Most people like a simplified uncluttered house and life, but want to drive a complex technology packed car that makes calls, sends text and emails, parks and brakes in traffic for them.
We generally want and enjoy basic cars without electronic nannies to interfere with the driving engagement and experience. No traction control, abs, and a lack of power steering are features to many of us. But then we fill out garages, basements and living spaces with parts, tools, equipment and spares.
But we need those parts and tools to keep our simple modes of transportation moving, those things I save are ALL necessities. The junk on new cars are just gimmicks and something else to break. I really need five sets of wheels and tires for a car I drive 10 times a year, don't I?
If I need cash or square footage all I need to do is sell one of the extra tire sets. Good luck selling your car's iPod connectivity because you don't use it and you want an extra 20 bucks in your pocket.
I want all the technology I want, exactly where I want it, configured how I like it.
I'm not a luddite, just opinionated.
imgon said:...I really need five sets of wheels and tires for a car I drive 10 times a year, don't I?
Sorry if I'm confused by this - why would you put that in question form?
That's more a statement of fact.
I don't mind traction control or ABS or power steering on a street car, or track car for that matter (even though I've never driven on track with anything with ABS or TC, but one car did have power steering). ABS is really nice for helping preventing flat spotting expensive tires.
meh, the right tool for the right task. You sure you didn't mean to chisel this post into some stone tablets rather than write it on a computer forum? ;)
For my daily driver, commuting on the DC beltway, I'm not interested in "fun," I'm interested in competence, comfort, and safety. At 5:30 in the morning on a highway full of half-awake cubicle workers, I very much appreciate ABS, cruise control, bluetooth, hand-free phone, A/C, Haldex diff, and braking assist. None of it is intrusive, and it only does anything when it actually needs to. The car is a manual, however.
When I'm out cruising some country roads on the weekends, I take one of my older cars that doesn't have much or any of that stuff (well, the Porsche has a bluetooth stereo installed now).
I'm not sure where the irony is, either way. It would be like saying "Joe the Farmer wants to have a simple home life, but then he wants to have this fancy air-conditioned tractor that can till all his fields in a day, rather than using a pair of Oxen and a manual plow and taking two weeks.
In reply to irish44j :
The irony is the living space being cluttered with E30 rally bits when others have minimalist decor.
As a whole, our Ying is inversed Yang to the rest of the common world
I dunno. My place IS pretty minimalist if you ignore the car stuff.
Irony isn’t it like goldy, just not as shiny?
Daylan C said:I dunno. My place IS pretty minimalist if you ignore the car stuff.
Add stereo stuff and Triathlon stuff and I'm right there with you.
I like really basic transportation (manual, rwd), a simple house AND a simple shop with very basic tools. The most advanced thing I own is my IPhone but it’s loaded with hours and hours of Vietnam-era music where the band members actually play instruments.
captdownshift said:In reply to irish44j :
The irony is the living space being cluttered with E30 rally bits when others have minimalist decor.
As a whole, our Ying is inversed Yang to the rest of the common world
lol.... there are precisely zero car parts or tools regularly in the living space of my house ;) My hobby is sequestered to the garage and the shed out back, per SWMBO (exception is occasional small electrical stuff and race car vinyl cutting )
My house is crowded with kids stuff, books, and more kids stuff.
captdownshift said:Most people like a simplified uncluttered house and life, but want to drive a complex technology packed car that makes calls, sends text and emails, parks and brakes in traffic for them.
We generally want and enjoy basic cars without electronic nannies to interfere with the driving engagement and experience. No traction control, abs, and a lack of power steering are features to many of us. But then we fill out garages, basements and living spaces with parts, tools, equipment and spares.
I like all those nannies and doofinkles in new cars. My gf 2019 accord keeps the distance you want it to from the car in front of you while using cruise control. Everytime it slows down to maintain that set distance I giggle like a kid! I don't even think that's a new feature actually. I know my 2000 excursion that's as simple as it gets sure feels like I'm driving a clumsy brick compared to anything new.
But I also like fun cars that are simple and minimal. I also loved my friends Tesla model S 
The irony is I have 4 cars (1 runs) and hardly have any car parts or spares. And my tools get used almost never.
I miss when I had 7 cars (3 old Mercedes, 1 XJR, 1 F250, 1 Ford Fusion, and a Chrysler Conquest) a 3 car garage and parts and tools to keep then all running. Actually I don't miss it.
Am I more sane now or then? 
Knowing what it takes to do a job. I wish I was like so many of the masses living in ignorant bliss that take there car in for service and are happy to pay $400 per axle for a pad and rotor swap.
I just spent $900 replacing the BCU on my work truck. You know, that retarded box that controls all the electronic BS on a modern car. 37 communication errors is apparently a thing. It's been throwing TC and SC errors fairly regularly and had recently gotten to where it would arbitrarily turn off the entire dash while driving. If you shut the truck down after that happened, it would require disconnecting the battery to get it back up and running.
Needless to say it doesn't make me like the electronic BS any better. Useless gewgaws for the most part.
Ransom said:I want all the technology I want, exactly where I want it, configured how I like it.
I'm not a luddite, just opinionated.
Agreed. I look forward to quantum-nanotechnology powered by dark matter; I just want to control it with a knob.
captdownshift said:We generally want and enjoy basic cars without electronic nannies to interfere with the driving engagement and experience. No traction control, abs, and a lack of power steering are features to many of us. But then we fill out garages, basements and living spaces with parts, tools, equipment and spares.
My house up north had no car stuff in it but now.....
I see why so many here in S FL rent storage places. No basements and very little attic because the roofs have so little pitch.
Guilty as charged ^^^. Newest vehicle is a 2000 truck which I consider a well maintained tool. My other vehicles are all from the 60's - 80's and I prefer simple. I'm at computer in my living room and also in the room are these car parts.
For the 67 Camaro there's traction bars, stainless park brake cables, and a pile of sheet metal (including frame rails) to replace the trunk and wheel house areas.
70 Buick Wildcat wheel centers for factory wheels and a body mount kit for it.
5 dash fascia for various years 2nd gen Firebirds and trans Ams.
A set of frame connectors, G-braces, and steering shaft for the 70 Firebird occupy one couch while a gas tank and backlight for that car occupy the other couch. Also window trim for that car, 3 rag joints and a set of chrome valve covers adorn the coffee table while a deluxe package tray stands nearby. A pair of hood hinges for the car are on the floor.
Set of four 14" spoke wheel covers for Chevy G-body.
Six modified 70-74 firebird with Pontiac V8 engine mounts.
Two shock plates with trailer tie down loops for 2nd gen F body.
NOS front bumper cover for 88 Twin Cam Nova.
Gooseneck trailer hitch set up for 2000 Ford pick up.
Did I mention there's also a 25" X 40" Snap On rolling welding table/cart? ugggggh I reeally need to get some projects done just to get my house in order. If you think that list for the living room is a lot you wouldn't believe whats in the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, etc.
So for all you guys who say to your SWMBO's "Hey there's guys a lot worse than me!" here's a couple pics I just took you can show them ahahaha.
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I love power but not automatic. The only things I want my car doing automatically are adjusting fuel and spark. Otherwise I love central locking and express windows (why don't all cars have express up and down by now? BMW had it 20+ years ago) and lovely ABS and airbags and the ever elusive cruise control. The 90s/00s were a sweetspot for that in my eyes. I wish to have that simplicity with current safety and fuel economy.
In reply to NOT A TA :
Are you married or have kids in that house?
I don't mind any amount of technology in the car but I don't want much in the driving experience, at least on the track. ABS is nice to have, but ETC gets in the way and any kind of active yaw control seems like cheating.
yupididit said:In reply to NOT A TA :
Are you married or have kids in that house?
Nope, stepkids are in their 40's with family's of their own back up North and fired the last wife mid 90's long before I moved south. Don't even have pets anymore so no one to bump, knock down, scratch, OR complain ahaha. I rent out a room to another old guy that's a bodyman so he's careful and could care less about the parts everywhere. As he put it once "This is the nicest place I've ever lived, so I don't care about the parts." It is slowly getting better and while it looks like I'm a hoarder I'm not really.
I know someone whose house got so full of car parts that he had to move into an apartment. Eventually, he built a two story concrete block garage in the backyard.
How that passed code in the middle of Saint Petersburg I'll never know.
My friend bought him out this summer. It took months to inventory it all.
The freshly rebuilt 427 is back in the Camaro, first start up any day now.
I tend to look at all the new tech and features in terms of whether they will doom to the car to unrepairability or other obsolescence in little more than a decade. I think the hobby we are all used to right now of screwing around with old cars because you can more or less return them to function with cheaply attainable skills and tools will go away because cars will relegate themselves to the dustbin with things that are so difficult to set right without access to certain tools or replacement parts that it just wouldn't be any fun to string along an older car anymore.
But, it won't matter if you're not allowed to drive something you could have fixed anyway. Our autonomous future might just make all other fears of the hobby's future pretty irrelevant, like 'the thing that would have killed you if you'd lived longer'.
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