Anybody Else Hate New Cars & Miss Old Ones?

[fncceo]

Since '96 all I drive is Grand Cherokees.

I had a Grand Cherokee ... it was a great car ... but it looks perfectly natural with a car seat and twenty bags of groceries in the back.

Sometime you want to drive a car that doesn't look like it belongs to a soccer mom.

 

[petro]

Since '96 all I drive is Grand Cherokees.

I had a Grand Cherokee ... it was a great car ... but it looks perfectly natural with a car seat and twenty bags of groceries in the back.

Sometime you want to drive a car that doesn't look like it belongs to a soccer mom.

Mine sticks out
Looks even better with the boat or snowmobiles behind it. Or the canoe on the new roof rack.
Hard to find one with full package as most really are grocery getters with basic AWD.
Was a tough search with only 2 used V-8's in a 200 mile radius.

 

[fncceo]

Since '96 all I drive is Grand Cherokees.

I had a Grand Cherokee ... it was a great car ... but it looks perfectly natural with a car seat and twenty bags of groceries in the back.

Sometime you want to drive a car that doesn't look like it belongs to a soccer mom.

Mine sticks out View attachment 235859
Looks even better with the boat or snowmobiles behind it.
Hard to find one with full package as most really are grocery getters with basic AWD.
Was a tough search with only 2 used V-8's in a 200 mile radius.

Looking for lollipops stuck to the back seats and wet wipes in the glove box.

 

[petro]

Since '96 all I drive is Grand Cherokees.

I had a Grand Cherokee ... it was a great car ... but it looks perfectly natural with a car seat and twenty bags of groceries in the back.

Sometime you want to drive a car that doesn't look like it belongs to a soccer mom.

Mine sticks out View attachment 235859
Looks even better with the boat or snowmobiles behind it.
Hard to find one with full package as most really are grocery getters with basic AWD.
Was a tough search with only 2 used V-8's in a 200 mile radius.

Looking for lollipops stuck to the back seats and wet wipes in the glove box.

Mom couldn't keep up with me.

 

[WillMunny]

Can anyone imagine today's delicate little Millenial college "safe space" snowflakes splattered with blotches of engine grease and having a major work-out wrenching off big bolts to replace an engine head or a ruptured head gasket? Can you imagine a tender 18-year-old university snowflake spending hours of heavy, greasy mechanical wrenching to build a brand new clutch assembly ALL BY MYSELF in an old '77 Honda Accord one time, which worked pretty well - once older, more experienced grease-monkey guys in my family helped me make a few minor adjustments to it. My clutch-replacement ended up just fine with some minor elbow-grease detail help. Not bad for an 18-year-old boy who did the actual clutch alone.

 

[Syriusly]

Today's cars looks so boringly the same - always identical, semi-amorphous semi-metal blobs in neutral greyish-beige non-threatening colors with absolutely no unique, gonzo, stand-out qualities whatsoever. And so computerized, you can't work on them yourselves, for the tiniest problem you have to take them to a technician and spent a multi-digit amount of money.

At 16 I got my driver's license back in '89 and instead of my parents handing me a nice, fancy car (like lots of other kids in my high school), I had to work various part-time jobs, save up a few hundred dollars, and buy old, beat-up little '70s rustbucket Japanese cars that were roadworthy enough for the 10 miles between home and school. But at least I could fix most of their problems myself for free and fairly quickly! That's why I got so attached to those ugly-in-a-cute-way old Datsuns from the '70s; they were the easiest cars to work on and the most reliable cars on the road (once I duct-taped & jerry-rigged them in just the right way) for the same reason: everything under the hood was so simple there wasn't much that could go wrong. If I held these cute/ugly Datsun fuckers together just right, these little sons of bitches would get so tough & reliable I could terrorize the roads for thousands of miles! Some of my "beater" Datsuns perfectly survived my crazy, drugged-out days of taking them rallying off-road on muddy FOOT trails (on which many people wouldn't even take 4x4s) and they somehow survived and kept on driving - although spluttered up to their windows in layers of mud.

So I guess the plus side of owning old, heavily rusting beat-up cars as a kid, that I held together by the skin of my teeth, is that it forced my teenage self to be a knowledgeable automotive grease-monkey. So that's always a good thing. And the bottom line is older cars had so many glaringly interesting body designs, you could instantly pinpoint the make and model from a long distance. With today's clone cars it's impossible and there's no charm or personality no matter what high-tech bells and whistles they have.

I grew up working on old cars myself. We had lots of cars in our family- some really old, some old, and some somewhat old.

And most burned oil, went through clutches and constantly needed work.

I have almost 350,000 miles on my car- what I would consider a modern car- and it barely uses any oil. I love many of the older cars, but modern cars- in general- are more reliable.

 

[fncceo]

Can you imagine a tender 18-year-old university snowflake spending hours of heavy, greasy mechanical wrenching to build a brand new clutch assembly

I'm trying to imagine it .... yesssss....

I'll be in my bunk.

 

[petro]

Can anyone imagine today's delicate little Millenial college "safe space" snowflakes splattered with blotches of engine grease and having a major work-out wrenching off big bolts to replace an engine head or a ruptured head gasket? Can you imagine a tender 18-year-old university snowflake spending hours of heavy, greasy mechanical wrenching to build a brand new clutch assembly ALL BY MYSELF in an old '77 Honda Accord one time, which worked pretty well - once older, more experienced grease-monkey guys in my family helped me make a few minor adjustments to it. My clutch-replacement ended up just fine with some minor elbow-grease detail help. Not bad for an 18-year-old boy who did the actual clutch alone.

Before my daughter moved out she once came to me and said her oil light was on for 2 days.
2 freaking days...
Added two quarts and engine held 4.

 

[rightwinger]

I have had my current car for ten years and over 200,000 miles on it

It has its original exhaust system,never had a tune up,never touched the engine or transmission

I don’t miss cars from the 60s and 70s

 

[petro]

I have had my current car for ten years and over 200,000 miles on it

It has its original exhaust system,never had a tune up,never touched the engine or transmission

I don’t miss cars from the 60s and 70s

My parents once had a Chevy Vega. Didn't even make 100K.
Bought a 76 Cutlass Supreme after that. Still had the big block V-8. Was a sweet looking ride but unreliable as hell and made it to a whopping 120K.

 

[gipper]

Today’s cars are vastly superior in every area

Not in the area of fuel mileage, thanks to Uncle’s many dictates. Some cars from years ago got amazing mileage, since they weren’t weighted down by all the safety requirements.

 

[rightwinger]

I have had my current car for ten years and over 200,000 miles on it

It has its original exhaust system,never had a tune up,never touched the engine or transmission

I don’t miss cars from the 60s and 70s

My parents once had a Chevy Vega. Didn't even make 100K.
Bought a 76 Cutlass Supreme after that. Still had the big block V-8. Was a sweet looking ride but unreliable as hell and made it to a whopping 120K.

Cars were usually rusted out and burning oil by 100k

 

[rightwinger]

Today’s cars are vastly superior in every area

Not in the area of fuel mileage, thanks to Uncle’s many dictates. Some cars from years ago got amazing mileage, since they weren’t weighted down by all the safety requirements.

That is freaking ridiculous

Those old cars got mileage in the teens . They were weighted down with......weight

 

[beagle9]

I was around for the 60's. However with a little effort todays cars can be fixed by the do it your selfer. You will need a scan tool and access to data of the cars themselves but it is doable.

Don't forget the box full of special tools.

 

[Crepitus]

Today's cars looks so boringly the same - always identical, semi-amorphous semi-metal blobs in neutral greyish-beige non-threatening colors with absolutely no unique, gonzo, stand-out qualities whatsoever. And so computerized, you can't work on them yourselves, for the tiniest problem you have to take them to a technician and spent a multi-digit amount of money.

At 16 I got my driver's license back in '89 and instead of my parents handing me a nice, fancy car (like lots of other kids in my high school), I had to work various part-time jobs, save up a few hundred dollars, and buy old, beat-up little '70s rustbucket Japanese cars that were roadworthy enough for the 10 miles between home and school. But at least I could fix most of their problems myself for free and fairly quickly! That's why I got so attached to those ugly-in-a-cute-way old Datsuns from the '70s; they were the easiest cars to work on and the most reliable cars on the road (once I duct-taped & jerry-rigged them in just the right way) for the same reason: everything under the hood was so simple there wasn't much that could go wrong. If I held these cute/ugly Datsun fuckers together just right, these little sons of bitches would get so tough & reliable I could terrorize the roads for thousands of miles! Some of my "beater" Datsuns perfectly survived my crazy, drugged-out days of taking them rallying off-road on muddy FOOT trails (on which many people wouldn't even take 4x4s) and they somehow survived and kept on driving - although spluttered up to their windows in layers of mud.

So I guess the plus side of owning old, heavily rusting beat-up cars as a kid, that I held together by the skin of my teeth, is that it forced my teenage self to be a knowledgeable automotive grease-monkey. So that's always a good thing. And the bottom line is older cars had so many glaringly interesting body designs, you could instantly pinpoint the make and model from a long distance. With today's clone cars it's impossible and there's no charm or personality no matter what high-tech bells and whistles they have.

Both of my trucks are over 20 years old. I need trucks that work, not tall Cadillacs.

 

[beagle9]

Cars used to be harder to start with a carburetor.
Today's cars run better, they are safer, they last much longer, they get better MPG and they pollute less.
Today's muscle cars have more power, run better and handle better.
I own a 60's muscle car.
The 2018 Mustangs have more than twice as much horse power than the first generation Mustangs.

We're talking about driving fun, but affordability mainly, power, fixibilty/DIY, and ease of operation in every aspect of the machine.

It allowed so much more participation to take place back then, in which added so much more mystery and interest to the whole experience.

Access due to the expensiveness of the hobby has limited the participants big time these days it seems.

I remember we all would wonder what for example - a buh buh was gonna bring to the experience next, and what it would look like, how much Bondo was added to the body and paint, did it have air shocks, what type of traction bars, gear ratio, camshaft, mag wheels etc was we gonna see coming down the road.

Some people were very creative.. lol.

We actually raced on the street in the 60's, and finally at the drag strips later on.

 

[miketx]

I was around for the 60's. However with a little effort todays cars can be fixed by the do it your selfer. You will need a scan tool and access to data of the cars themselves but it is doable.

Don't forget the box full of special tools.

Give us an example.

 

[rightwinger]

New cars are harder to fix

But they seldom need fixing

 

[WillMunny]

One good thing I will admit about today's modern cars is that they don't look like those hideous French Citreon cars America briefly flirted with in the 1980s. Have you ever seen one of those mechanical Halloween decorations? Those French Citroens were so offensively butt-ugly, it was the only type of car that looked like it was in an accident even before it left the factory.

 

[WillMunny]

Since '96 all I drive is Grand Cherokees.

I had a Grand Cherokee ... it was a great car ... but it looks perfectly natural with a car seat and twenty bags of groceries in the back.

Sometime you want to drive a car that doesn't look like it belongs to a soccer mom.

I don't like soccer mom vehicles like vans or SUVs simply because when I'm driving, I don't want other drivers sitting up high enough to look down into my car and see all the taboo, unspeakable sexual atrocities going on my lap every time I'm behind the wheel.