Whiskey is good
Some things get better with age. Take whiskey, for instance. Chemical changes that occur in the barrel over time make old whiskey smoother, more complex or better. It also becomes more expensive. A bottle of 64-year-old Macallan sold at auction for $460,000 in 2010. Not bad for a sexagenarian.
The Big Dick
Legacy's can improve with age or time too. Take former President Richard Nixon. This douche bag resigned from the Presidency in disgrace in August of 1974. Forty years later he's no were near the top (or bottom) on lists of our worst Presidents. Worst human beings who were President? Perhaps. But as for the job he did while in the Oval Office, sans Watergate, "Tricky Dick" has gone down in history as being a take no prisoners, take charge, Presidential bad ass. The passage of time has been appropriately very kind to our 37th President.
The Brothers Johnson
Our take on music can improve with the passage of time as well. Much derided in its day, disco music's image has improved to the point where "oldies" radio stations play disco songs right along side "album rock" or "classic rock" songs; the very music that was perceived as being diametrically different from it years ago. Disco is lauded today for being wonderfully progressive; not so much for being lyrical rocket science for it certainly was not (for the most part) but the production values of disco music are as fresh today as they were years ago. Many of the pioneering production techniques from the Disco era are still used today in music ranging from country to reggae.
The Dodge Diplomat; spectacularly appliance like from every angle.
Some things sadly, don't get better with age; like this 1978 Dodge Diplomat. Get da funk out ma face!
The Dodge Diplomat was little more than a gussied up, extended wheel base Aspen with "Corinthian Leather". There wasn't much anything "Corinthian" (whatever that was supposed to mean anyway...) about Corinthian leather seeing it was manufactured in Newark, New Jersey.
Silly me, I always though these cars were tarted up, four door Plymouth Dusters. Nope. That might make for an interesting automobile. No, after diligent research I've found that this car is based on the awful Dodge Aspen which was the replacement for the Dodge Dart/Plymouth Duster. Pull the wheelbase out a tad on the Aspen, throw in a snazzy vinyl roof, some fake wood trim and Corinthian leather and voila. Diplomat.
The relentless passage of time tends to sand down our memories of the issues Chrysler had with these cars but again, it doesn't make these shit bombs any better. Shoddy build quality, weak brakes, sluggish handling, unreliable, primitive engine electronics (snaps to Chrysler for its primitive Lean Burn System but it sucked) and especially with regards to the Aspens it was based on, profit crushing recalls. Hey, just because a car is old doesn't mean it's cool. Case. In point.
Reputation aside, no one can deny that Chrysler had the right idea with its "Electronic Lean Burn System: A system similar to this has been used in every computer-controlled, fuel-injected car sold in this country for decades now.
Thirty six years old and still an abysmal, awful automobile.
I left out bad styling because that's subjective. Personally, I think this car is generic in a way that many cars are today and that's fine. To a point. Certainly helps if a car is at least somewhat special looking to help owners get over how all around lousy it is. Like my 1977 Corvette for example. It too is an unholy piece of crap but at least it's good looking. Make that really, really good looking. It's also a Corvette and not a Dodge Diplomat.
Please, don't drink and drive.
Amazingly, Chrysler pushed these slobs out through 1989 although many of them were "fleeted out" to the limousine and service industry. Any average joe who bought them may have been over served Macallan.
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