Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A big difference I see is everyone I grew up with was at the DMV getting thier license at age 16... today, I know many kids not even teens anymore without a driver's license... just doesn't seem as important.
A few years ago I went to Marin to help a friend start his old 1956 T-Bird... it had been stored for about 10 years...
It was a nice car and very presentable... had it runing and cleaned up in no time and ran well.
I was filling up the tank at a gas station and a woman in a new Prius comes up to me... thought she was going to admire the car...
She said cars like this should be in a museum... they have no business on the road because they lack modern safety equipment and are bad for the environment...
Came as a complete surprise to me... but, then again, Marin does have some odd people.
I was filling up the tank at a gas station and a woman in a new Prius comes up to me... thought she was going to admire the car...
She said cars like this should be in a museum... they have no business on the road because they lack modern safety equipment and are bad for the environment...
She does have a point on safety. Although far too few of them are around to make much difference to pollution
A big difference I see is everyone I grew up with was at the DMV getting thier license at age 16... today, I know many kids not even teens anymore without a driver's license... just doesn't seem as important.
A few years ago I went to Marin to help a friend start his old 1956 T-Bird... it had been stored for about 10 years...
It was a nice car and very presentable... had it runing and cleaned up in no time and ran well.
I was filling up the tank at a gas station and a woman in a new Prius comes up to me... thought she was going to admire the car...
She said cars like this should be in a museum... they have no business on the road because they lack modern safety equipment and are bad for the environment...
Came as a complete surprise to me... but, then again, Marin does have some odd people.
Lots of people don't worry about safety "features" just care about a safe driving vehicle. My 97 tahoe obviously doesn't have air bags all over but i still drive it without hesitation. It does have dual front air bags and ABS brakes but even if it didnt i would still drive it.
I believe newer cars certainly provide more safety features but aren't built better. The build quality of new cars seems really low quality. All the plastic gives a real cheap feel and look. I guarantee you won't have newer cars lasting 20 years or more like stuff made in the 90s or before.
Will people really be restoring a 2010 Accord someday like they do Model A Fords?
There will always be collectable cars... just don't think it will be in the numbers we see now.
And there will always be people looking to restore certain cars because of some personal connection they have to the car. I recall when my dad gave my pastor a 1989 Plymouth Horizon, his initial thought was "I want to restore this thing" even though it was drivable as is. His reason? His father had owned one, and had also recently died, so he thought it would make a fitting connection to his father.
But I highly doubt that that will be the norm. Let's face it - sooner or later you won't be able to get the computers necessary to operate these vehicles. Where can you find, for instance, a computer controller for the lean-burn fuel system on a 1982 Dodge Ram? Or a computer controller for the V8-6-4 system found on most 1981 Cadillacs? Sooner or later they will all become obsolete and without them, the car simply won't run. At least with "old" cars, the parts are not only readily available but they're also fairly easily restored by someone with moderate mechanical knowledge. You can rebuild a carburetor. You can't rebuild an engine computer. There will come a time when those cars will be nothing but museum pieces.
Unless, of course, it's a Corvette or something similar. The zombie apocalypse will happen before someone simply can't get some Corvette to be operational no matter how much time or money he puts into it.
Classic's from the 50's-60's were definitely sexy ass cars. The length and sweeping lines on Cadillac's in the 60's were just so damn sleek and attractive.
The oldies really do and did feel better built compared to todays modern cars to some extent. Everything from the hood, to the trunk lid, was solid and heavy duty.
At least back then, the volume of cars was much lower, cost of materials was dirt cheap this includes steel, rubber, glass, plastic, so more emphasis was put towards the care and quality of each make and model, more unique body designs, powertrains, suspension setups, were all very unique to each brand compared to now where so much is shared, thus making the latest modern car brands like Chevy, Buick and Cadillac even less special and different.
Modern cars are simply appliances, drive em everyday, nobody notices you, or bothers to care because your car looks like theirs, boring, shapeless, plastic POS boxes on wheels.
But cruise down the road in a 56 Packard, Chrysler Imperial, Cadillac, Chevy Bel Air, or a 59 Impala, 59 Caddy and or a 64 Lincoln Continental vert, people WILL TAKE NOTICE and highly admire these lovely works of art.
You can't ignore all that wonderful chrome gleaming at you!
The build quality of new cars seems really low quality. All the plastic gives a real cheap feel and look. I guarantee you won't have newer cars lasting 20 years or more like stuff made in the 90s or before.
The 1960s cars were rusting on the production lines. New cars last far longer than older cars.
I believe newer cars certainly provide more safety features but aren't built better. The build quality of new cars seems really low quality. All the plastic gives a real cheap feel and look. I guarantee you won't have newer cars lasting 20 years or more like stuff made in the 90s or before.
Except you're getting way more miles out of newer cars relatively trouble free. In the '60s and '70s a car was pretty much done with it's normal life at 100k miles (and had to be fidddled with constantly to get to 100k miles. After 100k, it was a parts car or project). Now you're looking at 200-300k miles before it's considered a parts car or project, and you can get to 200k miles with very little fiddling and tuning up.
I have one of those electronic keys and wonder what will happen in ten years or so when parts are nearly impossible to come by as the vehicle in question was a low production GM import. Same with BCMs etc.
The drive-train and fuselage/interior will last but what about the electronics?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
