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Do Miss:
-Easily reparable by myself, and some repairs such as carburetor adjustment required a bit of intuition
-Solid steel
-Certain models had "character"
-Used models were more affordable compared to the wages of the day
-That baritone bellow of a big block V-8!
-Edit WHERE have soft comfortable seats gone?? Miss that soft upholstery instead of this hard molded stuff...
Don't Miss
-Four wheel drum brakes... could fail in rain
-Single pot master cylinders, more subject to catastrophic failure
-Alternators could not produce heavy electrical load - sometimes running your headlights and wipers and blower motor could cause the car to die on a rainy, balmy night
-Older tires had worse traction and because they were taller more prone to deformation
-poor gas mileage
-poorer safety standards
Exactly right. The late-'50s to late-'70s American cars were easy to identify. My mom and a few of her sisters knew a '58 Chevy from a '58 Ford or a '58 Plymouth, even from 50 feet away!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleet
You are correct. When a late-model Buick looks like a late-model Toyota, something is wrong!
Do Miss:
-Easily reparable by myself, and some repairs such as carburetor adjustment required a bit of intuition
The flip side is that today's cars need less of the "easy" do-it-yourself repairs. No timing to check, no point gap to set, no idle mixture screws or float level to adjust, plugs don't have to be cleaned and gapped every few months, etc.
The car I drove in college was a 2000 Toyota Echo. The only luxury it had was air conditioning.
5 speed manual, crank windows, manual door locks, crank seats. No ABS, no traction control, just me and the road. It was brilliant in its' simplicity. No warning lights due to broken sensors, no broken window motors... and I never had any problems with that car. In five years and 180,000 miles I replaced the struts once, a couple wheel bearings, and the rest was regular maintenance - brakes, tires, etc. 40 MPG all day, A/C was ice cold, heated like a champ, and never left me broken down on the side of the road. Except for a couple flat tires, which wasn't the car's fault.
The only thing I wished it had was cruise control.
I miss it. The dumbest automotive decision I ever made was selling that car. The girl I sold it to was beginning college, I sold it to her for a decent price, and she wrecked it a few months later.
ABS in snow is the most petrifying thing ever invented. I've resorted to pulling the ABS fuse out of all subsequent vehicles and covering the warning light with electrical tape.
I've replaced so many electric window motors it isn't funny anymore. I now make sure I get the "lifetime warranty" parts from the auto parts store.
***
I've never had to replace a crank window motor, aka my bicep muscle... and the next car I buy, I want crank windows.
I've never had to replace a crank window motor, aka my bicep muscle... and the next car I buy, I want crank windows.
I've never had too many power window issues. I had a bonneville once that had a passenger window that could only be rolled down with the switch on the driver's side but only rolled up with the switch on the passenger's side, and a couple other vehicles that had bad regulators.
Since I drive by myself most of the time I like the convenience of being able to put down the back windows for ventilation without having to stop the car, but It's definitely an aggrevation to not be able to use a drive-up because of a malfunctioning window. It would be nice if they offered power windows with some sort of manual override that can be used when the power mechanism doesn't function properly.
The flip side is that today's cars need less of the "easy" do-it-yourself repairs. No timing to check, no point gap to set, no idle mixture screws or float level to adjust, plugs don't have to be cleaned and gapped every few months, etc.
Agreed. The computers brought some complexity, but optimized the engine's function greatly. I also don't miss the smell of gas or exhaust that frequently came around these things. Seems like there were always exhaust leaks somewhere..
Edit: I also seem to recall needing to change ball joints much more frequently..
It varies but a common thought is the GF I had then.
This woman would never date someone who called himself "MrRational"..
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