Older cars had their merits, no dispute, but the modern electronic-controlled fuel injected cars we have today are definitely easier to start and seldom stall at stoplights or when backing out of the driveway. Today’s modern suspension systems hold the car to the road, considerably more stable imho. Teenage-me nearly bought the farm when driving my 62 Ford, the wind shifted when going around a freeway turn a little too fast. Modern cars tend to all look the same, and a little on the ugly side. A lot of older cars had a elegant appearance.
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Geezer.
We had that luxurious Cadillac Series 62 and while it wasn’t a Fleetwood, it was wonderful in its day. Todays luxury cars are head and shoulders above the ones from back in the day. I know exactly how to stall the Caddie - go faster than 15 MPH around a corner and the car would tilt so much that carb would drain. No fuel, no run. You can go faster than that in almost anything around a corner and not stall today.
The cars today are much quieter too. I had an Envoy as a rental car in Utah once and it was so quiet that I didn’t hear any tire noise and very little noise from outside the car. It was a great ride in frozen Logan, Utah. There weren’t heated seats way back-a-when or a heated steering wheel. They were a welcome addition after my dash from the building to the SUV at 6am when I got off work and it was -20F. Couldn’t get than on anything in the older days.
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Well sure, nice features if you like a hot posterior but I just used my remote start to warm the car up before going home.
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+1
No matter how some folks might like to romanticize the cars of yesteryear, they required much more frequent maintenance, didn’t handle or brake as well as modern cars, they produced abominably-low gas mileage, and they lacked most of the creature comforts of vehicles of the present day.
Were the cars from The Good Old Days easier to repair?
Yes
Were they as long-lasting/durable without major repairs, when compared to contemporary vehicles?
Nope!
I don’t disagree with the modern improvements, but gee, I paid 32 cents a gallon for gas and 19 cents in Sioux Falls during a gas war. Sure didn’t have much inflated money but still I was happy with 25 mpg in my vw.
As the professor likes to say there is a difference in history and our memory of the history. Just because we liked some of the old cars, doesn’t mean we don’t like computers and tv remotes. Still $2 to fill the tank to drive 200 miles home is both memory and history. Then came the wonder bar radio.
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When I was a young pup back in 1992 or so, I spotted a 65 New Yorker sitting at a used car lot. A real barn find. Paint still shone, interior was clean and no tears including the Lucite steering wheel, had all the options including the radio reverb and Auto-Pilot cruise control. Showed 65,000 on the clock and still had bias ply tires. Car was priced at $499 because it had a “bad differential”. I asked if I could drive it, the salesman said just once around the block because of the diff. I got around the block and found that it had a broken “helper spring” that would bang on the leaf springs on left turns. I came back in half an hour with $450 and the car was mine.
A/C blew 36*, that 413 would scream right up to 100mph (which was a treat on 14" bias plys), and the car rode surprisingly well for torsion bars. That was probably the best deal I ever had in my life.
2 years later for some stupid reason I sold the car for $2200 to buy a low-mile 70 Caprice. As I watched the NY drive away I knew I should have kept it and I regret selling it to this day.
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What 1950s car had remote start? Anyway, in my case, I didn’t want to stick around for an extra ten minutes for the SUV to warm up when I got off shift. I just wanted to go back to the hotel, eat breakfast, and go to sleep.
Also, if you paid $0.32 for a gallon of regular gas in 1960, that would be $3.33 today. That’s a bit higher than the $3.05 I see for the lowest prices around MSP on Gasbuddy.
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Just to keep it real; today, 23 Oct 2023, in Newport News VA, Regular Gas was $3.11 at Kroger and $2.94 at Costco. But we had $.50 off a gallon at Kroger (based on our grocery purchases…) and it only cost $2.61 a gallon today.
Just got some gas this morning. 5 bucks a gallon here.
I guess I was just reacting to how wonderful the new technology is with fuel injection that provides improved gas mileage.
Even at 19 cent a gallon (no need to adjust fir inflation) people had a fixation with their mpg. This in disregard to all of the other ownership and operational cost factors.
Even if cars got 100 mpg and gas was $1, I suspect people would still be concerned about their gas bill. I think it is just ingrained. I can pay $1100 for tires or $1500 for a timing belt and still think about getting 35 instead of 30 mpg. Sure I’d rather pay $3 than $5 but even at $5 that cost me $6000 a year. So I just think it is interesting that paying tens of thousands of dollars to gain a few mpg is seen as a great value.
So yeah I was happy to pay 19 cents and I’m happy to pay $3 instead of $5 but mpg will only be a small consideration for me.
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That reference reminded me of a couple of families that lived near me in the late '60s. Both families were close and often socialized together often. The Dad in one of the families bought a new VW and he bragged all the time about how great his gas mileage was… Admittedly, it was getting a bit irritating, as most of us really did not really care about mileage… Strange thinking in that time, we would drive a mile or two further to get a penny off, but the actual mileage was not much of a concern, only the price…
However, I digress, back to the VW… I was friendly with the son of the other family’s Dad. And that Dad decided to “drive” his friend crazy… So, my friend and his Dad would sneak over to the VW and add a gallon or two of gas to the VW… The VW Dad started bragging how his VW was getting gas mileage of 30 to 35 MPG now that the engine was getting “broke-in…”
Well, that lasted for about a month or so and when VW Dad was his worse bragging big-head; my friend and his Dad stopped adding gas, allowing the mileage to drop to its normal 20 to 25 MPG…
And boy, did that ever deflate VW Dad’s bragging… Well, for a couple of weeks anyway…
Then friend and his Dad started siphoning out a gallon or two and that brought the mileage down to about 12 to 15 MPG…
VW Dad just could not understand it. He would fill the tank, spend the whole day driving the VW city only, then spend all day driving it highway only and the mileage went up to what one would expect, 20 to 25 MPG, but when he drove it normally, in day to day driving, the mileage dropped (because my friend and his Dad had time to siphon some gas out…).
VW Dad even brought the VW in for service and the dealership, would also perform the same mileage test driving in city and highway and found it was getting “factory Specs…”
That went on until the fall season as it was getting cold and there was now some snow at night and it would show the footprints so my friend and his Dad stopped and VW Dad settled on getting only its regular gas mileage…
However, for Christmas (they swapped presents…), friend’s Dad gave VW Dad some Polaroid photos of them with a gas can putting gas in the VW and Polaroid photos of them siphoning gas out…
VW Dad was pissed, but VW Mom quieted him down because his bragging got insufferable and friend’s Mom probably let VW Mom in on the joke…
I always used a locking gas cap, even back then…
As Uncle Tom McCahill called it, “a hairy chested land bomb”.
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That car looks a lot like the one my mom’s cousin had but I was pretty young. Clara and Al. Clara was the queen and Al did everything in support. No kids. He polished rocks as a hobby and I used to have one he made. When Al died, Clara was an absolute wreck and couldn’t do anything. A lesson in making sure your partner can stand on their own. Sorry, memory lane. The car was black.
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+1
When my father lost his vision, my brother and I had to teach my mother how to write checks and pay the bills. Despite the fact that she was a college graduate, she just couldn’t seem to understand what she was supposed to do. So, the two of us wound-up taking care of all the financial details. Only a few months later did we realize that we were seeing the first signs of Alzheimer’s Disease. 
Yup!
NYC’s official Parade Car!
One of the curious facts about this car (and the two others that were built) is that it is actually a custom-built 1952 Imperial which Chrysler later re-bodied with 1956 panels. When it was re-bodied, Chrysler also switched the transmission to a Powerflite unit, which was not available in 1952.