Antique cars are more fun to drive than modern cars

I think it felt like you were going faster in the old cars. Was on the I and took back roads due to backup and and freeway closed warning sign. 4.5 hour backup they said later on the news. I was going 85 or 90 to keep up with traffic when I got back on the interstate. 90 in an old car would have been scary, but it was fine in the newer car.

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Agree. I rented a new-ish Chevy HHR a few years ago to drive across northern Nevada. 80 mph nearly all the way, HHR tracked like on rails, near perfect suspension, speed barely noticeable. Not everything perfect tho. Check engine light … lol …

There’s not a lot I miss from the old cars but I sure miss vent windows and big air intake doors located under the dash.
Artificial feeling AC is great when stuck in city traffic but I do miss the seamless flow of fresh air from the combination of vents and vent windows, while driving down a country road.

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It has an old style A/C system that really just blows air and it works pretty well for what it is. When I’m usually driving though I have the vent windows open and that works better than any A/C I’ve used.

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Try that in over 100 Degree and high humidity and you will not think like that .

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Well good thing I don’t live in over 100 degree weather and high humidity and probably never will lol.

Until you are driving through Death Valley in 118 degree heat and have to have the heater running to keep the engine from over heating. True story in my 71 Nova! It was so hot I was dripping sweat from where the skin touched on the inside of my knee.

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I agree that old cars were more interesting to drive than modern cars. I remember my MGA didn’t have door handles, just a wire inside the door that you pulled on to get it open. That was the factory design. My 57 Karmen Ghia had no fuel guage, just a petcock lever under the dash like a motorcycle. My 62 Falcon had vacuum wipers that would come to a stop when the accelerator was pressed. Those were the days.

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Let us not forget recirculating-ball steering, a quarter of a turn play in the steering wheel.

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Yup!
Younger drivers might not have experienced the loosey-goosey steering of those “fun” old cars.

There are a bunch of us around here that won’t appreciate being told that things from the 1970s are antiques. :wink:

Yeah. Modern cars. There’s just nothing interesting or fun about any of 'em.




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What we have here is probably a young person with limited vehicle exposure . Of course a Saburban is not a fun vehicle , it was never meant to be . The 2011 Kia Forte Koup is not a sports car either . Sure , he likes driving this truck because it is basically his instead of his parents vehicles .

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More than likely…

If he had ever driven a car with recirculating ball steering, largely-ineffective, prone-to-facing drum brakes, bias-ply tires, and marshmallow-soft suspension, he wouldn’t be singing the praises of all old vehicles. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I consider the excellent handling and excellent brakes of modern vehicles to be a lot more fun than the handling and braking capabilities of older vehicles.

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I have vehicles with recirculating ball power steering that are not failing.
Driving a car that is in disrepair is an excuse to buy a new car.

I don’t see that antique cars are any different than today’s cars. My 1948 Dodge had push button starting just like today’s cars. My Dad’s 1939 Chevrolet had a replaceable bulb headlights just like today’s cars (I remember when he bought a kit and converted the headlights to sealed beam units). Some years later my Dad had a 1940 Chrysler with the stop/start feature. It died at stoplights. However, you manually had to restart the engine. My 1950 Chevrolet pickup had interval wipers. The interval was controlled by letting up on the accelerator. I drove a Nissan Sentra with the CVT. It reminded me of driving the 1952 Buick with the Dynaflow automatic transmission.

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I will never ever own a vehicle with a carburetor again. My dad’s 66 Mustang handled like, well, a Ford Falcon. It had imprecise steering mentioned by others, and a solid axle in back with leaf springs that eventually sagged. It was fun back then, but it can’t begin to compare with my 2011 Camaro.

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Fair enough. I’ve never had to remove, disassemble and clean my Corolla’s fuel injection system, seems to be more or less bullet-proof; but needed to do that job several times over the years for my carb’d truck. Still, diagnosing the cause of a problem with older carbs, pre 1980, pretty easy for a diy’er. Diagnosing the cause of a problem with those electronic-controlled carbs of the 1980’s, that’s a much bigger challenge and best avoided.

Yes, modern FI systems are pretty reliable, so you should be glad if you never owned a car with Bosch’s Constant Injection (CI) system. My POS '74 Volvo had it, as did (I think) some VWs back in the '70s.

The CI system was–at best–a headache–and it was often a disaster.

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Brings back not so fond memories of the Electronic Feedback Quadra-jets and variable Venturi carburetors.

OMG, How Old (or Young) are you guys that you don’t remember or never experienced the pure FUN of cars? :sob:

Driving to the local ski resort in an old, basically unheated VW bus doing 25 mph up the hills, zipping off to the beach in a convertible MG Midget ending up looking like a couple of steamed lobsters), flogging that “Landship” around town or the joy of learning that you’re actually capable of mastering and maintaining something mechanical and unique?

Of course new vehicles are “better” in everyway but they have all the FUN of driving a Lazyboy in your living room.
On the other hand my old MG is just plain fun!

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