How I miss the the old days....

[Rock_Hudstone]

Originally Posted By: MarcS


"The old days"

This is why batteries and tiny turbos

Wrong! The smog problem was solved in the 1970's with the introduction of catalytic converters and unleaded gasoline.

Batteries, turbos, stop/start engines. etc, are being forced on the public in anticipation of the insane Obama era CAFE mandates.

 

[Tomioka]

Yeah I miss the days of carbs, 3spd autos, and anemic
I'm just glad that engine tech continues to improve for NA and turbo engines. Better transmission tech for putting more gears without increasing transmission size and other tech advancements making today's cars much more reliable.

 

[Piston_slap]

I miss the smell of a freshly rebuilt engine and the gaskets off-gassing as they heat up. Who also remembers using penney's to gap your headers? Sound and smell can really invoke memories.

 

[bioburner]

Originally Posted By: Dadillac
I was thinking the other day. You rarely see a car on the side of the road broke down any longer. Used to see them everywhere like 30-35 years ago.

Don


You must have a better group of vehicles in your area. I put on about 320 miles today on the freeway and vehicles needing help was about one in 20 miles. Tomorrow will be worse.

 

[gman2304]

I remember when if you had a car that lasted to 100,000 miles without major repairs, you crowed to everybody and their brother. Now people with 200,000 plus miles on their vehicles rarely raise an eyebrow. 300,000 mile cars and trucks seems to be the new 100,000 miles. My 05 Chevy 1500 is getting ready to roll over 190,000 miles.

 

[BigD1]

Originally Posted By: Dadillac
I was thinking the other day. You rarely see a car on the side of the road broke down any longer. Used to see them everywhere like 30-35 years ago.

Don


Soon as it got hot around here I saw broke down cars lots, and most of those were late model cars. Tractor trailer tires loose their recaps too because of the increased heat, and litter the highways.

 

[BigD1]

Originally Posted By: Piston_slap
I miss the smell of a freshly rebuilt engine and the gaskets off-gassing as they heat up. Who also remembers using penney's to gap your headers? Sound and smell can really invoke memories.


Never did the penny for headers. I did do the match book for adjusting points which worked pretty good. Always kept an extra set of points in the car.

 

[fdcg27]

I used to think this way, but I've since come around to accepting increasing complexity since it usually comes with great reliability and durability.
The last really simple cars we had were a pair of '86 5spd Civic Wagons.
No modern frills like FI, PS, PW, PDL, AC or ABS and of course no air bags.
Cars we've had since have had all of these frills and none of them ever gave any problems.
I used to worry about FI problems involving the injectors or the fuel pump or the PCM.
Never happened with our Hondas, Fords or Subarus.
What you get with increased complexity has been better performance coupled with better fuel economy as well as greatly improved active and passive safety along with substantially reduced maintenance needs.
What's not to like?

 

[E150GT]

some older cars do get as good gas mileage as newer cars, but newer cars are safer, more comfortable and usually larger. The best MPG I ever got even in my 2010 Mazda 3 with a 2.0 and 5 speed manual was 38 mpg. That only happened twice. I can get that without even trying in my new mazda 6 and it has more power, bigger engine, bigger car and nicer stuff in it. I don't have a turbo though and I am happy about that.

 

[Danh]

Please, let's relive the mid-70s automotive scene: horrible assembly quality, awful driveability, pitiful performance and lousy fuel common to boot. And none of it could be fixed. I'll take the present. Oh, I forgot to mention abundant and early rust.

 

[ArcticDriver]

Originally Posted By: MarcS


"The old days"

This is why batteries and tiny turbos


Batteries merely transfer the pollution to other forms and other places...mostly 3rd World.

 

[ArcticDriver]

Originally Posted By: gman2304
I remember when if you had a car that lasted to 100,000 miles without major repairs, you crowed to everybody and their brother. Now people with 200,000 plus miles on their vehicles rarely raise an eyebrow. 300,000 mile cars and trucks seems to be the new 100,000 miles. My 05 Chevy 1500 is getting ready to roll over 190,000 miles.


Those cars of 100,000 miles also cost a considerably smaller percentage of a paycheck AND people did not drive nearly as much as they do today. Car loans can be 7 years long today.

The body and the mechanicals wore out about the same time...well, atleast in the rust belt.

I rented a pickup on a vacation recently and it did not even have an ignition to place a key in and the shift lever was on the dash...it looked like the volume control on a radio.

The future will be full of interesting challenges and the only thing to do is embrace it...but I like Rock&Roll and what is now considered Classic Country.
That is the era where my heart is.
A tin sounding car radio. A clutch. A shift knob. And door frames that were at the proper height to rest a forearm on when the window was cranked down.

 

[SilverSnake]

I have owned 87 cars and trucks since 1965. I like the old cars for their simplicity and loved being part of the original muscle car era. However, we now live in the second and much better muscle car era. Although we own a 2017 BMW with the 2.0L turbo, nothing can equal the combination of modern technology and a good old high displacement American V8. In my view, my 2016 Charger Scat Pack with the 485HP 6.4L Hemi is as good as it gets. It has the best combination of price, performance, comfort and practicality on the market today.

 

[BrocLuno]

Well, I'm somewhere in the middle. I just sold my old 1970 Chevy C-20 non-CAT big block pick-up. To rough and my wife was tired of playing with the loud pedal. Me too ... It was fun for a while

Instead I bought a 1993 4x4 F-150 extended cab with all options and only 83K on the ODO. It's much nicer. The A/C works. it has Cruise, Windows, etc.

BUT, it is pre ODB-II, so no SMOG-test data port. Sniffer up the tail pipe only. And that is where I now draw the line. I do not need a car or truck that reports Codes and history to the SMOG machines.

I just need comfort and good usable space. And something my wife will use, and not have me run every errand to the Garden Store ...

 

[E150GT]

Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Well, I'm somewhere in the middle. I just sold my old 1970 Chevy C-20 non-CAT big block pick-up. To rough and my wife was tired of playing with the loud pedal. Me too ... It was fun for a while

Instead I bought a 1993 4x4 F-150 extended cab with all options and only 83K on the ODO. It's much nicer. The A/C works. it has Cruise, Windows, etc.

BUT, it is pre ODB-II, so no SMOG-test data port. Sniffer up the tail pipe only. And that is where I now draw the line. I do not need a car or truck that reports Codes and history to the SMOG machines.

I just need comfort and good usable space. And something my wife will use, and not have me run every errand to the Garden Store ...

I have a '95 F-150 and I don't have any smog test. Heck, they're even thinking about doing away with vehicle inspections here. I love my truck. Its got a lot of miles but it's still got a lot of miles left and its easy. It was a good era for ford trucks. The new ones are way nicer though.

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted By: gmh101357
For me anyway...I dont like all these new turbo engines they push on you now. Looking at Ford 150's they have 300 ecoboost models and about 40 v-8's. Trying to explain to my wife's grandkid.....I dont want all this electric [censored] that I have to pay for and never use.
Give my 75 Ford F100 with a 300 inline 6 any day. I could stand inside the engine bay it had so much room. Its was so easy to work on plugs, points etc....took 30 mins to change out. Oil change was havoline 30 wt. I miss all inline 6 engines ...my fav config....now BMW has jumped on the turbo craze for a few miles per gallon. I would take the 2.5 inline 6 in my old 1990 BMW 325 any day I bought used for 5k. i told him im going to just by used older cars from now on....starting with a 72 Mach 1 with a 351 Cleveland 4 speed....you can bury me in it. rant over.....


I am a big fan of the inline 6 too. But I don't miss the un-reliability of the older cars.

 

[SpecM]

Originally Posted By: gmh101357

Give my 75 Ford F100 with a 300 inline 6 any day. I could stand inside the engine bay it had so much room. Its was so easy to work on plugs, points etc....took 30 mins to change out. Oil change was havoline 30 wt. I miss all inline 6 engines ...my fav config.


Why not buy one? For as much as a new F150 cost, you could buy a condition one, and restore/maintain it to your own standards...

Vehicles now are the way they are because thats what people want to buy. Most people. Not us.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
I have owned 87 cars and trucks since 1965. I like the old cars for their simplicity and loved being part of the original muscle car era. However, we now live in the second and much better muscle car era. Although we own a 2017 BMW with the 2.0L turbo, nothing can equal the combination of modern technology and a good old high displacement American V8. In my view, my 2016 Charger Scat Pack with the 485HP 6.4L Hemi is as good as it gets. It has the best combination of price, performance, comfort and practicality on the market today.


You nailed it. My 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 wasn't all that quick(14.0 seconds in the 1/4 mile) but it returned over 27 mpg on almost every tank and only needed an oil change every 7,5k and plugs every 60k.
Fast forward to my 2014 2 Series- which only needs an oil change every 10k and plugs every 60k. It too averages @27 mpg but it's a second faster in the 1/4 mile.
I hate progress...

 

[NDL]

Originally Posted By: gmh101357
For me anyway...I dont like all these new turbo engines they push on you now. Looking at Ford 150's they have 300 ecoboost models and about 40 v-8's. Trying to explain to my wife's grandkid.....I dont want all this electric [censored] that I have to pay for and never use.
Give my 75 Ford F100 with a 300 inline 6 any day. I could stand inside the engine bay it had so much room. Its was so easy to work on plugs, points etc....took 30 mins to change out. Oil change was havoline 30 wt. I miss all inline 6 engines ...my fav config....now BMW has jumped on the turbo craze for a few miles per gallon. I would take the 2.5 inline 6 in my old 1990 BMW 325 any day I bought used for 5k. i told him im going to just by used older cars from now on....starting with a 72 Mach 1 with a 351 Cleveland 4 speed....you can bury me in it. rant over.....


You mean to tell me there was a time when you didn't have to drop the engine to change the spark plugs!?!?

 

[KrisZ]

Rose colored glasses, nothing more, nothing less.