More attempts at control from our government/corporate owners…
by: Eric Peters
The government wants to control your car – how it’s made, what it comes equipped with and (of course) how you’re allowed to drive it. Now comes the other half of the pincers:
The car companies want to prevent you from working on the thing.
Modifications – performance enhancements – and even routine maintenance are to become illegal via the application (and enforcement) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to cars.
They are claiming propriety rights to thesoftware embedded in the computer – technically, the Electronic Control Unit or ECU – that pretty much runs a modern car. They claim – and you knew this was coming, right? – thatsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety is threatened by people doing their own maintenance or tweaking/tuning as such might affect how the varioussaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety systems embedded in the car and controlled by the ECU operate.
A blind stroke victim ought to have seen this coming.
Cars, claim the car companies, are mobile computing devices – you know, like sail fawns – and so fall under the aegis of the DMCA. Have a read:
“Automobiles are inherently mobile, and increasingly they contain equipment that would commonly be considered computing devices… Many of the ECUs embodied in today’s motor vehicles are carefully calibrated to satisfy federal or state regulatory requirements with respect to emissions control, fuel economy, or vehicle safety. Allowing vehicle owners to add and remove programs at whim is highly likely to take vehicles out of compliance with these requirements, rendering the operation or re-sale of the vehicle legally problematic. The decision to employ access controls to hinder unauthorized “tinkering” with these vital computer programs is necessary in order to protect the safety and security of drivers and passengers and to reduce the level of non-compliance with regulatory standards. We urge the Copyright Office to give full consideration to the impacts on critical national energy and environmental goals, as well as motor vehicle safety, in its decision on this proposed exemption. Since the record on this proposal contains no evidence regarding its applicability to or impact on motor vehicles, cars and trucks should be specifically excluded from any exemption that is recommended in this area.”
This statement (see here for the full text) was issued by the Auto Alliance – the great collective that speaketh for every major car company doing business in the United States, including Ford, GM, Mazda, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, VW/Audi, Mitsubishi, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, et al. 
Note carefully the way that government edicts relating to saaaaaaaaaaaaafety (and emission and fuel efficiency) are now being turned outward, against the car owner. Heretofore, these mandates directly affected the car companies, who were forced to add, as an example, a (cue El Guapo) plethora of air bags to new vehicles, or direct injection and auto-stop/start (more recently) to eke out a fractional gain in MPGs in order to appease the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE)fatwa.
But now, the wheel turns – and what’s been good for the goose (the industry) is going to be good for the gander (us), too. It’s a kind of vengeful lashing out, on the one hand. The industry – sick, probably, of taking these endless demands on the chin – with most consumers being engineering illiterates and just expecting cars to become ever saaaaaaaaaaaafer, ever more fuel efficient, by decree.
Just – cue Captain Picard – make it so.
Well, no.
It takes a lot of brain sweat to figure out how to – for example – maintain the capability to get to 60 MPH in less than 10 seconds while also averaging 35.5 MPG (next year’s CAFE fatwa). Let alone 50 MPG (the proposed CAFE fatwa for 2020). Let’s make the consumers feel our pain, they reasoned. Perhaps they will begin to ask questions and come to understand that there truly ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
More likely, though, is that the perfect vehicle for exercising complete control over “our” (air quotes) cars was conceived – and is now in the process of being born. It is genius, really. You have to admire it.
First, establish the principle in law that the government’s job is to be your parent – to protect you from yourself. From theoreticalrisk, as defined by government. You mightwreck your car. If you do, an air bag mightsave your life (it might also gouge out one of your eyes, but that’s a mere incidental). Ergo, government has the right to require that you buy a car equipped with an air bag.
Because the government is your Mommy.
And now – drum roll, please – government (egged on by the car companies, which are big cartels and becoming indistinguishable from the government) has the right to criminalize any “meddling” by you with the car that could even theoretically compromise thesaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafetyof the vehicle.
Or its emissions output.
Or its gas mileage.
It will be become an actionable offense to use more gas than you’re allowed. Notwithstanding you paid for it. High-flow injectors? A conical air filter? $500 fine. Or maybe they just seize the car.
Or, just turn it off – remotely.
None of this is new, by the way. For decades, it has been illegal in California and some other states to “modify or alter” any drivetrain (the engine) components that affect emissions output. Even if emissions themselves are not affected at all. Or affected for the better. Ask someone who lives in California about this. It is even illegal (in CA) to put a more modern (and less “emitting”) engine in an older vehicle, regardless of whether the newer engine’s tailpipe outpourings are less than those produced by the car’s original/factory engine. You could, however, file paperwork with an entity called the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and – maybe – get an exemption.
DMCA will close that “loophole” – and do it nationally.
What’s been implicit for a long time in American politics and law is becoming quite explicit:
We don’t own anything anymore.
The government does.
What does it mean to own something? Is it your name on a piece of paper?Renters also have their names on a piece of paper. It is called a lease. You are allowed temporary and conditional use of the property.
We are all renters now.
Your home is a rental – whether you’ve got a mortgage or not. You pay rent in perpetuity to the county/state in the form of property tax. If you decline to pay the rent, you will find out in short order who truly does own “your” home.
DMCA will apply the principle to “our” cars, too. You will make the payments – but you will only be allowed to use the car as decreed. And the enforcement mechanism is already in place.
It is already in the car.
Every new car not only has an ECU, it also has the capability to be accessed electronically without your knowledge or consent. If it has a system such as GM’s OnStar (and other automakers have similar systems now) your car can have a furtive conversation with the car company that built it – or the government – which (again) increasingly amounts to the same thing.
They see you when you’re sleeping, the know when you’re awake, they know if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake…
Or else.
The “or else” being they’ll simply shut you down once alerted. Once the car narcs you out.
In the same ofsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety.
It calls to mind a famous epitaph, that of novelist H.G. Wells:
Goddamn you all: I told you so.
http://ericpetersautos.com/2015/05/06/your-car-not-so-much/
I remember the days – back in 1965… Every autumn – tune-up – points / plugs / condenser / rotor / distributor cap. Get out the timing light, dwell meter. Had a 2 1/2 gallon pail of Grayline carb cleaner – buy a ‘kit’ for $5 – could rebuild a carb in a day. Drum brakes didn’t last for shit, nor the bias ply tires.
Really, there’s not too much to miss about that. Is there?
Consider now you can go 100,000 miles with the same set of plugs, without a miss, without choke problems.
As a software developer – the intellectual property laws governing software have always been like this. You don’t own any software – you own the right to use it.
The complexity and feedback loops contained in today’s auto’s – I think you have to be crazy to fuck with those parameters. You going to buy a $30,000 – $40,000 car and start tinkering with the software?
See this?
[img
[/img]\
[img
[/img]
See any computers?
Yeah. Me, neither.
So fuck you car companies.
And your software.
And your new shitbox cars.
And the EPA.
I will make it my mission in LIFE to never, ever buy a new fucking car from ANY of you.
Ever.
I will keep on raising old rusty junkers from the dead, make them awesome and keep them on the road just to spite you… just to hock the biggest fuckin’ lugie in your eye as possible…
Because fuck you…
[img
[/img]
I guess if Apple can play games with add on divices to get you to have to buy more why can’t car companies?
Competition is always the deterrent to this type of thing.
However, if your only leasing anyway. Why not back end load the price by not taking a cut of the maintain economic down the road? Intice the customer with both a lower price and low borrowing up front to make the sale.
I still think smart people would rather buy the alternative and pay a little more up front. Can’t say that for the “must have it now” types.
This type of thing would drive out of business all local stations and require authorized dealership service only.
Car hackers’ handbook: http://opengarages.org/handbook/
I have a newer car, bought a tuner and have changed the factory map out for an aftermarket map. Funny thing happened, my fuel economy went up, my air fuel ratio stayed safe (on the stock map it would lean out under peak boost, for those who dont know, that is BAD), power was more linear and knock events are now zero once the adjustments to timing were implemented. All things that were issues with the stock tune…
why did this happen? It is filed with shitty compromises because the factory map tries to please every situation, even the shit gas that Commiefornians have to deal with. But i dont, i can get good 93 octane with little to no ethanol.
i am planning on gettinv it professionally dyno tuned, not because i want a billion hp, but because i want it to run better and safer.
these fucking car companies want you to believe they are the experts. But the real experts arent sitting at a corporate desk, they are the mad scientist types thinking outside the box that dontfit into the corporate mold, take everything apart to understand how to make it better.
many of these car companies make a lot of money on the idea their cars arent just appliances and can be customized, orgs like SEMA will fight them and they risk losing a big market.
Just think about when you need work done to your car and it is out of warranty, what person still goes to the stealership for service, only the fucking morons do this. This will severely hurt independent service shops.
And people can keep their old rides going but what happens when they say that car either needs to “updated” or get antique/classic tags, which often limit miles, frequnecy of driving and use ie not being allowed to put anything in the bed of a 30’s ford pickup? Those designations are only good for going to car shows with a bunch of guys complaining about how new cars have no character and wondering “why”…?
I perform most all maintenance on my vehicles, both which have “computers”. The newer of the 2 has a maintence light that automatically comes on about every 5000 miles which is actually a good reminder for me to change the oil, which I do myself. Then I reset the maintenance light with a series of actions that involves pushing the odometer button with a sequence using the ignition.
However, I do miss tinkering with my 1971 Javelin/AMX that I sold last September. I did all kinds of things to improve that car (electronic ignition, 5-speed overdrive manual transmission, electric engine fan, halo headlights w/relays, etc.) No more smoking the tires, alas.
@AC, thanks for that link on car hacking.
@Billy, old Ford trucks rock! Is that a 390?
I have been looking for a pre 1974 gm pick up truck, just so I can work on my own reliable car again. I have purchased 3 brand new lemons in the last 15 years. Present 2011 has an unfindable by dealer forlast two years no start condition.
I forecast that the number of new cars sold in 2020 will be a rounding error off zero.
Credit collapse between then and now should gut sales entirely. Add that cars are rapidly becoming $40,000 iPods, with the same obsolescence cycle, and we can imagine that the modern car industry has taken a long walk out onto a jetty of very thin ice.
Could be that 10 years from now we won’t be allowed to drive ourselves, but rather our cars will drive us thanks to Google driverless software…
And now, driverless trucks:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/05/first-self-driving-truck-hits-road.html
[img
[/img]
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/worlds-first-self-driving-semi-truck-hits-road/
I’ve written embedded software – but not for cars.
I would not ‘chip’ a car. There are design parameters – not every engine coming off the assembly line is ‘ideal’. Head gaskets / rods / pistons / bearings come to mind. So maybe you can boost the turbo on one engine, and another you will blow the head gasket.
Don’t chip a car in warranty.
Driverless cars and trucks! LOL Cars that park themselves! LOL The golden age of motor vehicle insurance! LOL
Look at the glitches we are still experiencing with GPS and computerized directions — dead ends, wrong turns, pulling up to the edge of cliffs…LOL I’ll stick with steering wheels and maps in my remaining lifetime, TYVM!
All this won’t be reliable enough until they embed readable sensors in the roadways. And we all know how much money there is available to make that happen! LOL The folks at Google have gone off the deep end…
I almost agree with their thinking. I see no reason for people to be messing with the emission control system in their vehicle,Via the computer. And the jackasses with big diesel pickups who make them blow more black smoke should be open season.
There really is little to do on new cars. Check the air in the tires, Change the oil at extended periods.
And filter changes.Spark plugs at 100.000. Cars lasting over 200.000 miles isn’t that far fetched now with newer vehicles.
The coming economic collapse will give us more pressing things to be dealing with.
Billy, old Ford trucks rock! Is that a 390? – Rise
That’s a fact, Jack. Good eye.
The 360/390/460 are all basically the same engine, just bore and stroke being different. Most parts will interchange, no problems. There’s a tasty 70’s era Ford F250 highboy not far from here. A real rustbucket, but it’s intact and complete. Don’t even know if it runs, but I’m gunning for it. Either rebuild it from the ground up, or take it apart and use it for spares if it’s too far gone… might just walk up to their front door and say something like “What number would I have to say to have you let me tow that old truck out of here?” If they say it’s not for sale, produce a Silver Eagle and tell them “Maybe the color of my money is wrong?” (hint hint)…
Either way, Imma get that truck.
I have been looking for a pre 1974 gm pick up truck, just so I can work on my own reliable car again. I have purchased 3 brand new lemons in the last 15 years. Present 2011 has an unfindable by dealer forlast two years no start condition. – autojohn
Try this guy. He’s in Indianapolis. Imports west coast trucks that are clean and straight, spiffs them up some and then resells them.
http://www.rustfreeclassics.com/
He also headhunts vehicles for people. If you tell him what you want, he’ll have his buyers out on the West Coast make an effort to find you one…
Personally, I’m not a GMC fan, but to each his own. Always wanted a flat fender PoWag… they just look badassed…
LOOKIT this bad muhfugger!
1956 Dodge Power Wagon. It’s got “Bad Muhfugger” written all over it… might get one for the boy for his 18th birthday… he’s been making noises about his first truck, since he’s gonna be driving in the next two years… give it four years of saving and looking, and I betcha I can find one badassed PoWag for him…
[img
[/img]
I see the OLD car market growing by the day !
I almost agree with their thinking…. And the jackasses with big diesel pickups who make them blow more black smoke should be open season. – ya
Well, fucka yoo too…
I’m sorry the weight of manhood was too great for you.
[img
?1403891402[/img]
[img
[/img]
[img
[/img]
Billy – That truck is awesome, it fits you perfectly. Where are the guns mounted?
Those old vehicles are deathtraps. And I kid you not. Not to mention they were pieces of shit. Yes, you could work on them – and work on them, and work on them, and work on them. Fuck that.
The Dodge Power Wagon had around 125 hp and 210 pf torque.
Compare that to my recent Jeep – 470 hp and 465 torque. Plus airbags, disc brakes, advanced suspension, esc, hill descent, etc ad naseum.
Fuck those old pieces of shit.
I will continue to drive safe, powerful cars and trucks. No way known me or mine are buying one of the above mentioned deathtraps.
Yahsure has this, right.
Llpoh
Your Jeep will be on the bottom of a shit pile in 60 years. Billy’s truck will still be rolling.
Fuck these car manufacturers and the state too! Hell, have you seen the TV spots touting the new deal of monitoring your driving by the insurance company? No shit! You must plug their tongle into your car’s ecm output. It’s already happening!
This was bound to happen as software became more sophisticated.
I want a 57′ Chevy bel air (with air conditioning).
Billy says:
Billy, old Ford trucks rock! Is that a 390? – Rise
That’s a fact, Jack. Good eye.
The 360/390/460 are all basically the same engine, just bore and stroke being different. Most parts will interchange, no problems.
__________________________________
If you want ultimate parts interchangeability get any chrysler product with the six cylinder engine from 1935 until the late 1970’s. Chrysler introduced the L head six in ’35, which although a flat head was otherwise relatively advanced for the time. It was used up until the mid 50’s when it was replaced by the slant six (an excellent engine). However when they did this, they didn’t change any of the bolt on parts, so you can either use later parts to improve on an earlier one, or use earlier parts on a later model if nothing else is available.
My first car was a ’40 Plymouth and in rebuilding the engine, besides increasing the bore and milling the head to increase compression, I added a (larger) manifold from a 56′ dodge and an oil pump and distributor from a ’78 Dodge Dart, iirc. What was originally 203 CI and 86 HP with 6:1 compression became about 215 CI and around 130 hp and maybe 9:1 compression, but looked exactly as it did coming from the factory.
Bea – who cares? I won’t be around in 60 years. I want the car I drive to run 3 years, then someone else can have them.
What I need is a safe vehicle that is reliable. I used to drive all those old cars. And worked on them every frigging weekend – brakes, clutches, generators, tires, radiators, water pumps (wish I had a dollar for every fucking water pump I changed out), trannies, heads, tune-ups, timing, ring rebuilds, points (fuck me, how many sets of points did I go through), plug cleaning – for sure I am not nostalgic. They were shitheaps compared to new cars.
New cars are more powerful, more reliable, more comfortable, and far safer.
I cannot remember the last time a car left me stranded. Oh, yeah, now I remember – it was one of the old shitboxes talked about with such love above. Same goes for the last flat I had.
New cars cannot be worked on. I do not want to work on them anyway. And I have never needed to – they start and go first time,every time.
Damn, I have a fucking lawnmower with more hp and torque than the old cars you guys are drooling over. And I do not have to push start the fucker.
Llpoh, all true, but in a SHTF scenario, you would wish you had one of those old pieces of shit that require fairly frequent maintenance. Can you run a contemporary computerized vehicle on wood gas? Uh, no. You need a (modified) carburetor for that.
Wonder when they are going to want to “chip” my horse. You know for proper care and safety reasons. And maybe so we can’t bug out the old fashion way.
Billy, great truck, I’ve owned a couple of those rigs Ford F-250 76-79
Little Man, Missouri Foxtrotter, no computer, runs on grass and water, you can shoot a gun off his back, he does not understand quit, he’ll cover about 80 miles a day in the ruff Ozark countryside.
[img
[/img]
I drive a 2015 KENWORTH T680, ARI 156″ Legacy Sleeper, Cummins ISX 525 HP Diesel Engine, Ultra Shift Plus Transmission, 320″ Wheel Base, Engine Brake, 8 Bag Air Ride, VIT Interior, A/C, PS, PW, Heated Mirrors, Horizontal Exhaust, Rear End Ratio 3.42, Airslide 5th wheel, Airride Passenger Seat, Dual 150 Gallon Tanks,.., bitches.
Yes ,what you knuckleheads got to say now!
Sensetti – you ride a pig?
Billy, check out this ’67 F250. You can’t afford it, but it will give you a hard-on.
http://classiccars.com/listings/view/667813/1967-ford-f250-for-sale-in-seattle-washington-98134
Anecdotal story of the day:
When I was in college and for a year afterward, I had a painting business. My truck was a 1952 Chevy 1/2 ton panel with the original 262 6 cylinder engine. I think I paid $300 for it. It had a four speed tranny but the first speed was a “granny” gear that was seldom used.
My neighbor was a hospital administrator and he had a brand new huge crew cab Ford maxi pickup (the kind that are very popular in Texas), that his wife called “white cloud.” One winter day we had a snow storm and a very hard freeze and his truck wouldn’t start. Mine did easily and I took him to work.
hmmmm… trying to post but it doesn’t happen.
What content is blocked ??
Damn…
Zara steps up and shows his mechanical chops. Who woulda thunk it? Here I thought you were camped out on a prayer rug all this time…
Okay… I partially take back all the bashing I’ve done on you… you’re still not off the hook, but I got some respect for you now. You know what you’re talking about re: Mopar, engines, etc… credit where it is due.
Llpoh buys into the throw-away mindset. Kinda saw that coming. For as smart as he is, I can’t believe he fell for that “saaaaafer” line of bilge… higher gas mileage by royal decree, but you’re fighting physics.
Yes, you can make a car lighter to get more MPG, but the only way to do that is to use cheap alloys and plastics to keep the costs down, which makes the car weak as shit.
So to make up for that, you design “crumple zones” into them so that the car folds up like an accordion on impact. To protect people from that, you have exploding air bags all around the driver and passengers.
Or you can give a car a puny lawnmower engine that sips gas, but nobody will buy it since a hamster wheel is more powerful. Measure your 0 to 60 times with a calendar.
Or you can use high end alloys and shit like carbon fiber and titanium, but the car will be so expensive, only the 1% can buy them.
Modern cars are shitboxes. A car is a tool, like any other. I’m smart and capable enough so that if I break down or get stuck somewhere, I can self-rescue. There’s a reason you carry a milk crate full of spares in the tool box behind the cab. Llpoh thinks he can call for rescue like someone ordering a pizza. Fuck that. I’ll do it myself.
“Oh, those old shitbox vehicles were screaming metal deathtraps with zero horsepower… and they were slow!”
If they were so slow with sucky horsepower, then how could they be screaming metal deathtraps?
And about being slow…. yeah, so what? I happen to like toodling along at 55 or 60 with the windows down, being a part of the world instead of clamped into a tin foil and plastic box that’s ugly as a pile of dogshit on the sidewalk and sounds like a refrigerator… they’re geared low because they’re meant for heavy lifting and hauling shit, not top end speed or quickness…. and we know this. Moreover, we don’t care…
Damn, I have a fucking lawnmower with more hp and torque than the old cars you guys are drooling over. And I do not have to push start the fucker.
Tell you what, Llpoh…
Imma build this. You can keep your pokey lawnmower.
390 V8. Same as was in the Mustangs of yore… might even slap a supercharger on it or a blower. Then have a big red button on the dashboard that says “GO BABY GO!” when you want to engage it…
[img
[/img]
Same engine, supercharged. Pushing 500 hp.
[img
[/img]
[img
[/img]
Old trucks are cheap in the PNW, We recently sold a 73 Ford F-350 Super Camper Special. It was all original with dual battery + 110 volt alternator and only 50,000 original miles. Didn’t even rattle or squeak. $5000. I sold it only because it had a 460 in it. Old, low mileage trucks are very abundant here.
I’m looking to buy an old 69 Ford Fairlane w/302 for a daily driver. I had one 25 years ago. Got decent mileage, maintenance was simple, had 1/2 acre of American steel in front and a very smooth ride. I hit a brand new 88 GMC Jimmy with it one day at 35 mph and totally destroyed the Jimmy. It went straight to the scrap yard. You could barely see the softball sized dent in the hood of my Fairlane.
“Modern cars are shitboxes. ” ———– Billy
Simply not true. A goddamned lie, actually.
You may not like them … with all those computers and built in spy gear … and all the styling is so generic cookie-cutter-ish …. I get that.
But, “shitboxes” is pure bullshit. TOTAL bullshit!!! There is literally little to do other than …. drive ’em and normal maintenance ………. EASILY for 150,000 miles, or more.
Our little pissant stock Hyundai 2.0 turbo — 245 hp at 6,000 rpm / 260 lb-ft. at 1,350 rpm / 0-60 in under 8 seconds / 30mpg …………. yeah, do that with your old 70’s type cars. Ha!! And DON’T even discuss handling, turning, braking …. no fucking contest, and it’s not even close.
My wife bought a new car.
Won’t tell you what it is. It’s too painful. But I will say it’s NOT a fucking Prius or a hybrid.
I got into that thing, and I swear to God I felt like one of those McDonald’s toys. My head kept hitting the roof, zero leg room – I’m eating my knees – and christ almighty, I could NOT find the damn seat belt thingy… it was buried way down between the console and the seat.
Fucking plastic shitbox… I felt like John Cleese in Fawlty Towers – have to take out the front seat, sit in the back seat and drive the car that way… open the sunroof just keep from banging the top of my head.
[img
[/img]
At least in my Ford, you have ROOM. Literally enough headroom to wear a cowboy hat comfortably and still not touch the headliner. You can stretch out, lay your arm across the back of the seat and still not touch your passenger. It has VENT WINGS – those little triangular windows that redirect air into the cab… I love those. One of the worst things car companies ever did was do away with them.
Fukin’ heathens…
And the stock V-6 Hyundai Sonata will do 0-60 in 5.3 seconds … do that with a 70’s fucking Mopar!! HA!!!
“Modern cars are shitboxes. ” ———– Billy
Simply not true. A goddamned lie, actually.
You may not like them … with all those computers and built in spy gear … and all the styling is so generic cookie-cutter-ish …. I get that.
But, “shitboxes” is pure bullshit. TOTAL bullshit!!! There is literally little to do other than …. drive ’em and normal maintenance ………. EASILY for 150,000 miles, or more. – Stucky
Au contrair, my Oshi friend…
My first car (which Daddy handed me when I turned 16) – a 1962 Chrysler 300 convertible – never had any major maintainence – just normal oil changes, brake jobs, etc, and it had over 300,000 miles on it when we finally sold it. It was his and Mamma’s first car when they were married.
Car ran every day since it was bought back in ’62. And it was still looking good, purring like a kitten when we finally had to sell it. Big old 383 V8 in it. Push button transmission. It had 27 chromed steel buttons and switches on the dash (I counted). Leather upholstery like butter and a million other little things (like the rearview mirror on the dash that automatically flipped to protect your vision at night when someone had their brights on behind you… this was a genuine option back then..) Even the old Chrysler Goldentone radio worked fine…
Sorry. Try to have a car like that today? Not gonna happen. 300,000 miles and could still roast the tires…
Modern cars are SHITBOXES.
I stand by my statement.
My son is still driving my old CRV and it is at 220,000 miles.
Stucky’s riceburner chink-mobile…. (actually, a random Sonata I yanked off the web)
[img
[/img]
My first car. Sleeps 6.
[img
[/img]
Interior.
[img
[/img]
Mmmmm… smell that leather and saddle soap, Stucky?
BAHH-HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Notice the speedometer?
Goes to ONE HUNDRED FIFTY MPH!!
BAAHH-HAHAHAH!!!!
Okay… enough gloating and teasing Stucky…
I will concede that there have been some technological advances since the old days that actually DO improve the handling, etc, of automobiles.
But, instead of keeping the quality and attention to detail, engineers have really dropped the ball. You throw a switch or twist a knob and the damn thing comes off in your hand. Cars feel like you should be digging them out of a box of Alpha-Bits than buying them off the lot. They’re designed to last about 5 years, then shit the bed. Brake disks so thin and wimpy that you warp the shit out of them just by torquing down the lug nuts, which then causes an annoying shimmy in the front end when you brake, which means you need to buy new disks just to get rid of it…
Can’t even tighten down lug nuts without risking fucking up your brakes? That’s not quality. That’s shit. Granted, disk brakes are light years better than drum brakes, but come ON!! The least they could do is make them so you can’t fuck them up just by doing regular maintenance.
And it shouldn’t require a degree in Electrical Engineering just to work on your own car. I looked under the hood of my wife’s car and was like “Tha fuck is all that shit?”… no idea what I was looking at. So much crap shoehorned in there, there was no place to work on anything anyways…
Unlike Llpoh who only drives a car for three years and is then ready to be bent over at the dealership for a good butt hurt session, I drive my cars for not less than six or seven years. My grandson is driving my 1999 MBENZ ML320 that I ordered from the factory and drove for fourteen years which now has 225,000 miles on it.
Anon above was I.
Bea – I can afford the butthurt.
Billy
Remember my old cars post? I LOVE LOVE LOVE old cars!!!
My 58 Pontiac Chieftain .. 65 Pontiac Tempest … and 66 Mustang were my favorites. The styling!! And yes … soooo ROOMY, and for a big guy like me, that’s really MISSED. I have to tilt the fucking seat back on the Hyundai … otherwise my head would pop through the sunroof.
None of those cars sniffed 100k. Although I did own an 85 Mercedes 300TD that turned 250k when I finally junked it … not because it stopped running, but because of an accident.
Your experience with the 62 Chrysler is a rare exception. Most folks were DELIGHTED if they hit 100k.
I’m NOT like you. I’m a mechanical moron. These new cars were you never have to do SHIT … well, they are a god-send to the likes of me.
Llpoh
I too could afford the butt hurt but I am not that dumb.
Stucky,
Yep, your old car post was a home run. Seriously – and I really do mean this – it was probably your best work.
I guess the reason why I miss the old vehicles – and the mindset that created them – is that they remind me of a better time. A time when this country wasn’t so damn fucked up and teetering on the edge. And somehow I equate hanging on to those old vehicles with saving a bit of the way things used to be… a living, fire-breathing example of what we could do, if we wanted…
And all that’s gone. Forever. And the world is poorer for it… and that makes me angry. Which is why I went all Hulk-ragey over TPTB and their royal decree that we can’t do this or that with our own property.
Yes, Llpoh has a point that older vehicles are not as “safe” as newer ones. But those technological advancements could have been implemented into our automobiles without sacrificing the soul or the spirit of what we were doing. Now, our cars look like everyone else’s cars – plain blah. Interchangeable plastic cars with no soul or styling whatsoever, and they try to make up for that with weird colored paint jobs… (seriously, what is that? Is that supposed to be “burnt orange”? That’s the crayon that nobody used and everyone hated – every other crayon in the 64 pack would be stubby – damn near wore out – and the “burnt orange” one would be unused… and YOU dumbasses painted a car that color… congratulations, dumbass.)
You have a point as well.
Yes, newer cars – by virtue of small, powerful engines and light bodies (thanks to alloys and plastics) – are remarkably quick off the line.
But dude? I pulled up next to a Prius two days ago when I made a run for some topsoil and t-posts, etc. Sitting at the light, I looked down on that crappy Prius and blipped the throttle… Old Fugly thundered and Mr. Prius – in his car made of bottle caps and paper clips – jumped and then gave me a mean look… 🙂
It’s worth it. Whatever the price is, it’s worth it. Just for that.