Remember the Old Clunkers ?

You’re in your 20’s? I thought for sure you were a boomer. Mind blown.

 

Yeah right? I pegged him as at least 65.

 

I'm talking about 2020s, not 2009.

 

The fact that nearly 30 year old Tempos, which were widely panned as milquetoast at best when they were being built, were still being driven as primary daily in the 2020s goes to show the idiocy of of labeling older cars as "clunkers" just rid of them..

 

But it’s so fulfilling to blame one thing for a complex situation lol.

I think the floor for the price of clunkers is also set by how serviceable. If it has good tires, brakes, and needs no structural work, the. It’s going to command a price that represents it’s state.

The clunkers from back in the day I remember were barely roadworthy, and inspired so little confidence that you’d never want to fill it up more than a quarter tank at a time.

I still see cars like that around. With prices that in the low single digit thousands. The problem is that title and registration costs so damn much you don’t want to be doing that every year as the clunkers clunk out. Any maintainance or tires, brakes, can outstrip the value of the car too.

I think if most of us saw an actual clunker being put to use by a frugal owner today, we would yell at clouds that the youngins are driving cars that are a danger to the public lol. Because they kinda are.

 

I’ve noticed that the PT Loser/Cruiser is a popular clunker car for high school kids. They are either gifted from grandparents or bought cheap from an elderly person with low miles on them.

 

They weren't terrible cars, the entire underpin being shared with the Neon meant it was fairly easy to keep going short of serious corrosion.

 

My first car was a 1974 Ford Pinto (Brown) and cost my dad $400, I hated that car. I (like the dumb kid I was) ran it out of oil and blew up the engine. No way dad buying another car for his quite obviously undeserving kid so off to the junkyard we went. A day or so later it was back on the road. My younger brother had a Pontiac Sunbird. While it never seemed to want to start when he actually needed it, it would spontaneously start up in the driveway. It was also a piece of garbage. While as an old man I do like having reliable cars, part of me misses the days when having a beater was the norm. My sons know how to work on their cars - one is a trained mechanic and was a Mercedes tech for a while - but I find that it is not the norm. I had an an adult friend who said that if he got a flat he would have to call his dad to help because he didn't know how to change it. If one of my kids calls me to come change a tire because they don't know how I think I tell them to figure it out and hang up on them - just like my dad would have done to me.

I really don't like the auto-shutoff they have on cars these days. I have owned enough cars that I lived in fear of them stalling because I was not sure I could get them started again that when a car stops running at a redlight I instinctively panic.

I think having a beater makes you resourceful out of necessity.

Oh - and I am also shocked that icebear is in his 20's.

 

Some of my best memories are from the beaters I used to own and drive. I had a Ford Galaxy 500 once, looked pretty good from the drivers side. The passenger side was caved in. I remember it had snow tires on it (I lived in San Diego)
Vinyl upholstery was in good shape, engine leaked oil from the pan. There was a stream of oil all the way down the street. The vibration from the snow tires wore the lug nut holes on the rims out of round. I have no memory of who I sold that car to!

 

I had a VW bug once, (Year?) the battery was mounted under the back seat directly on top of the metal pan. The battery acid ate a hole thru the floor pan. I cleaned up the rot and rust with a wire brush, got some sheet metal and pop riveted the sheet metal over the hole. Took roofing tar and coated the sheet metal top and bottom side of the pan. Good as new!

 

I had an old green Datsun flat bed truck with wooden stake sides. It had dual tires on the rear. I decided to paint the rims bright yellow, why? I probably had some yellow spray paint laying around! I had an idiot Samoyed that liked to ride in the flatbed, that dog was as smart as he was dumb sometimes. One time going down the freeway he managed to climb up onto the roof of the cab. I only managed to yank him off because I had a sliding window in the cab to reach out and yank his rear legs down. I really liked that truck, only sold it because I blew the head gasket.

 

I heard a quote somewhere (maybe here?) that said (not verbatim), "if i'm not nervous i'm going to make it to my destination in what i'm driving, then there is no thrill to the drive" or something along those lines. A little extreme, however, somewhat true. I've been DD'ing my project car Mustang lately for fun, and there is a little bit of that mantra that holds true when i'm driving it to/from work. Keeps me more engaged.

 

My kid got my 16 yr old Venza. Still rocking and I don't care if he hits stuff with it. Not a clunker but definitely not snazzy.

 

Those are rookie numbers, ya gotta pump it way up. My kids are not getting my 21 year old manual Corolla.

 

If I had a Corolla that would be the go to. The smaller the better! The Venza has a V6 so it's got extra get up and go he doesn't need.

 

My first car was a 1972 Ford Thunderbird. Bought it from the owners of a small mom and pop store that I worked PT at for around $300.00 (they knew how much I could afford since I was on their payroll) It had +70K miles on the odometer and ran like a top but that 429 consumed oodles of gas (like my 5th gen), glad gas was only like $ 0.75 / gal back then!

 

like they say, driving a slow car fast is more fun than driving a fast car slow.

Though with the tiny tires and no torque converter to dull the pull. the front end is always ready to squeal in first and 2nd gear from a stand still.

 

I almost choked on my coffee reading this about the dog on the roof! I was just getting to take a nice sip when it hit me how funny that was, and you snatching that dog by the hind legs through the rear window!

 

My sister had my 1985 Tempo as her first car. She was getting a new 1994 Tempo and I bought the 85 back for my beater and winter car

I called it the shh tempo but I loved it. As Ferris Bueller would say it may a pos but better than no pos

My sister asked me to sell that 94 tempo in 2004 when was married and starting her family. It was a two door and not good with car seats. I should have kept it. It had 60k miles and I sold it within two hours of parking it with a 4sale sign.

But it went to a good place another college kid who needed some wheels so went to good use.

Ironically the new 4 cylinders engine of today sound no more refined than the one from 1994 or 1985 Tempos.

 

I remember when gas was .37 cents a gallon.

 

I loved the 86 Tempo GL we had. It was silver so my friends and I called it the "silver bullet". Not much to love about it. it was slow, drank gas like crazy, 3 speed auto didn't do well above 65mph, the steering was so vague you have to plan turns about 1/2 a second before you would with a more modern car, but dang it the doors shut like a bank vault and you can run over speed bumps at full speed and not worry about it. I always wonder if I would have liked it more if it was a manual.

 

You would have loved it as a manual! My son had a Mercury Mystique with a 5 speed manual. I called it the Mercury Mistake because the car was really a piece of shit, but it was a hoot to drive as a manual. The thing was junk that he picked up for cheap as he was entering college. It ended up costing me way more than it was worth to keep running for him.

 

Ain't that the truth. My 2nd gen's 3.sl0w is sooooo slow. But I pretend it's fast. Driving a fast car slow is no fun! Thats why the 2nd gen's so good! I've never sped in it. And to tell the truth, I don't think I can, at the rate it accelerates!

 

OK, we've got .75 and .37
For me it was .54 when I started driving.
But I remember riding in the back seat and my Mom hollering 29.9!!??!! 29.9!!??!! Are they crazy when it's 28.9 right down the block?

 

Yeah my 85 was a GL. An elderly lady owned it and passed. It had 15k miles and people were lined up to see it when I got my Dad there. I paid $3,800. It was medium blue color. The first car is always memorable.