023 there may not even be a Mitsubishi dealership selling gasoline powered cars in America if their sales continue to progress as they have over the last year and a half. Crappy interior aesthetics combined with anonymous styling and third world build quality don't exactly portend great commercial success when everyone else is stepping up their game. But, Mitsu's loss will be LeMon's gain come 2023! Similar pricing strategy as Nissan put lots of these future junkyard scale-climbers in the hands of people looking to beat on them mercilessly as appliances of daily living, leaving them used up and forgotten once their lease was up or they turned them over to be auctioned by the receiving dealership on trade. On the domestic side: Chrysler 200 and 300; the Dodge Avenger; the Ford Fusion and Mustang; the Chevy Impala and Camaro. There have to be others I am not even thinking of...
Will the Altima be capable of running an entire Lemons weekend reliably? Does the Avenger have some hidden strength that the general buying public knows nothing about that would put it towards the front of the field come late Sunday afternoon at MSR? Can a 300 be lightened and cooled enough to take advantage of the powerful Hemi under its hood?
Am I totally off base here? What can I race in 10 years that I could have bought brand new (or almost brand new) in 2013?
/) come monday motorsports /)
Kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.