By John Pierre

Some younger people are probably getting weary of hearing those of us who are older saying, "They don't make 'em like they used to." 

I don't blame them because 20 or 30 years from now they'll be repeating the same tired old cliché, and their younger audiences will be equally bored and disgusted with the uninvited proclamation. 

However, there is a modicum of validity to the oft-repeated comment.  I'm thinking of automobiles. 

Aside from the fact that older cars were made of metal while modern ones are put together with plastic and fiberglass, there was a time when you could tell at a glance whether a Mercury or a Ford flathead V-8 or a Plymouth or a Chevrolet just passed you on the highway. 

They all had their distinctive designs.  Most of us could even discern whether the passing auto was a '39 or a '55 or whatever.  A real treat was to see a Lincoln Zephyr V-12 motoring down the highway… or a Packard Phaeton 180 roll by.  The Kaiser automobile was sleek looking, while its sister ship, the Fraser, looked like an overturned bathtub. 

With a fairly strong automotive background (as a lad I was a parking lot attendant, where I learned to fit a large car into a smaller space, followed by a few decades in the car rental business), I have great difficulty today discerning the make and model of the car I'm following down Main Street.  Most of them appear very similar. 

It seems that all of the modern cars have identical, slanted, wrap-around headlights. Most of the time, I haven't the slightest idea what make or model car I'm in the presence of until we come to a stop close together so I can read the attached chrome name plate.  

You get the feeling you could remove a fender (if there still is such a thing) from a Honda and install it on a Ford, and it would fit. 

Very few of today's cars have any distinctive characteristics.  One of the exceptions to the rule is those ugly square things with the looks of a Cheerios box with wheels.  Then there are the ones that have a nose like an anteater.  Those various battery-operated jobs can be spotted blocks away because most of them have a terminal case of the uglies. 

But, I must admit… not having to crank-to-start is a distinct advantage the modern autos provide. 

Of course, the offset to that is that you can't ask a good Samaritan to offer you a push to start if you are unfortunate enough to have a dead battery.  The "bumper," if a car even has one, is plastic and would crush upon being eased into position for a push start.  Not to mention that with most modern cars, if the engine isn't running, the steering and brakes aren't operating, either. 

A sign of the times.  Too bad.  We seem to have lost our individuality.