Over the last week while moving out of the city I've done quite a bit more driving than I normally do. In that time I noticed something that kind of pisses me off. You know how the new trend is to be all patriotic and have flags flying on your vehicle or stickers of flags on your vehicle? Well, it amazes me just how many of these flags I've seen on import automobiles in the last week.

I'm not a big flag waver. I'm also not the biggest fan of mega-corporations and am definitely not a fan of unions. However, I buy American cars. Even if half or more of the parts are made in China or Mexico the vast majority of the money involved in the sale goes to Americans. I figure if I need to buy an automobile I should at least be doing something that benefits the people in this country rather than some other country.

I drive a Pontiac Grand Am. It gets 30-35 miles per gallon highway and 29 mpg city driving. It has 180HP, 7.8 second 0-60, 14.something second quarter mile, and corners pretty decent. It also boasts enough room to comfortably seat someone over 6' tall. Most comparable import vehicles don't even come close to these specifications. So why do people buy them? Maybe it is the dependability issue? I don't know. In 75K miles the only thing other than standard maintenance I've had to replace is the alternator.

My previous car was a cheap, cheap car. It was a Pontiac Phoenix. It had around 115K miles on it when it was totalled by an SUV while sitting stopped at a stop light. I'd probably still be driving it now if it wasn't for that. At 115K miles I had the inner tie rod ends replaced and replaced the water pump myself. Mechanically it was fine other than that. I guess dependability isn't the answer then.

The real answer is probably that people are a bunch of stupid jackasses who don't really give a crap about America but are doing the flag thing because it is trendy. Anyway, it pisses me off.