I graduated high school in 1984. Grew up in PR with lots of hills, 2 lane roads with a lot of turns.
Learned to drive on dad’s 67 Pontiac, learned to drive stick on the 47 Caddy, learned to race on a 79 Rx7.
Day I got my license got a speeding ticket and 20 or so minutes later got my license taken away for Drag racing. Couldn’t pass on an opportunity to race my friend on his flaming chicken TransAm.
I got home and mom all excited to see my license so I had to come clean. Mom and dad were upset. When mom walked away dad goes “did you at least win?” Which I didn’t. So we built a 428ci for the car and changed to T/A tires!
Dad taught me to ride a bike on his R75/5.
I grew up surrounded by cool vehicles and awesome sound systems.
Owning and driving old cars reminds us how wonderful fully analog cars were to drive, while at the same time, what dinosaurs they are.
I find new cars to be mostly soulless appliances that can circulate the race track at unbelievable speeds.
Gasoline at 45 cents/gallon in the 1960’s was not cheap. It’s roughly equivalent to $4.45 today.
I’m really good at heel/toeing and rev matching in my older cars but if I could have the new digital tech in my old cars’ transmissions, I would in an instant.
I have always preferred cars with more chassis than engine and I find many modern cars going in the opposite direction.
Car guys are just as ridiculous as audiophiles.
In retrospect I suppose this is much less for me about HVAC controls and more about what is lost while much more is gained.
In the day there were fewer things to fuss with but they needed frequent attention so they were very familiar. Whether it was memorized tune up specs or muscle memory reach for the one switch, two lever temp/vent HVAC controls everything was less uncomplicated but of course much less capable.
Our ‘21 Pilot is pretty much set it and forget is as you describe and the back seat occupants are as comfortable as the front. But I need to pull over the fraction of a percent of the time anything other than turning it off/on or adjusting the temp is needed. I’m not complaining and no way would I go back, but at some level I miss the simplicity and shallowness of knowledge and basic skills required to operate and maintain stuff.
Automation and reliability simplify and greatly improve things in their own way but they also lead to a level of disconnect. A certain intimacy is lost, at least for someone old enough to have lived through the evolution. I very much doubt my millennial or gen Z kids would have the same view.
A friend has a 2025 BMW M2. The configurable driving parameters via the dash screen are hilarious. After nearly a year he still gets discombobulated trying to access this or that before he sets out to the coffee shop. In spite of it’s ferocious acceleration, cornering, braking I’d still rather have a round taillight 2002.
