To be fair, that 1980s Caprice in my neighborhood looks to be pretty solid . . .
But I wouldn’t want one as a daily driver nowadays
Plenty of newer cars that are safer, more comfortable and get better fuel economy . . . and more likely to pass safety and/or smog inspections without too much trouble
Remember the early Hyundai Elantra’s with broken timing belts, I did so many of those I would pull em in and have em running and ready for the test drive in 1.5 hours tops, never racked one to do one either… lol
My 1970 Pinto took about 15 minutes.
A friend of mine worked as a mechanic in a Hyundai dealership back then. I remember him telling me about those timing belts on the 2.0L (?) Elantra engine. He said many did not survive to reach the factory 60K replacement interval. He too said he was replacing lots of them.
The belt on the 2.4L lasted much longer.
Years ago my local NAPA was owned by the Murray family. Great reputation and were very helpful. Then Brant Murray sold and retired. He sold to people who owned NAPA stores in Norfolk VA just north of here. They jacked all the prices up and locals went elsewhere. Luckily we have 2 other parts stores close by. A CarQuest and an AutoZone.
Yesterday I needed 5 ft of 3/16 hose. CarQuest $1.70 ft. NAPA $4.49! I rarely go to NAPA anymore.
Reading this thread reminds me of why I appreciate newer cars so much more than cars of yesteryear.
Things I remember include:
I’m sure I missed a number of items. (Others can fill in my omissions.)
If someone believes in driving old cars for daily drivers, that’s their business.
For me, I am so appreciative of today’s technology.
Sorry your regional NAPAs went through that. I’m not quite knowledgeable about how loose or tight sectional or national governance of NAPA retailers is, if there is such control, over pricing, availabilty, customer service standards, etc.
To be fair, I consider CarQuest to be half a head & shoulders above AutoZone, even though I think a bigger fish swallowed CarQuest(Advance?) some years ago.
AutoZone is barely an auto parts store. I’ll buy wax and wiper-blades from them. Not critical parts though.
We have a Carquest near me, but it’s extremely small. Every time I tried to buy something from them they never had it in stock and had to order it and would be there in 1-2 days. Even simple things like an Air Filter or oil Filter.
+1
Back in The Good Old Days, while on a summer drive with my parents, it wasn’t unusual to see at least 4 or 5 cars parked on the shoulder with steam streaming from under the hood.
My Great Aunt used to hire a car and driver to take her on her annual trip to a hotel at Lake Minnewaska, in upstate NY. One year, I recall her fuming after that trip was extended by several hours because of a broken fan belt.
At least, in the good old days, there was no ‘social’ media or AI. News was from either the papers, radio, or on TV: the ‘alphabet soup’: ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, and by the late 1960s, PBS. Not thousands of vloggers on YouTube, representing as many points of view and opinions.
People were nicer, and racial relations were actually better. And the music was so d a m n good!
Obviously you aren’t old enough to remember the “good old” race riots of the 60’s.
Additionally, racial segregation was legal and prevalent in the Southern States until it was outlawed in the mid-60s.
It’s worse in more subversive ways, that I can discuss in private if anyone prefers.
Huh? Do you mean allowing people of color to vote is subversive ?
Yep. I’m 55 years old. Just about everyone my age has at least one memory of a road trip, vacation, or family outing that was interrupted by a broken down car. My kids and their friends have no such experiences. I take that back…I had a flat tire once when the kids were little, but I’m not sure they remember it.
Like when my grandmother got on a bus with a bag of groceries and someone yelled at her to “take her brown-bread eating ■■■ and go back where she came from?”
The open forums is not the venue for this discussion. PM.
Aside from race relations, the per capita m-u-r-d-e-r rate in the US in 1970 was more than double its current rate. But, at least those victims were killed by “nice people”.
In addition to the prevalent auto breakdowns in The Good Old Days, road safety today is vastly different than it was back then. The highway fatality rate in 1970 was more than double what it has been in recent years.
I seem to remember replacing them in the 40K range give or take a few thousand miles, total junk belts… lol
The company I worked for in the 90’s, bought many non running ones from the auctions back then, even the running ones got a new timing belt just cause we saw so many failures back then…
Almost every vehicle we bought was in the 30K to 40K range, I would do plugs, wires, (cap and rotor if there), air and fuel filters, on most also did pads/shoes and machined rotor/drums if able or replace, rarely replaced though, new tires if around 1/2 worn, replaced a ton of steering wheels (grip came loose a lot back then) and any interior part needed , all lights had to work, new carpet on many of them, pulled the seats for the wash guy to do his clean up on etc etc etc…
The only thing we sent out was paint when/if needed, and had the fixed glass replaced, we did all the side glass…
Basically we made auction cars look like new again, inside and out…
This was a local rental vehicle company and the cars had to look and feel new…
We rented all of the big 3 size cars from Escorts to Town Cars, from Cavaliers to the full size GM’s and the same with the Mopar’s and a few trucks, plus all the JDM sizes and a few trucks, even had some Yugo’s, Hyundai’s and bought the 1st Kia’s north of Florida… Once the vehicle had been rented for 20K miles they were sold back at auction, so it was nothing to swap parts like radios, interior and non break down stuff like that from out going to incoming vehicles that need it, it was nothing to pull in 6-7+ vehicles at once and start inspections and tearing down for everything that needed to be replaced… We often bought vehicles with blown motors, head in the trunk, or slipping transmissions, bad clutches or whatever so we could get them as cheap as possible, and then make like new again… Heck I even rebuilt a few 3 on the tree Ford truck columns… lol
Me and one other guy (95% of the time) took care of an average of 250-500 vehicles in the fleet, that included all the normal maintenance and break downs… We would go out and do some stuff on the side of the road like ignition cylinder locks breaking, replaced many Escorts cylinder locks on the side of the road… Still remember using a chisel to loosing the tamper prof bolts… lol
Good grief that went longer than intended… 
In 1967, I was doing an internship at my state’s Child Protective Agency. On the day that I was scheduled to take an in-service class at the agency’s Newark office, I got a phone call from the coordinator at that office. She said, “Right now, I’m looking out of my office window, and in the middle of the intersection, there is a military Jeep with a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on the back, and there is a soldier manning that gun.
I think I have to cancel our class for today”.
