Why Older Cars Are Better

It's a cliche to hear an old man go, "They don't make 'em like they used to!" Well I'm not old - 29 - and I think cars took a turn for the worse around the year 2000 to 2005.

Just because you have the 'cool' trim all around it doesn't make me forget there's literally a computer running your car. You know, the computers that are slow, can crash, and are prone to hacking. 

You see, smart phones were coming out and computer gadgets suddenly became hip. It started with onboard GPS and now we have cars with autopilot and four TV screens.

One of the reasons cars have become crappy is electronics. Nowadays, 2018, most cars have so many sensors and things that it truly is going overboard. See, once your warranty runs out, these sensitive sensors (I like that) start dying one by one causing who knows what symptom (I don't like that). Scotty Kilmer was the man that demonstrated a Mercedes Bi-turbo that was a few years old and had 22 check engine codes from normal driving. I think 20 of those were sensors.

There's drive-by-wire, eliminating some of the driver's feel of the car. The 1995-97 Lexus LS400s have a throttle cable while the 1998-2000 ones have a drive-by-wire system and like 40 more horsepower. Guess which one is faster. It's the older one with a throttle cable if you're not sure.

They build cars now to be leased for a few years, driven to 150-200k (if they make it to 200k), and junked. A lot, maybe most, car companies now use special tools on their cars meaning you can't work on them yourself. The dealership has to do it.

In the past, actually until recently, cars were built to last because a car was an important part of the family and would be used for over twenty years by baby boomers, for example. By the 1990s, car manufacturers - with newer technologies and years of experience - hit their peak making cars that would drive to 4-500,000 miles if well maintained.

I'm sorry if I mess this up but I believe one of the first really reliable cars was the Mercedes 240D. There is more than one with over a million miles. I believe this man was the first to accomplish that.

He did it by... You guessed it... Maintaining it! Since this man, there is a Lexus LS400 at around 980,000 miles as I write this - Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus. There are also some Volvos and Saabs that are in the million mile club. The 1990s Saab 900 was one of these 4-500k mile cars as well. I had one that had a working turbo at 292,000 miles before my alternator died.

Let me show you something.

That's a really nice interior. It has literally everything you need. It's the LS400.

This is the LS500. Why does it look like predator built it? Also, as in most cars now, you control most things through, again, a computer screen. There's hundreds of electrical components. Lexus doesn't build bad cars but this shows this stupid trend of completely hooking up every system to the computer.

That's not a good thing. First of all, most of these problems - I repeat myself - you won't fix yourself. The electrical part of cars is the worst part to work on anyway. Then we have... Aesthetics. Look at this 1990s Honda Civic Type R.

I'm just generally not a fan of Hondas but I admit, it looks good. It has nice lines, not too much going on...

Aaaaaand what happened? This is the new Honda Civic Type R. Right away, any semblance of flow is destroyed completely by the explosion of trim pieces. My favorite are the vents in the back that don't do anything. It just seems like they slapped every ricer thing they could get away with on it and called it a day.

I could go on and on. Just literally feel how every trim piece connects and the leather and plastics used in 1980-90s cars and then go try that with a new car. I think they ran out... Of care.

There's still good cars being made and there always will be. The Corvette is a great car, we have the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86.

To be honest, I was gonna crap all over the Toyota by comparing it to the Supra but actually it's a step in the right direction. It's more of a pure sports car like they used to be - not driving iPhones.

They were so much cleaner. I don't know, maybe I'm a hater, but I don't hate new cars... I just don't like them and probably wouldn't buy one.

Check this out. Name some sick cars and what comes to mind instantly? Nissan 240, older Mustang GT, SC300, 3000GT, Eclipse GSX and it took me this whole time to think of a new one. Taurus SHO. That's a good new car.

Older cars are also better because they tend to be cheaper although some really sought after models are still expensive. But what this means is that you can get a car that is just reliable as a new one for far less money.

Thanks for the read, peeps. Please spread the word about the website.