White wall tires are thankfully no longer around. Who wants extra maintenance?
White wall tires are still available, produced by classic tire companies. Also, bias ply tires are also still available for classic and race cars too.
There’s obviously a difference between cars with manual shifters and clutches and manually-shifted cars without clutches. Manually shifted cars with clutches are becoming extinct due to replacement cost, emissions and gas mileage standards. Blame the extinction on the advancement of computers.
My last car was a manual with a clutch. Wouldn’t buy a car without one! Best theft deterrent out there, although I never took it to a valet ; )
In a remote part of South Africa we visited, all the rental cars were manual. I can drive a manual in the US, but one meant for driving on the left side of the road proved too hard for me. Fortunately, my elderly father could manage it fine, ha.
Great timing for this thread - not exactly the same (though my first car - a 1971 Chevy Nova had over half the things on this list!).
My 2014 Honda Odyssey was totalled out in an accident last Monday - everyone is fine, but what a hassle.
I’ve got the payout amount and have been car shopping so as to not take on any debt in this car, but trying to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak.
It’s amazing the amount of 2014 tech that is pretty much obsolete already. I had a middle of the road 2014 model with lower than usual miles, so was thinking of upping it to “top of the line” version of the Odyssey, but most of the premium features are completely irrelevant for me and it’s only five years old!
In car clunky 2014 navigation? It would be much faster to use my phone.
DVD entertainment system? I don’t even think my 10 year old cares when he could just as easily stream Netflix or Prime Video on road trips.
The only thing that looks cool is the built in shop vac. With lots of dogs riding in the back, THAT may come in handy.
Whitewall tires are the spats of the car world.
I do love our new car’s features. Large screen to display my phone’s navigation system. Backup camera. No key required. If I have the “key fob” in my purse, the car door opens automatically even if it’s locked. Etc! We have a 2019 4WD Ford Escape. Wonderful car. Our other car is a 2005 Sierra pickup with all the old features. I hope it passes inspection this month.
Was it the left hand shifting that was the issue?
^Yes. My brain just couldn’t wrap itself around that concept.
We still drive a 2003 Odyssey! Our “new” car is a 2006 Town and Country.
I remember back in 1967 my dad paid extra to have rear seat belts installed in our new Datsun. The car had an ashtray on the back of the front driver’s seat and when we were rear-ended and the ashtray cut my sister’s lip, the settlement paid for her college.
I grew up in NYC and I remember when people would take out the 8 -track player and put in a sign that said no radio whenever you parked somewhere.
I have first hand experience with every one of those things, except maybe a manual choke in a car, which is ironic because one of the golf courses I play has gas powered golf carts with a manual choke. On a cold morning you have to pull out the choke to get the thing running. I remember having one on a lawn mower, but never a car.
They might have meant AM-only radio.
Of course, some cars back then came with no radio unless the buyer paid for it as an option or installed an aftermarket radio.
But some cars today (BMW i3 and Tesla Model 3) do not have AM radio in their sound systems.
A slight detour from the topic of old cars. I got to love Mr.'s X, but I miss the auto windshield wipers of our old Lexus van!! That feature was not a gimmick. It worked great in our Seattle weather! Tesla tried to update their software a couple of times to activate auto wipers, but that was an epic fail (do they seriously think local weather reports are that accurate? Gotta have a physical sensor like Toyota does!)
My family went across the country in a 1971 LTD with an AM-only radio. The choices typically were country music or gospel preachers.
My parents had perhaps the oddest collection of cheap castoffs. We had a Borgward, a Nash Rambler, a 1960 Peugeot station wagon that still had a manual choke, a column-mounted shifter, and a keyhole in the front bumper to crankstart the engine when the battery died. The first time they spent over $1,000 on a car was for a used 1986 Taurus.
All 3 kids learned to drive a manual on a car that is the same age as our youngest, a purple 1999 Saturn SC1. I had to disconnect the electric locks and the radio because of battery drain. Resale value doubles every time I fill the gas tank.
When my family moved overseas they bought a 1993 Mercury Tracer to use when we were in the States over the summer, thinking it would last 2-3 years tops. It wasn’t until a very scary 3 hour ride home in traffic with an overheating car attempting to tow 300 lbs of camping gear in a canoe, 12 years later, that they decided to get something a little newer… and still managed to sell the old thing and not just junk it. It had pull-tab manual locks (I think at one point they were automatic), crank windows, a tape player, and track seatbelts in the front (which annoyed my grandmother to no end every time we got into the car). It was also so light it would nearly hydroplane going 45 on a rainy day. Now the only car I ride in regularly is my boyfriend’s 1992 Miata, for which I lovingly raid eBay and record exchanges in search of cassette tapes.
My very old pickup truck had ‘three on the tree.’
Any guesses?
Gear shifter by the steering wheel
The Rambler station wagon I grew up in had a “push button” transmission. The buttons often fell into the dashboard and my father had to take it apart to get them out.
Also, wheels fell off three times.
“What’s wrong with a CD player. All of our cars still have them…in addition to being able to use our phones, and satellite radio. I like having my CD player.”
The number of people buying CD’s has dropped dramatically. My kids have never bought one. They like many others stream all of their music. So many new cars don’t have them anymore. Our new cars do not.