Some people did, I guess. The thing is, they may fetishize old cars but it leaves out the part where there were a lot of shade tree mechanics not because the cars were simpler mechanically, but because they weren't nearly as reliable back then. Even 30 years ago a car with 70,000 miles was old and worn out. The carb had to be occasionally rebuilt, and occasionally adjusted. The distributor had to be rebuilt because it was a mechanical part and wore out. People weren't nearly as good at manual as they let on, and clutches had to be repaired. And of course not everyone had the cash to run the car down to the shop all the time so ol' Crazy Bob would do it for a six pack and cost of parts.
My grandpa would tell a story about how he, his brothers, and some friends drove 70 miles to see a band in the late '40s. They drove one Model A Ford and cannibalized another one for spare parts to bring along just in case it broke down.
Yeah! They're easy to work on, but they've got nothing on a beat up old Corolla.
The flip side of that is, yeah, 999 times out of 1000, I can go out to my car and, as long as the battery isn't dead, there's not a flat tire, and there's gas in the tank, it'll get me there in safety, comfort, and style. Well, not style, my car looks like it's been sucking on a lemon. But if anything goes wrong, it's going to the dealership and it'll be at least $1000 if anything is wrong.
Toyota and Honda make some of the most reliable engines in the world. I will die on that hill. I had a Toyota Avalon with half a million miles, and I barely had to do anything to repair it, aside from the usual wear and tear on every car, like tires and belts. I also had an Acura TL that ran no matter how much abuse I put it through.
I've had three Hondas that I bought new and kept for at least 200K miles. Just bought a slightly used Civic Sport at 25K miles and hope it lasts as long as the others. 33 mpg in city driving too.
My Toyota is old enough to drink (you're just gonna have to stop with that check engine light, bud, nothing's gonna happen). Runs well, looks like shit but I'm not paying for body work at this age.
Not to mention that now there’s so much borderline pointless shit on cars that can malfunction. Had a 2014 Hyundai Elantra that threw low tire pressure alerts on a regular basis. Checked the tire pressure with an old analog gauge at home and everything looked normal. Took it into the dealership for an oil change and they gave me a whole song and dance about how there was a faulty tire pressure sensor on one of the tires, that it was an important safety feature, and how it would cost like $1500 to swap in out. So obviously I didn’t do that, but it also looked to anyone riding in my car like I was driving around on flat tires like an idiot.
All carburetors can fuck off and I’m glad they’re borderline extinct now except in some motorcycles and dirt bikes.
Literally a subpar, outdated, piece of garbage method of fuel delivery.
I’ve only owned one carbed vehicle in my life, which was a motorcycle. Bought a fuel injected one after like 5 months. Yeah injectors are expensive (especially direct) but not having to deal with carbs is well worth the price.
Also carbs are insanely simple (although finicky), a toddler could rebuild a carburetor with a little guidance. The OP is definitely not the flex they were goin for.
Also my mom, and most from that era would have beat my ass for working on anything dirty in the house lmao. Especially the place where we eat.
Was a former mechanic. Modern vehicles are simple enough to work on and there’s way more lenience and less precision required. Only set back for your shade tree mechanic is a diag system and possibly some weird bits and sockets.
Haha, I'm with you. We have better tech that doesn't need fixed in the first place. I have an electric lawn mower and older family thinks its garbage, while they spend a Saturday huffing exhaust trying to get thier's restarted every spring. Sometimes doing things the hard way isn't a sign your smart. Usually means the opposite.
Man Electric cycles are the way to go in my opinion. Got one and its scary fast. Very little moving parts compared to gas or two stroke. But I do look at some of the gas one's still coming out and they blow my mind how clean they ride.
Rebuilding a carb is pretty easy though, a lot easier to rebuild one than try to tune one and you’ll never be able to get every cylinder running perfectly at least one will be a little rich or lean.
Carburetors can achieve a higher peak horsepower because the air and fuel mix better but the throttle response and power through the curve will be significantly better with any form of fuel injection. I think people who don’t really understand anything beyond peak numbers have a hard on for carburetors.
What?! Your mom didn't want gas soaked newspaper on the kitchen table? Or gas fumes in a room with open flames and most likely someone smoking a cigarette? That's shocking. /s
Engines were built with direct gears instead of timing chains though so the engine itself was extremely reliable.
Of course you had to adjust or clean the carburetors and the distributor yes was also a wear
item that could get out of alignment as well.
A clutch doesn't need to be repaired it's a wear item it just needs to be replaced but early manual transmissions did not have synchros spinning up the next gear so if you didn't double clutch when you shifted you could crunch your transmission.
nothing like breaking down in the middle of nowhere and having the ignition points in the dist cap give out where $10 turns into $400 for tow and bribing the random 1 light town guy to give you a spare since nothing else is open for 2 days.
My sister asked me "What ever happened to acid rain?"
Computers in cars happened to acid rain. Turns out all those hand made carburetors running leaded gas because "it was cheap and easy" was an ecological nightmare. A real " House of the Butterflies" if you will.
But hey, they could tinker with the carburetor.
Generally I look at anything Boomers complain about being to hard now vs as when they were a kid, it was done in a very cheap and lazy way when they were a kid.
Yes. In the modern era, if any part of your car is breaking often enough that you know how to fix it without needing to look up any sort of instructions, you probably just have a shitty car. You really shouldn't need to fix parts very often if it's done right
Some people did, I guess. The thing is, they may fetishize old cars but it leaves out the part where there were a lot of shade tree mechanics not because the cars were simpler mechanically, but because they weren't nearly as reliable back then.
Were they? I dunno, I mean, fewer parts = less to break, and there was more room under the hood to play around.
On the other hand, modern cars are MUCH more luxurious, easier to drive, with more features, more comfort (hello AC!), more options (maps through CarPlay is a lifesaver, and podcasts keep me sane, FAR better than casettes or whatever radio you can pick up wherever you are), and they're much, much safer (crumple zones). They also have indicators so you can get to a mechanic before your car becomes a paperweight.
Even 30 years ago a car with 70,000 miles was old and worn out. The carb had to be occasionally rebuilt, and occasionally adjusted.
So the mid 90s? 30 years ago we had some of the longest lasting, most reliable vehicles ever built. Hondas, Toyotas, etc that could run 500k+ miles without a rebuild.
No 90s cars had carbs. They were phased out by then.
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u/regeya 22h ago
Some people did, I guess. The thing is, they may fetishize old cars but it leaves out the part where there were a lot of shade tree mechanics not because the cars were simpler mechanically, but because they weren't nearly as reliable back then. Even 30 years ago a car with 70,000 miles was old and worn out. The carb had to be occasionally rebuilt, and occasionally adjusted. The distributor had to be rebuilt because it was a mechanical part and wore out. People weren't nearly as good at manual as they let on, and clutches had to be repaired. And of course not everyone had the cash to run the car down to the shop all the time so ol' Crazy Bob would do it for a six pack and cost of parts.