Don Canney

While driving down Main Street the other day, I thought, “I must really be getting old,” because I can remember what it was like driving a car where I actually had to insert a key into the ignition to start it! Ok, I’m getting extreme, my truck still requires a key. But driving cars of today is a world apart from driving yesterday’s vehicles.

In past columns, you may remember me mentioning my 1965 Chevy Impala. Cars were built back then somewhat akin to an M1 Abram’s tank. Most were massive. If you were a motorhead, you could sit on the fender of your car, let your feet dangle under the hood and do what you needed to do.

They all needed keys versus today’s push buttons starts, and the key was inserted directly in front of you to the right or left of the steering column. Ignitions eventually migrated to the steering column itself, making key insertion a bit more of a challenge.

Most vehicles then were very low tech. Fuel injection was a costly option, or only available on high performance cars. Air conditioning was a luxury. After market air conditioners were available but tended to leak.

If you wanted a car today with similar equipment to yesterday’s cars, with “options” like roll down windows or manual door locks, it would certainly be a special order, if available at all, as most vehicles off the assembly line today come with power packages. I can remember once asking a friend if his car had power windows. His response was, “Yes, arm strong!”

Remember poly/fiberglass tires? Before steel belted radials, they were standard equipment. Ride wise, probably not significant, but wear-wise and performance-wise, very significant. Steel-belted radials were introduced in 1974 to address the need for better gas mileage and longer wear.

Back in that era, magazines advertised images of cars of the future. Some were airborne (not that far away right now), and many looked very much like today’s Tesla, with no grills, no chrome and quite aerodynamic. Electric cars were not discussed much back then.

While driving my old Chevy, I could never have fathomed things like lane departure warnings, digital speedometers, heads up displays, collision avoidance systems, parking assist, back-up cameras, Bluetooth, or voice activated phones (or ANY phone). Your “phone” then was the dime you’d keep in the glove box to pull over at the next phone booth in case of emergencies.

Automatic headlamps? Nope. Back then we had to turn a dial for nighttime illumination. And compared to today’s high intensity headlamps, headlamps back then were slightly better than a couple of flashlights. And versus today’s thermometers showing the outside temperature, if you wanted to know how cold it was, you’d roll down your window and stick your hand out.

Gas mileage was less of a worry in the sixties and I’m not even sure the word hybrid had been invented yet. The only battery in a car then was the one used to start it.

There were no computers needed to run the cars of that era. Conversely, today’s cars are technological marvels. In fact, per Collision and Fleet Safety Inc.: “The average car has 30 to 50 different computers, and high-end cars have as many as 100, and they’re accompanied by 60 to 100 different electronic sensors. And it’s not just the hardware that’s ballooned, but the software too. Apollo 11 had 145,000 lines of computer code, but cars today can have more than 100 million.”

However, I have yet to see any car come even close to approaching the moon.

Extended warranties were unheard of in the sixties. They weren’t needed. Cars were fairly straight forward and much less complex to repair. Today, extended warranties are becoming a necessity versus “good to have just in case.”

There is something to be said for both eras of vehicles. Do you like simplicity? Something non-technical and less costly to repair? Or are you a gadget freak? Who likes the more tech savvy bells and whistles and a car that does most of the work for you?

I’ve driven both and I can’t decide.

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.