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When I buy a car, it IS for the job, of transporting myself and my family on public roads. If it can't do it, its not a car---it's a toy.
And if you travel to Alaska a lot buy one that will work there, if you primarily keep to SoCal, you won't need the same cold weather ruggedness.
Why do you oppose diversity of choice? It's not like you can't get a car that'll survive Alaskan winters. (Frankly, most of them will do just as good as their older counterparts)
My mom had a '50 Pontiac, (straight 8 and auto tranny!) that had a starter button.
Funny thing was that the engine would crank without the key...it just wouldn't start. When I was about 8, I told my buddies....C'mon, lets take a spin in my mom's car! We all got in and when I hit that starter button, my buddies freaked!
One time, I cranked it too long and ran the battery down....my sister ratted me out and ma kicked my arse. LOL
And if you travel to Alaska a lot buy one that will work there, if you primarily keep to SoCal, you won't need the same cold weather ruggedness.
Why do you oppose diversity of choice? It's not like you can't get a car that'll survive Alaskan winters. (Frankly, most of them will do just as good as their older counterparts)
When Sienna first came out with their run-flat tires, there were so few tire dealers that stocked them (at $250 apiece) , I wouldn't have driven the thing across Kansas. What I was driving at the time was a Previa, a bullet-proof workhorse that the Sienna replaced.
My mom had a '50 Pontiac, (straight 8 and auto tranny!) that had a starter button.
Funny thing was that the engine would crank without the key...it just wouldn't start. When I was about 8, I told my buddies....C'mon, lets take a spin in my mom's car! We all got in and when I hit that starter button, my buddies freaked!
One time, I cranked it too long and ran the battery down....my sister ratted me out and ma kicked my arse. LOL
hehehe. My dad had a '48 Ford panel delivery truck with a starter button and key. Same thing. One day we came home from shopping and the truck, which had been parked up by the house, was down the long driveway and in the clearang at the first bend. We were like WTF? thought someone was trying to steal it and only got that far.
Next morning, we were eating breakfast and we heard the truck starter go off. Looked out the window and it was crawling away down the driveway with no one in it. Apparently the starter buton had shorted and was randomly trying to start the truck. Since it was a manual trans and was left in 1st (had no parking brake), it simply crawled away on the starter... Got a good chuckle out of it.
There is something fundamentally unsettling about this push-button no-key starter. Would you drive this car to Alaska, depending on that newfangled electronic thingamajig to start your car in the middle of the Yukon, or find somebody to start it?
More and more, cars are designed for soccer moms to drive to the hairdresser, and anything less predictable could leave you stranded for any of a hundred little tiny failures.
In the 1930's, the Okies drove their families to California in a 1922 car, with a set of crescent wrenches, a couple of screwdrivers, and a tire iron. Duct tape hadn't been invented yet.
A couple of years ago, I was in my Toyota dealers shop, and a guy drove in with a new Sienna. Run-flat tires, with no spare, not even a well to put one in. I asked the Toyota man if he would drive that car to Alaska. He just laughed.
Cars are now designed to be driven on summer blacktop roads within a radius of 50 miles from a dealer. Nothing that goes wrong can ever be bypassed by intuition or duct tape. That Sienna had a motorized rear-deck lifter, operating off a button on the dash. Good luck when there's a little ice buildup. But, of course, our soccer mom has a garage. It's an indoor car.
Today's Hyundai Elantra is more reliable and trustworthy than anything in 1922. Chances are fairly good you needed the crescent wrench to complete the trip.
I think it is completely inaccurate to say cars are now designed to be driven on summer blacktop roads. Today's cars start reliably in almost any weather condition. No "hot soak" carburetur problems. No choke required for cold weather or pump of the gas pedal. Turn the key, and the engine starts in 2 seconds. Far more vehicles today have off road or all-weather capability via all wheel drive.
I don't like many of the gadgets cars have today - but I think today's vehicles are in general supremely reliable.
I assume most here know why the ignition moved to the steering column for most cars - the Feds mandated that the steering wheel lock when the key was removed. This was to deter theft. A simple solution was mechanical - put the ignition on the steering column and make it part of the required lock. Saab did things their own way and kept the ignition on the floor but still managed to lock the steering column.
Eventually other carmakers veered away from the traditional key on steering column. I think many of the newest so-called innovations with starting the car are just luxury gimmicks. Proximity sensors for the key, inserting a key fob into a slot, etc. I think it is all a bit silly.
But I think nothing is as silly as menu driven dash controls like BMW's iDrive.
I think a another part of the reason for moving the key was to prevent knee injuries in collisions.
There is a big difference between the push button starters of old and new ones. The old ones were physically connected to the starter and engine. New ones are connected to a computer chip that then sends a signal to the engine whether to start or not.
Toyota is redesigning their electronic system because to turn off the engine while in motion you have to press it and hold it down for several seconds, which could be dangerous if your Lexus is accelerating out of control. Old systems that were physically connected to the engine could shut it off instantly.
old enough to remeber those push button cars of the 50's and early 60's===most of those starters presented a variety of issues and generally were p.i.t.a vehicles and now with this relying on computer chips more problems imho
When Sienna first came out with their run-flat tires, there were so few tire dealers that stocked them (at $250 apiece) , I wouldn't have driven the thing across Kansas. What I was driving at the time was a Previa, a bullet-proof workhorse that the Sienna replaced.
Then offload the heavy, less agile run-flats, put on real tires and throw an extra one in the boot or carry a bottle of tire inflater foam, It's not really that hard.
Besides, run-flat tires are exactly that, run when it's flat. If they don't have an identical tire at the first possible location, you're not going to murder the car by putting a regular tire on it for a while.
Besides, that was then, this is now, and now you can get run-flats far more places, so I really don't see your position on this matter.
You like them simple? Fine, then buy a simple car, it's not like everything out there it technoladen and scarily high tech. Again, buy the right vehicle for the job, but personally I would have no hesitations about driving, for instance a BMW E92 model series in Alaska as long as I'm not offroading, I'd get an Arctic Truck modified Toyota HiLux for that.
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