Things you miss about cars from days of yore

Lerxst said:
The Toyota Tacoma was introduced in 1995
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back to the original question of the thread. I miss when trucks were truck like...i.e utilitarian and rode like a truck
Now you get a truck and it's as fast or faster than a sports car , has more torque than a cummings diesel and you don't even know it's idling. It has leather seats, tv's in the back of the headrests individual climate control, full on infotainment touch screen console and about 24 electronic modules from the ECM all the way down to heated seat modules, proximity modules, etc.....
I want trucks to go back to being trucks and car manufactures to stop moving the goalposts every season....
remember when the 350 engine exsisted...that thing had a lifespan of like 35 years. now they are selling the public overkill..nobody needs 650 Hp and 950 ft lbs of torque in a personal vehichle...:mad:
 
DdBob said:
Do you really think rentals...duplexes, single homes, small 10 uniti apartment plexus will have plug ins? (the answer is no) electric is yet another symobol of have and have nots, more division of class. It's an elitist thing right now.
Fossil fuels are not necessarilly the enemy I have a faossil fuel burner I bought in 2011...I've put 48,000 miles on it since. How many have you put on yours? It's people driving around willy nilly, commuting 60 miles a day, running here and there. If everyone does the same with electric then we have to build more batteries, dispose of plus everything else. We don't know what that's gonna look like problem wise (most likely just a new problem we can't conceive right now) and then you have the increased cost of electricity and again not everyone can go solar and once again renters will lose out or how do you work colar into high rise apartment rentals as in who decides the pricing on that? Will it be up to individual capitalists and then what does that do ? (most likely it drives the increase of rent up even higher because we know what individual capitalists will do)...It's a whole can of 'nother worms.

i say the way forward is the tiny Chevy metro :cop:

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I get that gas mileage in my Ford Focus no reason to be THAT small.
 
DdBob said:
back to the original question of the thread. I miss when trucks were truck like...i.e utilitarian and rode like a truck
Now you get a truck and it's as fast or faster than a sports car , has more torque than a cummings diesel and you don't even know it's idling. It has leather seats, tv's in the back of the headrests individual climate control, full on infotainment touch screen console and about 24 electronic modules from the ECM all the way down to heated seat modules, proximity modules, etc.....
I want trucks to go back to being trucks and car manufactures to stop moving the goalposts every season....
remember when the 350 engine exsisted...that thing had a lifespan of like 35 years. now they are selling the public overkill..nobody needs 650 Hp and 950 ft lbs of torque in a personal vehichle...:mad:
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Outside of the federally mandated safety equipment, all of those features are demanded by the market of todays lifestyle truck buyers. The truck market is so hot that manufactures have to keep up or get left behind. Remember when the Lincoln Blackwood was introduced back in the early 2000s and truck people laughed at the absurdity of a luxury pickup? How different is todays average 4 door family truck from that Blackwood?

Edit: you could probably argue that the basic sprinter van and it’s brethren have take a decent slice of that utility niche.
 
2manband said:
I’m all for electric cars but the changeover isn’t going to happen overnight - there’s a lot of other infrastructure needed to make the system work.
My ideal setup would be a house with a bunch of solar panels and an electric car that gets used for most day to day driving. That would really cut down on fuel bills and my carbon footprint. And if the car battery could back-feed the house for power outages and whatnot that would be pretty swell.

Id still probably have a ICE pickup truck though for towing, hauling, 4x4 duty etc but would use the electric car 80/20. Kinda like how it’s nice to have a 50 or 100W tube amp even though you rarely need it. It’s there for when you do, and it’s not really using any power while it’s turned off.

I agree with Bob that Teslas are primarily a status symbol for a lot of people. Myself can’t see spending that kind of $ on something with the build quality of a 1989 Lebaron. Hopefully in the coming years more manufacturers (i.e. the ones who actually know a thing or two about car building) get into the market, prices go down, and quality goes up. At that point I’m on board, but it’s probably still a few years till we get there
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The first two paragraphs are exactly what I am trying for. I have the car and the diesel pickup, now for pickup things only, and not getting groceries, or running just a mile into town because I am running late for a client appointment. Those trips, and any longer trips that can be, are covered by the e-car. And solar will be coming soon to my house. Was waiting to see what would happen with this Biden bill.
 
Lerxst said:
I just looked at the cost to install solar on our house and the projected break even on the materials and labor is approximately 20 years with the current federal and state credits. If you add a battery storage system to power your house offline, that adds even more time to break even.
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seems about right. i might be a little quicker, though Idaho Power is trying to change the rates to make it even worse. But if we do stay in this house for at least a decade, I plan to do it anyway, for other reasons. And also because it will mostly replace my transportation fuel expense.

And as for the haves/have nots part, I get those concerns. I am hoping that costs will come down, and many more economical models will be available as the market shifts. But more than that, really way more than that, I hope (pipe dream hope. see different thread) to see a very large shift to public transportation in urban and suburban areas, with high speed trains into the middle of the country with transportation hubs, infrastructure built so people want to use it, such as in Europe.

But getting back to the originally posed question, (which was essentially a comparison of today's driving features available vs. old days) I think driving a stick shift in a smaller sports car that has a higher power band is fun. Euro sport sedan and coupe stuff. I was an old alfa guy. That was my favorite thing about older cars, using the gears, RPM's and motor compression. And though it was a lowly Fiat (500L) that we rented in Italy, that was fun too, especially on the super tight and narrow twisty Dolomite roads. And a nice ANSA or similar exhaust note is nice too. The Fiat's was just ok. All that said, as I had a big smile on my face, I kept thinking my car would kick the Fiat's, and all the surrounding cars asses on those hills and corners. The immediate torque and speed is amazing, handling is great, driving is fun, I like the regenerative breaking as it is like when I am rapping it out in third or fourth in the old Alfa on a tight section where I get some one footed braking as I let up on the gas, just fun. So though I still see the old ways as fun, the new ways are super fun too, and I don't miss the old stuff overall. Even in the driving experience. It is ok, this transition will ultimately happen, and it will be okay.
 
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DdBob said:
back to the original question of the thread. I miss when trucks were truck like...i.e utilitarian and rode like a truck
Now you get a truck and it's as fast or faster than a sports car , has more torque than a cummings diesel and you don't even know it's idling. It has leather seats, tv's in the back of the headrests individual climate control, full on infotainment touch screen console and about 24 electronic modules from the ECM all the way down to heated seat modules, proximity modules, etc.....
I want trucks to go back to being trucks and car manufactures to stop moving the goalposts every season....
remember when the 350 engine exsisted...that thing had a lifespan of like 35 years. now they are selling the public overkill..nobody needs 650 Hp and 950 ft lbs of torque in a personal vehichle...:mad:
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I like trucks to be trucks too. E-trucks are not ready, at least if you want to tow or haul. Mine is a Dodge Ram Cummins 2500. Just a little before the blue def stuff. It very definitely rides like a truck. I had a small car for daily stuff, a 2005 VW Passat TDI wagon, with good mileage, that became the kid car. It is a fun car, and a great highway and freeway car. It had a Euro 5 speed in it as I bought it with a blown slush box for next to nothing and had the euro 5 speed put in by my favorite quirky mechanic. Ended up being pretty low cost for such a vehicle. That was 8 years ago. But then the car became the kid car and I was driving the truck for groceries and stuff. So, . . .

That kid car will last maybe another few years through when they are through school, then it will get replaced with something.

And I didn't know particularly the "reputation" of Dodge pickups when I bought it several years ago. It was just a really good deal on a used pickup with a Cummins diesel (that I wanted for high mountain towing and hauling camper) and was known as the worker guy/framer/sheet rocker/plumber/electrician truck around here. The fancy folk got the decked out Fords, and the Chevy folk all seemed to use dry look hair spray and like the Beach Boys. :wink: But more seriously, in the years of trucks I was looking at, the Dodge/Cummins seemed to be a good bet.
 
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2manband said:
I don’t recall seeing many true 4-door trucks in that timeframe except for big ass domestic work trucks and the Ford Explorer thing. :shrug: The suicide door mini rear seat style has been around longer, but doesnt work as well if you have little kids in car seats or nearly adult sized teenagers

Maybe 20 years is the wrong timeframe, but I stand by the assertion that the 4 door family truck in a Tacoma to F150 type size range is a relatively new automotive phenomena, but it’s a good fit for my family, so +1 for new cars there
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I bought a 3 door F-150 in 1998 that had full back seats. They were common then.
 
mongooz said:
has that thing been sitting in a barn with the windows down for 20 years ??

wow....that is dirty
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Pretty much. It hasn’t run since like 1989 or something. It’s been sitting in a semi desert yard until recently,never seen so much pack rat stuff and what I was told to be rattlesnack shit (apparently the snakes go after the rats)

I’ll get some more picks

1971 Jaguar btw kinda like the one in Withnail and I
 
DdBob said:
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I like the early 70's for euro sedans/coupes/cabriolets. (thinking of old Alfas, Beemers, maybe British). The bumpers were still nice, and the side markers and blinkers. Generally, the seats and dashes and steering wheels improved a bit, safety belts improved a bit. But no huge american market rubber bumpers yet, etc.

And if I were buying an old Alfa, you can get a much better deal on a Kamm tail spider from the early 70's as opposed to a round tail (Graduate movie) Spider from the late 60's, and the Berlina sedans from the early 70's are sleepers as compared to the Giulia's from the late 60's. Though there is nothing like a Giulia sedan.
 
My old one.

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I almost bought this GTV coupe back then, but the rear seat of the Berlina (which had attachment points for three point harnesses in the back, with back doors, worked better for me as a Dad of young kids back then.

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I sold a 1990 4Runner with the swinging spare off the rear in 2o02 and got that grey Alfa and that rattle can silver Jeep (5 speed, all manual everything, but still the rear window thing liked to go off track) for the money I received from selling the Toyota (though I ended up needing some additional work on the Alfa later, pretty much the only work it ever needed during the many years I owned it, so I spent a little more than what I had from the Toyota).

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This rig I could shift without using the clutch if I was careful, and was the best dirt road/washboard vehicle I ever had. Would float along over those washboard bumps. I also put in some Grand Wagoneer seats from a broken down one I found. Much more comfortable and less bouncy than the stock bench seat. The truck is much harsher, with its 2500 level suspension, unless the camper is on.

I did like both these cars, and the old school vibes. But the electric car has converted me. There are still kinks to work out before the power sources can completely transition, but I don't miss my old cars enough to have kept them. Also, the jeep became unreliable when towing over the passes due to a Ford Motorcraft gas fuel injection computer module that would get hot and make it act like it was vapor locked. Stranded us twice that way. Thank goodness I had the AAA RV coverage to get it and the boat home both times, and get the family off the side of the mountain pass. We swapped it out for a series of two Suburbans that were more reliable but would cost you about a grand or 2 grand every couple years for something or another. Then came the truck and the VW I mentioned before.

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Current truck.
 
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jelloman said:
Headlight bulbs that DON'T cost 100.00...
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I could live with the $100 bulbs if you didn’t need hands the size of a 3 year old to replace them. It’s not like I have giant hands and I can barely get mine in there to replace them. And when I get my have out, there are 9 cuts on them.
 
mongooz said:
somebody put a 350 chevy in a JAGUAR??!!!???
that's supposed to have a DOHC inline 6 in it. :mad:

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Yeah I realized that after posting. I knew triumph tr came with a Buick engine as did the Rover 4.2 or whatever so I assumed they did in jag too but I see it originally had either a straight 6 or the v12
 
mongooz said:
somebody put a 350 chevy in a JAGUAR??!!!???
that's supposed to have a DOHC inline 6 in it. :mad:

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also im instructed to see if it first turns over and if so we’re gonna try to get it running. It’s got Hei so 1974. The block casting says it’s a 1969 350 4bolt main and it’s got an external regulated alternator so Google tells me that is pre 1968 I’m getting read to see if it turns over… the pack rats got the ignition wire on the starter so I’ll just jump what’s left right to the batter and find out if the engine is seized or turns over :embarrassed:
 
DdBob said:
also im instructed to see if it first turns over and if so we’re gonna try to get it running. It’s got Hei so 1974. The block casting says it’s a 1969 350 4bolt main and it’s got an external regulated alternator so Google tells me that is pre 1968 I’m getting read to see if it turns over… the pack rats got the ignition wire on the starter so I’ll just jump what’s left right to the batter and find out if the engine is seized or turns over :embarrassed:
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And it turns over….
 
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