Why do we love old cars?

[evan_s30]

Petrolicious released an article today asking why we decided to buy old classic cars over new reliable ones. i have my response, but what do you guys think? 

http://www.petrolicious.com/why-did-you-buy-a-classic-car?utm_content=bufferda781&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[rturbo 930]

Well, I had a couple thoughts on this, but I decided this comment sums it up a lot better:

 

 

because I hate money.

[Tony D]

How about this: I bought an old RELIABLE car because it was cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to own, and it's not looking like everything else on the road.

 

I LOVED when I would take my 1962 VW Bus and Jump my dad's 79 Impala (this was 1980...) when it got cold outside.

 

He would joke and poke about my old bus. But when it was freezing, who started who? And who could drive to work after a dash from the house in Jeans and a T-Shirt (Gas Heater)?

 

Don't buy the lie: Old does NOT mean "Unreliable"!

[Tony D]

OH that article is SO full of crap it's not funny.

I have SCRUPULOUS documentation showing cost of ownership of a 1962 VW  since I bought it.

My total cost of maintenance was $345 a year driving 26,000 miles a year. That's 1.3 pennies a mile for maintenance costs of tires, oil, tune up, etc.

 

Gas/Petrol was a wash with new cars being it got anywhere from 23 to 27 mpg depending on speed and driving conditions.

 

My 260Z is similar, returning 27mpg at 65 mph highway speeds, linearly dropping to 19mpg by a 100 mph + average speed, with cost of ownership over 110,000 at near NIL in terms of real money. Some heater hoses, tires, brake pads... Acquisition price was $225, and total cost of ownership when I took my first 3,000 mile trip was $731 and MOST of that cost was TIRES!

[rturbo 930]

Don't buy the lie: Old does NOT mean "Unreliable"!

I actually prefer older things in general. My DD is a 1986 Jetta GL. My dad bought it slightly used, and it made its way down from my mother, and then to my father when he retired his 280z, and finally to me a few years ago. It currently has ~514k on the clock. It starts every single time... on the second try (need to get that sorted out). It has a few  issues, but for the most part, it has only needed oil, although it is getting to be time to do some more major work on it. The motor was torn down and refreshed 5k miles ago... the rings were in need of doing, but the bearings were absolutely perfect. The trans is next, and probably the fuel system too. But overall it has been extremely reliable. Took it through inspection last month, and it passed with flying colors - I'd be willing to bet that in the long run, it's greener than a Prius, more reliable, and more economical.

 

Doesn't apply to just cars either. The dryer in my basement looks like it's from the 60s. It's a little quirky, but still works fine. Actually, I could make a pretty long list of things I'd rather have from when they "made them like they used to."

[Tony D]

My parents had a dryer they bought when they got married (1963)... The thing threw a drum belt in 1982, which I repaired in about fifteen minutes after going to Sears.

They bought new appliances within a month (washer and dryer) because "the old ones were starting to act-up"...

I repaired a wire on the thermostat of the electric stove that had corroded through a year later. Same thing: new range within a month "because the old one is acting up"!

 

I bought MY appliances from people like my parents. I paid $75 each for an otherwise new, one year old Kenmore high capacity washer and dryer with complete service manuals from a guy selling them due to his wife deciding the appliances didn't match the new house properly (gotta love Lotus Land!)

 

Hell, I bought another washer for $50 and use it on the back porch to wash work clothes and shop rags. It discharges to an illegal, grey water sparger that supplies phosphorous rich detergent water into the rose bed in front of my house.

Now...that old electric range mom sold....man would that make a nice powder-coating oven! It would keep the one in the kitchen from getting so stinky! (Replaced Ignitor two years ago...vintage 1975!)

 

The only thing I used new when it came to appliances was my furnace. Upgraded to newest technology from 1975 unit in the house. New furnace allows me to,use modern thermostats that allow setting temperature below 54F, and will keep the house 10F warmer for HALF the gas cost as the previous unit. The new programmable thermostat, two years old will go bye bye when I go home next because it doesn't have an I.P. Address capability...meaning I can monitor my home heating system from my smartphone....or more importantly, keep it on "Away" mode more than 30 days at a time... And can reset to normal settings in anticipation of my return.

[m1ghtymaxXx]

My stock-engined 77 is much more reliable than my 2004 Honda Element winter beater. Well at least when things brake it's generally a quick and easy fix, but I'm sure there's much more unreliable modern cars than my Honda. 

[rturbo 930]

But I'm sure there's much more unreliable modern cars than my Honda. 

Lol, ya think?

 

 

Tony, the oven in my grandmother's house is probably of the same vintage, still works fine, even the clock! The clock on my parent's oven (from about 1984) went out ages ago.

 

I just find it remarkable how quickly people will decide to toss out something that likely needs only a simple repair. I also find it remarkable how cheap every new product feels. I read a post on another forum today about the great customer service a gentleman had from a window company, after they had replaced another of his 10 year old windows. My parent's have a commercial property with original windows... 180 years old. I'm sure they're not as well sealed as his 10 year old windows, but they're still doing the job of keeping shit on the outside from coming inside. And you can repair them yourself if they break.

[josh817]

My mother and sister got screwed by mechanic shops that either did it on purpose or had stunods that didn't know what they were doing. Seeing them get charged $70/hr + parts +upcharge, did not please me. I didn't know how to work on modern cars, didn't want to deal with check engine lights and being held hostage when annual inspection came around. School was 2 miles away and my father has a restoration shop so in the event of a break down I could walk to where I needed to go, and had tools to work with.

 

Owned a Honda Civic between the transition from the 240z to the 521. When I sold the Honda I never looked back. I will sacrifice luxury and creature comforts for simplicity. Only now am I starting to compromise between those, as I get annoyed of such a noisy, uncomfortable, girlfriendless, ride in the 521.

 

I wasn't there, but apparently, people drove the old cars of today, everyday, across the country, I don't see why its so unfathomable now, if you have new/replaced parts.

[Tony D]

I also find it remarkable how cheap every new product feels.

"Telephones"

 

I got a Bell System 40 or 50's era wall phone in my shed. Bakelite handset, cloth braided cord. Got a 60's era Bell System equivalent in the other shed, plastic and coiled cord on the handset, replaceable.

 

Both are heavy. Substantial. Open them up and there's all that mechanical tip and ringer mechanisms. Dikdikdikdikdik pulse tone dial out mechanism.

 

I picked up a recent Bell System phone. Still heavy but the "balance" was off... Something wasn't right. It LOOKED. The same. I got it home and took it apart.

 

Inside was a circuit board, and several steel weights bolted to the chassis, same thing inside the headset: bolted ballast plates to make it "feel" like the old ones!

 

On the old one, it has a microphone dated "11/57" and a earpiece dated "6/49"--the newer one had both dated "6/68" and was new in our house in Lansing Michigan when we move in in the fall of 1968. I was a kid when I watched the Bell System Guy come and hang it on the kitchen wall. At 6 years old, when we left the house, I asked why we weren't packing the phone. "It belonged to the phone company" was what I got.

I said "But we pay for it, it's a good phone, why can't we keep it? Won't they just give us another one where we're going? Why don't we take it?"

What I got next should have been a warning to my parents of things to come... My dad said "I don't know how to get it off the wall." I replied "Oh it's easy! I watched him put it in, you just lift (like this) and it comes right off, then you get the wire off the back." My dad was somewhat amused, and said "Oh, so why don't you take it off then?" And up the steps tool I went, detached it from the wall, and handed it to my dad with a "take the wire off now, dad!"

 

And so that phone got hooked into the existing wall bracket in the next house we had (and much to dad's delight it was instantly working--prior occupant had not disconnected service yet!) when Bell came for the "install" the tech said "You have you OWN phone? Oh, then we need to make a note not to charge your account the monthly equipment rental charge!"

 

Mom was clueless, dad, on the other hand was ecstatic when he got that first bill saying "something is wrong here!" Mom said "they said something about lower costs because we owned our own phone, I really didn't know what he was talking about."

 

Dad looked at me, realized what happened...started smiling, and said "Nancy, have you started dinner yet? We're going to The Tradewinds for Dinner!"

 

"Phone Cops" came in 82 because of inordinate high line draw at the house. By that time I'd learned to wire extensions and had them downstairs, upstairs, and out in the garage....along with Cable TV. All in the days when you paid per connection! I got everything pulled and hidden before Mom was finished delaying them at the back door.

 

Tony D, screwing the man since 1970!

 

I digress....

[Tony D]

At the new house, sometime between 71 and 74 I discovered I could get the house phones to ring by stuffing the wires from the baseboard modular plug into the wall socket. Oh when my brother and I were restricted to our room I would pull the wires out...wait till mom was just dozing off and then make the phone ring.

 

Stopping when she got there "Hello? Hello? HELLO?" (Snickering children in their rooms)

 

Wait till she was settled....ring...ring...ring...

 

"Hello? Who is this? (Dial Tone)

 

(More Snickers)

 

Then the coup de resistance...my brother could just see her on the phone, he would relay when that was, and RIIIIIIIINNNNG! Just ring the hell out of it for like 3 seconds straight while it was unhooked and she was on the headset. Bro would say her face would get all screwed up, she'd storm towards our room, and we both would assume our "positions of innocence"!

 

"Allan, I think the kids are doing something with the phone. It rings, all the time. Nobody is there. And it rings while I'm ON the phone!"

 

Mowhahahahahaha!

 

"I just know how to install it, I don't know how it works dad!"

 

Foreshadowing the answers everybody would get from installation techs 45 years later. Except I was lying, and only 8 years old. Today they're grown "adult professional installers" and actually MEAN it!