Which are better; classic or modern vehicles?
Thousands and thousands of people every year, all across the country, visit the annual new auto show. I can fit into those stats as I recently went to the Canadian International Auto Show and visited all those beautiful new vehicles. My family is in need of a new SUV this year, so we went and did some research. I was pretty excited about looking at some new vehicles, but my attention was quickly distracted by some beautiful muscle cars on display. Between drooling, I kept thinking back to my youth and all of those great memories I had.
I took a pause from my new vehicle hunt and admired the vehicles on display. Looking over these muscle cars completed my day. The lines these vehicles had are classic. The colours were also so bright and such an attention getter. The only thing missing was actually hearing the rumbling of the engine. That would have completed the experience. There were over dozens of classic muscle cars.
Looking at these vehicles made me think about the era in which these types of vehicles were made. There wasn’t much thought of fuel savings in those days. Oh, I do remember a gas crunch in the early 1970’s, but that didn’t last very long. With the cost of gas these days, I’m not so sure these vehicles would be the everyday runners like they were back in the day. However, if I did have one of these vehicles, I would enjoy the drive as much as I can. How would you spend time with any of these vehicles? Would you drive it or would you just admire it?
Comparing these vehicles with all of the new vehicles at the show it made me think about the power
and styles of each vehicle, but also the safety features we had over 40 years ago. You may be asking “What safety features?” Remember the lap belt seat belt? That was all we had back then. That’s even if the drivers and passengers bothered to use them. I have a strong feeling most people would not even worry about the lack of current safety features if they could drive beautiful machines like these. How about you?
But look at the interior as well. Look at the room there was in the front seat. You could actually have a family of six ride in a 2-door coupe or sedan. If needed, there were enough seatbelts for each passenger. The only power windows you had in most of those vehicles were human powered. Most of those vehicles had air conditioning, provided the windows were down and you were in motion. There was no such thing as anti-lock brakes back then either. You had to learn to stop quickly without locking your wheels and skidding out of control. How many of you would buy a vehicle in today’s market with those features?
I eventually left those vehicles and went back to reality. I still have the thought of having one of those classic vehicles someday. And when I do, I’ll still drive it like I would any modern day vehicle; with car and respect for me, other road users and of course…the vehicle.