HEMI-Powered wrote:
Today, TOM7601 made these interesting comments ...

HEMI-Powered wrote:
Today, TOM7601 made these interesting comments ...

You're probably right, no one *NEEDS* a hybrid automobile
any more than anyone *NEEDS* a Hemi powered car. We buy what
we want and if it feeds our perception of our environmental
consciousness, or our driving skills, then so be it.
Different strokes for different folks.
Let's try to separate "need" from "want". Nobody needs a hot
PC and nobody needs Vista. Nobody needs a hybrid nor a HEMI
nor an F-150 nor a Mercedes-Benz S-650 for $150,000+. But,
people want these things, or think they do. This is what
freedom is all about, and is also what the free enterprise
system is all about. And, yes, ALL companies try to implant
the "need" in prospective customer's minds so they would
rather die than not buy the thing du jour.

Anyway, with the desert and mountains less than an hour
away, I can make use of the 4X4... :))
I thought that formatting *NEEDS* the way I did, I was making
a distinction of sorts. Next time I'll try to make the
distinction more clear (double-double?) by including *WANT*
for those who are slow on the uptake.

Thanks for the heads-up... :))

Tom, who of us are you arguing with and why? I believe, and have
stated so several times, that buying decisions for ALL products
hard or soft, consumer or vehicular, application SW or O/S is all
about freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom to decline, freedom to
buy what they want for whatever reason they want, and freedom to
not buy what they don't want to buy. WRT vehicles, I can see
really broad-based definitions of "need", "want", "desire", "lust
for", "require", and other adjectives applied to cars as small as
imported sub-sub compacts through the entire spectrum of car
sizes, price classes, engines, features, etc. The, there's the
people and cargo haulers, including traditional minivans or SUVs,
and the trucks. More recently, we've seen the rapid rise of CUVs,
again, all the way from sub-compact to really large. 4X4 vehicles
abound, as do AWD which is different. Some folks want an off-road
vehicle while others just want to pretent and still others just
want to be safe in rain and snow. There's other market segments
and many other quantitative and qualitative definitions one can
use to "justify" why people do or don't buy what any of us may
think they should. So, just because Justin has a F-150, someone
else has a 4X4 truck or SUV, I have a 5.7L HEMI, lots of folks
lust after the modern day muscle cars, and then there's the Prius
crowd.

So, as the old Wendy's ads used to say "where's the beef?" And,
note that none of the protagonists in this OT debate have
politicized the vehicle buying process nor evangelized any
favorite brands/models nor disparaged any, that I can tell. I'll
say it again: I may not like my company's competitures, but I
sure as Hell highly respect them. The Asians and some European
brands definitely do it right the first time, are price
efficient, plant build time efficient, have outstanding quality,
often superior fuel economy, and frequently competitive
performance. And, while the American Big Three ARE improving
rapidly across the board, the Asians are improving at a higher
rate. So, I can and will respect your views, just keep it factual
and no name calling, OK? Thanks.

I didn't realize that *WANTS* and *NEEDS* were considered "name calling."

We live and learn... :))
--
Tom - Vista, CA