# Turns out older stuff was better made. Like 20 times better.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-older-stuff-was-better-made-like-20-times-better/658178>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 12, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-older-stuff-was-better-made-like-20-times-better/658178 "2013-05-12T22:23:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-older-stuff-was-better-made-like-20-times-better/658178/101 "2013-05-20T19:31:33Z")

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> [@jz78817](#):
>
> the last thing that irritates me is the old duffers who think old cars were better because “you could work on the damn things yourself.”

The other thing I hear is “Old cars have character. New cars don’t have any soul. They all look alike” What is “character”, anyhow? It seems like every time I’ve heard “character” used in the context of cars, houses, and so on, it refers to the quirks that come with or which are revealed with age. Is “character” always a good thing, though?

Oh, and the “all new cars look alike” claim: every decade has its styling trends. I lookat cars from the late 1940s, and to my eyes, they all have the same bloated/streamlined two-box design. [Check out some 1940s-era traffic:](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlxAAty9p7k) You’d have to be a serious car buff to tell the Hudsons from the Desotos from the Nashes from the Packards; most look like rolling jelly beans to me. The 1950s? [Bloated three-box design, with more chrome](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCXcoiF09sE).

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-older-stuff-was-better-made-like-20-times-better/658178/102 "2013-05-20T19:47:30Z")

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> [@elmwood](#):
>
> The other thing I hear is “Old cars have character. New cars don’t have any soul. They all look alike” What is “character”, anyhow? It seems like every time I’ve heard “character” used in the context of cars, houses, and so on, it refers to the quirks that come with or which are revealed with age. Is “character” always a good thing, though?
> 
> Oh, and the “all new cars look alike” claim: every decade has its styling trends. I lookat cars from the late 1940s, and to my eyes, they all have the same bloated/streamlined two-box design. [Check out some 1940s-era traffic:](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlxAAty9p7k) You’d have to be a serious car buff to tell the Hudsons from the Desotos from the Nashes from the Packards; most look like rolling jelly beans to me. The 1950s? [Bloated three-box design, with more chrome](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCXcoiF09sE).

I think the thing was they looked different every year. A '57 Chevy Bel Air looked different from a '56 which looked different from a '55, and so on. These days, cars get minor refreshes when they’re 3-4 years old, and major re-works after 6-8 years.

I just (as in 3 minutes ago) was looking at a shiny '61 Lincoln Continental. It has its own style, but _man,_ that car was built like _shit_ compared to modern standards.

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