"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
Winston wrote:
Christopher Tidy wrote:

I know this is coming rather late in the thread, but can anyone think of
specific examples of older products that were junk?

Many thanks,

Chris

1980 Chevrolet El Camino

1) Never idled properly as manufactured.

2) Rumor had it that you had to disconnect the 'smog' computer to
get it to run smoothly. Then mileage suffered (14 MPG!)

3) Transmission meltdown at ~45,000 mi.

Many other minor glitches and gotchas.

Oh yes, the truck Gene Hackman drives in the film Enemy Of The State? Cool
looking truck, even if it was unreliable.

Actually, I was thinking of products from the '50s or earlier, if anyone
can remember?


Eh, eh. ...well, sonny...let's see here, by cracky...scratch, scratch,
spit...

Well, there were Bache Browne spinning reels. They were very expensive
(early reels of the type) but they had thin line fingers made of stainless
that would wear completely through in a couple of years of heavy use. Bad
design, not thought through.

There were Mitchell-Garcia spinning reels (see what I was doing in the '50s?
g). The big ones were not cheap. They had copper teeth on their drags that
would strip off when you hooked a big fish. I wound up bringing in a
27-pound king mackerel hand-over-hand. Bad design, thoughtless use of
materials.

There were Winchester single-barrel shotguns. I went through two of them in
two weeks. Their barrels were brass-brazed, badly, onto the locking lugs.
They'd break off when you shot them, with the barrel then landing on the
ground. ****-poor process and quality control.

Stainless kitchen cutlery from the 50s -- even the expensive stuff. It was
made of 18-8 (300 Series) steel, which is too soft to hold an edge. Poor
choice, or availability, of materials.

All of the little bellcranks on a piano I owned. Expensive piano, crappy
plastic. Every one of the bellcranks cracked once they deplasticized. Poor
material choice.

Most portable typewriters -- especially Italian Olivettis. Beautiful design,
but complete crap. As my repairman said, they were made of "frozen ****."

Radiators for most American Motors (Rambler) cars. They leaked when new.

Jeez, I'm glad I got all that off my chest...g

--
Ed Huntress