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Vehicles / bikes 🏍 Car Talk

Dan said:
Too bad there wasn't car reel-to-reel.

However, in the 1980s, you could step up your infotainment game by ordering this from the JC Whitney catalog.

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JC Whitney.... I haven't heard of that in a long time. I had to google them to see if they were still around. They merged with Carparts.com. We always seemed to have a catalog at the house when I was growing up but I don't recall much if anything ever being ordered from them.
 
Big Owl said:
JC Whitney.... I haven't heard of that in a long time. I had to google them to see if they were still around. They merged with Carparts.com. We always seemed to have a catalog at the house when I was growing up but I don't recall much if anything ever being ordered from them.
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Oh, I was tempted by JC Whitney- had a speaker box with two (very cheap, cuddy) 12" woofers from there back in the day. The "amp" I bought from them to drive the box was total garbage, however. I went to a real car audio store and have never forgotten how nice the sales guy was there, not condescending at all, knew he was dealing with a sheepish high-schooler who got suckered into a cruddy amp and sold me something decent.

I always wanted the glowing skull hood ornament....
 
Faust_Motel said:
Oh, I was tempted by JC Whitney- had a speaker box with two (very cheap, cuddy) 12" woofers from there back in the day. The "amp" I bought from them to drive the box was total garbage, however. I went to a real car audio store and have never forgotten how nice the sales guy was there, not condescending at all, knew he was dealing with a sheepish high-schooler who got suckered into a cruddy amp and sold me something decent.

I always wanted the glowing skull hood ornament....
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I was tempted to buy longhorn horns to mount on my '67 mustang. I am so glad that I didn't. Although, I asked my parents to order me a car horn that played Dixie for Christmas one year. I got a class ring instead. In retrospect, I should have asked for la cucaracha car horn.
 
Big Owl said:
I was tempted to buy longhorn horns to mount on my '67 mustang. I am so glad that I didn't. Although, I asked my parents to order me a car horn that played Dixie for Christmas one year. I got a class ring instead. In retrospect, I should have asked for la cucaracha car horn.
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There is somebody who drive's through our neighborhood with a car horn that plays Dixie. Fittingly, it's some white kid who goes to the fancy private high school around the corner (and who's family has probably been in these northern climes for generations). :disappointed"

All that said, I do sort of chuckle when I hear the horn even though I know the song is pretty problematic.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
There is somebody who drive's through our neighborhood with a car horn that plays Dixie. Fittingly, it's some white kid who goes to the fancy private high school around the corner (and who's family has probably been in these northern climes for generations). :disappointed"

All that said, I do sort of chuckle when I hear the horn even though I know the song is pretty problematic.
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I grew up and lived in the south all my life but my desire was based on the "Dukes of Hazzard" and nothing more/less. In retrospect, I am glad that I didn't get it.
 
Planit said:
....TPMS to freak out.
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Office Space GIF by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
 
Planit said:
The cold weather has prompted the TPMS to freak out.
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I remember talking to an automotive engineer friend of mine maybe 10 years ago and I was complaining about the annual first-cold-days-of-the-season-TPMS-freak-out and he told me that weather had nothing to do with it. I know he understood that low temps cause air to contract AND that contracting air can mean lower pressure in the tires but for some reason he refused to connect the two. I wonder if he's changed his stance on that? :r:

I parked my Jeep outside instead of in the garage one night back in early October and when I walked out to get in it to go to work I could just feel that it was cold enough that the TPMS had probably kicked on. Sure enough, when I turned the ignition my dash was telling me that three of the four tires were low.
 
I really don't like the execution or even theory behind TPMS sensors. There was always a surefire method to know when your tires are low....look at them.

The TPMS sensor is not going to do much for sudden flats too.

Therefore, what's the point?

It always strikes me as a 'solution in search of a problem'.
 
Planit said:
The cold weather has prompted the TPMS to freak out.
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I really dislike these things. I've got a bad TPMS sensor on mine that I haven't gotten around to fixing, so the light just comes on every time I start the car and blinks for a while. There is another TPMS system design that some cars use that uses wheel rotation speed as a way to determine low tire pressure, and I much prefer that system to the sensor-in-wheel setup. The sensors always die at the most inopportune times.

I'm also dealing with a failing clutch at the moment that's likely going to amount to a $2k repair bill - hoping to push that one off for as long as I can.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I remember talking to an automotive engineer friend of mine maybe 10 years ago and I was complaining about the annual first-cold-days-of-the-season-TPMS-freak-out and he told me that weather had nothing to do with it. I know he understood that low temps cause air to contract AND that contracting air can mean lower pressure in the tires but for some reason he refused to connect the two. I wonder if he's changed his stance on that? :r:
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I once worked with a doctor of statistics who tracked every pull of the California Lottery since its inception. He was modeling future numbers based on past results. This was his logic: If a number, say 17, was not coming up, that was a number he would play because he said the law of averages dictated that eventually it would come up. I pointed out to this doctor of statistics that there were two plausible scenarios, neither of which supported his logic:
  • The pulls are truly random so there's no point to try to predict them based on past results.
  • The pulls are not random, and if there was a physical property that made a ball come up more frequently, then past results might indicate that the numbers that came up most frequently would continue to do so, and they are the numbers that should be picked.
He countered by maintaining that, in order to maintain random draws, if the second scenario was true the lottery commission would remove the balls that came up most frequently and replace them with other balls that were less likely to come up. My response was that if anyone was purposely juicing the odds of which balls came up most frequently it would probably result in jail time.

Sometimes experts in a field have no common sense, even in their field of expertise.
 
Doohickie said:
I once worked with a doctor of statistics who tracked every pull of the California Lottery since its inception. He was modeling future numbers based on past results. This was his logic: If a number, say 17, was not coming up, that was a number he would play because he said the law of averages dictated that eventually it would come up. I pointed out to this doctor of statistics that there were two plausible scenarios, neither of which supported his logic:
  • The pulls are truly random so there's no point to try to predict them based on past results.
  • The pulls are not random, and if there was a physical property that made a ball come up more frequently, then past results might indicate that the numbers that came up most frequently would continue to do so, and they are the numbers that should be picked.
He countered by maintaining that, in order to maintain random draws, if the second scenario was true the lottery commission would remove the balls that came up most frequently and replace them with other balls that were less likely to come up. My response was that if anyone was purposely juicing the odds of which balls came up most frequently it would probably result in jail time.

Sometimes experts in a field have no common sense, even in their field of expertise.
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[off-topic]All probabilities statistics are 50/50. You win or you don't. Thank you for letting me add to your TED talk.[/off-topic]
 
mendelman said:
[off-topic]All probabilities statistics are 50/50. You win or you don't. Thank you for letting me add to your TED talk.[/off-topic]
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You might be onto something....will the earth be hit by a giant asteroid in the next 10 days? there are only two outcomes: yes or no, so yeah, a 50/50 chance. Like flipping a coin. Wow, and to think there's people out there that incur 10s of thousands of dollars of debt on student loans so they can study statistics when all they ever needed to understand was this.
 
mendelman said:
[off-topic]All probabilities statistics are 50/50. You win or you don't. Thank you for letting me add to your TED talk.[/off-topic]
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In hindsight, every probability is either 100% or 0%. It either happened or it didn't. So whenever something outlandish happens and someone invariably asks, what are the odds of that? I always answer 100%.
 
Here's a report of operational cars in the United States, by brand and manufacturer, for the 3rd quarter of 2021. I'd love to see a breakdown by metropolitan area.

vehicles_on_american_roads.jpg


A few takeaways:
  • There's only 195 running Renaults in the US, among the hundreds of thousands sold up to the 1980s. However, there's 630 Peugeots, even though it was never more than a niche brand here.
  • I have seen a little under 1% of all Bugattis in the US.
  • The ratio of Pontiacs to Cadillacs on the road is roughly 2:3. I'd bet that ratio is 2:1 in Canada.
  • Saaaaay there, why isn't Hudson on that list? That was a fine and dandy car in the day! Dynaflytematic transmission, with both high and low gears, and the most pleasant drone in the industry! A horn tuned to B♭! More cubic feet of ashtray space than any of the competition!
 
Dan said:
Here's a report of operational cars in the United States, by brand and manufacturer, for the 3rd quarter of 2021. I'd love to see a breakdown by metropolitan area.

View attachment 55972

A few takeaways:
  • There's only 195 running Renaults in the US, among the hundreds of thousands sold up to the 1980s. However, there's 630 Peugeots, even though it was never more than a niche brand here.
  • I have seen a little under 1% of all Bugattis in the US.
  • The ratio of Pontiacs to Cadillacs on the road is roughly 2:3. I'd bet that ratio is 2:1 in Canada.
  • Saaaaay there, why isn't Hudson on that list? That was a fine and dandy car in the day! Dynaflytematic transmission, with both high and low gears, and the most pleasant drone in the industry! A horn tuned to B♭! More cubic feet of ashtray space than any of the competition!
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408 Yugos...seems high.
 
Dan said:
Here's a report of operational cars in the United States, by brand and manufacturer, for the 3rd quarter of 2021. I'd love to see a breakdown by metropolitan area.

View attachment 55972

A few takeaways:
  • There's only 195 running Renaults in the US, among the hundreds of thousands sold up to the 1980s. However, there's 630 Peugeots, even though it was never more than a niche brand here.
  • I have seen a little under 1% of all Bugattis in the US.
  • The ratio of Pontiacs to Cadillacs on the road is roughly 2:3. I'd bet that ratio is 2:1 in Canada.
  • Saaaaay there, why isn't Hudson on that list? That was a fine and dandy car in the day! Dynaflytematic transmission, with both high and low gears, and the most pleasant drone in the industry! A horn tuned to B♭! More cubic feet of ashtray space than any of the competition!
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I think the total is interesting in that right around 1/3 of all cars are less than 5 years old. (I would have guessed it was a lower number, but maybe not.)
 
Ive probably seen at least 5 of the 141 surviving Triumph cars. My mechanic is obsessed with the Spitfire and used to be known as the Triumph guy back in the 80s. He would get wrecked ones on the cheap and put them back together, than rebuild them again when they came backed wrecked....again.

Id bet all of the 141 surviving Triumph cars are Spitfires.
 
Dan said:
Here's a report of operational cars in the United States, by brand and manufacturer, for the 3rd quarter of 2021. I'd love to see a breakdown by metropolitan area.

View attachment 55972

A few takeaways:
  • There's only 195 running Renaults in the US, among the hundreds of thousands sold up to the 1980s. However, there's 630 Peugeots, even though it was never more than a niche brand here.
  • I have seen a little under 1% of all Bugattis in the US.
  • The ratio of Pontiacs to Cadillacs on the road is roughly 2:3. I'd bet that ratio is 2:1 in Canada.
  • Saaaaay there, why isn't Hudson on that list? That was a fine and dandy car in the day! Dynaflytematic transmission, with both high and low gears, and the most pleasant drone in the industry! A horn tuned to B♭! More cubic feet of ashtray space than any of the competition!
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I would like to see it broken down by model. Like how many Chevy Citations are left in the U.S. I haven't seen one in at least 2 decades.
 
The Terminator said:
Ive probably seen at least 5 of the 141 surviving Triumph cars. My mechanic is obsessed with the Spitfire and used to be known as the Triumph guy back in the 80s. He would get wrecked ones on the cheap and put them back together, than rebuild them again when they came backed wrecked....again.

Id bet all of the 141 surviving Triumph cars are Spitfires.
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Nah, they are mostly TR7s & 8s.
 
Big Owl said:
I grew up and lived in the south all my life but my desire was based on the "Dukes of Hazzard" and nothing more/less. In retrospect, I am glad that I didn't get it.
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Yes, and I also thought 'La Cucaracha' on the horn would be cool when I was in junior high. Experiencing gratitude that never happened.
 
I was surprised by the Spitfire number too but just because I know someone with one doesn't mean they are prevalent I guess.

It is in storage and hasn't run for years so it is probably not included on this list.
 
2 cars in my fleet had the check engine light come on this week. 1 was easy to clear, the other needs an 'oil control valve'
 
My brother asked me if I remember what car he drove for his drivers test. Well of course I don't remember that.

I learned to drive and took my test in my dad's 76 Monte Carlo. I loved that car!
 
kms said:
My brother asked me if I remember what car he drove for his drivers test. Well of course I don't remember that.

I learned to drive and took my test in my dad's 76 Monte Carlo. I loved that car!
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My sister owned a '76 Monte Carlo (with Landau roof!). When she flew to Europe one summer, I was the only other driver available to bring her car home from the airport. After we dropped her off, my mother and I went back to the parking lot and I had to back that massive machine out of a tight, tight parking space. At that point, all I had ever driven was my VW Beetle. That Monte had a hood that started in one county and ended in the next! I got out of that parking space but mom was a nervous wreck the whole time (mom never got a driver's license, thank heavens). Aside from that, it was a nice riding sedan.
 
TOFB said:
I was surprised by the Spitfire number too but just because I know someone with one doesn't mean they are prevalent I guess.

It is in storage and hasn't run for years so it is probably not included on this list.
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This list is probably derived from active registrations on state public records, so an unregistered nondriver can fall off a list pretty quickly.

There's probably 100x more extant Spitfires, but few are still driving/registered.
 
I did driver's training in a 1993 Dodge Acclaim 4dr sedan in the summer of 1993.

Those were decent little sedans in my opinion, but I'd be shocked to see any on the roads now.

Late 80s and early 90s Chrysler products had distinct expiration dates.
 
When it was time to get my license our family cars were a 1978 Lincoln Continental (a HUGE freaking car) and a 1982 Ford Econoline conversion van. It had a couch that turned into a bed! But that's a story for another time. Anyhoo, there was no way in hell I was taking my driver's test in either one of those behemoths so I borrowed my aunt's 1983 Dodge K car.
 
MD Planner said:
When it was time to get my license our family cars were a 1978 Lincoln Continental (a HUGE freaking car) and a 1982 Ford Econoline conversion van. It had a couch that turned into a bed! But that's a story for another time. Anyhoo, there was no way in hell I was taking my driver's test in either one of those behemoths so I borrowed my aunt's 1983 Dodge K car.
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So your family's two vehicle equaled the volume and mass of your house?

Nice. :p
 
Learned to drive in a 1971 Mercury Colony Park Grand Marquis.
Took driving test in a 1977 Toyota Corolla.
Easy Peesy.
 
Planit said:
Easy Peesy.
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For sure.

Here's the widest scale differential I've had for vehicles I drove regularly at the same time in my life:

1990s full size cab forward 50' transit bus in an urban setting
blue%20bus.jpg


1987 Plymouth Colt 2dr hatchback
1987 Plymnouth Colt.jpg


It was weird going from extended periods driving only the bus to driving my car.

And I learned and became expert at parallel parking and reverse (60 degree angle) garage parking the bus.

@Gedunker - any such stories? :cool:
 
I learned to drive on my first car, a 1995 Subaru Legacy LS Wagon. I inherited it in September, 2008 and got rid of it in 2012, after the automatic transmission began to slip.

Drivers ed cars were:

-2002 Chevy Malibu
-2001 Ford Taurus

The 02 Malibu was only a 6 year old car when I was in drivers ed (Spring 2008), but already had an eternal Check Engline light on, failing suspension and brakes that were so spongey, I questioned the safety of learning to drive on it! one of the worst GM products of the past 25 years.
 
I did learn a lot about driving too when I worked at U-Haul my senior year in HS. We had to repark the entire lot of trucks every Sunday, very tightly, very uniform.

You were only allowed 1 broken mirror, anymore & you got to pay for it.
 
mendelman said:
This example of the greatest wagon model of all time is for sale in PA for only $16,500 with ~52,000 miles. It's, theoretically, a good buy.

1994-chevrolet-caprice-station-wagon
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I love it!

When I was in high school, a buddy always had to drive his parents Roadmaster wagon. Their's was probably a '94 or '95 so it was practically brand new when he started driving it in 1996. We used to kid him about it and then after the first time he drove a bunch of us somewhere some weekend we decided he would be the driver for all things for our friend group. Not only could you easily fit 6 or 7 of us in there with the fold down third row, but it was more powerful, more comfortable, and had more bells and whistles than any of the vehicles the rest of us were driving at the time!
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I love it!

When I was in high school, a buddy always had to drive his parents Roadmaster wagon. Their's was probably a '94 or '95 so it was practically brand new when he started driving it in 1996. We used to kid him about it and then after the first time he drove a bunch of us somewhere some weekend we decided he would be the driver for all things for our friend group. Not only could you easily fit 6 or 7 of us in there with the fold down third row, but it was more powerful, more comfortable, and had more bells and whistles than any of the vehicles the rest of us were driving at the time!
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I would give my left butt cheek if I could have a Roadmaster wagon from 1991-96. The LT1 cars are some of the best things to come out of Detroit in the past 30 years. I consider them diamonds in the rough for GM, just like the 3800 cars.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I love it!

When I was in high school, a buddy always had to drive his parents Roadmaster wagon. Their's was probably a '94 or '95 so it was practically brand new when he started driving it in 1996. We used to kid him about it and then after the first time he drove a bunch of us somewhere some weekend we decided he would be the driver for all things for our friend group. Not only could you easily fit 6 or 7 of us in there with the fold down third row, but it was more powerful, more comfortable, and had more bells and whistles than any of the vehicles the rest of us were driving at the time!
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My parents owned a 1992 Caprice wagon from 1994 to 2003. Pretty much exactly like this one.

I'm not kidding. These cars were nearly perfect and excellent. If this had been available this past June when I bought my Civic, I would have bought this 1994 Caprice instead.
 
mendelman said:
My parents owned a 1992 Caprice wagon from 1994 to 2003. Pretty much exactly like this one.

I'm not kidding. These cars were nearly perfect and excellent. If this had been available this past June when I bought my Civic, I would have bought this 1994 Caprice instead.
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What was their reason for getting rid of it? Beyond it being old and bad on gas lol.
 
The Terminator said:
What was their reason for getting rid of it? Beyond it being old and bad on gas lol.
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170,000 miles and beyond their desire to maintain. They donated it to a local Salvation Army org.

Actually, the gas mileage for such a big vehicle wasn't that bad as my Dad often noted. Especially, at cruising long distance drives he'd routinely get 26-29 mpg at steady 55 mph.

Plus in the summer of 2000 it had had every exterior body panel micro dented (purely cosmetic) due to a hail storm. It had full insurance, so they got $1,800 from the insurance company that helped pay off their 1996 Buick Park Avenue they had at the time (another of your favorites ;) )
 
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The Terminator said:
I would give my left butt cheek if I could have a Roadmaster wagon from 1991-96. The LT1 cars are some of the best things to come out of Detroit in the past 30 years. I consider them diamonds in the rough for GM, just like the 3800 cars.
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I still see a surprising number of Caprice and Roadmasters from that era on the road however I very rarely see the Impala SS. I have to imagine that the owners of those beat them to hell so not as many of those survived (I think they also had the lowest production numbers of that set of models) I would have loved to have had one of those!

The '93(?) - '96 Cadillac Fleetwood shared the same engine and drivetrain but a different body and frame. That's another one that I see very rarely these days and when I do I think to myself, "My god that's an ugly car that did not age well."
 
mendelman said:
170,000 miles and beyond their desire to maintain. They donated it to a local Salvation Army org.

Actually, the gas mileage for such a big vehicle wasn't that bad as my Dad often noted. Especially, at cruising long distance drives he'd routinely get 26-29 mpg at steady 55 mph.

Plus in the summer of 2000 it had had every exterior body panel micro dented (purely cosmetic) due to a hail storm. It had full insurance, so they got an ~ $1,800 check from the insurance company that helped pay off their 1996 Buick Park Avenue they had at the time (another of your favorites ;) )
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OMG! Was it a Park Ave Ultra with the supercharger?

Your parents had amazing taste in cars ;)

170k is Mid-Mileage for a 5.7l Roadmaster, they can go well over 300k with TLC. Although I understand that mileage and hail damage would influence normal people to move on from a car.

If you still have any paperwork with the VIN, you should myCarfax it and see if its still alive, lol.
 
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