Why Old Cars are Better

My first car was a truck, a 1998 Chevy S10 4-cylinder manual that a few years before I inherited it, lost its original condition when my younger brother was playing in it pretending to drive and put it in neutral, causing causing the truck to roll backwards through our spike. wire fence, this was a vehicle that despite having features like abs and airbags and a towing capacity of approximately 350 lbs. Now, by definition, it would be considered a classic. I had a lot of firsts in that truck. I learned to drive a stick on it. It was the vehicle that I used to make my first donuts and then I received my first ticket for making said Donuts.

I tried to put him on a cheap Sub for some reason and I distinctly remember leaving work at Barnes Food Land and walking across the street to where we had employees. park and be so proud to own such a cool vehicle, even though I only paid about $11,000 for it and you know the seller was my father, I have since owned nine vehicles, the newest of which was a 2014 Volkswagen purchased in 2016 now that 98 S10 was until last year by far my favorite vehicle I have ever owned or driven and it was also the oldest vehicle I had owned before I bought a 1962 MG from a barn that I somehow managed to drive and drive now .

I'm not going to say that I look fondly on that truck primarily because of its age. I know my judgment is at least somewhat clouded by nostalgia, but I don't think it's a coincidence that when I rank all the

cars

I've owned in order from favorite to least favorite the three oldest sit comfortably at the top. Is there something in What really makes older

cars

better

than newer ones? That's the question we're addressing today to get a more objective perspective, I think. that old houses are actually an interesting test case if cars aren't made like they used to be then houses really aren't now of course we can't ignore that houses are in fact somehow safer,

better

insulated, they have better electricity. systems and of course we know we are all scared of lead paint, asbestos and things like that, but on many levels the materials used and the care with which they were put together made a product really able to stand the test of time , literally the materials were better, from solid wood floors to larger solid beams used throughout, to plaster walls and more solid wood, everything was over engineered compared to the current cost cutting model used by big enterprises.

Old houses give you a feeling of quality as if they were built with a higher level of care and craftsmanship than the houses built today building a house was not easy in 1840 or 1913, it took a lot of skilled people which, as you know, would embarrass today's builders in all honesty, this is even true. what will be there in 250 years, I'm not so sure, of course, we can't oversimplify all this, there are great craftsmen and bad ones from all over the world and from all times, it just seems that, in general, the homes of today they are all too often built not for people to live in for a long time but for developers to make a profit and in many ways cars are no different, this brings us back to the world of cars and to a very simple question: what makes a good car?

For many, and I would somewhat fall into this camp, the quality of a car is defined primarily by its ability to reliably get me where I'm trying to go. For others, the benefits of a car are found, you know in its specification sheet, whether it is from 0 to 60. times or towing capacity. I will not deny that at many times my favorite types of cars to buy were those that simply did not cost buy or maintain them, for many the car chosen is the one that gives them the feeling of superiority when they speed out of the McDonald's drive-thru.

Now I'm sure if you need to tow a large camper or transport your family safely across the vast, arid expanse of the United States for days on end, which I recently did or even traveled. crossing town to go to the football game, of course a classic vehicle from the 20s or 7s would rarely be the best option, but if we go back to the beginning of this whole motorsport thing, when there was really only one type of vehicle and even today, we look at why people praise cars and especially sports cars. I think all of this is starting to make more sense, so I would like to propose an alternative to all of this, believe it or not, there was a time when SUVs and crossovers did not exist, a time when there were only four wheels per frame and an engine controlled by a man with a very thick mustache, there was only the car or the car, you didn't have much help in terms of driver assistance and you weren't listening to a podcast.

While you were driving this machine, but we are going to do something, so few of us will experience the car in its Primal form. I don't think we should ignore the original intention behind it. I think a car really is any car throughout history. At its best when it runs more like a car, so without further ado, here are the ways old cars and older cars perform better than new cars. It's pretty obvious that the further back in time you go, the more mechanical cars were. From carburetion to power steering, from non-synchronized gearboxes to literal crank starts for the most part, the newer the car, the less mechanical the car is.

We'll talk about what this means for car reliability and safety in a moment, but what does this mean for you? the driver experiences the car before you start driving, you should probably do some checks, maybe you know, make sure some of the oil or other fluids haven't leaked all over the garage over the weekend and you know, make sure everything is complete , but all your pre-checking will be worth it because when you finally turn the key, you feel that surge of power through the starter solenoid spinning the starter and engine while you pull the choke cable and probably crank the engine. accelerating is a full body experience starting an old car you have to use your hands and your feet and your ears and your eyes this is a feeling that can't be replaced by pressing a button it's a tangible visceral thing that connects you to the car car and it doesn't even You've started driving it yet now the car is finally running but you have to keep running because it's cold, you know, in a very old car, that might mean playing with more than just the choke and throttle.

You may also need to adjust the timing, but that old car needs some time before sending the RPMs to the moon, like most humans, when they first wake up, it needs you to take it easy, even when you start driving, you just can. Don't go, maybe you notice the temperature rise a little bit or maybe you make sure all the gauges are working, make sure the oil pressure is where it's supposed to be, but once everything seems to be working, why not? good to go oh but then you should probably literally stop to make sure the brakes are working and then you'll be good to go, now you're really driving, because the experience is nothing like driving a new car, driving an old car makes driving is a new car you feel like you're not even driving it's kind of a shell of the experience of driving a real car there's no room to listen to a podcast here I mean you probably couldn't listen to it even if you tried no You're busy with your ears , you're partly just enjoying the pure sound of explosions shooting straight out of the exhaust behind you, you know the mechanical sound of carburetion and just the engine running, but you're also listening to whatever sounds.

Get to know the car and tell you that not all of its mechanical systems are perfectly synchronized with your eyes. You're constantly checking the gauges to make sure everything is working, but there's also a good chance you can see with your eyes how it's doing. You don't need a rearview camera because you can see what's around you and in front of you in an old car versus new cars. As much as this all seems like a lot of work, it really isn't, it is a unique experience that is almost like meditation. Yes, you are focused, but you are also much more in sync with the car, which happens naturally.

You're not inhibited by the electrical systems trying to do all the work for you, so you feel the car and you feel the road and once you get over the fear of it breaking down, it all starts to be fun. You know, when you press the accelerator with your foot, that pedal actually pulls an actual cable that allows the air-fuel mixture to enter the engine and you feel the weight of that mechanism and you feel connected to the power plant, if you have Lucky that the car doesn't have power steering or modern suspension, these older mechanisms really allow you to feel the road and feel the car working and you.

You'll have a feeling of speed that simply doesn't exist in new cars. You know, 35 mph may feel like 70 and 70 will feel like 140 because the sound and feel of the car isn't muted by all those extra systems like in a new car and you don't have to go back to the 1930s to get a car that sits like this. These cars from the 1980s will give you a lot of this experience, and like I said, the further back in time you go, the more mechanical and simple the experience will be. All of this will be to say that older cars are more mechanical and that's not all bad, not only are many of those systems like distributors, carburetors and generators really wonderful, proven and durable systems that really work well when you understand that they are .

They are also useful, this is why old cars can be left in a field or a barn for decades and are not that complicated to get running and this is simply not true with new cars, you can also fix them and Adjust them with simple tools on your own. in the garage or on the side of the road, so although they are more likely to break down frequently, they will simply start to malfunction and if you spend enough time with them and know what additional tools and parts to carry with you, then you can put it going and you don't need to have a lot of mechanical experience, you just have to dive in, learn and really get to know your car, it's all a lot simpler than people think or you can also just get nervous and you know, use that free tow When done right, the experience of driving an old car, especially when it's just about the experience and not so much about the commute, can be better than what you get from a new car, the other thing about old cars.

However, what goes in their favor is their appearance, since you know the basic mechanics of the vehicles, the restrictions regarding the aesthetics of the car decrease the further back in time you go through history, so before back in the '70s, safety regulations were basically non-existent if you wanted to make your car look like a torpedo in the front you could or you know, a rocket in the back, you could also do it if you wanted your car to basically have little bumpers that didn't exist or you know you have sharp edges, you could make this not exist.

It means that for most of the history of automotive design it was simply the wild west, companies and designers knew that to sell cars they had to make them attractive and with virtually no government restrictions on what a car could look like, what we got was increasingly more attractive and Beautiful car designers were free to give their cars beautiful, coherent lines, unencumbered by the need for specific crumple zones or rollover statistics or, you know, having to make the headlights look exactly like the headlights of any other car. The cars were smaller, thinner, and sleeker, and they were Made of high-quality metals—even the cheapest cars from, say, 70 years ago feel more quality than the average new car bought today—but there were a feeling of freedom that we no longer have after the war.

Regional Auto design really took off and so in America we saw some of the biggest cars ever come out from companies like Chevy in Lincoln, while in Europe companies like Porsche and mg were making small cars, these cars were expressions of their own time and their own specific culture and unlike today's cars, they often matched the houses they were parked in and that sort of thing is no longer possible in the early days of automobiles. TheCars looked more or less the same, but after the war we began to see all kinds of varieties and expressions within automotive design.

The design began to be an image of the car's character, so sports cars began to have an aggressive look like a muscle car or a sleek, bold look, like a Shelby Cobra or an Austin Healey 3000. There was much more room for that the designer was creative. you know, take a timeless design like the Jaguar e type in Britain or even in America something like the Lincoln Continental, these cars are completely different, they have different purposes, but they are both beautiful in their own way, in a simple way, and when That EX executive, you know, got that raise and decided he wanted to buy a new car.

He had so many different options, but none of those cars could be built again for production because of the way they are structured. Both cars exude luxury and sophistication. Subtle shapes, specific laws about the height of the headlights or the shape of the edges simply did not exist, so the cars look completely different and unique, but today we are almost back to where we were in the early days in terms of design. Some of the best, fastest production sports cars today, like those from BMW, don't look all that different from traditional family cars and I suppose that's partly because cars now need to serve multiple purposes, but also because it's just not a way to really differentiate your design from other cars, they have to be the same at their core, everything at this point is basically an SUV and it's all very boring, hence some ridiculous old car from the 40's or 60's or even the 80s will get a lot more attention than a new Ferrari, it's because those old cars feel special, they feel like pieces of art and we can tell that these designs don't come from a computer or, you know, some kind of committee , but rather they feel like they were sketched and molded by real artists, people who just wanted to design beautiful cars.

You don't know, find all the right market trends. Today there are beautiful, well-designed and unique cars. It's certainly rare to find a car that compares in terms of overall design language to the old ones, in case you think I'm blinded. because of my love for old cars and their history, you know, and maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia, although I didn't live through most of these eras, the truth is that I have owned and maintained old vehicles, mainly motorcycles. I understand what it is. all about and I understand the frustrations that come with owning an old vehicle because they don't just run like new vehicles so I want to address some of the issues with owning and driving an old car because it really isn't all rainbows and sunshine.

And of course, the first concern potential classic car buyers have is reliability. Now this one really varies just as the driving experience varies and I'm kind of guilty of lumping classic cars into one thing in this video and they really aren't. and the driving experience of, say, a 1960s or 1970s American V8 is nothing like a 1950s British Roadster or a Ford Model A. Reliability will vary and the overall experience will vary, but it's true that In general, older cars are at least less reliable. The way we think about reliability today, they are prone to having more problems and breaking down.

You know they have less reliable electrical systems and again, with more moving parts and just a more mechanical system, you're prone to having more problems. like fuel injection, they are simply simpler and more reliable than carburetion in at least one sense and having more electronically controlled systems, although it kills all the fun that technically makes for a more reliable car, older cars are categorically less reliable, it is TRUE. and if you can't admit it, now you're crazy, you might be one of the people criticizing me for carburetion, but keep listening because I understand what you're thinking: there is another side to used car reliability. to be designed for easy home maintenance, they even come with manuals that show the homeowner exactly how they can do any job or know what tests they need, whether big or small, and more parts were designed to be useful and know their potential useful life. use it again, that's why an old Chevy that's been parked in a barn for 50 years can be brought back to life relatively easily in an afternoon, while something like a modern Tesla won't stand a chance and let's not forget that Although the primary mechanical parts that make up a car are more reliable today, there are also many primary electronic parts in a new car and as you know, I have a brother who works at a dealership.

I can confirm that new cars are not bulletproof and have almost as many problems as used cars. and that's because they are loaded with extra bits. Reliability for drivers of yesteryear was much different than it is for us today. We want zero problems. They didn't mind a little trouble if it meant they didn't have to drink. taking the car to the shop, they agreed to invest a little time in the car to get it running again, while we are so busy that we can't handle the thought of mechanical problems arising and that is why simple and we are not willing to work on our own cars so we take them to work and pay too much for it and cars now are no longer designed with simple and ongoing maintenance in mind, they are just not very simple anymore and there just aren't many jobs specialized non-SP that can be performed on modern new cars.

That's why many have found the sweet spot in cars from the 80s and 90s. They are reliable. They are simple. Are cheap. Keep grinding, so if you want that sweet spot where you get the best of both worlds, you know that kind of modern, hassle-free reliability, but also affordable, continuous serviceability, get a '9 Honda or a Toyota, that's the way to do it. Heck, they're cheap to buy and cheap to run and like an old house, you know, a '90s Honda is very engineered. The other main concern people have with old cars is, understandably, safety and, similar to the issue of reliability, there are layers here in and of them, cars have certainly become safer.

People like to imagine that these big old metal cars will perform well in a crash and that's not the case, at least not compared to modern vehicles, if you've seen the 09 Malibu versus the 59 Belair test. crash, you know what I'm talking about, and in the last decade cars have not only become safer overall, but they're also much larger. Modern safety features not only minimize harm to everyone inside, but also prevent crashes in the first place. They are safer, it is true, but the way we have built modern cars has brought some problems, you know, a lack of visibility, especially in the front, but also in general, the size of an average vehicle and the dependence Of these safety features have led to more and worse distracted driving, other cars may be equally safe and great, but often it is pedestrians who actually bear the brunt.

What I've seen is that the epidemic of SUVs and cars is becoming massive and I think about this sometimes, when I was driving in my old project, it's amazing how much you can see, you can see everything, it doesn't feel like a car which is a danger to anyone, all I'm saying is that if everyone drove old cars, cars that aren't as fast, that aren't as powerful and that you can actually see from the outside and that require a lot more work to drive, we would solve the epidemic of distracted driving and we could see each other again in our cities could be once again geared towards walking again as cars just wouldn't be as big nowadays it seems like the only way people think they can have a safe place "A car "At least here in the United States it's having the biggest car possible, which I think is silly right now.

I want to end this by talking about one word that I really think sums up all of this and is something we don't do." It seems like something called motorsport is no longer done at the turn of the century and in the early days of automotive development. Motoring was a term used to describe really car enthusiast people like you and me, and that's because that's what you had to be to own and drive a car you had to be an enthusiast I mean why would you want to drive a car? You have a perfectly good horse out and available.

The reason they use the term motorsport is because engines themselves were relatively new and were at the heart of car ownership and owning a car meant being a motor enthusiast, you had to understand the mechanical parts of your car to be able to work. in it yourself, you had to be able to do Tinker, as we say, there was no other option because there were no cranes. saving you or the dealers fixing your car driving was a kind of art that today is almost lost, we don't understand our cars anymore, we are too afraid to work on them and even if we are car enthusiasts, most of us only know that you know what our cars are capable of or what makes our car different from other cars, not what work it is actually capable of doing on our cars and I really felt this when I started working on motorcycles and cars, this incredible fear of not understanding the machine and ruin it completely. break and break something and that's not how people saw it 100 years ago, car owners would spend their nights checking their car with a wrench to make sure everything was in order and then take on bigger projects on the weekends and carry a set of tools with them and were confident enough to work on their cars, even on the side of the road if necessary, it's not that older cars are inherently worse, they're just different and usually just not them.

We understand when they start having problems or we don't run, we get frustrated because we don't understand why and we're not willing to dig deeper and learn why, so I would say if you're not willing to become a motorist, you know, in the sense classic of the word then a classic car is probably not for you and that's okay, just stop blaming the car or thinking that they are worse or you know, thinking that it is impossible to make them work, this idea of ​​trying to be is not for me a motorist It all comes together to create a very different experience as a car owner.

Older cars have soul, they have character, they are sometimes battle scarred and are never free of problems, even when they are nice and restored, but they are pieces of history. and they tell their own story that you as an owner can be part of the key, although it is buying a good old car, not a bad one, one that works for you, maybe dealing with a synchromesh gearbox just isn't for you. you, maybe you need a car capable of driving on the highway, maybe getting a Japanese car from the 70s or 80s is better than a British or American car from the 50s, regardless of whether you decide to buy a classic car, do your research , don't rush.

There are a lot of cool cars out there, just take your time and don't get a project. If you're new to all this, you won't finish it. Believe me. I've been there. I would love to know your experiences. Have you ever had? Any classic cars? Do you think old cars provide a better driving experience or am I just blinded by nostalgia? Thank you for watching and driving safely.