honeymoon car

We were married in 1956. I owned a 1948 Chrysler New Yorker.

That was the big Chrysler. It had lots of inside room, vented heater to the back seat, a lot of comfort and a strange transmission. It also had a straight 8 flathead engine. The head had to be 36” long. Gas mileage: 15 most of the time.

But it was 8 years old. I paid $175 for it and it was thought of as an old car. Cars did not go too far in those days. The New Yorker was low mileage and drove well. It was a decent ride.

My Dodge pickup is now 6 years old (I bought it April 1, 2003). And I consider it quite up to date. It is up to date and my New Yorker, only 2 years older, was regarded as an “old” car. Hmm.

Cars did not go too far in those days. A car with 100,000 miles was pretty well unsalable. It was worn out. Most current cars just come into their own at about that istance.

I guess that is just a gear head reminder of how things change. My last pickup, a 1992 Chevy, went for 240,000 before I sold it. The new owner was sure he could get it to go 300,000 miles on the original engine, but it was wrecked at 250,000. We will never know.

There are lot of Hondas and Toyotas out there with 300,000 and 400,000 miles and are still going strong. You can argue about the quality of cars now as compared with times past, but there is no comparison at all mechanically.

Maybe the old days weren’t so good after all. The cars surely had character, but they were not built as well, not nearly as well.

And I did not even talk about those old tires.