The amazing fallacy of High End stuff...

just as goofy as that blowtorch thread.

I have never opened the blowtorch thread, but I have read most of this one.

In my life I find that there are doers, people who actually DO something, and talkers, people who talk a lot, but never do what they say. Some of the talkers are very intelligent and may come up with some really creative stuff if it was actually built.

I prefer to build stuff. I have a few large boxes full of stuff I built that never worked, but I keep testing my crazy ideas by building. I appear to be in the minority, and that's why I lasted 41 years in an engineering facility of mostly talkers.

Note that dragging 30 or so talkers into a meeting room and attempting to design a cellphone by committee goes nowhere. If convergence does occur, it's guaranteed to be a middle of the road design, similar to last years best seller. The best ones including the RAZR were secret "skunkworks" designs made by doers.

When I bought the property where I now live it was an overgrown jungle where people had dumped their trash for years. There were two abandoned riding lawnmowers on the property, and I needed one, so I dug both out of the mud. The bigger of the two was originally sold by the farmers coop here, and wears their house brand. I went there to inquire about parts. I was told that almost all of the lawn equipment sold in the US is made by the same company, American Yard Products in one of two US factories. Just stick your model number into Google and you will find what you need. He was right. I made one out of the two with a lot of Ebay and Amazon parts.

Now, six years later, I'm still using my Craftsman, Poulan, John Deere, Husquavarna lawnmower......like the Johnny Cash Cadillac.

Now I didn't spend $3000 on my mower, but many people do. If all of the mowers are essentially the same underneath the paint and trim, why is the most expensive brand (Green and Yellow) the best seller despite costing $500 to $1000 more?
 
Why do people buy GMC rather than Chevvy when its only the badge that changes?


Note modern TVs are similar as only 2 or 3 panel factories in the world. My LG TV has the LCD panel out of a Sony in it after an altercation with an ex and she hit it with the fire poker!
 
Used to be gmc was the work related vehicle with a bit heavier duty components

My 73 GMC was a mutt made by GM out of whatever line was running that day.

I had a 1973 GMC Vandura during the "shag my van" days in the mid 70's. By the late 70's it needed lots of fixing including a complete engine out rebuild of the powertrain.

It seemed that the parts books including the one at the local Chevy store always found the wrong parts for my van. My wheel bearings were physically bigger than those for a Chevy half ton van, but smaller than those found in a Chevy 3/4 ton. The GMC parts book showed the same stuff as the Chevy book.

After trying lots of parts it seems that my 73 GMC van most closely matched a 1974 Chevy van even though it was built in Q2 1973. The 4 bolt main 350 was part for part (including the unique starter, the HEI, Carb, and all the small stuff) a 1973 Chevy 3/4 ton truck motor.

By the early 80's the van was in the junkyard due to severe rust, the 350 engine was in my Camaro, the TH 350 was in my friends V8 Monza, the dash was in the neighbor kid's go cart, and the wheels were on a friends Monte Carlo......
 

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