Speaking of vents,
How about the good ol’ manual outside air vent doors on both kick panels ? Pull or push the knob-on-a-cable for ash much or as little as you wanted.
My 79 still has those but none such on the 06 & 08.
Many cars even through the 1930s only had 1 tail light on the left side. In fact some station wagons through 1948 only had one tail light. These station wagons had wood bodies. The metal bodied Jeep station wagon that came out after WW II had only one tail light. I don’t know if a second tail light for the right side was even an option.
Of course, in those days many cars didn’t have turning signals. I believe that the 1940 Buick was one of the first cars to have turning signals as standard equipment. Neither my 1947 Pontiac or 1948 Dodge had turn signals. I bought aftermarket kits for these cars and installed them myself.
Back in the mists of time, cars had a screened air scoop in the middle of the firewall which you could activate with a lever handle. The last car I remember having one was a '48 Chev. My '53 Plymouth had “wing” windows in the front as did my '56 Olds. Some cars also had them in the back. Of course, this was before the days of flow thru ventilation and air conditioning.
“I remember on our 57 Ford, back up lights were an option”
Our 64 1/2 Mustang didn’t come with a backup light, so my dad installed a big driving light instead. Sure could see where I was backing, but glad I wasn’t behind me!
Keith said the spare tire is an option on the new Malibus. Same goes with the Cobalt, maybe the Impala, and a few other smaller (usually GM) cars that I’ve seen. The spare has been replaced by a repair kit. The well is still there in the trunk, though. Kinda like your car is saying “If you would have spent more money, THIS is where your spare tire would be. Instead, now you have a box. Good luck with that bent rim, buddy!”
In one unfortunate owner’s experience with a GMC Sonoma, all he had was the paper work from the dealership and letters from the NHSTA related to the driver’s seat that couldn’t stay fastened down(hit the brake; slide forward. hit the gas; slide back). After 19 attempts to fix it, the previous owner removed the spare and jack and put all the paper work in that spot. Though, what the dealership done with the truck is anyone’s guess after the guy traded it in; probably went to auction or crusher
VDC and CSA - the mystery’s answer was pointed out to me - CSA’s Rabbit comment appeared in this thread: http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2279149/my-how-the-mighty-have-fallen
I remember the `good ole days’ when cars didn’t have seat belts! That’s unfathomable today. But then, I also can’t believe some cars today still don’t come with satellite radios. Imagine having to listen to terrestrial radio? Yikes.
Vaccuun wipers were fun. One of my high school buddies’ mom had about a '53 Pontiac flathead straight 8 with them. We spliced in a ‘T’ fitting and some aquarium tubing and ran it into the front seat area with pinch clamp leading to a mason jar of kerosene. A short squeeze on the punch clamp would suck a little kerosene into the intake manifold, and out the tailpipe would fog enough pure white smoke to make a WWII navy destroyer escort jealous, it would completely fog over a city block & your couldn’t even see the hood ornament on a car sitting behind you at a stoplight. Great fun back in the day!
Up until the mid-60’s (as best I recall), neither cars or trucks had seat belts unless special ordered. Very few cars had A/C, instead they had a small vent window which could be opened and adjusted to make the air flow inside. The other item I recall was the transmission changer was mounted on the steering column. For those with automatic transmissions, you had to push a button to take it out of park. Some 1956-57 Plymouth cars with automatic transmissions used push buttons mounted to the left of the steering wheel to change gears.
SMOG control devices did not exist until the early '70’s.
SMOG control devices did not exist until the early '70’s.
cdaquila August 5 Report
"VDC and CSA - the mystery’s answer was pointed out to me - CSA’s Rabbit comment"
Cdaquila, Thanks. I’ve Got A Fantastic Memory. It’s Just Really Short !
Every Year My Memory Gets Better, But Shorter.
CSA
"Some 1956-57 Plymouth cars with automatic transmissions used push buttons mounted to the left of the steering wheel to change gears. "
Actually, all Chrysler products with automatic transmission used push-buttons for gear changing from 1956 to…probably…1967 or so…, as did Ramblers for a few years, and the famous (or infamous?) Edsel on its higher-end models.
Back to the pickup bumper thing, I agree the salesman did a lousy job explaining the issue. My dad shopped for a full-size Chevy pickup in 1984, and all the trucks on the lot had no rear bumper. His salesman explained, quite logically, that GM offered 4 bumpers. A bumper to match the front, in painted silver or chrome, or a step bumper, also in painted or chrome. Any one could be installed in half an hour. If they shipped the truck with a bumper on it they’d invariably have to take it off and change it anyway. And, as mentioned, some buyers planned to install a custom bumper and didn’t want one from the factory, so why pay for one?
Cars not having oil filters in the prewar days isn’t quite so wierd when you realize cars then had babbit bearings, rather than modern removable insert bearings, on the crankshaft and rods. The babbit material was soft enough that small particles could embed themselves in the babbet without scoring the crankshaft.
I seem to recall that on the 55-57 two-seat Thunderbirds, the soft top was optional. So if you ordered only the removable hardtop, and left home without it, you’d better check the weather forcast.
When I was shopping for my present car in 2002, I looked at a Hyundai Tiburon GT. I was surprised that ABS wasn’t standard equipment. I thought by that time, any car with sporting pretenses ought to have ABS standard. But looking at the option packages things got REALLY wierd. With the standard 5-speed trans, you could order ABS in small package for a nominal charge. But that option wasn’t available if you wanted one of the four “Super Sports” packages, which offed a 6-speed, a bigger wing and such. Not all the Super Sports packages included ABS. If you wanted ABS, you also had to get a sunroof. No sunroof, no ABS. I hate sunroofs. I waited a while an bought an SVT Focus, which I’m still driving.
Regarding the lack of a spare, those tire inflator kits might work sometimes, but the one time I got a flat tire in my Focus, I discovered a huge gash in the sidewall. Maybe I could have plugged it by stuffing the can of fix-a-flat in the hole. My ‘donut’ spare probably worked better. Then there’s those cars like the Corvette with those fabulous run-flat tires. If the tire monitor says you have a flat, and it won’t hold air when you pump it up, forget the jack and lug wrench, just drive to a tire store. Be afraid…be very afraid. Many tire stores don’t have run-flats in stock. They have to order them. Imagine being stranded for several days while on vacation because of a flat tire. This is progress.
Tom
We sold lots of Eberspacher Gasoline Heaters to freezing Volkswagen drivers.
I had a 62 VW with a canvas sumroof which also had a gasoline heater. The heater had a fierce output that was not easy to control. After the car was toasty, several minutes, when I shut it off it would fill the cabin with acrid white fumes which would gag you and smart your eyes untill they were tearing so badly you couldn’t hold them open. Also, on occasion, it would backfire so violently that the concussion would lift the snow off the hood.
What was causing all of these problems was the fact that the heater’s single electric motor also powered its fuel pump and blower impellar and ignition systyem. When you shut it off, the blower wheel would coast for several seconds allowing the fuel pump to continue to discharge raw gasoline into the hot combstion chamber creating the highly flammable vapors which would leak into the car. There was a normally closed solenoid fuel shut off valve which didn’t seal entirely, the root of the problem. God, I loved that car.
A friend of mine used to have a Saturn SL-1 with a manual transmission and armstrong steering. I was very surprised to see such a new car with no power steering, especially with a manual transmission. It also had 3 1/4 turns lock to lock just like the ones with power steering, which made steering this front wheel drive car very difficult, especially if you needed to shift while making a turn. He once popped his left shoulder out of joint while rounding a corner in that car because he had to upshift. GM’s risk assessment lawyers must have been on vacation when the decision was made to offer that car with that combination of features. At least older vehicles had a slower steering gear ratio to make steering at low speeds a little more manageable.
Over the years, I’ve owned some dandies, beginning with a '31 Chevrolet followed by a '30 Model A - but one of the best was a 1952 Studebaker Commander with a 235/238 CID V-8 hooked up to a three-speed with electric overdrive. That car’s ‘comfort zone’ was 72 MPH.
In the mid-sixties Ford provided a lot of amusement with their “Ford has a better idea.”
Two of the things they crowed about in their ads were self-adjusting brakes and ‘quiet’ front wing windows.
My Studebaker had better self-adjusting brakes that worked every time they were applied, instead of having to back up and hit the brakes hard.
And my wing windows were angled so as to be silent at any setting; at 72 MPH.
In the early 50’s, my tight-fisted grandmother went to Sears to get the cheapest car sold in America. She wouldn’t event pay shipping to California, so she hitched a ride with one of her Russian-language students to Chicago to pick up the car. It came with no spare wheel and tire, no oil filter, no windshield wiper arms or blades, and no glove box. She bought all those things, and headed west.