I remember the '80's, when folks boasted about how costly their sneakers were, and didn't mention whether they were comfortable. I remember, too, taking at least two of the five BMW owners on my team to/from the dealer because their BMW was in the shop ... again. As for me ... I wore those ultra-lightweight Rockport wingtips to work. They were light, had soft soles, and though they cost well over $100 a pair, which, then, was quite a bit for a pair of shoes for work, were well worth the cost and tolerating the short sole-life, as compared with those 3-pounds-each Florsheims I got in '63, and still have.

However, while I do believe that people pay for image, and cellphones, iPods, and the like have proven that people are happy to pay lots for things that work just a little, in order to have the image-value of having the "kewl" toys, whether they really work properly or not, I seriously doubt that applies to the components within them. Features, maybe parts, probably not.

The "Alte, Deutsche Wertarbeit" isn't what it once was, either. I recall once (actually three times) taking a colleague to the BMW repair shop to have each of the three fuel pumps in his 3-series BMW replaced. Clearly a case of overengineering, since other, apparently more reliable cars, like mine, seemed to get by with just one, and mine have never failed, though I'm on my fourth Nissan Maxima in 21 years.

Somewhere in all this, I'd bet there's a bit of wisdom, though I have yet to ferret it out, exactly. I rather imagine it applies to things other than automobiles as well, though.

RE