Time Travel Bus: And You Landed in 1979

[letusbuyyourcar]

I think when the gub’ment got involved in auto manufacturing standards in the 1970s is when American made autos really took a turn for the worse…. combined with greedy unions, it all took the competition out of the business…. the Japanese capitalized on all this to make a much better and more appealing product…. sad….. no one could compete with American made products in the 1950s and 60s…. import cars were good for about 50k miles before they started to fall apart…. my first car was a 1963 Fiat 1100 that had 44k miles on it…. I paid $150 bucks for it and my dad had to drag me home behind his 1967 Olds 88…. took a few weeks for me to figure out/fix the problem to get it running…. after idling for a couple minutes it blew smoke like a mosquito fogger truck when I started out from a stoplight…. took it to a shop for a valve job and $350 bucks later I was back running…. but a complete valve job at 45k miles?! yeah, imports were pretty“sorry” back then.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I brought home a 78 Spider back in 88 and I couldn't even drive a manual at the time. Soon as my Mom saw it she was going " Hell no! Take it back where you got it from. You'll die in that car."
And I remember saying "So? I'll be cool as hell right up until then."
What I had forgotten was that growing up our neighbor's son bought a Fiat X19 and even as minimalist as it was it was still a mechanical nightmare. So they were definitely out on me owning any Fiats or Alfas or Triumphs, MG etc. And back then they were everywhere CHEAP .

 

[basstracker89]

I brought home a 78 Spider back in 88 and I couldn't even drive a manual at the time. Soon as my Mom saw it she was going " Hell no! Take it back where you got it from. You'll die in that car."
And I remember saying "So? I'll be cool as hell right up until then."
What I had forgotten was that growing up our neighbor's son bought a Fiat X19 and even as minimalist as it was it was still a mechanical nightmare. So they were definitely out on me owning any Fiats or Alfas or Triumphs, MG etc. And back then they were everywhere CHEAP .

My best friend, a mechanic, had a x19. He bought an extended warranty. The car was in the shop more than he drove it. I can say one thing, I got to drive it on a rainy day. I got it up well over 100mph and it still stuck to road like glue

 

[JimmyJet]

IIRC, Studebakers (think circa 1950) had the starter button on the floor under the clutch pedal. Had to hold the clutch in to start the car.

Yes…. and if you know/remember anything about Buick in '58, they had a deal where you turned the ignition switch to "on" then had to push the accelerator pedal to the floor to activate the starter motor…. my buddy and I used to hotwire his grandmother's Buick from under the hood and joyride around the neighborhood in the mornings before walking to the bus stop when we were in 8th grade….

There were a lot of unique features to cars in the 50s through the 80s…. seems now, those unique features are more limited to the audio system and onboard computer switch locations and functions…. I rent cars often while traveling for work and it often takes me 5 minutes or more to figure everything out before I can leave the parking lot….


There's nothing better than getting paid to look out the window....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JimmyJet]

I brought home a 78 Spider back in 88 and I couldn't even drive a manual at the time. Soon as my Mom saw it she was going " Hell no! Take it back where you got it from. You'll die in that car."
And I remember saying "So? I'll be cool as hell right up until then."
What I had forgotten was that growing up our neighbor's son bought a Fiat X19 and even as minimalist as it was it was still a mechanical nightmare. So they were definitely out on me owning any Fiats or Alfas or Triumphs, MG etc. And back then they were everywhere CHEAP .

British and German imports (especially) have, for the most part been the "tinkerer's dream"…. just like helicopters, you have to work on them three hours for every hour you fly 'em….


There's nothing better than getting paid to look out the window....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[lostchild]

Yes…. and if you know/remember anything about Buick in '58, they had a deal where you turned the ignition switch to "on" then had to push the accelerator pedal to the floor to activate the starter motor…. my buddy and I used to hotwire his grandmother's Buick from under the hood and joyride around the neighborhood in the mornings before walking to the bus stop when we were in 8th grade….

There were a lot of unique features to cars in the 50s through the 80s…. seems now, those unique features are more limited to the audio system and onboard computer switch locations and functions…. I rent cars often while traveling for work and it often takes me 5 minutes or more to figure everything out before I can leave the parking lot….


There's nothing better than getting paid to look out the window....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I remember a friend’s dad bought a new ‘58 Olds that had a warning buzzer built into the speedometer. Little red needle you adjusted, and the car emitted this horribly irritating buzzing sound if you exceeded the setting. No way to turn it off that we found.
Kid would set it fully to the right, 120 mph, dam thing would buzz at us all the way from Tybee to Savannah and back.
He always tried to borrow his mom’s ‘52, it was actually faster anyway.

 

[JimmyJet]

I remember a friend’s dad bought a new ‘58 Olds that had a warning buzzer built into the speedometer. Little red needle you adjusted, and the car emitted this horribly irritating buzzing sound if you exceeded the setting. No way to turn it off that we found.
Kid would set it fully to the right, 120 mph, dam thing would buzz at us all the way to Savannah and back.
He always tried to borrow his mom’s ‘52, it was actually faster anyway.

Hahaha…. I remember that feature! The earliest form of "cruise control"


There's nothing better than getting paid to look out the window....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[EugenFJR]

I brought home a 78 Spider back in 88 and I couldn't even drive a manual at the time. Soon as my Mom saw it she was going " Hell no! Take it back where you got it from. You'll die in that car."
And I remember saying "So? I'll be cool as hell right up until then."
What I had forgotten was that growing up our neighbor's son bought a Fiat X19 and even as minimalist as it was it was still a mechanical nightmare. So they were definitely out on me owning any Fiats or Alfas or Triumphs, MG etc. And back then they were everywhere CHEAP .

The new one's are a fantastic sports cars. I have a 2017 FIAT 124. it's basically a MX5 Miata.

 

[TheGman]

 

[volt doc]

My second car was a 1964 Plymouth Valiant with that 225 slant six…. like the 318 V-8, the 225 was "bulletproof"


There's nothing better than getting paid to look out the window....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

First car I drove was my dad's 63 Valiant with that slant 6. That car caught hell and just kept running. I can remember hauling a couple hay bales or bags of feed at a time in the trunk to feed the cows. He paid 300 bucks for it and we used it for many years.

 

[fuelman1]

1963 Corvair Greenbrier van. I had to rebuild the engine before I could drive it. It was like this except no white stripe. The engine caught fire and we sold it to my great uncle who had a body shop in Brunswick. I started driving a 64 Corvair panel van. It had a red racing stripe up the center. The interior was gutted except for carpet and a big wooden spool. High school looked like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The doors opened and potheads and smoke poured out.