Daily Podcast: How Far We’ve Come

12 Comments on “ Daily Podcast: How Far We’ve Come ”

• alex_rashev :
  November 25th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
  
  

  No american manufacturer has the balls, the brains, or the anal-retentive attitude to build a four-wheeled brick shithouse anymore. Has something to do with consumers not being able to appreciate such cars. Cheap and blingy does it these days.

• chuckgoolsbee :
  November 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
  
  

  Most Duesenbergs built are still running. The company however died a long time ago. Some consumers appreciate the brick shithouse, very few can afford it however.

  –chuck

• whatdoiknow1 :
  November 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
  
  

  Gee the roaring ’20s, and we all kow how that period in our history ended.

  Irony is a bitch!

  Although I did not live in the 1920s I am somehow having a “Deja Vu” moment while looking at this ad.

  The Duesenbergs were very fine automobiles born out of an age of utter arrogance and stupidity. I guess today we have that Bugatti Veryon thing, an engineering masterpeice but also utterly useless and worthless when you get down to it.

  Back in the 1920s Dusenbergs were the cars for wealthy posers with new money not the the established wealthy. In other words in today’s world Duessys would be very popular with the ball-player, rockstar, and rapper crowd.

• Zarba :
  November 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
  
  

  whatdiknow:

  Did you say “Bentley”?

• the duke :
  November 25th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
  
  

  The sad part is that stately “brickhouse” Duesenberg probably was rebodied 20 years ago with a Phaeton or cabriolet body. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that (or a present day picture of one).

  I like the Jordan Playboy ad, which is famous, but the car itself was a market failure. Genuine Jordans are rare, especially Playboys.

  Or take “Ask the man who owns one” No one could get away today, in fembot America, with an ad like Packard used for decades. Though about five years ago Suzuki America used it saying “Ask anyone who owns one”. I don’t think most Suzuki buyers know what a Packard is though.

• Robert Schwartz :
  November 25th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
  
  

  “Cheap and blingy does it these days.”

  Well, that explains Toyota’s success.

• MBella :
  November 25th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
  
  

  Noble is still around. Rossion just bought the rights for the M400 in the US. Before, all Nobles were sold in the US as kit cars anyway.

• relton :
  November 26th, 2008 at 8:07 am
  
  

  The ad on the right is from the 30s.

  There was a whole series of ads like this showing insufferably rich people in their natural habitat, with the tag line “He drives a Duesenberg”, or, on at least one occasion, “She drives a Duesenberg”.

  Bob

• Matt51 :
  November 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
  
  

  One of the supercharged Duesenbergs dynoed 400 hp at the factory. To see how advanced they were, the Ford V8 was 70 hp? and BMW was 40 hp?. Was it a quarter century before anyone else could match the Duesenberg? Which was killed by the financial manipulations of Cord, more than the depression. Along with the Auburn and Cord.

• Matt51 :
  November 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am
  
  

  After Duesenberg was purchased by Cord, he pushed Duesenberg upscale big time, and you ordered a custom body for the car from independent suppliers. Only about 500 of these super expensive versions were ever built. If your car broke on the road, the factory sent a mechanic to fix it.

• Gottleib :
  November 26th, 2008 at 10:21 am
  
  

  The ad on the left is showing one of the 13 ever produced Duesenberg models that was being built when the company was acquired by Cord. Following Cord’s acquisition Duesenberg only built chassis that were then equipped with bodies custom built to the owners spec. Jay Leno’s Garage featured one of these original 13 Duesenbergs on a its program. Not only were only 13 built, but very few survived.

• whatdoiknow1 :
  November 26th, 2008 at 10:35 am
  
  

  Those Duesenberg engine were actually DOHC 4v inline 8s equiped with twin Stromberg carbs before they added the supercharger. These were some pretty advanced engines for their day.

  It is hard to image a world today were you would sit down with a designer and create your own unique car body and interior.

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