Well Robert.....first off I'd like to say that all of your points are very well said and solid and valid. Of course I have to throw my two cents in now....
First of all we are talking about apples and oranges when it comes to the debate over new vs. old. We (being the F,M,J hobbyists) are obviously a different animal than your average "Joe/Joan" driver these days. Back when our cars were new most....not all but most had at least a basic idea of what maintenance was....you knew you needed to check your oil, coolant level and maybe the exceptionally adept would even pop the power steering pump to check the level there too. You weren't a mechanic but you read your owners manual and knew that there were things that you as the owner were expected to check and pay attention to. Those small things alone usually afforded you a level of driving reliability. Those days are gone..... I was waiting for the guy at the parts counter at my local crappy tire store when a guy in a suit ran up to the service counter in a panic because he had to make a drive up north but was afraid to because according to his maintenance schedule he needed to have his specified oil change. The guy behind the counter said he was booked for the day and couldn't do it till the following day. Overhearing all this I asked him if he'd checked the oil to see how bad it really was. His response was "How do you do that?" I said.....if you like I'll have a look for you.....he said that it had to be checked by someone qualified......the guy at the service counter knows me and said "He can check it.....he IS qualified. I went out and popped the hood on his brand spanking Mazda 3 and the oil level was topped up and looked like steeped tea so to speak.....it was fine. I assured him he could do his 500 mile round trip and all would be well.. And THAT is the difference. People no longer know anything about their cars which is why they're the way they are. No longer serviceable by the owner....mainly because the owner wouldn't know what to do anyway but also because the manufactures and dealerships know that they make a lot of money on service and maintenance. People don't want to know.....they just want to turn the key, blast the tunes and drive and when something goes wrong it's off to the dealership. Fair enough.....nothing wrong with that I guess....except that now we have a generation of drivers who like the lack of mechanical responsibility so they can concentrate their time on the shiny new GPS they just bought or figure out how to turn in their Bluetooth at 90 mph. Now they're talking about cars that park themselves. Seems fitting considering how far removed people have become from knowing how their car is actually functioning.
Ed, don't fool yourself. These people have always existed. My old man worked as a gas attendant/mechanic back in the '50's. Wanna know why the full service stations offered full service? The owners of those cars knew about as much as the owners of the cars now. Sure, they knew how to operate a pull choke and shift through the gears, but routine maintenance and involved repairs always went to a qualified mechanic. Repair shops and dealership service stations have always been there.
I've been involved in cars - as a professional - for 25 years now. I've owned two shops. I've owned a restoration shop. I got the business on the restoration shop not because these cars were easy to work on, but because they
weren't. If it was easy, anyone could do it. Trust me when I tell you the owners of these cars. even the owners who bought the cars new, had no clue as to how to fix 'em. I've had customers who are doctors. Hardly someone who's an idiot. Yet, just as I go to him, because he has more knowledge than I do when it comes to medicine, he knew enough to bring his car to someone who knows a lot more than he does mechanically.
Wanna know how the chain repair shop Midas got it's start? The founder was selling headers and exhaust, putting on performance aftermarket parts. That happened back in the '50's. Kinda tells you that those folks in the '50's didn't know how to add aftermarket parts, just as today. My old man cut his teeth building and hot rodding flatheads for guys who wanted to go fast, but had no idea how.
Those with a mechanical inclination have been able to do it themselves... yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Those without have always relied on those of us who do... yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Whereas some have an issue popping his or her hood and checking the oil, today, having no clue as to what he or she is looking at I can tell you I know just as many who drove cars back in the '50's, '60's, '70's, and '80's who couldn't pop a hood on the older cars and tell you where the carb is... or where the master cylinder is or even where the dipstick is. And these were the kind of cars those folks drove when they first learned how to drive.
So, do we romanticize the past and think these were simpler or do we accept the fact that those things may have been simple for some and not for others? A matter of ignorance and intelligence happens to be what question is asked of you at any given time and what the subject matter is. I actually find the OBD systems to be extremely easy to diagnose and work on. Yet, obviously, there are those here who don't think so and consider the computer to be... voodoo. There are technicians in today's shops who look at a carb and have no clue. Is he more intelligent than you because he grasps new technology? Are you smarter than him for being able to tear apart and rebuild a carb? Or is it the idea that both have a mindset geared towards specific areas?
I don't fault anyone for not being to check his or her own oil. Some have a blind spot for anything mechanical, yet have abilities I don't have and can't grasp simply because my talents don't lie in that area. Instead that person relies more on me, just as I rely more on those with more specific knowledge in areas I don't.
Captain Caravelle said:
That's what people want?...that's what they have now. Myself? In my opinion.....yes my Fifth operates differently.....you have to warm it up instead of just starting and driving and the road feel is much different but that's what I enjoy about it. That's why I'm in the hobby and why I choose to drive these cars. It's not for everybody obviously. For the average person new cars are what they need. As far as reliability? As I've said many times....with regular maintenance my Fifth has yet to ever leave me stranded. It's easily one of the most reliable cars I've ever had.
Sarah's 5th never left her stranded, either. A lot of that was because I worked on it so much. In order for her to do her job I spent a lot of time under the hood. If an issue arose I was on top of it. But issues arose. Like I pointed out, service stations - whether it has been at the dealership, independents, chain stores, what have you - have existed for as long as someone has owned a car. Mechanical things break. They have a finite lifespan. To think that those repair shops didn't exist before the advent of computers on cars, that everyone was a shadetree, again, is to romanticize the past. We in the hobby, who do our own work because it's "easy" have a tendency to forget that it's not so easy. We have a guy on here now who's having a driveability issue. He can't figure it out. Is it because the car is easy to work on, or because the owner doesn't have quite the grasp of the operation of certain components that some of us take for granted?
I'll agree with you, that I have little to no use for all the electronic features on today's cars. Just as, now, I don't have a need for a smartphone. I can make a phone call with a dumb phone and actually make calls. Although I find texting to be somewhat easier. You can carry on the same conversation for days. But someone like a traveling salesman? A real agent? He or she is going to find the GPS and bluetooth capability fits in well with his lifestyle of constantly being on the go.
One of the things we have to remember is that Americans (and Canadians, too, to a certain extent) are lazy and unable to concentrate on the task at hand. The task at hand being driving. You spend eight (or more) hours at work and then get in your car and start thinking about everything else. Well, that "everything else" at this moment, is driving and it's your task at hand. Your task at hand isn't talking on the phone, it's not surfing the internet, it's driving. Concentrate on the task at hand. Want to decrease traffic fatalities? Quite building "safer" cars and start building safer drivers.
As a matter of fact, I'd hazard to guess that those of us with the older cars are safer drivers, not because we're trying to protect our pride and joys, but because we don't have the offsetting mentality of what a "safer" car is. I really don't care if someone can check his or her oil, what I care about is educating the consumer into knowing the fact that ABS doesn't shorten your braking distance, it only allows you to be able to maintain control in braking in slippery conditions. If some of these assholes who like to tailgate me now were to have to drive the '54 Ford, with it's manual drum brakes and a single reservoir master cylinder they'd understand that tailgating is an absolute no-no. Blow a line on a single reservoir system and watch how quickly you stop.
