Modern cars sure have gotten good...

nderwater said:

I grew up with a lot of cars that were all of those things -- unreliable, crap to drive, and cheap inside.  Does such a car still exist?

Yeah a volkswagen lol

I've said the same exact thing here before, but I really like it: 

When I was born in 1990, my dad had a "fun car". It was a 30 year old car - 1959 Austin Healey. It was OLD in 1990. I think any vehicle from 1959, with the possible exceptions of some Mercedes, would have been OLD in 1990 by just about any measure. 

1990 was 29.5 years ago. We'll round up to 30 years. If I wanted a 30 year old car today, I could get a 944, a Miata, an MR2, or even an  E30. Think about how crazy that is. In 1990, a 30 year old car was an antique; you would definitely think about what tools you're bringing with you if you were driving it just 100 miles. Today, I'd be really, really annoyed and slightly surprised if a 30 year old car couldn't make it 500 miles with no more thought than "hey, lets check the oil before we go". And I'd probably forget to do that unless I knew the car leaked or burned oil. Hell, the first two cars that I drove were older than me. I'm not entirely sure my dad has ever driven a car older than him, and he's had a lot of cars--probably because by the time he was driving in 1969, anything older than him was just old. 

Appleseed said:

That 59 was a rusty pile, but I understand the point. 

That story keeps getting tossed around the Internet, but it was a very clean rustfree original car.  In the video there's a cloud of dust that come out from underneath when it hits, but that was just years of accumulated dirt that was hidden in the nooks and crannies of the frame and body.

That's probably true. I'd imagine a day old 59 in 1959 would have crashed the same. 

Yeah, anytime someone says old cars are safer, I point them to the 59 vs 09 Bel-Air/Malibu Video GM did. 

They change their tune after that.

That thing is a gold mine. I show it in every single one of my classes (relevance varies...).

Here 

In reply to mtn :

My friend and I were talking about this the other day. He found this photo of a ~30 year old car.

Could you imagine? Heck, I'd jump in my 40 year old car for a crosscountry trip without much more than a jack and spare tire. There was a Murilee Martin/Phil Greden article a few years back where he pulled photos from different time periods talking about the average age of the cars. As the photos got newer, the average age of cars got older. I realize there are multiple reasons, but I imagine one is that things last longer and longer.

buzzboy said:

Could you imagine? Heck, I'd jump in my 40 year old car for a crosscountry trip without much more than a jack and spare tire. There was a Murilee Martin/Phil Greden article a few years back where he pulled photos from different time periods talking about the average age of the cars. As the photos got newer, the average age of cars got older. I realize there are multiple reasons, but I imagine one is that things last longer and longer.

As a boy in the early 1960s I remember a guy in our small town who still drove a Model A Ford, but that was unusual.  Like you said, cars last a lot longer today - back then, if a car went over 100,000 miles it was a big deal.  Today, 200,000 miles or more isn't uncommon.

I'll be towing my Miata to two events this coming weekend with my 31 year old pick up. Original engine, somewhere well north of 300,000 miles.

The first event is a 270 mi round trip. The next day's round trip is 130 miles. I'm more worried about the U-Haul car hauler trailer than the truck.

Mid 30s mpg is impressive for a Subaru. Not bad for an awd vehicle. I average mid 30s in my Versa Note with 2wd.