Remember Back and Take the Test

[singin46]

Interesting Murph.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Back on the 23rd, I scored 84%. I missed all four on that Chrysler, DeSoto, Plymouth, Dodge page. At least, I think that was the four makes. Plus, I missed a couple of others.

I've taken the test four times now, a day or two aprt. I've upped my score to 94%, but still have not aced that MoPar page.

I guess opinions vary on this kind of stuff, but I thought the '58 Chevy Impala was one of the prettiest cars Chevy ever made. One of our neighbors had a solid Royal Blue and it was a beautiful automobile.

When I met Sarah, her Dad had one of those two-tone green Plymouth, Dodge whatevers. It had push-button auto transmission and the buttons were to the left of the steering column. Very inconvenient.

BTW; I aced all the Ford, Chevy. Nash, Studebaker, Hudson, Willys, Kaiser, Henry J, Olds and Pontiac questions. Those were all family and neighborhood cars back in the day.

Great post TJ. I'm going to keep playing until I get 100%.

Charlie Noyes

[tjmurphy]

I always thought that the 1958 Impala (first year for the Impala) was a beautiful car too. But you've got to remember, they just came off the 1957 Chevy's, GM's all time most favorite car, I guess. But if you compare the '58 to the '60 you can see the transistion from one year to another, especially with both having the "bullet" tail-lights. The '59 is out of place with those slanted tail-lights and smooth, flowing fins.

1958

1960 (should have been the 1959)

[RobesonsRme.com]

Both those are yours, right TJ?

Charlie Noyes

[jerryd6818]

When the '58 first came out, I was 13 years old (they came out in the fall of '57 of course) and an automobile "expert". I thought they were as ugly as a mud fence. Now, I think I like the '58s even better than the '57s. Uhmmm, maybe not.

[FRJ]

NO, NO, NO. .........you like th 57 better.

[jerryd6818]

By grannies, Joe. I think I like 'em all. My cousin has a '59 convertible and I even like that.

Edit: I don't know how or where the thought got lost between my brain cage and my fingers but my cousin's convertible is a '59 Chevy and not a '57.

[FRJ]

I think I like 'em all. :

I do too, Jerry. It's a pleasure to look at all those old cars.
They sure seem to be appreciated by every one these days.

[jerryd6818]

When they say, "they don't make 'em like they used to", I say, "thank God". Cars today are built much better than cars from about the '80s and on back.

• The body's on today's cars last longer. With a minimum of care, they won't start to rust out at three or four years old like the older cars did. I live in the heart of the 'rust belt' and you hardly ever see cars with the body rusting off.
• The engines last longer. It's not unusual at all to see a car with over 100,000 miles on it that's still running strong.
• For the most part, they get better mileage. I traded my '70 442 which might get 14 mpg on the road if you babied it but averaged 10 mpg - 12 mpg, for a 72 Monte Carlo with a 350ci engine that got 18 mpg on it's best day.
• Today's cars have spark plugs that last 100,000 miles and there's no points, distributor cap and rotor to replace every 15k-20k miles. You can go 5,000 miles and more between oil changes without damaging the engine.
• At the end of '88, I bought an '88 Chevy Cavalier off the lot and never had a single problem with it for the first 40,000 miles. Not one! My next vehicle was a '98 GMC Sonoma that performed just as well and had 120,000 miles on it in 2007 when the flood waters got it. I would still be driving that truck if the flood hadn't come along. It had a couple of small problems along the way but nothing serious. Regular maintenance kept it running like a top and it got 20 - 25 mpg.

Yep, they don't make 'em like they used to BUT I don't see today's car styles evoking the same nostalgia we get when we look at something from the '50s.

[tjmurphy]

Yeah, but today's cars don't have that "American Iron" character. And back then you could tell one car from the other.

[jerryd6818]

That's part of what I was trying to say with that last sentence. I just couldn't make the picture in my mind run out of my fingers. Thanks T.J.

[chetr1200c]

i had tons o fun with the older cars,,i used to take apart any motor back in the 60's and 70's. and if i had a screw or ywo still left over when i reassembled it. it never presented a problem. it still ran better than before. i remember one time i needed a crankshaft for a buick i had. i found an old abandoned buick with the same motor in the woods 1/4 mile behind the local drive-in, all i had was a sledgehammer in my trunk. well thats how i got the crank out of the clunker. took it home and installed the thing in the waiting buick. purred like a kitten. unfortunately 2 days later i wrapped that car arond a telephone pole...still don't know how that alcohol got into that buick. i was only 17.

try doing that to a car made today..i can't even change the oil on some of them..
feels like i need a sledgehammer sometimes