Lost that elusive thing?

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
859
Reaction score
298
Location
UK
My Car
Various
How do cars of today compare to your vintage Stang?

I've had a full car resume like most… CLK350 Merc, XK8 Jaguar, 5 Series BMW (e39) , 760 Volvo (yuk) etc.

Is it me, or have modern cars lost personality?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
If car manufacturers these days wouldn't put emblems on their cars you probably wouldn't be able to tell what brand it is. Back in the day you saw a car from far away and you could tell the manufacturer! So sad!

 
T5 now THAT is the truth. love the ad's on tv showing 4 or 5 suv's and the badge is covered.. i can't tell which is which..

as far as our cars comparing to the new stangs.... well the new one's have a lot more HP and $$$$$$ signs. i looked at a shelby gt yesterday. sticker was $61 grand.

when i was in ocean city md last spring i'd see a ton of newer stangs burn'n the rubber off... buy a used one... ah no.. they been beat up.

 
buy a used one... ah no.. they been beat up.
Of course ours were driven around by the little old ladies from Pasadena :)

I agree with the lack of identity, cars are designed by computers now days, to get the coefficient of drag low enough to help pass the EPA mandated corporate fuel averages.

 
I for sure would rather have a crash in a new mustang over an old one. You cannot tell what kind of car it was when some of the classics crash. But it does not take much to total one today. It is impossible to fix some situations with the dual phase steel they use.

Guys will hop up the engine in their classic get 500 HP and not put in better belts or a cage. If you crash you are going to die. There is a facebook page that posts pics of crashed classics and lots of them you can only tell if you see an emblem what they are. Here is link, https://www.facebook.com/groups/414401702003564/

I know how much it cost to build a car and I could never force myself to pay what they want. The assembly costs have actually gone down with the elimination of manpower. They use to stand shoulder to shoulder down the line now you see very few people except in final assembly.

Ford forces their suppliers to give back money each year by reducing the price from 3% to 5% each year you run the parts. If people would stop buying them the price would fall.

I know people at Harley and they said they could sell their bikes for $10,000 and still make money but people keep buying so they keep going up.

 
1sostatic, You have very well summed it up. We are now riding in safe comfortable cars that drive and brake for us, notify us if were are about to do a "Lane Departure", and have adaptive cruise control to disengage and brake if we dare get too close to the car in front of us. It will even parallel park for us if we don't want to be bothered with such a mundane task. But It's also sure nice to have 400+ horsepower V8's  that get fuel mileage  the 4 and 6 cylinder cars from years ago couldn't even dream about.

  As Don C  posted, these cars are computer designed to look for the good CD numbers and that hoods, front bumpers and outside rearview mirrors are "Pedestrian" safe!  And....have the personality and excitement you would feel with a new microwave oven in your kitchen.

I remember the first time I sat behind the wheel of my Dad's 66 Mustang. I remember the "Tingly" feeling I had in my fingertips when I placed my hands on the steering wheel and looked down that hood. I thought I had won the lottery!

I have a 2018 Mustang in our "Fleet" that is fast, handles like it is on rails and would run circles around any Mustang I have ever owned. But that "Tingly" feeling is just not there.   :)

 
David- Didn't you say in a thread a while ago that a new BMW only costs around $15K to manufacture? Same goes for the Lincoln Navigator L I bought for my wife a few years back. Underneath it's a Ford F-150 pickup with a roof over the rear seats, much better trim, and a huge markup. As far as old versus new, I also have a '85 Ferrari Mondial convertible, same chassis and drivetrain as the Ferrari 308 (mid-engine 3.0L V8, gated 5 speed, think Magnum P.I. era). It's a classic sports car driving experience, with all of the correct noises and driver feedback occurring. A cool difference is that you have to keep the revs up (7600 rpm redline but I don't go anywhere near there) in order to keep making power. It's quite different from the driving experience of my other car with a 429 CJ up front, where you are slapped in the back right after a shift. Some of the guys on the Ferrari forum say the newer ones just don't have the personality. They drive and handle so smoothly, and there are no manual transmissions any longer for years now. There is of course massive horsepower, and you know you're in something special when you accelerate, but they feel nothing like the older cars. Of course modern computer design has eliminated much of the NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) from vehicles, but it's not only that which we are no longer experiencing. Don't get me wrong, the reliability of modern cars is incredible, but the character is gone. As far as the body styles, I am old enough to remember how shocking it was when the original Ford Taurus came out, and we thought it was a jellybean. That original design almost looks like a brick now. lol

 
What is sad these days is that there is near zero car I'd really like to have.

I recall looking at some cars in the past and think, one day I'll own one of these... but these days, its flat line on the emotions.

When the Tesla S came out, with its new tech, nice design, great perf, I started be more exited and then the other boys came into the game and then poof, average basic designs, perf for grand ma's, absurd prices... no thx.

 
Don't know. With the push of two buttons I can turn my 2017 Boxster S into about all most would want to manage.

 
I call it SOUL. The new cars have no soul, no depth, no presence. The new cars are simply machines, made by machines. Many older things.....cars, aircraft, houses....that were hand made by people, show outward signs of human craftsmanship, giving these things a "personality". You can look at the woodwork on an old Victorian House, or gaze at spectacular chrome accents on older cars, and marvel at the though of someone, some person, a human being, that took pride in making that. Todays vehicles won't last the 40-50 plus years the old cars do. The new cars, as are most everything else, have been designed to operate just so long, then replace. Like TVs today, you don't call the television repairman, you can't go down to the local grocery store and check all the tubes, throw it away.

Old cars, however, are not just "things", they're more like old friends, they have "soul". When you own a car, not because you want to impress someone else, but because you'd own it if no one else cared, it's talking to you.

Given the choice, most Astronauts would jump at the chance to fly an old Piper Cub, or a WWII P-51 Mustang, even though they have at their fingertips the most advanced, technologically controlled aircraft existing. Like the new cars, the computers are controlling those high-tech aircraft, the pilot merely operates the computer controls. No,.... pilots want to really fly the aircraft, feel the input to the stick. Cars today don't have a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front steering assembly, it's steer by wire. New car brakes and transmissions talk to computers as well. Coldy controlling human imput. Have I gone too far in my opinion here about the new stuff? Sorry.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top