It's been raining cats and dogs here recently.

In the midst of a downpour the other day it occurred to me that the windshield of my car was not leaking.

Was not leaking. Yes that is what I said.

For whatever reason...call it a flashback to the 80's if you will ....for just a moment my mind went back to when I was a young driver and a leaking windshield wasn't all that uncommon.

I had at least one vehicle that did it. A highschool buddy of mine bought a brand new Chevy S-10 pickup back in the day that leaked right off of the lot. I think one of my family's cars did it too.

I can't think of a recent time when I was in a car with a leaking windshield.

That got me to thinkin'....

..there are a few other things that aren't a part of my auto experience anymore:


Roll-up (manual crank) windows.

Hearing the squeak of a mechanical throttle linkage as I pump the gas pedal a couple times prior to a cold start.

On that note, pulling in a manual choke lever.

Flicking between hi and lo beams via a floorboard-mounted plunger switch.

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Now someayas who still drive dinosaur cars continue to live with these things. In some ways I miss them (especially the hi/lo beam switch) but in other ways I suppose they are a sign of the times and perhaps reflect an overall improvement in car design and manufacture.

So...


...do you think the cars these days (let's say >1990) are "better" than those made say from 1960-1990? "better" can mean everything from user-friendliness to asthetics.

IMHO the cars these days are more appliance-like but that's probably a good thing.

-Trevor

young people today never felt the pain of driving an old carburatored car where in the cold you had to pump the gas pedal to set the choke (but not pump it too much to flood it out and wear your battery down trying to "clear" it out.) Once it started you had to let it warm up and manage the off idle hesitation until it was fully warmed up. Every 2 or so years having to change the choke pull-off because it would not pull open and would then foul the spark plugs. It was PAINFULL. I love electronic fuel injection!! Interesting post! It makes you think of the old days!

I crank my windows; I have the squeak, and the warm up process. And I wouldn't give it up for anything.

I say the older cars where better, looks, and longevity.

Yes there are new faster cars, but were do you see a Honda in 40 years? A WRX? Or a Toyota. Look at that beer can or Pepsi can your drinking from, that’s were they will be.

Yes Fuel injection is a nice reliable feature, but how much will it cost you when it breaks and falls out of warranty?

Yes, the convenience factor means that new cars are nice. But the old will always be better.





P.S. My Charger window doesn’t leak But My jeep does

I still miss my 1978 Chevy Custom Deluxe Pick up. Mint wood bed, in line 6 with 3 on the tree. The best was that if you down shifted from 3rd to 1st the linkage would jam under the hood. You had to pop the hood reach back and grab the lever that was jamed. It only happened when I had a nice clean shirt.

Im 17 and ive expierenced all of those. Several of them on more then one vehicle.

I will say that the newer stuff seems to be better screwed together (so to speak).

3 of the last 4 vehicles I've owned were pretty much as squeak and rattle free at 100,000 miles as they were at 10,000 miles. Those vehicles were a '94 Sunbird, a '99 Z24, an '01 Escape and a '98 Civic. Of all the vehicles the Escape was the one that fared the worst. No way my older vehicles (e.g., '78 Monte Carlo, '74 Barracuda) would have held it together so well for so long.

I think whatever galvanizing process they are using on the sheetmetal is better since about the early 90's too. You still see early 90's Ford Escorts running around that are basically rust-free.....strangely all the ones I notice seem to be teal.

I do miss the room under the hood when it comes to working on engines. You could basically fit between the header and the fenderwell on either side of the motor in my old '67 GTX (and that was 440!)....at least the newest cars are making it a bit easier to reach the oil filters and such....on the Civic you needed an extra joint in your arm just to fish the filter out from its' hiding place!

-Trevor

i love the floor mounted hi/low on my corvette....and pumping the gas a few times the other day to get it running....ive experienced all this with the corvette and also growing up next to a guy that always built hotrods or other old cars.

I still like taking my chances driving my Charger.

No airbags
No anti lock brakes
No seat belts
No traction control
No multiple displacement engine
No electronic throttle control
No satellite navigation
No electronic stability control

It's my deathmobile and I love it!

I liked driving my 54 olds and having the throttle cable stick..... yeaaaaahhhh old cars.

if anything is annoying...

when things break on new cars...THE PARTS ARE SO HARD TO GET AT!

breaks on an old car...you open it up....and there sits the engine. almost everything at your finger tips.

now its all smashed against this and that, with plastic parts and wires and screws everywhere. changing sparkplugs is sometimes an all-day-job depending on your car.

i enjoy the new safety items, such as anti-lock brakes, and air bags are a plus. also improved steering components allow for better traction, and actually ALLOW you to take out your performance car on a rainy day, and not having to worry about sliding off into the ditch.

easier to press clutch pedals and smaller shifting strokes make it easier for performance driving, and just seem to enhance the driving pleasure...

but if there is anything i HATE out of modern vehicles. and this is only within the past 2 years....

PADEL SHIFTERS!

i hate those....thats just too much. i dont want to flick into a gear, i want to CRUNCH into a gear with a stick shift.

Well...

Old cars are much easier for the average schmoo to work on & are cheap to fix as long as he knows his basics. Old cars sometimes seem to run on will alone. They can be the most neglected POS on the road & yet, for some reason they still run.
They seem to have more "personality" than newer cars.

I'll always have a few old cars to play with...they're just cool.

With newer cars, I've noticed that if you do regular oil changes & the usual average maintenance, that some newer vehicles will stay running much longer than 60's & 70's cars did. I would say most of that is thanks to the overdrive transmissions widely used in the late 80's on up.
We've got a 91 Exploder 4.0 4x4, with 241,000+ miles on it & that engine's NEVER been apart! We bought it with about 125,000 on the clock & the only halfway major thing I've ever done to it has been 2 radiators...what can I say, it likes to eat radiators.

I don't recall very many cars from the 70's that would still be on their original engine after that many miles, because the engines were always revving too high on the highway. Why didn't they think of adding another gear to transmissions years before? It's not like it's rocket science.

True enough. It seems like when they first started using overdrive they were a little -too- ambitious (my 700R4 '86 T/A ran at ~1700 at 75 MPH) but they've gotten better at it since then.

Only two older cars of mine went over 100K...and come to think of it, both had prarie gears. I don't recall the final drives on either but they were definitely <3.23...

(1) My '74 Cuda 318-2V, which had 160K on the clock when I bought it. I was so nervous about this motor grenading that I bought a spare 318 from a junkyard as a preemtime measure. I never used the spare motor. The car was sold with ~180K on it, and from what I heard was running for a good long time after I was rid of it.

(2) My '78 Monte Carlo 305-4V. I think it had ~120 and I sold it with ~140. If memory serves it blew up not long after I sold it (tranny?).

In contrast, I had an '86 Laser (2.4L) that went through two motors in less than 100K. That car had a significantly higher final drive ratio than the V8s.

-Trevor

I still have crank windows and dam proud of them.

I think I had the first year that the Accord DX had FI also. I got lucky there.

um, I have that.

I actually like it, makes starting up the truck exciting.

you never know quite what its gonna do.