Semi-automatic fluid drive. Chrysler introduced this in 1939 as standard equipment on Dodges, DeSotos, and Chryslers. Driver would need to lift his right foot off of the gas pedal for a few seconds for the transmission to shift gears, making a loud clunking sound.Last year for fluid drive was 1954.
Grounding Strips. Before the development of electrically "conductive" tires, many cars had a metal strip fastened to the frame on one end and the other end dragged on the ground. The purpose was to discharge the static electric build up in the car body that would occur while the car was in motion. As a kid, I used to find many of them laying in the street, that had broken off from the cars.
Starter engages next to gas pedal. (Probably less an innovation than necessity). Also wing vent windows. Shade roofs over front window. Where have cigarette lighters gone? For that matter, wind up windows. What about 60s Mercury with wind down rear window?
Don't forget massive A-pillars on modern cars that significantly restrict vision. Maybe also blinding high temperature LED headlights 😅. Windows so heavily tinted they restrict night vision. I am sure there other examples of modern safety feature that are debatable.
I don’t get it. My Nissan Altima has an auto headlight dimmer feature, which automatically turns the brights off when it senses the lights from an oncoming car at night.
American cars have had auto headlight dimmers since the 50s. GM called it Autronic eye, it was a common feature on Cadillacs. There was a large photo cell on the dash that looked cool and was the sensor to control the high beams.
Vent windows , floor vents , body on frame construction , real steel , loud horns , full sized spare tire , full size cars , much much much lower prices to name a few.
Remember how Lincoln kept the legacy vent window when everyone else went to single-pane front windows, and it was power ... they knew their market and that senior buyers were used to having the vent (mainly to flick ashes from cigarettes out!)
@@raymondwelsh6028 yeah that big gnarly station wagon they got. It's one of those that's so ugly you just want to have it, especially with the diesel that was put in the build that was done for SEMA
1:30 I remember the rust that popped up under vinyl roofs. The only way to detect it was by the bulging of the roof where the rust was located. Cars also had the problem of rusting around the chrome borders of windshield and rear windscreens. In fact, cars of the 60s and 70s were rolling rust buckets. As much as I love the vintage cars of the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, I do not miss the rust.
Can you believe this? I work for a large cement company and some of the trucks still have the floor switch and the funnest part I changed one just the other day. I will also mention that we had one on the shelf in the stockroom. True story. 👍🇨🇦
The vinyl roof inserts on early cars were there because they couldn't stamp complete roofs . It was technical not for aesthetics. The woodies were to keep the price low on wagons, then it became a luxury feature after the war. I miss vent windows and full size spare tires.
The first tape cartridge was the "Stereo-Pak" a 4-track system developed by "Madman" Muntz from a monophonic 2-track system used by broad radio. Bill Lear of LearJet liked it so much he had his engineers modify the system to create the "Stereo 8" 8-track.
I would much rather have a foot button for high/low lights. I don't know how many times I've inadvertently turned on my windshield wipers and/or the turn signals. How many times have people been taking a turn at night and had to shift their left hand to go to low beam because there was a car coming from the other direction? That can be dangerous. The curb feelers actually served another purpose - to make sure the car was within 12" of the curb as required by law.
Mopar’s push button trans shifter was discontinued because a federal regulation took effect in 1965 mandating all automatic transmissions have a common P-R-N-D-L or P-R-N-2-1 shift patterns, not because people didn’t want to buy them.
I love the Griswold’s station wagon @08:00 , complete with grandma’s body strapped to the roof lol! This is a real replica and just saw it drive through Florida on its way to the upcoming Mega-Con in Orlando. It even has the dog leash and collar tied to the back bumper! Edit: I was mistaken about the dead body on the roof. It’s actually Aunt Edna, not grandma (The replica actually has Illinois vanity plates that read “AUNT EDNA” lol). It’s been a minute since I seen the movie,
I, also recognized the station wagon. Did you realize that they were called station wagons because they could transport large amounts of luggage to the train station?
@@ronaldacarter8079 (As Wayne Campbell) “I was not aware of that”. lol. But seriously, I was not aware of that. That is very interesting and I love learning new things. 👍
I do not miss bias-ply tires. My dad bought the best in the 1960's, but you couldn't hope for more than 15K miles from a set, and never made made it to the next set without at least one flat ... Modern radials, 60K miles and when is the last time you had to change one on the road ....?
And in severely cold weather they froze with the flat side making them out of round. It could take a few miles of driving to warm them up and make the flat disappear. Until then, it was a bumpy ride!@@power4things
@@roberttwist5190Agree! My 1955 Chevy BelAire has them and when it did rain in Phoenix, it could come down in buckets - vacuum wipers could never keep up!!!
@@rongendron8705 Every vinyl-top car in the junkyard, is rusty beneath the vinyl. Bad idea, like plastic pick-up bed liners that cause the the bed to rust out from the accumulated water.
With those wheel covers that covered the rear wheel wells, how did you change a tire? Did those wheel covers pop out easily and get positioned in place easily?
They are called "fender skirts" or "wheel spats" depending on where you're from, and yes they are removable. There are guiding pins that keep them in position when mounted and help you install them easily, and there is usually a spring mechanism that clamps the fender skirt to the wheel well from behind so you don't even need tools to remove them. It's not difficult to change a tire on a car with fender skirts, the skirts are usually pretty simple to remove and then there's plenty of room. I own a car with fender skirts and never had a problem with them.
@@CraigerAceSome of the guys I knew that had them would take them off as soon as the winter weather hit. If ran through slush, they could end up frozen in place.
Push button drives were designed by Borg Warner for Packards and Edsel-Mercury-Lincoln using a starter motor to move the shift cable. Chrysler's was all-mechanical and more reliable. They changed to a column shift like everyone else because people didn't like to rent them at Hertz.
Wood bodies were also for replacing steel for the war. My1950 Ford sedan had 2 early items no longer found. The wipers were powered by engine vacuum instead of electrical power. And it had an actual heater with coils that heated like a bathroom wall heater and a little fan that pushed air into the interior.
and some off of the intake manifold similar to how the earliest smog devices that suck the crank case emissions back through the manifold just below the carburetor. did yours slow down during acceleration and speed up decelerating?@@Randy7th
My 2016 Toyota Hilux has an electric heater element as well as the normal heater matrix this is turned on separately and is to make sure heat is available when ticking over in cold climates, it only works in Park Or Neutral and switches itself off when the coolant temperature is sufficient, great also for de icing in the winter 👍🏻🇬🇧
You're right. Feb. 19, 1942 was when the manufacturing of American cars and trucks for the consumer market stopped. The war had been raging for two years already, but the U.S. hadn't joined the party yet. They made up for lost time, though, giving both the Germans, Italians and Japanese a taste of their own medicine. Cheers from Canada!@@raymondclark1785
My first car is 67 Ford Mustang Fastback was an automatic and it had a odd pedal over by the where your left foot would rest so out of curiosity I put my foot on it and pressed it and water shot out of the the little Jets on the hood to hit the windshield but if you stepped on it real hard you could spray it all the way over to the back of the car
I bought a car in 1982 that had an 8-track stereo made by Blaupunkt. Although the the technology was antique the electronics were state of the art. Best sound system I ever had in a car.
I remember curb feelers and automatic seatbelts. My dad’s 1960 Plymouth Pioneer station wagon had a push button transmission. My first car had a floorboard dimmer switch, a vinyl roof and a portable 8 track tape player.
Going way back, engine starter motors didnt have a solenoid to engage the pinion gear, so it took some effort pulling against a return spring to start. Pedal-operated starters were common.
Coming from New Zealand and visiting the US in 1980, one of the first things I saw was the Car Wickers. Thought it was a very good idea to stop scrapping your tyres.
I had a 1946 Ford Deluxe with the "Wonder Bar" radio that had a button on the floor just like, and next to, the dimmer switch on the floor. The radio had presets you could set for stations and a sort of horizontal bar feature that you pushed down with your fingers and it advanced to the next position. Pushing the button on the floor energized a solenoid that pushed that same bar down. So you could change stations hands free.
I remember as a kid riding with my friend in his dad's car that had this feature. His dad told us to check out this cool feature as he grabbed the sun visor and tipped it down a bit to change the radio station. We were in the back and couldn't see dad pressing the floor button. I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. Why put the radio switch on the visor when you could just reach the radio on the dashboard. Had a good laugh over that.
I have fondest memories of my 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser, a cream-color woodie station wagon. V6, 3.3, front wheel drive... and a warm feeling of being home.
Curb feelers were not only good to keep from getting too close, but also good to help getting closer (so that when you got out and looked you weren't 2 feet away).
The reason why you still see vinyl roofs on cars is it's actually cheaper to put a vinyl roof on a car then it is to completely finish it off and paint it. That's why it was used for so many years in the first place.
8-tracks were the first hi-fidelity music system that were widely made for automotive use. Prior to that was the 4-track systems, which only held half the music of the 8-track. The radio cart used in broadcast stations required a rubber driven wheel to operate. This required the user to operate a lever to lift the rubber wheel into position. 8-tracks came with the wheel already installed. At this time, cassette tapes were limited fidelity and not really great for automobile use. But times change and the 8-tracks were eventually replaced by the cassette. Those in turn were replaced by CDs and then mp3 players. At the time of the dawning of cassettes I worked in an automotive stereo shop and installed car stereos. I had a lucrative side business repairing 8-track tapes. I've only covered the bare bones of the evolution of car music systems. As each system became more sophisticated and the audio reproduction improved, new formats edged out the older systems.
Spark advance, next to steering wheel, Choke and throttle cable, crank out windshield, as well as cowl vent, and wing vent, power ash tray (vacuum operated) venetian blinds in rear window, hand crank to start car (going way back)
The robe cord (blanket rope) that traversed the back of the front bench seat from which a blanket was hung. Thus in winter, the cold rear seat passengers could stay warm by cloaking themselves with the blanket.
Many cars once had vacuum operated wipers. I replaced them on my 1968 AMC Javelin with the electric wiper motor from a 1971 Javelin. But, the added electric draw meant I had to change to a heavy duty alternator to keep the battery from discharging if I ran wipers, headlights and defroster together. 🙄
I always and still do like the look of a vinyl top on an automobile. They started fading away in the mid 1970s mainly because they had never been popular on high-end European cars.
This brought back memories, especially the the floor switch. It was once second nature to me step on it to turn the high beams on and off. And in the 60's "Push Button" was the equivalent of "Digital" today. My family had a couple of Dodge Station wagons with the push button shift.
remember rumble seats? those were super fun for us kids. they were in the da6 when you could load up the back of a pick up truck with children ,dogs and any other thing you could cram in there . complexity unsafe but that's when everyone accepted that life was unsafe so why worry and just have some fun
I had a arc 1000 45rpm record player under the dash that held 10 records and played them upside down. Also had a motorola reverb in the trunk. This was in 1965.
For a long time, every street corner had big wads of 8-track tape sitting there as the tape would eventually tangle up in the player and people would yank it out.
My uncle used his push-button transmission to back off tailgaters. If R was pushed while the car was going down the road, the transmission would not shift, but the reverse lights came on.
I heard a story of a guy in NYC who worked at JFK and got hold of a landing light from a 737 to put in his back window, a quick flip would deter tailgaters without frying his electrical system. Illegal I'm sure, but effective and I would like to hear the other guy explain to police that he saw a "bright light coming from the guy's car .."
It was my understanding that Chrysler eliminated push button transmissions because the Feds required a "standard shift pattern" for automatics in 1965.
Tail fins - one minor reason they went out of style was the derision of other nations - I remember when I was a young telephony technician (Australia) my work center got a Chrysler Valiant. We loved the engine & automatic transmission which the Americans do so very well, but the steering & handling! OMG! On rough surfaces or undulating roads the "Yank Tank" wallowed like a tanker in heavy seas, with less control. 4:06 the Prius rear end is a remnant of a rear spoiler like racing cars have and actually has a practical purpose. - nothing to do with tail fins.
In New Zealand flocks of a native bird, the Kea, started stripping the Vinyl off the roof of cars. I've seen a picture of a new Jaguar at a dealership with long pieces stripped from the roof. The US ambassadors limousine was also targeted by a Kea flock. After that for NZ a painted roof version was supplied.
Still have quadraphonic 8 track system, and 48 tapes. All have been repaired,spliced and put back together. It’s a labor of love to keep these tapes playing as the 4 channel sound is incredible for its time.
The floor dimmer switch makes a lot of sense. Another thing about 8 tracks, though before my times I’m a late Gen Xer, is they allowed you to skip ahead to any tract you wanted. Although you couldn’t go backwards. Something that was quite neat at a time when CD’s didn’t exist. 50’s car’s and those fins were beautiful. 40’s cars were awesome too. Push buttons were a stupid idea then and they’re a stupid idea now. Gotta say whitewalls look great. Curb feelers look very weird. Just need to be a better driver. T-top: trans am Smokey and the Bandit. The woodies looked good but it took a lot of effort to maintain that wood. Simulated wood would be better.
I'm in the UK and had 4 Series, Hillman minxes😮 in the late 60s, early 70s. They were designed by Raymond Loewy, who designed the Studebaker Hawks of the 50s/60s. They even looked similar. Three of mine had column changes and were actually 4 on the tree. All had bench seats. The first was also a convertible/drop top. Love to go back and get another. Could drive one all day in comfort.
The last floor dimmer switch was a 1991 Ford ute one thing you could research is crank handles l had a couple of 1960s Hillmans that had them also quarter windows vents in Australia the last vehicle to have quarter vents was the 2003 Toyota Hilux Australian model only my 1997 Toyota Hilux has them and another thing is caburators my 1997 Toyota Hilux does have a caburator Australian model also no cat converter the reason was commercial vehicles were exempt from emissions until 1997 in Australia
Some British cars used to have little prisms on top of the front sidelights. They reflected a small quantity of light back at the driver. You could see when the lights were on and exaclty where the front corners of the car were. Very useful for manoeuvring car, especially in low light conditions.
What other old car features do you remember?
Semi-automatic fluid drive. Chrysler introduced this in 1939 as standard equipment on Dodges, DeSotos, and Chryslers. Driver would need to lift his right foot off of the gas pedal for a few seconds for the transmission to shift gears, making a loud clunking sound.Last year for fluid drive was 1954.
Grounding Strips. Before the development of electrically "conductive" tires, many cars had a metal strip fastened to the frame on one end and the other end dragged on the ground. The purpose was to discharge the static electric build up in the car body that would occur while the car was in motion. As a kid, I used to find many of them laying in the street, that had broken off from the cars.
Starter engages next to gas pedal. (Probably less an innovation than necessity). Also wing vent windows. Shade roofs over front window. Where have cigarette lighters gone? For that matter, wind up windows. What about 60s Mercury with wind down rear window?
Dagmars--those bulbous protrusions on the front bumper that reminded folks of Dagmar, the well endowed n regular on the Milton Berle Show.
@@rayfridley6649 didn't VW bugs have a similar setup?
We've moved from foot-operated dimmer to help keep hands on the wheel, to a touchscreen to take your eyes off the road completely. Progress.
Don't forget massive A-pillars on modern cars that significantly restrict vision. Maybe also blinding high temperature LED headlights 😅. Windows so heavily tinted they restrict night vision. I am sure there other examples of modern safety feature that are debatable.
I don’t get it. My Nissan Altima has an auto headlight dimmer feature, which automatically turns the brights off when it senses the lights from an oncoming car at night.
Exactly. My Friend has a Prius and everything is controlled on the screen. I have to ask her to turn the a/c on cause I don't know how to do it.
American cars have had auto headlight dimmers since the 50s. GM called it Autronic eye, it was a common feature on Cadillacs. There was a large photo cell on the dash that looked cool and was the sensor to control the high beams.
Vent windows , floor vents , body on frame construction , real steel , loud horns , full sized spare tire , full size cars , much much much lower prices to name a few.
Remember how Lincoln kept the legacy vent window when everyone else went to single-pane front windows, and it was power ... they knew their market and that senior buyers were used to having the vent (mainly to flick ashes from cigarettes out!)
And rough riding ,poor handling ,noisy ,and unsafe in a wreck.
Loved the sound of the old trumpet horns from the forties. Loud but mellow at the same time. I would grab them and put them into newer cars.
@@georgesheffield1580 I replied to the original post. You are being an annoyance.
@@ronfullerton3162 When people used to do that it would certainly get ones attention ! A blast from a mini truck or a beetle comes to mind.
I miss the headlight dimmer switch in the floor.
Yes, they were very convenient. I understand, though, that they were prone to shorting out from water infiltration.
@gtlfb That's true. But we can make them water proof. My dad had a f150 withe the dimmer switch in the floor. I also miss the manual transmission.
@@gtlfb/ I to miss the high beam switch on the floor.
Yeah, I do too.
Still use mine on my 63 Thunderbird!😊
Side vent windows would be great.
I do miss them.
Amen to that.
We called it "poor man's AC". 😊
They should bring those back.
They should bring those back.
I about spat my coffee when I saw the Family Truckster 🤣
Well played
You think you hate it now. Wait 'til you drive it.
@@endtimes2100 The ironic part about that quote is when I saw the real one built for SEMA just recently, I loved it lol
Is Truckster the car from National Lampoons Vacation? Never had them in Australia, we had the Leyland P76, almost as ugly as the Homer.🇦🇺
@@raymondwelsh6028 yeah that big gnarly station wagon they got. It's one of those that's so ugly you just want to have it, especially with the diesel that was put in the build that was done for SEMA
Is that Aunt Edna on the roof?? Lolol
1:30 I remember the rust that popped up under vinyl roofs. The only way to detect it was by the bulging of the roof where the rust was located. Cars also had the problem of rusting around the chrome borders of windshield and rear windscreens. In fact, cars of the 60s and 70s were rolling rust buckets. As much as I love the vintage cars of the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, I do not miss the rust.
Any state that uses salt to deice their roads. You're gonna have rust on your cars, trust me.
Or if you live along the coast near the ocean.
@@packard5682 I happen to live in Southeast Florida about 10 miles from the beach. The humid climate was disastrous on cars.
@@chuckwadnofski7147It's not like it used to be.
Not even close.
I live in Minnesota.
ever see a 90s car today?
Can you believe this? I work for a large cement company and some of the trucks still have the floor switch and the funnest part I changed one just the other day. I will also mention that we had one on the shelf in the stockroom. True story. 👍🇨🇦
Foot operated turn signals were common on city buses.
@@haweater1555 you are absolutely correct. Worked on a few of them over the years.
The vinyl roof inserts on early cars were there because they couldn't stamp complete roofs . It was technical not for aesthetics.
The woodies were to keep the price low on wagons, then it became a luxury feature after the war.
I miss vent windows and full size spare tires.
I miss the white wall tires, thin stripe.
You can still buy whitewalls, they just aren’t very popular.
@@jacksons1010 oh , i didn’t know . Thanks
Back in my 1st year of college, one of my friends had an old beater '63 Dodge Dart with the push button gearbox, it was pretty cool back then .
I loved the little vent window on my foster dad's Porthole Thunderbird
Remember talking cars? “Door is ajar”. “Lights are on”. “Key in ignition”
Everyone I knew that had one absolutely hated it. It didn’t last long. Peace. Out.
Yeah - now we have a touchscreen to bug you!
My 84 Daytona turbo was a talkie and when I quickly got tired of it I just turned it off via a switch in the glove box
"The door is ajar" No, it's a door
Funny, because a door will never be a jar
The first tape cartridge was the "Stereo-Pak" a 4-track system developed by "Madman" Muntz from a monophonic 2-track system used by broad radio. Bill Lear of LearJet liked it so much he had his engineers modify the system to create the "Stereo 8" 8-track.
My mom worked for a while in his assembly plant in Van Nuys for the stereos. On of his stores was right down the street on Roscoe Bl.
What a California story ... "Muntz" of the 1960's $199 console color TV home entertainment system. Not too good ...
@@ivanleterror9158 I grew up near the large _Muntz_ sign that was on Sepulveda at Burbank.
I would much rather have a foot button for high/low lights. I don't know how many times I've inadvertently turned on my windshield wipers and/or the turn signals. How many times have people been taking a turn at night and had to shift their left hand to go to low beam because there was a car coming from the other direction? That can be dangerous.
The curb feelers actually served another purpose - to make sure the car was within 12" of the curb as required by law.
Mopar’s push button trans shifter was discontinued because a federal regulation took effect in 1965 mandating all automatic transmissions have a common P-R-N-D-L or P-R-N-2-1 shift patterns, not because people didn’t want to buy them.
The city buses where I’m from still use the curb feelers!
You know, curb feelers look kinda stupid, yet they work! My mother had on on the right front of her 1970 Pontiac Stratochief, a huge yacht of a car.
I gave a pair of curb feelers to my ex-girlfriend. (for obvious reasons). She kept knocking merchandise off the shelves in supermarkets.😂
I love the Griswold’s station wagon @08:00 , complete with grandma’s body strapped to the roof lol! This is a real replica and just saw it drive through Florida on its way to the upcoming Mega-Con in Orlando. It even has the dog leash and collar tied to the back bumper!
Edit: I was mistaken about the dead body on the roof. It’s actually Aunt Edna, not grandma (The replica actually has Illinois vanity plates that read “AUNT EDNA” lol). It’s been a minute since I seen the movie,
You watch it that often too? Glad I'm not alone! 😆
I, also recognized the station wagon. Did you realize that they were called station wagons because they could transport large amounts of luggage to the train station?
@@ronaldacarter8079 (As Wayne Campbell) “I was not aware of that”. lol. But seriously, I was not aware of that. That is very interesting and I love learning new things. 👍
My first TWO cars had dimmer switches on the floorboard. And I'm still around kicking and grinning and going out to eat! hahahaha
Swivel seats, salesmen coupes (no rear seat), vacuum windshield wipers, bias-ply tires.
Vacuum operated wipers were the worst! Accelerating from a stop would make the wipers stop working until you let off the gas in my ‘57 Chevy!
Business coupes, right, had the shelf for "sample cases" where the back seat would be.
I do not miss bias-ply tires. My dad bought the best in the 1960's, but you couldn't hope for more than 15K miles from a set, and never made made it to the next set without at least one flat ... Modern radials, 60K miles and when is the last time you had to change one on the road ....?
And in severely cold weather they froze with the flat side making them out of round. It could take a few miles of driving to warm them up and make the flat disappear. Until then, it was a bumpy ride!@@power4things
@@roberttwist5190Agree! My 1955 Chevy BelAire has them and when it did rain in Phoenix, it could come down in buckets - vacuum wipers could never keep up!!!
I do miss white wall tires and vinyl roofs on cars even though vinyl roofs were a pain to keep looking good.
If you wanted to keep a car looking new, for a long time, buying one with a vinyl roof wasn't a good idea!
@@rongendron8705 Every vinyl-top car in the junkyard, is rusty beneath the vinyl. Bad idea, like plastic pick-up bed liners that cause the the bed to rust out from the accumulated water.
and keeping the white walls white.
@@Zebra_3 Until commercial wheel cleaners came along I used to sprinkle Comet on a scrub brush to clean white walls tires.
@@ttop64 be careful w/ those cleaners, some can damage the wheels.
With those wheel covers that covered the rear wheel wells, how did you change a tire? Did those wheel covers pop out easily and get positioned in place easily?
They are called "fender skirts" or "wheel spats" depending on where you're from, and yes they are removable. There are guiding pins that keep them in position when mounted and help you install them easily, and there is usually a spring mechanism that clamps the fender skirt to the wheel well from behind so you don't even need tools to remove them. It's not difficult to change a tire on a car with fender skirts, the skirts are usually pretty simple to remove and then there's plenty of room. I own a car with fender skirts and never had a problem with them.
@@CraigerAceSome of the guys I knew that had them would take them off as soon as the winter weather hit. If ran through slush, they could end up frozen in place.
I liked the starter on the floor next to the gas pedal.
Push button drives were designed by Borg Warner for Packards and Edsel-Mercury-Lincoln using a starter motor to move the shift cable. Chrysler's was all-mechanical and more reliable. They changed to a column shift like everyone else because people didn't like to rent them at Hertz.
Actually, they were effectively outlawed by Government mandate, for the 65 model year, requiring a standardized automatic shift pattern.
Wood bodies were also for replacing steel for the war. My1950 Ford sedan had 2 early items no longer found. The wipers were powered by engine vacuum instead of electrical power. And it had an actual heater with coils that heated like a bathroom wall heater and a little fan that pushed air into the interior.
My 55 Jeep Station Wagon has vacuum wipers with the vacuum being made by the fuel pump lol
and some off of the intake manifold similar to how the earliest smog devices that suck the crank case emissions back through the manifold just below the carburetor. did yours slow down during acceleration and speed up decelerating?@@Randy7th
My 2016 Toyota Hilux has an electric heater element as well as the normal heater matrix this is turned on separately and is to make sure heat is available when ticking over in cold climates, it only works in Park Or Neutral and switches itself off when the coolant temperature is sufficient, great also for de icing in the winter 👍🏻🇬🇧
Cars were not made during the war
You're right. Feb. 19, 1942 was when the manufacturing of American cars and trucks for the consumer market stopped. The war had been raging for two years already, but the U.S. hadn't joined the party yet. They made up for lost time, though, giving both the Germans, Italians and Japanese a taste of their own medicine. Cheers from Canada!@@raymondclark1785
An 8-track player under the dash and an FM-converter in the glove box. Woo-hoo!
Whomever ordered my 70 Dodge Charger R/T special ordered an AM/8 Track lol, it was an $900 option-same as the 6 barrel on it!
@@Randy7th which is like $7000 today! Two shockers, cost of the 8-track and how $ is worthless now.
My first car is 67 Ford Mustang Fastback was an automatic and it had a odd pedal over by the where your left foot would rest so out of curiosity I put my foot on it and pressed it and water shot out of the the little Jets on the hood to hit the windshield but if you stepped on it real hard you could spray it all the way over to the back of the car
Nobody mentions The Four Track player I had one
The only thing I remember about 8 track players is how easy it was for thieves to steal them.
I bought a car in 1982 that had an 8-track stereo made by Blaupunkt. Although the the technology was antique the electronics were state of the art. Best sound system I ever had in a car.
I thought curb feelers was a good idea !
I'm sure you can still get them.
I remember curb feelers and automatic seatbelts. My dad’s 1960 Plymouth Pioneer station wagon had a push button transmission. My first car had a floorboard dimmer switch, a vinyl roof and a portable 8 track tape player.
Going way back, engine starter motors didnt have a solenoid to engage the pinion gear, so it took some effort pulling against a return spring to start. Pedal-operated starters were common.
And some cars had a push button on the floor to crank the starter right below the gas pedal.
Push button automatic transmissions the one on our old Dodge worked perfectly.
The floor dimmer switch is something that should be standard on all modern cars.
No, they died out for a reason. There was no consumer push back when American car makers dropped the floor switch; it wasn’t controversial at all.
My Mercedes benz has the automatic light system, switching high beam when there is no one in front of the car, I really like it.
Part of the problem was that the floor switch was vulnerable to water and dirt making it difficult to push after a few years.
Clark W Griswold would be proud. The Wagon Queen Family Truckster rides again! "You think you hate it now, but wait 'til you drive it."
Yes...the Griswold car was build just only for the movie (5 Cars) and wasnt a serial car.
The T top would still look good today on some cars.
We had several cars with the foot operated dimmer, a very handy feature I miss. I understand they were prone to damage from dirt and moisture.
Coming from New Zealand and visiting the US in 1980, one of the first things I saw was the Car Wickers. Thought it was a very good idea to stop scrapping your tyres.
I liked vinyl tops, there was a product available to keep them nice looking.
I had a 1946 Ford Deluxe with the "Wonder Bar" radio that had a button on the floor just like, and next to, the dimmer switch on the floor. The radio had presets you could set for stations and a sort of horizontal bar feature that you pushed down with your fingers and it advanced to the next position. Pushing the button on the floor energized a solenoid that pushed that same bar down. So you could change stations hands free.
I remember as a kid riding with my friend in his dad's car that had this feature. His dad told us to check out this cool feature as he grabbed the sun visor and tipped it down a bit to change the radio station. We were in the back and couldn't see dad pressing the floor button. I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. Why put the radio switch on the visor when you could just reach the radio on the dashboard. Had a good laugh over that.
Vinyl roofs were cheaper than painted because it eliminated the need to correct hood finish issues.
Ridin round town with all the windows down,
8 track's playing all my favorite sounds...
Pop up head light I have a Corvette that has headlight that not only Pop but but flip the Corvette had hidden or Pop up lights from 1963 to2004
I have fondest memories of my 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser, a cream-color woodie station wagon. V6, 3.3, front wheel drive... and a warm feeling of being home.
Curb feelers were not only good to keep from getting too close, but also good to help getting closer (so that when you got out and looked you weren't 2 feet away).
The reason why you still see vinyl roofs on cars is it's actually cheaper to put a vinyl roof on a car then it is to completely finish it off and paint it. That's why it was used for so many years in the first place.
Glad. The 8 track player in my Ford Thunderbird stil work's. Whitewall tires actually last longer. It's opposite than the video says.
Never heard of an 8 track. And we had a beta max.
8-tracks were the first hi-fidelity music system that were widely made for automotive use. Prior to that was the 4-track systems, which only held half the music of the 8-track. The radio cart used in broadcast stations required a rubber driven wheel to operate. This required the user to operate a lever to lift the rubber wheel into position. 8-tracks came with the wheel already installed. At this time, cassette tapes were limited fidelity and not really great for automobile use. But times change and the 8-tracks were eventually replaced by the cassette. Those in turn were replaced by CDs and then mp3 players.
At the time of the dawning of cassettes I worked in an automotive stereo shop and installed car stereos. I had a lucrative side business repairing 8-track tapes. I've only covered the bare bones of the evolution of car music systems. As each system became more sophisticated and the audio reproduction improved, new formats edged out the older systems.
FYI, beta max was dropped in favor of the VHS...
That's true. It's all about saving time on tape. VHS allowed up to 8 hours.@@KreemieNewgatt
Spark advance, next to steering wheel, Choke and throttle cable, crank out windshield, as well as cowl vent, and wing vent, power ash tray (vacuum operated) venetian blinds in rear window, hand crank to start car (going way back)
The robe cord (blanket rope) that traversed the back of the front bench seat from which a blanket was hung. Thus in winter, the cold rear seat passengers could stay warm by cloaking themselves with the blanket.
The '55 Oldsmobile had it.
Many cars once had vacuum operated wipers. I replaced them on my 1968 AMC Javelin with the electric wiper motor from a 1971 Javelin. But, the added electric draw meant I had to change to a heavy duty alternator to keep the battery from discharging if I ran wipers, headlights and defroster together. 🙄
I always and still do like the look of a vinyl top on an automobile. They started fading away in the mid 1970s mainly because they had never been popular on high-end European cars.
This brought back memories, especially the the floor switch. It was once second nature to me step on it to turn the high beams on and off. And in the 60's "Push Button" was the equivalent of "Digital" today. My family had a couple of Dodge Station wagons with the push button shift.
I miss the little push open windows you could let cigarette smoke out without freezing your ears.
Stop smoking do have a death wish
I like how it ended with that Wagon Queen Family Truckster. “This is YOUR automobile!”
I remember the curb finders, my dad added them to our cars when mom was learning to drive. I know they are considered stupid but they worked.
I also loved skirts. I had some 1950 and 1951 Fords with skirts on them. They looked sharp. 😊
You always knew somebody had had a flat in the rear because they couldn't re-attach (or didn't bother with) the skirt afterwards.
The good ol’ Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait til you drive it.
remember rumble seats? those were super fun for us kids. they were in the da6 when you could load up the back of a pick up truck with children ,dogs and any other thing you could cram in there .
complexity unsafe but that's when everyone accepted that life was unsafe so why worry and just have some fun
"White wall tires! They say 'Look at me! Here I am! _Love me!'"_
"Pit stop", Luigi 😆
White walls added class . But they were a lot of work.
Westley’s white wall cleaner was my go to back then.
I'd like a video on tucker cars. They had a 3rd headlight that moves toward the direction the car was turned.
Curb feelers are still very popular on lowriders. For good reason
I had a arc 1000 45rpm record player under the dash that held 10 records and played them upside down. Also had a motorola reverb in the trunk. This was in 1965.
I had the Motorola reverb unit also. They had a very good sound as compared to other brands.
70 years isn't exactly a short time. The floor switch lasted longer than the space shuttle, the vcr, CRTs, just to name a few things.
I need to go back in time.
Never left
Uncle Rico has a has a time machine he’ll sell for cheap!
See-ya.
I’ve been accused of living in the past. That’s ok. I can be in two places at the same time that way.😂
Automatic seatbelts in the VW were 3-points. saved my friend's life in college.
BRING BACK THE WHITE WALLS
White wall tires should still be used for luxury autos as a sort of status, symbol.
Yes, you can still get them in certain sizes, but they are expensive. Small batch productions for vintage car enthusiast.
They had poor man white walls,they glued onto the tire,I never could afford or want them.
For a long time, every street corner had big wads of 8-track tape sitting there as the tape would eventually tangle up in the player and people would yank it out.
We used to say back then that the wood sides were not part of the design. Someone had forgotten to remove part of the packing crate!
My uncle used his push-button transmission to back off tailgaters. If R was pushed while the car was going down the road, the transmission would not shift, but the reverse lights came on.
I heard a story of a guy in NYC who worked at JFK and got hold of a landing light from a 737 to put in his back window, a quick flip would deter tailgaters without frying his electrical system. Illegal I'm sure, but effective and I would like to hear the other guy explain to police that he saw a "bright light coming from the guy's car .."
7:58- I didn't realize a dead aunt Edna strapped to the roof was a common feature at one time.
I had a 1993 Subaru Loyale with automatic seat belts. I never had a problem with them, and could never figure out why so many people hated them.
Love it!!!! Had one in my 1964 Dodge Dart. Wish I still had the car. Love from Marysville California
At 8:05 ..The Griswold's car!!! Holiday Road!!!!
Wagon Queen Family Truckster!
It was my understanding that Chrysler eliminated push button transmissions because the Feds required a "standard shift pattern" for automatics in 1965.
When my grandfather first drove his new 1979 Chevy Impala, he removed the floor mat while trying to find the dimmer switch.
Vinyl roofs were loved by the car companies as they didn't require so much body prep on the top as painting them did
Tail fins - one minor reason they went out of style was the derision of other nations - I remember when I was a young telephony technician (Australia) my work center got a Chrysler Valiant.
We loved the engine & automatic transmission which the Americans do so very well, but the steering & handling! OMG! On rough surfaces or undulating roads the "Yank Tank" wallowed like a tanker in heavy seas, with less control.
4:06 the Prius rear end is a remnant of a rear spoiler like racing cars have and actually has a practical purpose. - nothing to do with tail fins.
How well we remember these cars. Too bad the Woodies left.
Machine guns behind the headlights, you only ever saw them in one car, then never again. Lol
Patented in 1951and used in a 1948 prototype.
He sure is lucky nobody stole his idea for those three years.
Wow I love your videos! Subscribed! ❤
Who else had the converter you plugged into the 8-track to use cassette tapes?
or the cassette adapter to plug in your portable CD player or mini-disk?
Push button transmissions are back
My mom had a '57 Chevy Bel Aire . Loved it but I was too young to drive it. My grandmother had a beautiful red 60 Impala
In New Zealand flocks of a native bird, the Kea, started stripping the Vinyl off the roof of cars. I've seen a picture of a new Jaguar at a dealership with long pieces stripped from the roof. The US ambassadors limousine was also targeted by a Kea flock. After that for NZ a painted roof version was supplied.
T- top roofs were great; unless it started to rain & you're driving with no place to pull over and put the parts back on.
8 track tapes were a nightmare.
Still have quadraphonic 8 track system, and 48 tapes. All have been repaired,spliced and put back together. It’s a labor of love to keep these tapes playing as the 4 channel sound is incredible for its time.
U forgot ejector seats in Aston Martins. A must have
The floor dimmer switch makes a lot of sense.
Another thing about 8 tracks, though before my times I’m a late Gen Xer, is they allowed you to skip ahead to any tract you wanted. Although you couldn’t go backwards. Something that was quite neat at a time when CD’s didn’t exist.
50’s car’s and those fins were beautiful. 40’s cars were awesome too.
Push buttons were a stupid idea then and they’re a stupid idea now.
Gotta say whitewalls look great.
Curb feelers look very weird. Just need to be a better driver.
T-top: trans am Smokey and the Bandit.
The woodies looked good but it took a lot of effort to maintain that wood. Simulated wood would be better.
I also liked Chrysler's push button drive. I learned to drive in the 60s in Chrysler vehicles.
I loved my wing vents on my 67 Camaro.
Luggage racks too.
Biggest problem with transitioning from floor dimmer switch to column mounted was Blond Women would get their feet trapped in the steering wheel 🤔
Hilarious. 😑
I laughed
You miss mentioning wind-wings
I'm in the UK and had 4 Series, Hillman minxes😮 in the late 60s, early 70s. They were designed by Raymond Loewy, who designed the Studebaker Hawks of the 50s/60s. They even looked similar. Three of mine had column changes and were actually 4 on the tree. All had bench seats. The first was also a convertible/drop top. Love to go back and get another. Could drive one all day in comfort.
I had forgotten all about the high beam switch on the floor.
I drive a 2020 GMC and it has a pusb button system. Took some getting use to but I like it.
The last floor dimmer switch was a 1991 Ford ute one thing you could research is crank handles l had a couple of 1960s Hillmans that had them also quarter windows vents in Australia the last vehicle to have quarter vents was the 2003 Toyota Hilux Australian model only my 1997 Toyota Hilux has them and another thing is caburators my 1997 Toyota Hilux does have a caburator Australian model also no cat converter the reason was commercial vehicles were exempt from emissions until 1997 in Australia
And if you are really old (like myself) you will remember before the 8-track tape, there was the 4-track!.
Some British cars used to have little prisms on top of the front sidelights. They reflected a small quantity of light back at the driver. You could see when the lights were on and exaclty where the front corners of the car were. Very useful for manoeuvring car, especially in low light conditions.
I didn't know that!
Actually the push button transmission on the family 1959 Plymouth worked extremely well. Not sure why it didn't continue for auto transmissions.