100 years later

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The following is an excerpt from the 1905 Oldsmobile owners manual, from the section entitled "ADVICE TO THE PIONEER MOTORIST" :

quote:

Don't take anybody's word for it that your tanks have plenty of gasoline and water and your oil cup plenty of oil, that person may just be guessing.

Don't do anything to your motor without good reason or without knowing what you are doing.

Don't imagine that your motor runs well on equal parts mixture of water and gasoline. It is a mistake.

Don't make "improvements" without writing the factory. We know about all of those improvements and can advise you.

Don't think your motor is losing power when clutch bands need tightening or something is out of adjustment.

Don't drive your Oldsmobile 100 miles the first day.You wouldn't drive a green horse ten miles till you were acquainted with him. Do you know more about a gasoline motor than you do a horse?

Don't delude yourself into thinking we are building these motors like a barber's razor, "just to sell". We couldn't have sold one in a thousand years- much less five thousand in one year- if it hadn't been demonstrated to be a practical success.

Don't confess you are less intelligent than thousands of motorists who are driving Oldsmobiles. We make the only motor that "motes"!

- - -1905 Olds manual

It seems that despite the antiquated terms ("green horse", "oil cup") this is a lot like any modern "do's and dont's" section of a typical owners manual, except maybe a little more straight-forward.
 
Don't operate the automobile while distracted by communicating on portable electric two-way radiophonic devices.

Be courteous and patient with your fellow motorists and traficants, and do not express frustration with obscene gestures, outbursts, or violence.

Don't take automotive advice from nameless, faceless hucksters who might suggest strange obsessive habits regarding the upkeep of your motor.
 
Those are good reading.....I agree with you, they pretty much can apply to 2005!

Gotta love the last one.

and this one must have been before the GM "corporate merger"

quote:

Don't delude yourself into thinking we are building these motors like a barber's razor, "just to sell"

lol.gif
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Just curious, How many pages is that manual?

Ahh the good ol'days... before catalytic converters, CAFE, seat belts, air conditioning, power windows & locks, automatic or syncro-mesh transmissions, heated seats, synthetic oil, wishbone suspensions, EGR valves, "check engine" lights, AM radios, V-8's, the Beetle, drunk driving laws, and tires that weren't much wider than the width of a wristwatch.

There's really not much to those cars! Heck, if you smash your head into the dashboard of this "baby", they'll just hose it off and sell it to someone else!
 
I'm not sure how many total pages, I just had a few tattered sheets, the highest page number I saw was 13.

When people talk about the "good old days" I wonder when they were. I remember tires that you were lucky to get a year out of, automotive batteries that lasted about as long as a modern "AA", three speed on the column, carbeurators that never worked right, motors that made it to 100k then died, and the only folks you saw driving a car more than five years old were what you would term "unfortunate". Of course, I miss the pre-'71 bhp readings. 350hp in a "family sedan"? Thank you Detroit.
 
quote:

Originally posted by kingrob:

When people talk about the "good old days" I wonder when they were. I remember tires that you were lucky to get a year out of, automotive batteries that lasted about as long as a modern "AA", three speed on the column, carbeurators that never worked right, motors that made it to 100k then died, and the only folks you saw driving a car more than five years old were what you would term "unfortunate". Of course, I miss the pre-'71 bhp readings. 350hp in a "family sedan"? Thank you Detroit.


The only thing good about the "good old days" in the automotive world was that the cars were such dogs that they were easy to improve.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Tosh:
Don't operate the automobile while distracted by communicating on portable electric two-way radiophonic devices.

Be courteous and patient with your fellow motorists and traficants, and do not express frustration with obscene gestures, outbursts, or violence.

Don't take automotive advice from nameless, faceless hucksters who might suggest strange obsessive habits regarding the upkeep of your motor.


This explains a lot... Kids are graduating high school without the ability to read. No wonder I see so much of these activities. Can we please add:
Ladies, do not apply makeup (facial powders, line or wrinkle minimizers, mascara, eyeliner or lip color,(i.e "warpaint")) while seated in the drivers position and the vehicle is in motion or the engine is running. However, wart removers (in the form of acid saturated bandaid type dots) can and should be applied during the brief warm-up period before first motoring.
 
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