New and Improved

Our Honda has gone 300,000 km and it's twelve years old. 

"Our mechanic says that the transmission or the engine may fail in the car because they have limited life span, maybe we should get a new car before they do?" said Man Yung.

"But our mechanic also said that there's no evidence that the transmission or the engine has any signs of failing right now.  So long we don't take the car on long road trips and stay in town, there's no downside on keeping the car and driving it until 400,000 or even 500,000 km!"

Our car is old but is is reliable.  It worries us that all the newer models of the same car have not been as trustworthy - a friend who also bought a later model of the same car experienced steering problems, and a relative who bought an even later model had paint bubble and peel from the hood for no reason, and the brakes keep on wearing out really quickly.  There's been tons of recalls of the newer cars.  The newer models are shinier, sleeker, faster, more spacious - New and Improved, as they say - but the cars aren't as good as the car we bought.  At this point we think that our old run-down car is probably better and more reliable than any new one!

We are very suspicious of any claims of "New and Improved".  We have been loyal devotees of a certain supermarket cheesecake for years - when they came out with a "New and Improved" formula, we bought one as a treat and was not only disappointed - we had stomachaches from eating it and couldn't finish the box.

Ice cream too - all these boxes of "New and Improved" formula came out, we looked at the ingredient label, and we discovered there was no cream in the ice cream!  We checked online and confirmed that instead of having real dairy in ice cream, the big food corporations have found it cheaper to make a creamier feeling ice cream product by whipping air into OIL and marketing it as a better ice cream.

"New and Improved" seems to us to be just another way for corporations to cut corners, cut costs, and increase profits while tricking customers into thinking that they are getting something better.

Happens in politics too - look at the "New and Improved" kind of democracy that the Chinese Communists are pushing onto Hong Kong citizens.  It is a fake democracy!  People want real democracy and not the "New and Improved" formula.

We are glad that Tangueros everywhere woke up and realized that the "New and Improved" Tango i.e. Nuevo Tango is just like ice cream with no cream.  We don't see anyone dancing it in Toronto except dancers with whom no other dancer wants to dance with. Since Nuevo Tango is already dead, it is not worth our time talking more about it - just trust us on this, ok?

We don't want "New and Improved" in our lives!  We want the classics - Martha and Manolo, Osvaldo and Coca, Alberto Dassieu, the old milongueros....and we want to dance like them and not follow any new-fashioned Tango fads.  We don't feel like being recalled anytime soon, thank you very much.

Here's a video of Martha and Manolo performing milonga in 2002.  Enjoy!: