Category: Let's talk
Since we were talking about cars in quick notes, I figured I'd post something that I wrote awhile ago related to the subject.
Of course, I can't drive as a totally blind person, NFB and their dreams aside. But I can own a car, and while it's unaffordable for me to do so now, I can't help but think of what I would like in one. I'm wondering if anything like this exists.
Essentials
These are things that the car must have.
Safety: I want a car with a good safety rating, not a tin can. The materials should be solid and not flimsy. Seatbelts are a must. I know it sounds strange to say that, but some older cars don't have them.
Windows/Locks: I want these to be manual. In fact, I'd like a car with no computerised parts, including the ignition and keys. I was thinking of making an exception for antilock brakes, but these can't be fixed by the owner. To be fair, though, I have heard of cars from the 70's with computerised parts.
Year: I'd like to get a car as new as possible, given my demands so that the chances of it breaking down are minimal. But I'm not sure how modern I could go. I'm guessing 80's or maybe 90's? No earlier than 1965. I would really love to take a ride in a car from The Revolution (1967-74). We used to own a 73 Hornet and I loved that car!
Repairs: I want a car that can be fixed by the owner. I won't be able to do it myself, since I don't have the sight, know-how, tools or room, but if it can't be fixed in a garage, I don't want it. An exception would be if a part is very specialised or requires a special tool that most home mechanics wouldn't have.
Transmition: This can be manual or automatic. Many people in America don't know how to drive manuals so I might be stuck with the latter.
Doors: Preferably, I'd like a four-door, though I'll except a two-door if the car really meets my expectations.
Engine: I want it to have a suitable volume, not loud enough to drown out speech (think 50's cars/Christine) but not barely audible like the ones today. I hate quiet cars. Four cylinder is probably best. While V8s have great sound, they use a lot of energy and cost more money in the longterm.
Ride: I want to feel the ride, not feel as if I'm in the air. That said, I do want the shocks to be working properly so that the car doesn't get damaged.
Accessories: An AM FM radio with cassette player is a must, though it can be a later edition rather than something which originally came with the car. I don't really use air conditioning but don't mind it so long as it's safe to use (freon etc.). Heating, of course, is a necessity. Cup holders, ash trays and a cigarette lighter would be nice.
Trunk/boot: Ideally, I would like it to be large, or at least large enough to hold groceries or luggage. If not, then I'd like room in the back, behind the seats.
Seats: As much as I love leather, it's hot and sticky in the summer time. So it would be better to go with fabric.
Glove Compartment /glove box: While most cars have these, I've actually seen some that don't. This is a necessity for keeping important documents etc.
Optional
These are not necessary but are nice additions.
All-Wheel-Drive or Four-Wheel-Drive: Looking up these words in Wikipedia shows that these terms, while different, are often used interchangeably and incorrectly. I want a car with the ability to have good traction in ice and snow, whether via a switch or automatically.
Good quality speakers: I like a decent stereo sound but I don't mean surround sound and speakers that blast your ear drums out. Just something that has a nice base and full sound.
Tape compartment: While it's generally not a good idea to leave tapes in the car during extreme heat or cold, I do like cars that have a little storage area for them.
So, does such a car exist? Is there anything that you think I've left out?
Safety concerns are a new, modern, not old, phenomenoon n vehicles. Older cars used to always break down and while they could be fixed by a responsible owner, I will never forgery my father working every single Saturday in the rain if necessary, to keep the car running. You obviously haven't paid for parts for a vehicle. Parts that wear out, which means parts for older cars, cost quite a bit. New cars can go 20 to 30 *thousand* miles before their first tune-up. They exhaust less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You just can't have what you want from the new disguised as the old. It's not physically possible.
New cars exhaust less in part because of the computer systems onboard. I'm sure you can probably find a loony site singing the praises of a 1950s car while claiming to be able to make it all modern without using any of the modern parts.
And, I can as easily scramble eggs without any eggs.
True, they can cost a bit. But so can the digital things, many times more than the old parts because you have to pay for the parts plus the labour. Of course, I've never owned my own car, but I'll never forget how Joanie had to wait for over an hour just to get her key changed or to have them make a new key, I forget. But instead of just making the key, they had to program the ignition! On the other hand, I do remember Grandma selling her amazing Renault because it was getting old and parts for it were expensive. But to be fair, they had to be imported from Canada and those cars aren't exactly common around here.
Oh, and I've never heard of a new car disguised as an old one, though I did think that at least some are made with less computerised things, manual windows and locks as an example.
Considering that many of the things you claim are polar opposites, no, its not possible. All wheel drive is controlled by a computer, a basic one, but a computer no less. Automatic transmisions are controlled by a computer. Not a single car has been made without some kind of computer in it since the sixties. They were basic, and could barely be called a computer, but they were there, and they were digital. If you want a car that has absolutely no digital parts, is safe, made of good quality parts, is all steel in fact, gives nothing out into the enviriomnemtn (if you care about such things), and is actually relatively safe, all things considered, get a stanley.
I've never heard of a stanley. What are they? Also, I was unaware that automatic transmissions required a computer. Very interesting! Now I need to rethink that. Still,, they're not really computers as we think of them today, so the car might otherwise be considered normal and/or analogue.
How else would they be automatic? You have to have a process controller of some sort to know when to change gears. Unlike idealism, there is no magic involved with technology, be it mechanical or otherwise.
I've heard of controllers that work via electrical pulses, punch cards, air, gravity, steam, timers etc. I'm not an auto mechanic so have no clue what's needed to change the gears in a car when the driver isn't doing it. Usually, when I think of a computer, it's something with a cpu, some kind of operating system, be it regular or imbedded, microchips with tons of information etc. Of course, the ENIAC was also a computer as was the Antikythera Mechanism, but that's not what normally comes to my mind when I hear the word. So naturally, I'm imagining that the car would have some kind of digital processor, but I could be completely wrong there. Prior to hearing this, I thought that an automatic transmission ran on some kind of analogue system.
All of that aside, are there any cars which meet most of my specs?
Punch cards are just imput to a digital processor. All computation is digital, except the adding machines of the 1890s which were used to take the census in 1890.
No automobile would have used punch cards. The steam-driven computer was a Babbage innovation: Babbage was so progressive he out-invented even the scientific understanding of his time, so his machine couldn't be constructed until years after his death. It, like lots of idealistic thought, sits in a museum for the rest of us to walk by and gawk at.
I was pretty sure that punch cards wouldn't be an option here. *smile* In any case, that's very interesting about Babbage and his machine. I know the name but can't place it. I'll need to look him up.
Yes, there is a car that meets your specs, its called the stanley. Stanly made a lot of cars, well, car-esque automobiles. A few people still own them, and the gass milage is incredible.
I own a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice, probably the last one built with no computer, and it has an automatic transmission, no electronic computer required to shift gears, it works using something called a modulator valvve located on the side of the transmission, which operates on vacuum from the carburetor, when the car accelerates the vacuum is low, as the speed of the car increases the vacuum increases allowing the transmission to shif to the next gear, it is all done mechanically. When the accelerator is pressed to the floor, a cable running from the throttle to the transmisssion shiftss it into passing gear, once the speed increases the transmission shifts back into high gear as before.
Today I was bored so decided to look up the Stanley, since I've been curious about it for awhile now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Motor_Carriage_Company
I had no idea that it was a steam car! That's not exactly what I was considering, but I've always wondered if such a thing existed and thought it would be really cool if it did. When you said that there are still some running today, I thought you were kidding! But no. Here's one from 1911 working so perfectly that it's owner actually took it out on the regular street with all the modern cars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qewjPqeh19Q
It sounds really neat. Actually, it reminds me of a sewing machine. There are even some modern ones around, including one that, in 2009, finally broke the 103-year-old record, held by the Stanley, for the fastest steam car. There's even a rally specifically devoted to steam cars! I'm sure I could never afford one in my wildest dreams, and I have no idea what the maintenance costs would be, but I'd love to ride on one.
As for the 1979 Chevrolet, that makes perfect sense. I fail to see why a computer would be needed for shifting gears, and this demonstrates that quite nicely. I'm not saying that no cars should have them, but some here made it seem like that was an impossibility.
Carburetors are less efficient than fuel injection systems, so if you have the funds for the excessive gas and are willing to spue forth the exhaust, have at it.
As to a steam engine, Eleni, they are interesting as hobby shows - even the Babbage machine is in a museum someplace. But much strip mining and deforestation was the direct result of the steam engine: far more cubic feet of fuel necessary than any liquid fuel. Mostly wood to heat the fire, and coal to maintain it at a high enough temperature to keep the boilers going. I suppose someone may now have a petroleum-based engine which heats the boiler which manages steam production for the steam apparatus: yet again a modern virtual bubble for idealists. But don't fool yourself: it was done away with because it was fuel-inefficient and dangerous: boilers exploded, fires started across American forests from the steam trains, and the retro-idealists of their day would have had it done away with because all modern technologies were, in their words of the time, diabolical. Union Pacific may still have the letter sent them by such a person: a 19th-century version of you. And now we have you, looking back on that as ideal.
I'm not reaching when I say I've rarely, if ever, seen such irony.
lol I never said that a steam engine car is ideal. I said it's neat/interesting. I was hoping for something from the 60's through maybe the 80's, as I doubt I could get much newer than that with my specs. But if I could, all the better! I actually thought, like you, that steam engines were very dangerous. So I was extremely surprised when I read that there was never a boiler explosion or accident with a Stanley. Yes, the modern car that I heard about on Youtube uses propane and not coal or wood. I would assume that this is much safer and cleaner. It had 12 boilers but wasn't designed to travel as a normal car, only to beat the speed record. I doubt a regular one would need that much power.