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Geezers: New cars then vs now


Chapap

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Let me try to word this question two ways:
1- If I (30) went back in time to the 60s, would I be equally tempted to buy a new car vs a 10yo used one. I know they didn’t last as long back then, so what ever the equivalent is.
2- folks who bought a car brand new 20-30 years ago and still have it. Do you still appreciate it… all the options you got and such, or is it an old junker like an onlooker would see.

I think in high school or a tad earlier, the hot doodads on $50k cars was heated seats, built in radios (not a din unit), power seats… now, well you know what’s out there.

I guess up till the 80s or so, fancy doodads were not doodads, but engineering. Fancy cars got independent suspension, fuel injection, disc brakes, ac, power steering. Stuff that is just part of a car now.
 


Michael McD

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Interesting questions. I graduated HS in 1974 and had a '68 Pontiac GTO. Still miss that car, probably because it was my first hot rod. I bought my first Corvette about 15 years ago (1991 C4) drove it about 10 years ago then fell in love with a 2015 C7 Corvette Z51 Stingray. WOW, in '91 the Vette was the cream of the crop, American sports car personified, however, the advances in technology are beyond imagination. It was like going from a buckboard wagon to the space shuttle overnight. I also traded my 10 year old Cadillac Escalade pickup to a 2022 GMC Sierra Denali Carbon Pro and am amazed at how much more I got for my money. Of course that said my 22 year old Ranger has more personality than any of the new Rangers, Canyons, or Colorados and I just spent CRAZY money on converting it to a 5.0 beast. The kids and grandkids are going to love these rides
 

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Vindictus

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Growing up in the 70's nobody wanted a new car. New emissions laws had 351 with about 140HP. what kid wanted something like that.
My first car was a 73 duster 318 230HP. I don't remember anybody driving anything even close to new . Everybody wanted something out of the 60's or early 70's
 

dvdswan

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Keep your mind like an umbrella, it only works if its open... Continually learning.
Agreed^^^. I graduated in 83, 1st vehicle was a 76 Blazer. Classmate in high school got a new 83 Blazer for a graduation gift. Lifted, all the bells and whistles, but was a slow pig from the smog 305. When I was looking for a vehicle I wanted a Trans Am or 4x4. I looked a 6 or 7 early Broncos and kick myself for not getting one of those but they weren't well taken care of.

I bought a new vehicle in 89 Toyota 4WD XTRA CAB loaded. Drove the piss out of it. Fun and exciting just hated the sticker price of 16K. So after that, I've wouldn't mind a new vehicle but just can't make myself bite the bullet. I just love the looks of square body trucks from Chevy and Ford.
 

RobbieD

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Toonces drives a Ranger . . . . just not very well.
From the mid-seventies until 1985 I only owned and drove first generation Camaros. In '85 I bought my first new car, a base Ranger. Since then, I've only had Rangers, a Bronco II or Explorers, and at that, nothing newer than the 1994 model year. So, I've been driving these older RBVs for about 38 years now.

I was raised on carburetors and points, headers and hot cams, but I do like fuel injected and electronic engine management (hat is, the electronic hoodoo for the engine only!), and I do like the bare-bones simplicity of OBD1. Matter of fact, when I at the dealer buying my last new 1994 truck, I passed on the newer '95's simply because they all had air bags.

2- folks who bought a car brand new 20-30 years ago and still have it. Do you still appreciate it… all the options you got and such, or is it an old junker like an onlooker would see.
Yes, I sincerely do appreciate my older trucks for what they are. I'm perfectly happy with simple old-school luxuries like air conditioning, power windows and interval wipers. And a (stock) radio that will pick up at least one FM classic rock station.

At this point in the game, what is important to me is that I keep these trucks in as nice of a well-maintained, stock condition as I can. They work fine for me for transportation, for ease of maintenance and repair, and for satisfaction of ownership. I enjoy driving them. And it's getting a hell of a lot harder these days to find these old trucks in nice, unmolested condition.

I guess that I just prefer driving a machine, and not a device.
 

Ranger850

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20 - 30 years ago was the 80' & 90's. everything was plastic covered bumpers and 3.8 v6's. Nobody even thought about 20-30 years in the future. If they did, they imagined themselves driving the newest flying cars anyways.
 

ryan

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20 - 30 years ago was the 80' & 90's. everything was plastic covered bumpers and 3.8 v6's. Nobody even thought about 20-30 years in the future. If they did, they imagined themselves driving the newest flying cars anyways.
20-30 years ago was 90-2000. I'm feeling really old now
 

dvdswan

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Keep your mind like an umbrella, it only works if its open... Continually learning.
Meh, its just a number. Wife says I still act like a teenager.
 

CrabGuy

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I graduated in 1966, I bought my 1st car in 1964, a low mileage 57 Chevy 2-dr Bel Aire for $600. No kid wanted a 4 door car back then. I only bought one new car in the 70's, a 1975 Honda CVCC 5-speed Sport. In 85 I bought a new Chevy Van to convert for family camping and kept it until 2009, that van never broke down nce in all that time. My favorite new car was an 86 Porsche 944 Turbo that I drove for 240K miles. I loved that car and sold it in 2012. I would gladly buy that one back. The older 50's and 60's cars were deathtraps with crappy brakes, terrible suspension, and steering columns that would impale you in an accident. I'll take newer technology and safety any day.
 

19Walt93

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I started playing with cars in 1966 and got my license in 1970. While I like old cars, I don't have illusions about how good they were. In 1972 I towed a 69 Chevy to the Sunoco station where I worked for a no start. The 3 year old, 30,000 mile car had jumper timing so I replaced the timing chain and gears. It started and ran like crap so I tore it down and replaced the bent valves. I bought a 64 Malibu with 70,000 miles that used oil like a 2 stroke so I bought a 66 Impala that I towed in for pulling to one side on acceleration- because the rear suspension had pulled out of the rusted frame- for $35 and swapped engines.
I started at the dealer 10/27/75 and was the 4th mechanic in a shop with 1 lift. If we got a 5 year old car for inspection we had to pick it up on the lift to check for structural frame rot before we were allowed to pass it. Many failed. Once the foreman found out that I could do a valve job, I got 1 or 2 a week for at least 2 years. 302's and 351's with rail rockers would wear out the valve guides in 30,000 miles. I also rebuilt a ton of 30,000 mile automatic transmissions that were burnt to a crisp.
The European Fiestas from 78 to 80 were real popular, unreliable European junk. The brakes were lousy when new and wore out early, then a brake job cost twice the price of one on a Crown Vic. The cooling fins would rot out of the radiator and get tangled up in the cooling fan in 3 years. They were geared so that 60 mph was 4000 rpms so the water pumps never made it beyond 30k. The Bosch electrics were a money pit.
We had a 78 Subaru wagon traded in on our first Escort wagon in the fall of 80. Subaru used to mount the spare tire on a bracket over the engine, this car's shock towers were so rusty the suspension had collapsed and was being held up by the tire.
On the plus side: many cars had no passenger side mirror because no one was stupid enough to pass on the right, every switch on the dash could be operated in the dark by feel-no touch screens, the driver had to know how to start a cold engine, manual transmissions were available in most models, and being simpler, were easier to work on. That's good because we had to work on them often.
 

Eddo Rogue

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I only bought my ranger because I missed my previous one(s) so much. My F150 I bought brand new in 2008, and yes I appreciate the LACK of doodads and gadgets.

New vehicles have tremendous amounts of things that can malfunction, along with lbs and lbs of wiring and circuits for them.

Back in the days 100k miles was a lot, now not so much, but not as easy or cheap to rebuild/replace either.

I think they still make some models with minimal doodads and gadgets, but you would have to order it that way, no dealer would stock it.

Its a damn shame, but instead of making flying cars, we are pushing the envelope to make them idiot proof, which is a losing battle.
 

DILLARD000

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If traveling time, I'd retrieve the 1975 Ford V8~302ci that I had, assuming same condition; would not hesitate.
Unfortunately it was re-ended & totalled by a commercial truck on a Houston freeway many decades ago.
Now drive two 22+ & 14+ year old vehicles; do my best to keep them reliable & good looking;
I've concluded that new gadgets (BlueTooth, Wifi, GPS, LED Lights...) are truely only distractions,
add no real value, & actually make vehicle less reliable+maintainable. KeepItSimpleStupid\KISS !!!
 

Ranger850

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Doing things wrong, until I get it right.
If traveling time, I'd retrieve the 1975 Ford V8~302ci that I had, assuming same condition; would not hesitate.
Unfortunately it was re-ended & totalled by a commercial truck on a Houston freeway many decades ago.
Now drive two 22+ & 14+ year old vehicles; do my best to keep them reliable & good looking;
I've concluded that new gadgets (BlueTooth, Wifi, GPS, LED Lights...) are truely only distractions,
add no real value, & actually make vehicle less reliable+maintainable. KeepItSimpleStupid\KISS !!!
While I agree with this ^^, It's hard getting out of my 2019 Santa Fe, with a lot of doo-dads, and into My 87 Nissan D21 with NO doo-dads. The SF practically stays in the middle of the road, by itself, adaptive CC and Lane departure warnings, blind spot monitor, etc.. etc.., and the D21 with 4 spd manual, has so much slop in the steering, it's like driving on loose gravel everywhere I go.
 

Chapap

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1.5” till I get these springs replaced
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225-70-R14
I've concluded that new gadgets (BlueTooth, Wifi, GPS, LED Lights...) are truely only distractions,
add no real value, & actually make vehicle less reliable+maintainable. KeepItSimpleStupid\KISS !!!
Agree and disagree. I find LED light to be an outstanding safety improvement. But only real LED lights that are designed to be LED, not the drop in replacement bulbs. All the lane keep and such is probably good for crash avoidance, but I have had a few times where I narrowly missed catastrophic crashes cause I forgot to start driving again after exiting a freeway... barreling to a red light at 85 mph and thinking "something feels wrong here."

A huge design flaw (but I guess cost saver) is that makers are gravitating to one computer for the engine, body, and electronics. Incredibly stupid. My 2018 Accord lost all throttle input cause of a leaky tail light.

edit: The new tundra has an outstanding 360 camera if you want to spend $60k. I lucked out and test drove one. Slow down, turn on blinker, and it shows the front inside wheel on the bazillion inch screen.
Hyundai has blind spot cameras that show your side mirror view on the instrument cluster when changing lanes. Not really needed on a compact car, but is very cool.
I rode in an Audi with an HVAC vent on the back of my neck. I'd probably pay an extra grand for that.
 
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