[Marshall V. Daut]

You can trace the concept of "planned obsolescence" in the automotive world back to GM Chairman Alfred P. Sloan in the late 1920's. The idea behind this concept was to create desire on the part of potential auto buyers for something new and different each year. In other words, create dissatisfaction with what they already had. That would equate to new sales each year for GM from repeat "dissatisfied" buyers.
So, the car that you are touting THIS YEAR as the best ever will be obsolete and unwanted in less than a year, necessitating buying a new best car ever? That's pretty much the way it was when I was growing up in the 1950's and 1960's. The excitement over the new cars coming out in September relegated that trusty 11 month-old car in the garage a dinosaur that had to be replaced in order to satisfy one's personal ago - and to keep up with the Jonses on the block. I wonder when we finally got away from that nonsense and started keeping our cars longer than two years? Maybe when they started costing more than a new house in 1955 did?
Marshall