# Old-school cars and post-millennials **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510 "2019-07-23T20:08:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/41 "2019-07-24T13:48:02Z")
I’d love to see T-Tops make a comeback. They are somewhat recently extinct, dying out with the '02 Firebird / Trans Am. ---
**Author:** ![malden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@malden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malden)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/42 "2019-07-24T14:07:38Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > No talk of the aux gas tank? Came here to post this because I just used mine for the first time the other day. My project car has two fuel lines running from the tank to the engine bay, one mounted lower on the tank than the other. A valve in the engine bay controls which line supplies fuel to the engine. The driver switches to the lower fuel line by pulling a knob under the dash. I used it recently on a long drive when I realized I was on a long stretch of road with no gas stations, and the fuel gauge was on R! My car is a 1959 Mercedes and it has many of the archaic features already discussed-- 4-speed column shift, floor mounted high beam switch, manual choke. What’s also fun is that none of the knobs and switches are labeled. In the driver’s seat you face a row of about ten controls, most of them identical. The first few days I owned the car I was accidentally turning on the heater fans when I thought I was operating the choke. :o The car has a cloth sunroof, which _was_ an archaic feature, but seems to be making a comeback with some newer cars (Fiats and maybe Minis?) offering them. The turn signals are integrated into the horn ring and they do NOT cancel when you come out of a turn. Also: Three ashtrays and NO cupholders. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/43 "2019-07-24T14:10:04Z")
It’s not a _car_ without whitewalls, fins and fender skirts. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/44 "2019-07-24T14:33:26Z")
Kids these days don’t even know how to retard the spark on a Model T. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/45 "2019-07-24T15:03:28Z")
Young people would have no trouble with a ‘deep dish steering wheel’, but when was the last time you saw one? AIUI, many cars had a straight steering shaft. In a head-on collision (before crumple zones became standard design), the driver may be impaled. By moving the rim of the steering wheel farther away from the hub, the wheel could absorb some of the impact. My MGB has a ‘flat’ steering wheel; but the column has a U-joint in it, and there is a ‘bend’ in the column. In case of a head-on collision, the idea is that the energy would be directed outward instead of into the part of the column pointed at the driver. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/46 "2019-07-24T15:04:42Z")
That’s actually something I learned as a kid! One of my customers had a collection of almost every vehicle on The Waltons and he let me drive a Model T pickup around the yard. It had a lever for mixture and one for spark advance IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/47 "2019-07-24T15:36:47Z")
Ah, the good old days when people used to think it was safer to be thrown clear in a collision, so _don’t_ wear seat belts. They might have been right, in cars with a solid steel shaft pointed at their chest and a steel dashboard pointed at their head. But those issues got fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/48 "2019-07-24T15:54:02Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Ah, the good old days when people used to think it was safer to be thrown clear in a collision, so _don’t_ wear seat belts. Did you know there’s a [link between seat belts and Murphy’s Law](https://theautoprofessor.com/murphys-law-made-our-roads-safer-seat-belt-history/)? In a nutshell: Dr. John Stapp used the rocket sled at Edwards AFB to test the effects on pilots of rapid acceleration and deceleration. Edward Aloysius Murphy brought strain gauges to use on the tests, but the readings were coming back zero. A technician had wired the gauges backward. Murphy said, ‘If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will.’ That became ‘If it can happen, it will happen,’ and was named for Murphy. Finally, Murphy’s Law became ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.’ Dr. Stapp became a proponent for installing seat belts in cars, resulting in the law requiring them that was passed in 1966. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/49 "2019-07-24T16:11:54Z")
… plus ooga horns\*, suicide [knobs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodie_knob) and suicide doors. Plus whatever they call those things my uncle put on the side-rear of his Buick station wagon to keep the dust from collecting on the rear window. Two bent rectangular chrome things. - We called them a-ooga horns as kids. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/50 "2019-07-24T16:24:13Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > … plus ooga horns\* > > … > > - We called them a-ooga horns as kids. When I was little, I watched _Flipper_. I didn’t know about ‘a-ooga horns’, so I thought the one they used to call Flipper was a special dolphin-calling device. I wanted one so that I could call dolphins too. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/51 "2019-07-24T16:42:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Dr. Stapp became a proponent for installing seat belts in cars, resulting in the law requiring them that was passed in 1966. Ralph Nader, with his book [“Unsafe At Any Speed,”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#Reception) is generally given credit for spurring the passage of seat belt laws: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Unsafe at Any Speed was a bestseller in nonfiction from April through July 1966. It also prompted the passage of seat-belt laws in 49 states (all but New Hampshire) and a number of other road-safety initiatives. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/52 "2019-07-24T16:55:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Full sentence: ‘Probably a faulty coil, but when it gets hot sitting in traffic, the car stalls.’ > > The coil doesn’t have anything to do with the car getting hot. The car getting hot seems to be what is causing the coil to overheat and stall the car. 😉 Ah! Former causing the latter, not the other way around. My bad. > [@](#): > > As far as the Pontiac goes, I think I missed it… What year is it? If it’s an old car, I’m guessing it does not have an electric cooling fan like more modern cars. It’s an '06, so has electric cooling fans. They’re, like I think most modern cars, controlled by a temperature sensor. However, the AC overrides that so any time the AC is on, the fans are on regardless of engine temp. Despite this it still will get warm in city traffic and, very occasionally, during highway driving. I think I might do a slash-and-burn and change the thermostat, temperature sensor, and do a radiator flush. I can’t think of what else to do. I hope it doesn’t need a new radiator. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/53 "2019-07-24T17:25:00Z")
I miss the inventive ways gas caps used to be hidden. Under the tail light in a '56 Chevy and some old Cadillacs, behind the license plate in many '60s GM cars, under tail fin chrome on '57 Chevies and Studebaker Hawks, and several other ways. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/54 "2019-07-24T17:43:42Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I’d love to see T-Tops make a comeback. They are somewhat recently extinct, dying out with the '02 Firebird / Trans Am. Hey, they’re not all dead yet! I still have my 2002 Trans Am WS6 Ram-Air, and it is still my daily driver except when it is icy, which is seldom where I am at. T-Tops are awesome and it is just a beautiful piece of machinery. LS1 aluminum block push rod engine. Same as in a C-5 Corvette. PCM limited to 165 mph, and will do all of that. I just hit 130k miles which means that it should easily go another 100k. And I only have a 22 mile round trip to work and back. Over-maintained, no oil use, not a drop of oil on the engine. Going to replace the rear sway bar link pins and shocks this weekend because…, well I’ve got new ones and the old ones are a couple of years old. That’s how I keep the thing new all the time. If I go a week or more without someone telling me it is a cool car then I worry. And no, as I have said before, I do not have a mullet haircut. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/55 "2019-07-24T18:49:04Z")
I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot about it in the rest of the discussion – the slideshow in the OP also mentioned CB radios. My dad bought a used CB radio that he’d always bring along on road trips. He didn’t talk on it much, but he always listened to the truckers’ chatter through an earphone. Back in the days before GPS apps with live traffic updates, truckers were the best source of traffic information. They knew where the traffic jams were and the alternative routes to get around them. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/56 "2019-07-24T18:53:38Z")
Yeah, dad had a CB with a PA. Incidentally, I bought some paint today to refinish the socket set case he bought when he bought his new 1972 Toyota Corona MkII wagon. I’ve been using it for decades, and it’s still great. The metal box just needs a coat of paint. ---
**Author:** ![icantdraw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@icantdraw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icantdraw)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/57 "2019-07-24T19:07:30Z")
Both my older kids drove my 1956 GMC truck through high school, my youngest is looking forward to driving it. It is complete with 3 on the tree manual transmission. And kick start to the right of the gas pedal that you would mechanically push the starter into the flywheel with your toe while hitting the gas with your heel. No one in the school parking lot was ever going to steal that vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/58 "2019-07-24T20:05:03Z")
Won’t be long and young drivers won’t realize a key has to be inserted and turned to start the engine. When were keyless fobs introduced? 2010? Or even earlier? My mom’s 2011 Toyota won’t start unless your foot is on the brake. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/59 "2019-07-24T20:26:44Z")
An actual analog clock on the dash. Bonus points if it’s a wind up. (My grandfather took the clock out of an old car from the 20s and put it in a case. That was his pocket watch. One oddity: the stem is on the “bottom”. I somehow ended up with it as ~senior responsible grandson.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/60 "2019-07-24T20:40:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > When were keyless fobs introduced? 2010? Or even earlier? I don’t know; but as a datum, my 2005 Prius has a keyless fob (with a physical key inside for emergencies). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510.md?page=4)