The reason I believe newer cars last longer than cars 50 years ago did

General Discussion
87

Just to provide some perspective on medical technology, back in The Good Old Days (1956) my favorite aunt developed severe swelling (edema) in her legs, and she was also extremely fatigued. We took her to the ER at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and she was admitted for diagnosis. After a day or two at that renowned hospital, we were told, “It’s either cancer or some sort of heart problem”. That’s correct… at one of the leading hospitals in the US, the lack of the type of diagnostic tests that we have today led them to “narrow” things down to two totally different diseases.

Their only diagnostic solution was to open-up her thoracic and abdominal areas in order to look at the situation with their own eyes. Surgery carries its own risks, and there are people every year who never survive a surgical procedure, but radical surgery–in order to use their eyes as a diagnostic tool–was apparently the only sure way of diagnosing her situation.

The good news is that she did survive that surgical procedure, and that she had an “inverted heart”, rather than cancer. She lived for another 12 years or so, but the fairly primitive medications of the day were unable to give her even near-normal functioning.

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88

Wow, hard to envision this was within many of our lifetimes. Imagine, invasive thoracic surgery to diagnose something that would be automatically identified by the computer based arrhythmia detection algorithms in a standard 12 lead ECG.

Wasted money on technology. Leech therapy would cost less and fix them right up!

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89

Exactly!
When I think back to those days, it seems amazing that it was actually almost 7 decades ago, but the bottom line is that–within our lifetimes-- medical technology really was that primitive.

Just w/in the past couple of weeks, I have had a 12 lead ECG, a treadmill-based cardiac stress test, a Doppler study of my Carotid Arteries, and Echo Cardiography–none of which were widely available until (maybe) 40 years ago.

The good news from all of those modern medical tests is that I’m in good shape… for my age. :wink:

90

I have to jump on this one too.

1). Tech improvement results in earlier, better diagnosis resulting, in general, quicker treatment and better outcome. When I started in 1969, a blood chemistry panel took all day. “Stat” chemistries were limited to glucose, BUN, and electrolytes, and would take about an hour. Now a comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP, if you wish to look it up) takes about 15 minutes.
Cat scans and MRIs did not exist.
Personal history=went to ER with abdominal pain. CBC, CMP, and Cat Scan. Doctor says “ Greg, you have appendicitis “.
A few hours later, in OR, appendix removed, three days later, back to work. I reviewed blood work—totally normal! In the days before Cat scans, we would have waited for appendicitis to be diagnosed by changes in the blood work and I would have spent a week in the hospital plus additional time convalescing at home.

  1. Some work is done as CYA, our screens showed what the patient’s complaint was, diagnostic test went way beyond. So, to a certain degree, lawyers drive up the cost of medicine.

When I was active duty, military members could not sue for malpractice, but dependents could. Dependents got a higher level of care.

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91

Doesn’t the currently-recommended treatment for… everything… consist of eating random roadkill carcasses?

92

Yeah that was me about 1985. Mine burst. Don’t know how they diagnosed since just woke up in the icu. Great surgeon but still a week in the hospital and worked half time for a few weeks. I told the er doc the symptoms didn’t fit the book and he just said the book isn’t always right. Long night.

93

In the past year I had a Watchman implanted in my heart to prevent stroke because I had intermittent atrial fibrillation. After that I went into full time afib and had a a cardiac ablation of my left ventricle. Both times the surgeon entered my heart with catheters through an incision in a vein in my right crotch. The Watchman was a little over a year ago and is a complete success. The ablation was at the end of January. I took amiodarone until two weeks ago to stay in sinus rhythm. I’m two weeks drug free and afib free, and I sure hope I keep in sinus rhythm. BTW, do you know I what felt during and after two heart operations? A sore groin where the incision was. Medicine truly is marvelous these days. My father died of heart disease in 1967 and none of this was available. They didn’t have anything in between digitalis and heart transplants, as the first transplant in South Africa didn’t happen until a few months after he died.

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94

If only cars had progressed as much as medical care has in the last 50 years…oh wait, they have. Used to be you needed to go to the corner garage and have the car hooked up to a console engine analyzer to tell what why it wasn’t running right. Now a handheld device can tell you in minutes whether a cylinder is misfiring and whether it’s fuel or ignition related.

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95

+1
This is just one of the many examples demonstrating that The Good Old Days were not very good.

IMO, most of today’s adults who long for “The Good Old Days when life was so much simpler” are ignoring the fact that they were children during those old days, and were sheltered from most of the problems, stresses, and travails that their parents and other adults were experiencing at the time.

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96

Speaking of cars from yesteryear, these cars were used in last year’s Bob Dylan movie, some of which was shot in Cape May, NJ.

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97

Heh heh. We were at a lake resort in Canada with our new black and yellow Ford fairlane 500. There was a steep gravel drive from where the cabins were and out. Dad hopped in the car and up the drive wheels spinning. Halfway up the engine killed so he coasted back down and the car wouldn’t start. The resort owner pulled the air cleaner and opened the stuck choke. Car started right up. At nine years old I learned about chokes and fords. Our next car was a 58 Chevy. Yeah they don’t build them like they used to but I still loved that ford.

98

Don’t forget the infectious-diseases parties. To “protect yourself”, of course.

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99

My father is one of those who will occasionally refer back to the 50s as those “good old days”. To which my usual response is " Yeah. the good old days of…polio, fallout shelters, and separate drinking fountains". …

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100

Wish a Ford and a Chevy would still last ten years like they should. Merle, they do if you take care of them

101

My personal experience with wages and costs of living are a little like Ricks.

1955 to 60 I was a helper on a delivery truck. $1.25 to $1.50 an hour. No benefits

1960 started my first union job as a city tractor trailer driver. $2.65 an hour with full medical and pension.

Pay escalated rapidly and by 1972 it was $13.24 an hour city and 32 cents per mile road.

My house was built in 1960 for $12000.00 and today it would sell for about $290000.00

So, in 1972 my wages were much higher than that job pays today and my expenses much lower.

The idea that cars were better in the old days is ridiculous. My first car was a 52 Plymouth that I bought for $20. It was 9 years old and had been sitting for 6 months waiting to go to the junkyard. It was a 4 door and if you opened all the doors you could swing the door posts almost up to the roof because they were not attached to anything at the bottom. It got 18 mpg on the road.

My 2012 Camry, bought new in the fall of 2011, still looks like new, runs like new and aside from wear items, the only repair it has had in the 13.5 years was a $20 windshield washer pump I did myself.

Also, I remember the flathead Fords needing valve jobs at 40000 miles and rings at 60000.

I also remember the 60 Falcons needing ball joints at 12 or 13 thousand miles.

Still, I would be content driving a 66 Valiant. I also the GM loong hood and short deck look was a stupid waste of space and a trump of style over function. Ab anachronistic look back of the days of big straight eight engines.

For those checking my math, yes, I had been working 6 years befor I bought a car. Wewere living in Buffalo and there was no place we could not get to by bus or walking. In January of 61, the discontinued the round the clock operation of the bus line I took to work at midnight to get from my spacious $65 a mount apartment to work. The 1960 hous I bought in 68 for 17k.

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102

By my estimation, @Old-Days-Rick was born around 1974 or 1975

So your experiences with wages and cost of living are NOT a little like his

Why am I saying this?

Because you actually were around and working in those time periods Rick claims to know so much about

That gives you credibility :+1:t3:

Rick literally doesnt know what he’s talking about because he wasn’t alive and working during these “good old days” he claims to miss

How can he miss them if he was never around to experience them in the first place?:thinking:

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103

I am a study of the 1960s, 70s amd i lived thru the great 80s and 90s. Very good times!

104

mullets and parachute pants . . .

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105

Mullets are still very much in style around here. Parachute pants not so much.

106

+1
I can read about the French Revolution, but that wouldn’t qualify me to comment with accuracy about what it was actually like to live in those times.

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