Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I'm fed the hell up with today's automobiles!

I had over 200,000 miles on a 1971 Subaru before I sold it and I never did have to add oil or do any drive train repairs. I have also had some high mileage Amercan iron which was pretty trouble free. My Toyota Matrix is also very reliable and is functioning just fine but, in many ways, it is not all that great. Throttle response is sluggish, traction control is maddening, many functions which are controlled by a computer would be better handled with a simple switch. Still, I can live with it. GD

Bingo! As the OP, that's pretty much what I was trying to infer.

No manual transmission = no purchase.

I'm not willing to go that far! I ride elevators and use air conditioning too.

OK

Carburetors, drum brakes, bias ply tires, power glides, bring it on man. Sounds great.

Bullchit,the mechanics of an engine are the same as always except they are controlled by a computer.Anyone can buy a code reader and find out what is wrong with an engine.Not everyone is capable of fixing it.There is a reason that we now have Automotive Technicians.There is so much more than just changing plugs,rotor cap or rebuilding a carb now.Is this good or bad??Well I know back in the good old days if you got 40,000 miles on an engine you were close to a total rebuild.Valves,rings,head gaskets,maybe cams, new crank,push rods etc.Now at 100,000 miles the engine is just broken and maybe you need new plugs.Change your oil regular,and do normal maintenance and you are probably good for 300,000 miles plus.The good old days sucked!!Huntz

You too, eh?

Mid 90's to mid 2000's. A good blend of technology for easy starts, decent HP, and a guy can still work on them.

For the cost of a year's worth of insurance and registration on a new truck, a guy can practically rebuild the 20 year old trucks........

Those mechanic bills will buy a lot of gas...
It's everywhere I sold my old 89 kenworth for 12 k..the guy who bought it has his new Pete in the shop for a computer issue...he had spent more on it than the price of my truck and they still hadn't figured it out...his plan is to go back to mechanical engine fleet...
Farm tractors are same also...my dads tractor throws goofy codes every time you start it...combine cost me 5 k for a computer board...
I have never had a single computer issue with my 1970 4020 or 84 k20

^^^ Yep. IMO, all the electronics and computers are much more trouble than they're worth.

Older is better. This self driving crap will get you killed.

Come on guys, get off the nostalgia wagon here. I loved the Tri Fives when they first came out and the 60s & 70s muscle cars when they first came out too. Factory ordered a brand new '69 340 Dodge Dart Swinger set up for drag racing. I thought it was a rocket! But time and technology have passed those antique designs by. Have any of you recently driven a factory spec, fully restored 1964-1975 muscle car? Antique suspension design, drum brakes, crummy steering, terrible transmissions, intake / carburetor / fuel management that sucked causing lousy throttle response, poor performance, massive pollution, and terrible gas mileage. Compared to the steering, suspension, braking, and performance of a modern standard sedan, those muscle cars are downright scary to drive. How we managed to not kill ourselves in them is a miracle.

I'm restomoding a 1970 El Camino a friend and I first built into a custom some 35+ years ago. New modern suspension, large disk brakes, power rack and pinion steering, 460ci big block with sequential fuel injection, bluetooth sound system, navigation system, backup camera as well as front mounted camera, both recording continuously. All in a stock bodied El Camino that now, with the same 460ci big block, produces more hp and torque, significantly better throttle response, and gets double the fuel economy than when it was carbureted.

I'm as nostalgic as the next person when talking about the 60s and 70s muscle car era, however, as one who's actually driven a restored stock version and compared it to the restomod, I can tell you unequivocally that today's suspension, braking, steering, fuel management, shifting, and situational awareness technology included in the simplest of cars makes them light years better than their predecessors. My 2016 Chevy Tahoe is so much more advanced, quieter, more powerful, averaging 6mpg higher fuel economy, and is significantly safer with it lane cameras, front warning radar, and 8" display allowing free navigation with the Android Auto app on my phone as well as other technological enhancements than my 2002 Chevy Tahoe it replaced it's hard to believe.

I've taken it on trips to Montana, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, and a couple of trips to New Orleans and I think its the best distance vehicle I've ever had. So comfortable, quiet, powerful, and well appointed that even in my 70s, I can drive it for 10-12 hrs day after day and not feel worn out. My 2016 Tahoe is hands down the best vehicle I've every owned.

In our '63 Chevy pickup - tuneup @ about 6000 miles.


I've still got a pick-up bed trailer (actually a utility bed), made from a '73 Ford F250, with split rims - used as a well repair trailer. It has 16" split rims.
Thank goodness the original tires still only need to be aired up every few years - I don't want to be replacing those rims just for fun!

I bought a good code scanner and do a lot of my own repairs when needed but honestly don't do much more than oil changes and brake jobs. They just don't break down all that much.

What the hell have you been driving? I have only had mechanical break downs and damn few of them. CV axle and water pump in a 2012 Buick Regal. The biggest pain in the as was parts availability. 03 Honda Accord, trans 183,000, alternator at 210,000 and cat at 246,000 miles. Radiator on my F250 at 183,000. 85 Chevy Astro kept clogging EGR valves and had leaky injectors but the overall build quality sucked. Electronics have all been trouble free for me. You could delete the egr and DEF system I suppose but you don't want to do it before your warranty expires.
I have been responding to car wrecks since 1981 and can tell you, there are more people surviving wrecks than are being killed in them unless they do something really stupid. I have seen people standing next to cars that I couldn't see how they got out of them. Crumple zones, integral roll cages, airbags and other restraint systems, I'l take the car with the worst case scenario engineered into them anytime. Anyone thinking they are better off in a severe impact crash in a mid 50's or 60's tank hasn't been there and seen what really happens.

If we coulda, we woulda.

smarquez: In the 23 years I have driven my current vehicle, it has only left me stranded once, and that was recently when the transmission gave out at 235,000 miles. I’ve had many, many vehicles over the years, the worst of which was a 1999 Jaguar XJ8 that regularly went into limp mode due to shoddy engineering, electrical issues and mechanical issues. I couldn’t get rid of that POS fast enough. Another extremely poor vehicle I had was a 1992 Infinity Q45, which was in the shop more often than not, plagued with both electrical and mechanical problems. You may not have had any electrical problems with your vehicles, but I assure you that they are a big problem in the automotive industry.

I believe you’re reading too much into my statements. I never once said that I’d prefer to be in a severe crash in a 50’s or 60’s vehicle. In fact, I said just the opposite in post #13360978 on page 3 of this thread. The main point of my post was that government/EPA regulations have done much to harm the automotive industry, particularly with the egregious mileage (CAFÉ) standards, which have become more and more ridiculous over the last decades. 0bammy’s CAFÉ standard of 50 MPG by 2025 was outrageous. These regs have become more and more onerous for manufacturers to meet and have played a significant role in the continual rising cost of cars to an average of $35,000 today, which makes purchasing a new vehicle unaffordable for many Americans. Additionally, manufacturers have had to scramble to meet these regulations and one of the main ways they accomplish this is to shave as much weight as possible off the vehicles they manufacture. One result of lighter and lighter vehicles is that they are not nearly as crash-worthy as older cars and as an example of what I mean by the phrase “older cars,” personally, I would much rather be in an accident in a 1994 Mercedes E class than a 2018 Ford Focus, Chevy Cruze, Honda Fit, or any number of other small to mid-sized modern vehicles. The said E class is an extremely safe vehicle and is engineered to a high standard and has all the safety equipment you mentioned, which includes crumple zones, side impact door beams, collapsible steering column, air bags, etc. Additionally, in an effort to meet these governmental regulations, manufacturers rely heavily on computer controlled nonsense such as cylinder deactivation and complete engine deactivation, which increases wear exponentially. Smaller engines, turbo chargers, and hybrids, which utilize TWO modes of propulsion, etc. are other tactics for meeting these regs. It’s all about increasing control over the population and pushing us into products we do not want. Americans don’t want and are not interested in the anti-car and anti-oil agenda of liberals and commies, nor do they want the government telling them what kind of cars and trucks they can purchase, which is clearly unconstitutional, just as the ACA was and is.

Regarding diesel emission controls, you are certainly correct that an owner should not fully delete one during the warranty period, but the fact remains that the vast majority of the problems with late model diesel trucks are related to all the EPA mandated emission controls on these vehicles. Once the warranty period expires, fully deleting all that crap results in increased mileage, increased performance and increased reliability. I believe many would agree that they would not want a truck that leaves them stranded or goes into limp mode due to emission-related crap - a truck is less than useless under such circumstances, and can, in fact, be extremely dangerous if it suddenly goes into limp mode at speed on the highway. The former Pant-Load-in-Chief was a big proponent of electric vehicles b/c they are viewed as clean – what a crock! No one seems to realize that electric vehicles require ELECTRICITY that is generated mainly by coal-fired plants, not to mention the incredible pollution produced by the manufacture of millions of lithium batteries required to power electric vehicles and the environmental nightmare which results from their disposal. What about the environmental issues caused by the mining of lithium and rare earth minerals – I guess that one doesn’t matter since most of it occurs in China and Afghanistan – two countries that are openly hostile to the US. What about trading our newfound energy independence for almost complete reliance on these batteries and rare earth minerals from countries hostile to the US – see any parallels to OPEC?

Passed a west bound F250 yesterday. On it's trailer was a late '60s GMC pickup. Looked in pretty good condition, no rust.

And “tune ups”

The shade tree mechanic isn't dead, he just has to switch from nuts and bolts, to software. I think mechanically, the cars nowadays are a lot better. No more valve jobs at 50,000.