If you immediately understood my title, you're probably from my generation.
I've always been crazy about cars. As a 16 year old looking through the classified ads for a used automobile, those letters would indicate a pretty well-equipped luxury car in 1963:
Radio, heater, automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, and power windows.
It's odd now to think of a heater being an option. In the Midwest until the early 70's, many would forego buying air conditioning because you really only needed it for three or so months during the year.
As I drove to work this morning I was thinking about cars and how drastically they have changed in my lifetime. Even the cheapest of automobiles now come with automatic transmissions and air conditioners. Isn't an AM/FM radio also standard equipment now?
My old "work car" has 6-way electric (and heated) seats, an AM/FM/CD player with 11 speakers, intermittent windshield wipers, remote control mirrors, cruise control, tinted windows all around, and a fuel computer that provides instant miles per gallon, average mileage, and how many more miles I can drive before running out of fuel.
We've come a long way from the days when a heater was an option, haven't we?
3 comments:
We've come a long way, indeed.
Here's my first ride:
http://thirdwavedave.blogspot.com/2005/03/passing-of-legenddmc.html
The first family car didn't even have the radio, so on winter trips we'd be bundled up and singing the roadtrip songs...
Interesting, Dave.
I bought a new '68 Oldmobile 442 in November of 1967, then went off to ARMY flight school.
Like your Goat, it had a 400 c.i. engine and was powerful as a freight locomotive.
But compare the stats:
Many of the new sub-compacts would outrun both those cars in the 1/4 mile...
Cars have changed that much!
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