When old cars are just "old cars"

[TerryB]

The photo shows that eventually our cars become just another old car and are subject to all kinds of abuse such as candidates for a demolition derby.  The  Plymouth two door sedan must have reached this point and gave its all for the event.  Looks like the photo might have been taken in the mid to late 1960's.

Terry

 

 

[keiser31]

Back in about 1981, I had the chance to pick up what, to me, was an old car. I was 29 years old and the car was a 1955 Dodge Custom Royal lancer. I told my friend, Ash Bishop who was probably in his early 70s at the time that I just got a new "old" car. he says, "What did you find?" I told him about the car and he says, "I thought you said you bought an OLD car." You see, to each person the meaning of the term "old car" means something completely different. He thought I had found a Model T. To me, "just an old car" works back to about 1974.

Edited August 26, 2016 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[TerryB]

One of my co-workers once told me her mom has a car so old the headlight dimmer was on the floor!  Scary isn't it.

Terry

[A. Ballard 35R]

I find that many of us as we get older have a very simplistic idea of what an antique car is. If I was old enough to buy a car when it was new, then today the car can be an old car or collector car but not an antique. Not a legal or perhaps realistic way to look at it, but as the saying goes "it's all relative". 

[padgett]

Have had cars go from "new" to "old" to "special interest" before but never had an antique (except to Florida).

[JV Puleo]

2 hours ago, TerryB said:

One of my co-workers once told me her mom has a car so old the headlight dimmer was on the floor!  Scary isn't it.

Terry

 

One of my friends, in his mid-30s, bought a Ford truck of perhaps the mid-70s. He told me the high beams didn't work. "Did you hit the switch?" I asked. It turns out he'd never seen a floor switch... he was so amazed he made a point of telling his best friend where the dimmer switch was - he'd never seen a floor switch either.

[John_S_in_Penna]

I know a man who has a 1918 Cadillac.

He pulled it out of a junkyard in 1939

and used it as a daily driver.  He still has it,

still drives it, and took a couple of car guys for

a ride around the countryside recently.

 

He told me, "it doesn't seem like an old car to me!"

After all, he's owned it only 77 years.

 

May our own hobbies be so long-lasting---

[Buffalowed Bill]

One of my friends, in his mid-30s, bought a Ford truck of perhaps the mid-70s. He told me the high beams didn't work. "Did you hit the switch?" I asked. It turns out he'd never seen a floor switch... he was so amazed he made a point of telling his best friend where the dimmer switch was - he'd never seen a floor switch either.

 

Just the opposite experience for me. 1969 while in my second and last stint in college I occasionally drove cars for an auto auction company. We were to transport a bunch of Hawaii driven, two year old Datsuns  from the dock in Longview Wa back to Seattle, where they were to be sold. I guess the distance was about 120 mi. It was after dark when we got down to Longview, so we would need the headlights all the way back to Seattle. The cars were about two years old at the time, and few Japanese cars had made their presence felt, even on the West Coast. What a bunch of junk! Already rusted out, several with a rod knocking. The second car that I got in seemed like it would make the trip, so I headed out. It was obvious from the red light on the dash that the high beams were on, but for the life of me I couldn't find the floor mounted dimmer switch. I must have stomped on the floor where I thought the switch should have been about two dozen times, of course no luck! Drove the whole 120mi. with highs on, being regularly flashed by oncoming drivers. That was my introduction to the early Japanese junk, what the humid Hawaii environment could do to a car, and the new dimmer technology. I learned a lot that evening! I remember thinking that the steering mounted dimmer was a bad idea and would never get off the ground in the US.

[ply33]

22 minutes ago, Buffalowed Bill said:

. . . I remember thinking that the steering mounted dimmer was a bad idea and would never get off the ground in the US.

 

I had that experience in a rental car during a business trip.

 

Not original to me, but it seems to be true: For cars, an antique is anything built before you were born, a classic is the car you wanted when in high school but could not afford and a new car is anything built after your eldest child was born.

 

I can't internalize that the first car I ever bought new, a 1982 model, could be considered "antique". Definitely "used" and maybe "old" now, but not "antique". Heck, other than cup holders and a CD player, as far as user comfort items it was not all that different than my "new" car, a 2004 model. Under the hood a lot changed. And hidden safety features changed a lot too. But as far as just getting into it and driving it, not that different.

 

Now that there are a significant number of cars 100 years or more old that can be driven and toured, maybe we should shift to the definition used for things like furniture.

[padgett]

Had an embarrassing moment when I came back in 1970 from being in SEA since 1968. Rented a Cutlass at an airport then had to go back in and ask the lady where the key went, I could not find a slot in the dash.

[61polara]

An old joke when dimmers first moved off the floor was that the idiots can't get their feet high enough to dim the lights.

[John348]

Anyone try to release the emergency brake in a new GM vehicle? There is no lever or handle under the dash on the driver side

[keiser31]

7 minutes ago, John348 said:

Anyone try to release the emergency brake in a new GM vehicle? There is no lever or handle under the dash on the driver side

I know. It's just a push on the pedal to set and again to release. Our Malibu has that setup. Interestingly, the ignition key is on the dash and not on the column.

Edited August 27, 2016 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[John348]

1 minute ago, keiser31 said:

I know. It's just a push on the pedal to set and again to release. Our Malibu has that setup.

 5 years ago we had to call the rental company because we could not figure it out, and of course the owners manuals are not in the glove box, it was a good laugh at the time

[oldcarfudd]

I'm 80.  I refuse to acknowledge as an antique, any vehicle my children could lawfully have driven out of the showroom brand new.

 

Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

1913 Ford Runabout (looking to swap for a touring of comparable vintage)

1912 Buick touring, southern wide-track frame

1911 Stanley (for sale)

1907 Cadillac i-cylinder

[plymouthcranbrook]

Years ago  my wife went with me to an Auction near our home. As we walked through the outside lot of cars for sale she remarked to me" It really seems that we are just walking through the parking lot of people who are here to bid on the Old Cars".

Edited August 27, 2016 by plymouthcranbrook (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

\

Old cars have running boards Edit. That aren't an appearance group option. Oh, I guess old cars don't have appearance groups at all. End edit. I thought everyone knew that.

Bernie

Edited August 28, 2016 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[padgett]

My newest has one.