patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
An interesting take on the vanishing car culture and how tech has ruined it in America...
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archive.ph
Car culture kaput?
- Thread starter patrick66
- Start date
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
T'is sad, indeed.
Old cars have become boring. They are merely objects of conversation with the owners sitting in folding chairs behind them.
Some of this is because us "Baby Boomers" have become boring. We seem to be content to sit in that folding chair.
Some of this is because us "Baby Boomers" have become boring. We seem to be content to sit in that folding chair.
Northcoast300h
Active Member
I thought it was due to the demise of the middle class. Americans don't have money for these hobbies anymore. (Seems Americans don't have money for any car...see link). The best cars have been all bought by Jay Leno wannabes and hidden in private collections, especially overseas. Plus every generation loves the cars when they were kids. So 1970's cars are less popular, 1980's cars have gone up in value. 1990's cars are going up too.
73Coupe
Senior Member
As Dave Ramsey has said, nobody should be buying a brand new car unless their net worth is at least $1m.
Most people are in debt because they don't know how to manage their personal finances. And that's because they don't teach that in school, and most are learning bad habits from their parents.
Northcoast300h
Active Member
True 73Coupe. Too much free credit being given today. But Ramsey can be full of BS at times. Facts such as grandparents made more than parents and parents made more than kids today are true, so less money for hobbies. The days of a 16yr learning to be a mechanic at the local gas station are long gone. Companies will only hire people who have 4-6yrs of specialized expensive education or training today...which is why you hear so many companies whining that they can't find anyone...which again is BS. Most companies will not train anyone anymore.
Lot of truth there. Then, one must leave the show by 1 PM or their car might melt in the sun.
tbm3fan
Old Man with a Hat
That is too funny.
Last Saturday there was a massive car show on the pier next to the USS Hornet and in the lot in front of her. It was put on by a car club out of Berkeley and just so happens to be a lowrider club. So cars from all over Northern California and a lucky 15 got to display on the hanger deck. Big fund raiser for the ship. Not my cup of tea but the paint work and chrome work are amazing and the cars ranged from the 30's to the late 90's. I saw all sorts of ages sitting on beach chairs behind their cars while many others milled around. Attendance in the several thousand range.
Now on the 23rd I have my West Coast Nationals for Cougars at our Club Presidents estate. Probably close to 100 cars there and you won't see a single chair sitting behind a car with someone in it. Given the 4.5 acres everyone will relax on the grounds by 11:00. Cars enter by 9:30. Temperature will hit 90 actually a low compared to other shows.
As to the demise I put the onus on affordability. Remember being able to buy a 1965 Pontiac for $300 in 1970. If things had stayed stable a similar starting point would equal $2200 today. Well good luck. Also I feel everything took a turn for the worse when we saw the likes of B-J, Mecum and Hagerty get into the car culture/hobby and turn it into another investment vehicle like stocks. Once that happened all hell broke loose with people looking for cars everywhere to turn over for profit and the hell with the real car hobby. Plus as the article says many cars don't have a "personality" that could become yours. I'll complain about everything looking alike because of tech but then tech has also made everything far safer than what I started driving. I just wish cars stayed as cars rather than rolling entertainment centers.
As for today's teenagers what do I know. I'm 68. Wait a second I have a 13 year old and he can run rings around you discussing computer video cards, power units, and processors. I just blank out.
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commando1
Old Man with a Hat
The gum'mint has made buying ($$$), driving, fixing, and enjoying a car so distasteful in the minds of our emerging youth.
WhoTF wants a car when they are on their PS4 and working at Olive Garden part time at minimal wage, no benefits and working **** hours.
Cars? Pfffftttt
WhoTF wants a car when they are on their PS4 and working at Olive Garden part time at minimal wage, no benefits and working **** hours.
Cars? Pfffftttt
SGT FURY
Senior Member
Car Culture is losing ground to weed culture with the youth.
Rustyrodknocker
Senior Member
I think car culture is pretty prevalent in America.
It will never again be what the baby boomers made it and that's expected. They were a gigantic wave and there were less things in the time.
Cars were also something different. The investment in style was tenfold what it is today.
The industry learned that they could not make every model supreme forever. There is more stability in utility. Something people need but are willing to trade away for the next one.
I do wonder what will happen to the cars that are over 50 years old now. Boomers still have the lions share of them and the youth are largely interested in later cars which is understandable.
The muscle car era cars were my main obsession as a kid, but they were 20 year old cars. New cars absolutely sucked. There was a monster car culture of boomers and they all had old cars then. I went to the dealership exactly two times, to look at new cars. Once for the Buick Grand National and once for the S10 syclone.
And to be totally honest I thought they sucked.
V6 cars that looked like somebody masked off the glass and painted the whole car. Bumpers door handles and all.
Technology is ruining many things in life. What is consistent with history is the youth are quicker to accept and understand it. I remember reading about Floyd Clymer selling new cars when he was 12. He would teach people who had been on horse and buggy how a car functioned and how to maintain it. What these 20 year olds can do to there car with a computer, most boomers can't even understand and boomers were the original technologists they are why everything is computerized.
As far as money goes. we still have a **** load of money. What it takes to starve in America I can't imagine. The less income people have the more they over eat.
Just on Saturday I went to the coffee stand to get my wife a coffee per my weekend ritual. Where people line up in ridiculous lines to pay $5-$8 for a cup of custom coffee. Half the kids working there had brand new Toyota TRD pickups. 19 or 20 years old with a near 50k rig with all the trick goodies. 1.9 jobs for every person looking. On the radio a local trucking company advertises 125k starting salary with a $7500 sign on bonus.
We have money.
What has changed is how much bullshit we bring into our lives. The amount of **** we buy is ludacris.
3 pairs of levis
FIve white shirts
Five pair socks and shorts
One pair of shoes
One ever changing hotrod.
How many guys subscribed to that?
Almost all car guys at a time. Car was life to many.
Truth be told the original man child was a baby boomer playing with his toy in the driveway. Often at the expense of his family.
Ultimately I have over indulged in the lifestyle and if they do it different in the future that's fine with me. I just dont want them to destroy independence. But I fear it' too late.
It will never again be what the baby boomers made it and that's expected. They were a gigantic wave and there were less things in the time.
Cars were also something different. The investment in style was tenfold what it is today.
The industry learned that they could not make every model supreme forever. There is more stability in utility. Something people need but are willing to trade away for the next one.
I do wonder what will happen to the cars that are over 50 years old now. Boomers still have the lions share of them and the youth are largely interested in later cars which is understandable.
The muscle car era cars were my main obsession as a kid, but they were 20 year old cars. New cars absolutely sucked. There was a monster car culture of boomers and they all had old cars then. I went to the dealership exactly two times, to look at new cars. Once for the Buick Grand National and once for the S10 syclone.
And to be totally honest I thought they sucked.
V6 cars that looked like somebody masked off the glass and painted the whole car. Bumpers door handles and all.
Technology is ruining many things in life. What is consistent with history is the youth are quicker to accept and understand it. I remember reading about Floyd Clymer selling new cars when he was 12. He would teach people who had been on horse and buggy how a car functioned and how to maintain it. What these 20 year olds can do to there car with a computer, most boomers can't even understand and boomers were the original technologists they are why everything is computerized.
As far as money goes. we still have a **** load of money. What it takes to starve in America I can't imagine. The less income people have the more they over eat.
Just on Saturday I went to the coffee stand to get my wife a coffee per my weekend ritual. Where people line up in ridiculous lines to pay $5-$8 for a cup of custom coffee. Half the kids working there had brand new Toyota TRD pickups. 19 or 20 years old with a near 50k rig with all the trick goodies. 1.9 jobs for every person looking. On the radio a local trucking company advertises 125k starting salary with a $7500 sign on bonus.
We have money.
What has changed is how much bullshit we bring into our lives. The amount of **** we buy is ludacris.
3 pairs of levis
FIve white shirts
Five pair socks and shorts
One pair of shoes
One ever changing hotrod.
How many guys subscribed to that?
Almost all car guys at a time. Car was life to many.
Truth be told the original man child was a baby boomer playing with his toy in the driveway. Often at the expense of his family.
Ultimately I have over indulged in the lifestyle and if they do it different in the future that's fine with me. I just dont want them to destroy independence. But I fear it' too late.
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