# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/61 "2019-07-24T20:42:50Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > When were keyless fobs introduced? 2010? Or even earlier? Depends how you define it. Mercedes debuted the “smart key” on the [Mercedes S-Class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_key), back in 1998, but you did have to put the key into a slot and rotate it as though it was a true bladed key. The 2003 S-Class had the first true proximity key, but it was a piece of shit (it was designed to fit in the credit card slot of a wallet) and kept breaking. Weirdly, the Chevy Malibu of 2004 seems to have been the first car with a proper keyless system. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/62 "2019-07-24T20:43:40Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > At age 39 I can say I’ve seen some of these, but never operated them. Like the floor mounted high beam switch – I rode in vehicles with that configuration as a kid, but I’ve never driven one. In the late 70’s and early 80’s when manufacturers moved the high beam switch to be activated by pulling the blinker arm toward you, a common joke was: \*Did you hear about the Aggie that died in the car accident recently? He got his foot stuck in the steering wheel switching his headlights to high beam. \* ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/63 "2019-07-24T20:51:47Z")
My mum had a 1984 Triumph Acclaim (essentially a badge-engineered Honda Civic) with a manual choke. I distinctly remember having to pull the choke handle myself on cold mornings while she drove me to school, as she would be preoccupied with steering and braking and so forth. It was a handle you pulled towards you, with a symbol kind of shaped like || but with a more slanted backslash part. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/64 "2019-07-24T21:01:53Z")
My 1965 Pontiac Bonneville had one of [these](https://d32c3oe4bky4k6.cloudfront.net/articles-videos/-/media/uscamediasite/images/story-images/2016/6/autronic-eye-2.ashx?modified=20170725120634&mw=1920&hash=E318BCB1696A5B244E6DC590595CBC5686883A91) mounted above the dashboard and aimed out the front window. It’s an automatic headlight dimmer. It utilizes a _vacuum tube_ which requires testing and replacement occasionally. By the late 1970s when the car was mine, no one had any replacements for that particular tube, so I never got to have it in working condition. I convinced some of my passengers that it was a phaser and that my car could remove offending vehicles from in front of me. ---
**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, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/65 "2019-07-24T21:07:49Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > \*Did you hear about the Aggie that died in the car accident recently? \* [Yes.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21766388&postcount=21)😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/66 "2019-07-24T21:46:41Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > And I remember cars having an “unleaded fuel only” sticker on the gas cap, and often on the fuel gauge too, to remind you not to put leaded gas in your car. I don’t know when they stopped doing that. The actual filler neck was smaller, so you couldn’t stick the giant leaded nozzle into the ‘new’ cars. Go look at the gaping holes in the old stuff that you used to put those big, old nozzles in to remind yourself. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/67 "2019-07-24T22:17:50Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > 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. Who would have thought Teslas are retro. The charge port is hidden in the rear tail light assembly. (To be pedantic, it is behind a side reflector which is next to, and visually a single unit with, the rear tail lights.) Another bit of tech that made it well into the 90s, if not later, before thankfully vanishing is the 3-speed automatic. 4-speed automatics on new cars are still around, but are also disappearing. With those are also going the PRND2L type shifter. I still see it on some newer cars, but many now require putting the car into manual shift mode and then using buttons to select a particular gear. That is a pain when downshifting in the mountains. Otherwise I’d so much rather have a modern 8 or 10 speed than an old slush box. Applicable old technology lasts another generation or two on motorcycles compared to cars. So somebody could be riding a 15 year old bike, and still be dealing with a manual choke, carb needles, aux tank, and gravity fed fuel lines. If the Europeans hadn’t brought in new emission standards for motorcycles, you could probably still buy one new that was using 1960s tech. ---
**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, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510/68 "2019-07-24T22:53:33Z")
Riding mowers have key switches, chokes and a clutch. A lot of teens learn to drive on them before anything else. It’s a big tech leap to a modern car. Guess it takes awhile to learn raising up off the seat won’t kill a car’s motor. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-cars-and-post-millennials/837510.md?page=3)