Cross it off the list

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27

If you want to avoid the past century of potentially troublesome innovations, you could avoid the four that I mentioned above with a nice Model T. Side valve four, magneto ignition, thermosiphon cooling and a crank to start the engine with. You could buy a pretty nice one for less than you paid for your current ride

I can get a Model T for less than 500 US? Quite tempting. I find crank starting very useful, (have it on motorcycles, have had it on past cars) and it costs almost nothing to build-in during manufacture. I believe Model T's are a bit difficult to drive though, and spares might be hard to find.

 

[fdcg27]

The OP, to whom I was replying, paid $15K for his current ride and you can buy a nice Model T for less than that. They aren't at all difficult to drive, they're just entirely different from anything you've ever driven. What few spares you'll need are readily available, since this was one of the original old car hobby cars, having been built in huge volume over nearly two decades and being of all metal construction with no wooden body framing to rot. A Model A is a far more useful car to actually drive and is totally conventional in operation. It's also a fairly attractive car, which can't be said of the Model T. A Model A will for those reasons run you a few K more in equivalent condition than will a Model T. A Model T will get you where you're going albeit slowly. It'll also slog through conditions that would put most modern AWDs to shame.

 

[Anduril]

1) CVT 2) Timing belt 3) Start stop

 

[ATex7239]

I need functioning A/C. The rest is negotiable.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27

Originally Posted By: StevieC

So when auto shopping what do you cross off the list? For me it's: 1) CVT's 2) Direct Injections 3) Most Turbos 4) Most 4 cylinders although I goofed and bought one.

Fifty years ago, your list would have been: 1) Automatic transmissions 2) Fuel injection 3) Electronic ignition 4) Emissions controls Times change, the state of the art advances and reliability and durability continue to improve along with current offerings having more power and better fuel economy than those of the recent past. What's not to like?

Well, 50 years ago (1967), much of what you listed WOULD be problematic! Fuel injection would be either expensive, incredibly finicky, or both. Electronic ignition was quite unusual, and emission controls consisted of an AIR pump and nothing else. In 1967, yeah...happily dump all of the above. (Reliable electronic ignition was about 5 years away.)