Fool Me Twice

Recently the brakes failed on my Ford F150. That was exciting but not exactly a surprise, they had been acting up for a week, and I meant to get them serviced, but suddenly the caliper on one failed completely, quickly draining the brake system of fluid. Nothing is quite as frightening as that first time the brake pedal goes all they way to the floor. But some quick thinking, a switch to 1st gear and judicious use of the emergency brake enabled me to limp home. However it got me thinking about a few issues that have been bothering me for quite some time.

Apparently drivers have not improved at all since I was a boy. Vehicles themselves are (in general) vastly superior, but it takes a special type of moron to see a driver with their hazards on putting along at 25 mph, and to decide one would like to whip around and then immediately in front of them at a light. Hey bozo, maybe the hazards are on because the car HAS NO BRAKES?

A second point, is that Fords are better in general then GM vehicles still. In fact is they are on par with Toyota cars. And not in reliability in general, but in after market service. The Ford caliper set we had to purchase had EVERYTHING included in the box. New bolts, compression washers, retaining clips, the whole nine yards. And it was an OEM part. The comparable GM OEM part came with a caliper.

And that's why despite a government bailout GM still sucks.