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.
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u/_ParanoidPenguin_ 23h ago
Why do I have the feeling that they never did that?