Recently, as I’ve taken stock of the wide range of old things that surround me, I’ve been contemplating whether there might be joy to be found in new things. To be sure, I live in a culture that continually elevates new over old. To prove this point, as we will soon get to, some of the most profoundly performative exhibitions of joy in popular culture are related to things that are “new” such as winning a new Fiat Strada on The Price Is Right. I, on the other hand, am not automatically on board with the idea of new being generally better than old. While some of that feeling can simply be chalked up to my having reached a solidly curmudgeonly age, parts of my perspective go back many years to formative experiences rooted in adolescence.
But you probably already knew that.
My recent contemplation on the Joy of New came during a morning where my 15 year old dishwasher once again decided to eject its upper basket spray arm.
This was the same morning where I spent time locating two properly-sized sheet metal screws – one of which turned out to be a left over license-plate attaching screw. The other had to be larger and therefore involved a trip to the hardware store. Both screws were required to attach the upper heating element to the top of the oven. The original hardware had departed after 20 years of daily service, leaving two different-sized holes into which I must insert two different-sized screws.
All of this provided me with a sudden reflection along the lines of “Geeze, I guess I know why some people appreciate just having new things. And I’ll bet those are the people who replace their old stuff before it becomes necessary to root around the house for random screws.”
These would be people who have things that don’t actually require maintenance or attention. Things that just work, because they are “new”.
The concept of new also carries quite a few additional connotations besides the one that I focus on – which is essentially “not broken”. What’s wrong with me? It’s not as if I dwell outside of a culture and society where it’s signaled that people should like very much like “new” over “old” (or “used”…another word for old). How am I sure of this? Well, let’s go to one of America’s most important cultural touchstones, the television game show.
Of all of the things that I watched on TV during my most formative years, game shows were hugely impactful. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I tended to watch these alone, during the day, at times in the summer when I wasn’t at school and my mother needed some alone time. During the rest of the year, there were the shows that came on in the late afternoon and I could watch them after coming home from school. Again, generally alone.
Sometimes, my family lived in places where I in fact did interact with kids in the neighborhood and could spend time outside of school with other young humans. I therefore took to The Price is Right – hereafter referred to as “TPIR” There was clearly much for me to learn by studying these people. Specifically, I became interested in the things that seemed to bring them joy and despair.
Mostly though, we’re here though to talk about the joy.
For example, it was highly instructive for me to watch contestant Terri and the fascinating range of emotions she exhibits while being presented with her slate of FABULOUS PRIZES.
Never taking any of the behavior I observed in the field at face value, I wondered if Terri would have been even more overjoyed if she were presented with something other than a Fiat Strada (as in our lede photo), equipped with “optional rear window defogger and cloth interior”.
Terri in her incredible 1982 red pants looks a little skeptical at first about the Kodak Instant Camera, which she doesn’t win, thereby dodging the bullet of having an imminently useless device once the product was withdrawn from the market due to copyright infringement in 1986. Then her spirits increasingly rise as other prizes are presented. You can see a flash of “What the heck am I going to do with that thing?” emotion when the deep fryer and coffee maker are shown, but the sheer fact of getting the chance to win something – she does win the Presto Fry-Daddy and the Conair Makeup Mirror, but loses the coffee pot — buoys her emotionally as she advances to the chance to win the NEW CAR!!! When she does successfully use one of her two allowed guesses as to the price of the car, she performs as expected and goes into full “my head is about to explode if I don’t hold on to the top of my skull” mode. Leaping, jumping, and hugging Bob in spasms of joy ensues.
And this is all over a vehicle that she may not really have needed and one that it turns out that few Americans wanted in 1982. There were only about 14,000 Fiats sold in the US that year. Not all of those were Stradas. 1982 was the year that Fiat basically threw in the towel (for 25 years) on selling cars to Americans. Nevertheless, this unappreciated car inspired joy in Terri. I think mostly because it was new.
I’ll note that Terri’s joy almost certainly had nothing to do with the Strada being “handbuilt by robots” as the memorable commercial noted (but Johnny Olson didn’t, which is odd given many of the strange tag lines he and TPIR producers hung on other cars given away on the show). Fiat’s commercial is impressive, and I suspect that the robots probably did a better job than the guy who left the soda bottle inside of my family’s 128 when it left the factory in Turin. But robots have no facility for exhibiting joy. They’d make poor TPIR contestants.
A little easier to find in the US is a car that was featured quite frequently on game shows, and TPIR specifically. The Chevy Vega. Despite being offered nearly as often as Broyhill Dining Room Sets in the 1970s, there are nowadays few unmolested 1973 Vega Hatchbacks left. The ultra low mileage 1976 one shown above recently sold on eBay for $10,000. Here I’ll note that in 1976, today’s $10,000 was only about $1750. I’m guessing that a Vega Hatchback in 1976 actually stickered for about twice that. So much for making a killing by holding onto your 1976 Vega for 50 years.
Inflation turns out to be another way to tamp down joy.
I struggled to find a green Vega Hatchback that compared with the one that was almost given away to contestant Mike in 1973. As the clip above shows, Mike seemed to be almost as enthusiastic about that NEW!!!! Vega (the options, as read by Johnny, included a “rear view mirror!”) as he was confused by the set of World Book encyclopedias and the Princess Gardner purse set he was first offered. Never mind though, he does start to work up the expected and customary joy when shown the Whirlpool self-cleaning oven that he might could win.
Most important, as Bob and Johnny tell Mike, all of these things will be NEW!!! That will be the case whether or not Mike actually needed a new oven. Maybe he and the missus — that’s her at the start of the clip with an impressive hairdo that seems inspired by Speed Racer’s helmet, or so I would have thought in 1973 — live in a rental and don’t need their own appliances. Or maybe they just bought an oven a week ago. This same logic of course probably applies to the other prizes Mike’s competing for, including ultimately the Vega. Maybe they took the bus to the TV studio, but likely Mike and the Speed Racer lady already have a car. Is adding a new Vega to the household going to change their lives so substantially that it warrants all of that head-grabbing, spinning and screaming?
From the looks of it, one would think so. Well, it is a nice shade of green. And it has body side moldings…and a rear view mirror.
Mike missed the Vega – “A car worth owning and driving.” (whaaaat?) according to Johnny’s vocal – by $3. Oh well. Although I doubt it, I hope that Mike still has his Whirlpool self-cleaning oven. I sure would. It looks like a keeper to me.
Through rigorous observation, I learned that the amount of joy expressed by game show contestants certainly did vary according to the prize. Terri and Mike really only went ballistic when the car was offered. In Terri’s case, that took a while with the Fiat. Ruthie, in the clip above – winner of a steam cabinet (from the “famous Spiegel Catalog…Spiegel, Chicago 60609“) and then potentially an armoire – is so clearly conveying “What the HECK do I need this big honking piece of furniture for??” until the (NEW!!!!) “1973 Nova Coupe, from Chevrolet!” is revealed.
Just to insure that maximum Joy of New can be achieved by the contestants, Johnny peppers his description of the prize cars with aphorisms that are mysteriously and nearly Zen-like. While the Vega is “A car worth owning and driving.” We are likewise informed by the polyester-clad Shamans of Joy, Johnny and Bob that Ruthie’s potential Nova is a vehicle where “real improvements make it even better.” That would seem to be even better than NEW!!! It’s amazing.
Well, unspecified improvements or not, I will confess that in general the Nova’s a car around which I might be able to work up some joy; particularly in Code 51-Light Yellow.
Of course that would be due to the fact that starting in 1973 the Nova came with an optional tent. Now that’s a real improvement!
It’s too bad that TPIR wasn’t giving away a 1973 Nova Hatchback and the optional “Hatchback Hutch“. For a show sometimes given to awarding camping equipment (often received by contestants with only slightly more enthusiasm than Ruthie’s steam cabinet and armoire), a Nova with a tent doesn’t seem like it should have been too much of a stretch.
Here’s a family in a Hatchback Hutch-equipped Nova being humorously attacked by a bear. They seem quite happy about what should otherwise be described as a predicament. Maybe they won the car on a different game show and the joy-buzz hasn’t yet worn off.
Despite growing up on a pretty steady diet of 1970s and 1980s television game shows, I ultimately grew weary of watching the endless stream of performative expressions of joy surrounding fabulous NEW things. That’s about when I began to suspect that the Joy of New may not be a universal thing, despite its advocacy in American culture. I just wasn’t buying it.
Instead, I became increasingly lost wondering what winning TPIR contestants would end up doing with all of their existing appliances, dining room sets, bedroom furniture, and yes, even cars if they won new ones. What if you just didn’t need yet another steam cabinet (just ask Lucy about those things), or one at all? Gradually at first, but increasingly with age I understood that “new” nearly always came with strings and burdens that would sooner or later outweigh whatever initial benefit there might be to acquiring something new. Likewise, I realized that I’m never going to wind up on a game show – which is good because I am really not very good at winning anything. All in all it’s highly unlikely that anyone is going to give me a NEW CAR!!! much less a harvest gold Caloric combination range and microwave oven.
Even more than the problem with taxes, I am confident that I’d rather not have the burden of getting rid of my existing useful things and replacing them with other stuff where the primary benefit is “new”. How does “new” outweigh “still useful”? Well, it doesn’t in my book.
Largely as a result of this perspective – which comes by the way with an actual physical reaction akin to nausea on those occasions where I do actually have to write a check for some major new item — I’ve developed significant expertise understanding how my dishwasher, washer, dryer, oven, etc. work. The thought of not utilizing those skills and instead being burdened with devices that will in all likelihood be nearly impossible to repair (given modern trends in the development of non-repairable machines) or that are designed to be replaced in a few years is to me unthinkable.
That very much includes cars. I’m not so crazy about new car smell that I’m going to readily abandon fixing up an existing car. All the better since so far I’ve avoided the universe of new cars that include features such as special screws that can’t be removed with conventional tools or options that can be enable or disabled via the Internet of things. More to my point though, it’s my feeling that I would be abandoning something – such as a car – by not doing everything I could to continue its journey as a useful device. So maybe that’s it. I cannot abide by the non-useful, and I cannot walk away from the useful.
Notwithstanding the fact that I’ve just spent a lot of words questioning the Joy of New, I also understand that there are many arguments that other people have for their appreciation of new. Lots of those people probably live even in my small town. A town where the transfer station is chockablock with perfectly usable and still useful appliances and electronics every time I visit. I get a similar feeling when I visit a junkyard and realize that many of the vehicles are half a decade newer than whatever I drove to reach the junkyard. So yeah, the tribe that I’m studying is quite large, and there continues to be much that I can learn.
Still, I’m also aware that I’m not the only person in the United States who questions the Joy of New. In fact there are even whole political movements that hew toward my point of view. I am not sure that the Millennial and subsequent gen folks who largely populate those movements had to resist the cultural tsunami that was the 1970s – 1990s obsession with New. But for those of you who have or did, welcome to higher ground. Know that there is much joy to be found in repairing your Bosch SHE3ARF2UC, as your BMW N52 E9X. And should you be sustainably campaigning a 1973 or 1974 Vega, Nova, Apollo, Astra or Omega I wish you well in seeking and ultimately finding a used Hatchback Hutch kit (the only kind there is) and thereby reaching our shared version of measured, restrained, and hands-on Joy.
Even better if you’re close to 5 feet tall.
Related Reading
- Jason Shafer did a much deeper dive specifically on Cars From The Price is Right, and also fills in much of the back story on the various models who waved their hands over and around said cars.
- Paul Neidermeyer presents a Vintage Review of the 1973 Vega.
- There also have been several COALs featuring 1973 Vegas. Just Plain Joe had one.
- Likewise a 1973 Nova.
- THISWAS had a Fiat Strada and also dined in the 1970s at the revolving restaurant on top of the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. I did one of those things.
- No One has discussed the Hatchback Hutch exactly, although Paul has pointed out that AMC once offered something quite similar.
- AARON65 appreciates lime green cars – including Vegas and Novas – perhaps even more than the producers of The Price is Right.
- JPC’s mother once won a car, brought it home, and that was just the start of the story.
That’s funny, who would’ve guessed that keeping your Vega pristine was a poor investment. I suspect the Cosworth Vega did even worse on that metric, despite being somewhat collectible.
I didn’t pay much attention to game shows as a kid, and can’t imagine myself having been on one:
“You’ve won…. a NEW car!!!”
“Well shoot, automatic transmission? No scratches? What am I going to do with this?”
It did bring to mind perhaps we should have a Curbside Classic game show, get Paul a gold sequin jacket and he could host games where the ultimate prize was a 1967 Volvo 1800S with a cracked intake manifold.
I can support this plan as the perfect way to dispose of my Swedish vexation. However, I just don’t know if I can feel good about pawning that thing off on some unwitting victim.
You know, if there had been such a thing as the Antiques Roadshow back in those days when I was an elementary student watching game shows, I’d absolutely have watched that instead. And then I imagine things could have turned out quite a bit differently.
The idea of there being a game show that features curbside classics has considerable merit. Already, there seems to be tremendous cross-over between the cars given away (back in the day) on game shows and CC’s identified as deadly sins. In fact, it almost seems as if being a game show give away car is nearly one full criteria for deadly sin qualification.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a game show in Sweden that gives away practical used cars and other FABULOUS PRIZES such as firewood. I guess if Aaron gets frustrated enough, the 1800 can make the reverse trip across the pond to give that a shot.
This is a bit tangential, but my coworkers will often discuss winning whatever billion-plus dollar lottery is in the news. I don’t think I’d like to win a billion dollars; you’re immediately a target of any number of people, and your life would be completely uprooted.
Obviously, that’s on a larger scale than winning a FIAT or a Vega, but I agree with your feelings, Jeff, that it might be more trouble than it’s worth. I probably enter two or three classic car raffles a year from organizations that I don’t mind supporting, like the R.E. Olds Museum or the Studebaker Drivers Club. In the back of my mind is always the thought that I might win, and then I’d have to transport it, rent another storage garage, etc., and it always feels like a hassle, even in the abstract.
By the way, I just replaced the lower basket spray arm on my dishwasher a couple months ago…good as new!
My thoughts exactly about winning the lottery. That, and the bit about it being a tax on people who can’t do math. But it’s all moot for me as I’d never win. (although in that situation I’m in good company with pretty much everyone)
+1 on the spray arm! I actually have several that fit, and when I’m on top of things I tend to swap them in and out so that no single one gets full of the deposits that my hard water brings.
I personally find “Joy In New….To Me”. But I do enjoy seeing TPIR…and classic Match Game winners…expressing joy at winning. At least before those tax forms get sent out.
My latest eBay purchase is a GE Superadio II from the 1980’s – while it may not be as sensitive or selective as a SDR, the analog AM sound is wonderful. And at $75, a cheap thrill.
Being a radio/voiceover person, Johnny Olsen is someone I admire – and always get a kick out of hearing on TPIR and Match Game – his secret: he still pre-read and marked his copy with elaborate and extensive markings to guide his reads, developing and used his own personal lexicon of notations. But I guess even he was flummoxed by the Fiat.
That GE radio looks terrific! I’d forgotten all about those and haven’t seen one in years (the GE Superadio specifically, I do still have a few older AM radios kicking around).
I’ll confess that I found Johnny Olson a more compelling figure on TPIR than Bob Barker himself. It was really Johnny that gave the show its zing. IMO.
Your mention of the GE Superradio led me to this site: https://radiojayallen.com/
What a fun rabbit hole!
This one hits on so many cylinders for me: old cars, the glamour of color TV in the 1960s, minimizing income taxes, nostalgia for the past, and fix versus repair. Thought that was a Bosch dishwasher. The last Bosch we had needed a pump, we went for replacement. The dry sensor went on the Whirlpool gas dryer, we just use the time module, our fancy Whirlpool double oven lost all of its thermocouples and we fixed instead of repaired, but once was an easy repair of a thermocouple has turned into a diagnostic nightmare. But in a CC post to come I will document the process of fixing a finicky electromechanical part.
I have replaced the pump on this Bosch, and knock on wood, most of the remaining issues with the machine have been related to the various plastic bits (e.g., the rollers for the baskets) falling apart. Oh yeah, I have also replaced the front control panel as it too is plastic and eventually cracked in half due to it also essentially serving as the door handle. Dumb design.
Being a vintage appliance as well as car collector, personal experience has verified that those of the ’40s to ’70s are better built, more durable, more repairable, and even, in the case of appliances, features no longer found: timed outlets, full lighted control panels, thermostatic burners &c. Experience also has demonstrated that German made Bosch, Miehle, BMW, M-B, ar harder to Gert parts for and will need them more often. For ranges we have a 1973 Frigidaire at home and a 1961 GE at the summer place, and a 1957 40″ double oven GE in the garage under restoration. The best dishwashers were Kitchen Aid up to their buyout by Whirlpool in 1986. Fortunate indeed are we who appreciate older quality and continue to resist the siren call of new.
I have a bunch of vintage appliances. My irons, for clothes and yes I iron my 100% dress cotton shirts, are a pair of GE irons from 1970. There is a Kitchenaid Mixmaster from the 50’s. Fire King dinner ware from the 50’s and 60’s. An Osterizer with a metal base and glass carafe for margaritas. Dishwasher I don’t use as I always clean by hand. Then, of course, the cameras I shoot that go all the way back to the early 1900’s.
I have a 1955 GE Liberator 2 oven 40” stove. Everything works but the clock. It’s my “daily driver”!
Gorgeous! I’ll bet that weighs about 600 pounds.
I’d think that someone could repair that clock…maybe someone here. It might take a little behind the console MacGyvering of parts from a plug-in electric alarm clock, but it could be a fun challenge.
I would have found it handy to have the spray arm fall out of my Bosch dishwasher, as I had to remove it regularly to unclog it. I think the spray arm in our current Miele has clogged once or twice in 15 years. Not a Bosch dishwasher fan. I have fonder memories of my own green 1973 Vega.
The Bosch machines seemed to work well and were of higher quality than the Kitchenaid, etc. ones that were common in the late 1990s…which was about the last time I actually purchased appliances in any number (i.e., when I moved to my current house). I suspect that the Bosch machines have decreased in quality as well. Miele devices have also seemed exemplary (except the vacuums which have too much plastic…I’ve had two, one of which I paid for and one of which was free from the dump), but very very expensive.
“I suspect that Bosch appliances have also declined in quality.”
Bosch Home Appliances no longer belongs to Bosch. It’s just a brand name now – owned by Siemens. The quality is neither outstanding nor bad. Kind of… meh.
You were around during the daytime to watch those game shows although some might have been at night if I recall. Game shows didn’t interest me that much outside of one that I started with in 1968 and continue with today, Jeopardy.
Jeopardy is the only game show I’ve periodically watched in modern times. I remain surprised that a few of the old “win fabulous prizes” ones are still on.
A Strada was an unusual TPIR prize for sure! I always loved the round headlight treatment on these.
I’m guessing that some SoCal FIAT dealer was desperate to do anything to move a car off the lot, and giving one away and writing it off as an advertising expense made sense under the pretty terrible circumstances that US Fiat dealers were in in 1982.
Indeed, the NEW CAR! on TPIR was always some poor sad-sack mobile that none of the contestants would actually want to buy, but would take if it was a free prize.
One of the more infamous was the Dale, a three-wheeled, non-running mock-up that the cross-dressing con-man (woman?) Liz Carmichael used to try and scam investors but was arrested soon enough.
That’s a great story. I remember seeing that car when it was offered what was apparently 1975.
I found a link to a story that another author wrote up about the whole Dale (aka “Revette”) scam — https://classiccarsforsale.squarespace.com/blog/market-trends/the-dale-motor-car-the-con-of-the-century Fascinating.
While it’s certainly possible that a stranger car could have been offered on TPIR in all the years the show has been on the air, I’m unaware of one. I don’t know if the contestant won but, if they did, I wonder how the show resolved the situation since a production Dale/Revette never existed.
The linked article is as good as any about the Dale story. I vividly recall when the spectacle was unfolding and how both Motor Trend and Car & Driver had published articles about it. In their haste to be first, the former was suckered into it, hook, line, and sinker, and reported all of the wild claims.
Car & Driver had been more hesitant with their write-up, particularly given Liz Carmichael’s masculine appearance and build. When the truth came out, it turned out they were right to wait. IIRC, their initial impression of her/him was something like a football linebacker in drag.
Nobody could announce “It’s a neww CAAR!!” like Johnny Olson. My favorite was a game show I can no longer recall, but it was hosted by Tom Kennedy, and the finale was a lineup of 5 new cars of the same brand. The contest would pick one, and if it started he was a winner. When Pontiacs were featured, Kennedy’s pronunciation of Grandville (Grawww Veeele) irrited me.
Experiencing “new” is more like a short term rental, because every “new” soon enough turns into a “dammit”. Like this morning when I discovered that the cold battery in the key fob of my “new” car requires replacement. I guess it’s not new any more.
You also remind me that I need to look at the convection fan in .y range that was new maybe 15 years ago. Grumble.
I think the show with the five cars at the end of each episode was “Split Second.”
Either a line up of Chevrolets or Pontiacs.
I remember a gentleman who made five attempts before he won a Corvette.
I was more interested in the cars than the game itself.
I ran across that clip (for Split Second) when doing the research for this post! I really wanted to include it for its featuring an entire fleet of Pontiacs for the winner to choose from (and he chose the LeMans Safari wagon!)…but I just couldn’t bear going down another path on a different show. I kind of figured that the readers would have had enough with just TPIR. 😉
Fingers crossed that it’s just a bad connection or motor failure on that convection fan and not a control board issue. It’s stuff related to the control boards and processors on (even 15 year old) appliances that cross the line into non-repairable.
There is a 24/7 Roku TV channel for the Barker era TPIR. I watch it every day. I’m watching it now while typing this. I still think, given the odd prizes, that it was/is a dumping ground for last years / obsolete / overstock items. Most (but not all) of the cars are low end / fleet spec models. Imagine living in a 6th floor apartment and winning a above ground swimming pool? And you forgot “includes California emissions” Love it.
Yes, “California emissions”. From the same people that brought you (compelled you to have) “rear view mirror”. 🙂
I saw a TPIR from 1960 on YouTube, and the big prize wss a 1960 Thunderbird. The options on the car were “radio, heater, and white wall tires!”… nice prize, but it was a “stripper”…
I wonder if it may have been more common to find a car in Southern California in 1960 that didn’t have the optional (!) heater. From what I’ve read, game shows typically dealt with individual dealerships to arrange their prize car deliveries. So to some extent, the shows got whatever the dealer wanted to move. That likely explains these low-option cars.
In later (i.e., modern) years, I think it became more common to be able to arrange to get your prize vehicle from a local (to the winner’s actual home) dealership, but back in the day one used to have to actually return to the local (CA) dealer to pick up the prize.
I have a great friend who will not let anything go. And he’s most likely richer for that. My late father in law was the extreme opposite-he used to tell my wife and I “to throw it away and buy something new” to practically everything. I fall in the middle. I’ll give a repair my everything. If I can’t fix it, and I check with a pro and they can’t fix it, then it’ll go away. But very rarely!
On another note, I was quoted a disturbing fact (?) by a car dealer last week while replacing two cars with one:
He told me 84% of vehicles that are wrecked today are scrapped. Why? That’s insane.
You’ll note the attached photo. This was my son’s 2002 BMW 330ci that he hit a guard rail with at a very low speed. It was considered to be totaled because the repair estimate was $3000 and the book value was $2800. Now he’d have kept driving it except that it started to run hot.
Great article. And if you’ll excuse me I’ll go mess with my 1978 Cadillac!
Thanks Chip. I do believe the statistic you were quoted about the percentage of wrecked vehicles that are scrapped. And if disassembled for parts or crushed, they’re maybe sometimes sold with a salvage title (although I’ll bet that number is small).
The cost of parts and labor is a huge factor. My 18 year old car has headlights that cost (retail) $900 each. Smash those, and a grill and need a hood and then labor and paint…and that car is an insurance write-off.
This most excellent piece combined so many things I love. In fact and on weekends, I’ve been semi-regularly watching old-school TPIR, though most episodes they show are from the ’80s, predating Ms. Ford’s tenure on the show. Wow, was she gorgeous. I remember seeing her as an actress on some great B-movie I’ve watched withing the last year or so, IIRC.
Seeing a prize like a Vega or FIAT Strada being won has often made me think about what even the short-term ownership experience was like. I mean, gift horses and mouths and all of that, but I can imagine someone driving his or her new prize Vega home to wherever in the United States and it ending up overheating and parked on the shoulder in like Oklahoma or something.
I also had thoughts on keeping old things humming along (Jeff, I appreciate your industriousness with things like license plate screws and the like), but I’ve lost them. I had finished reading this piece this morning when I had deboarded downtown to go to work.
Suffice it to say this was all highly entertaining and the perfect start to my CC reading this week. Thank you, good sir.
Thanks Joe! I’m glad that I made a morning trip on the CTA that much more entertaining. I see these pieces as a journey, and it’s good to know that readers enjoy the ride.
I actually had not known that Ms. Ford was in any films until I dug deeper into her background for this piece. Now I really do have to go find some of her work. And yes, she sure has some mighty long legs.
I remember why owning a new car was a big deal then, both practically and socially. Now it isn’t.
I also remember why going to the moon was a big deal then, both practically and socially. Now it isn’t.
It’s the difference between the Soviet moon program and the American moon program. The Soviet moon program was simplified like old cars, but the Soviet program still wasn’t reliable because the Soviets didn’t have the knowledge and infrastructure to execute it. The American moon program was fancier and more ambitious like modern cars, but the Americans had the knowledge and infrastructure to execute it.
The American moon program was better.
Cars melted like ice cream cones, and had plumes of smoke out the tailpipe. I delivered newspapers in my suburban neighborhood so I knew every household well. There were still some original owners in their homes, and the owners were very sensible. A five year old car was an outlier, because these people needed to be at work every weekday at 9AM and couldn’t trust an older car to make that happen.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a car blowing oil smoke. (No, we don’t have emission inspection.)
My friend and doctor drives a 15 year old Lexus SUV he bought new. The idea that he could even consider buying a new 1967 Buick Electra, or Toyota Crown, and driving it every day for 15 years is silly.
I loved your piece. I watched TPIR all the way through college and always thought what it would be like to win a car. Well, that actually did happen to me. A few months after I bought a Chevy Beretta
I entered a raffle and WON another Beretta! Now I had 2 Berettas, a red base model transportation special (which I won) and a top line GTZ with the Quad 4 engine and 5 speed. I didn’t need 2 cars so I sold the red one to pay the income tax that year, which was considerable.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1990-chevrolet-beretta-gtz-trying-hard-to-be-a-genuine-sports-coupe/
Thanks Gene! My understanding is that the tax hit comes in two ways. One is that you have to pay the sales tax in order to take delivery on the prize car and then if the value of the car increases your income considerably, you wind up having to pay income tax. I suppose that in some particularly unfortunate situations where you have to pay CA sales tax (if you pick up the car in CA) and then your own state’s sales tax when you go to register it, and then state tax on the extra income (some states may tax winnings and some others may not), it could be quite the burden.
As a rule, your state of residence doesn’t collect sales tax if you pay sales tax in another state. Your state may collect the difference if your residence state rate is higher than the purchase state rate. For example, California collects the difference between California’s state rate and a lower state rate when you register the car in California.
Most states don’t collect sales tax on non cash transactions; you only pay sales tax on the cash in the transaction. If you haven’t paid sales tax elsewhere, California collects sales tax or use tax on the full value of the vehicle when you register it in California, whether or not there was cash in the transaction.
You owe federal income tax on the value of the prize. The paid state sales tax is deductible if you itemize. You may owe state income tax on the value of the prize.
I’d like to try winning a Billion or even a few Million Dollars ~ I have no problems saying “NO !” .
I didn’t have much T.V. access in the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s, then I became a family man and didn’t have time to watch anymore =8-) .
Fun article and comments here .
I too would rather fix than switch, living in the South West means rust is a very minor issue, my daily drivers are 2000 and 2001, I trust them to go anywhere .
-Nate
I can agree with this on so many levels. I have a friend who used his Montgomery Ward dishwasher until two years ago-on the only cycle that would work which was Sanitizer!
We bought a new LG fridge that lasted three years. Home Depot couldn’t get it fixed, LG was a joke and my local repair guy, who told me in his shop it was scrap, finally came over to say…it was scrap. Why? The un-repairable compressor.
The attached photo also makes me sick. It is of my son’s 90,000 mile 02 BMW 330ci. The small amount of damage you see made the insurance people deem it “totaled” so he didn’t file a claim. We only got rid of it when an overheating issue became more than he could afford.
The dealer where we traded it told me this statistic:
Today, in 2026, a total of 84% of cars that are wrecked are now totaled due to the high cost of parts, paint and labor. That’s just terrible.
Great article. Now I’ll just go and play with my 1978 Cadillac or 1978 Thunderbird!!
Where I live, there’s a rule that requires the insurance company to reimburse up to 130% of the car’s current market value. The condition is that you must demonstrably continue using the vehicle for at least six months after the repairs. Otherwise, the insurance company can reclaim the money. However, most people aren’t aware of this 130% rule.
Once my grandpa retired after the factory closed around 1985, he never missed his TPIR. I would watch it with him whenever I was off school. Was probably too late for Johnny Olson, but I loved Rod Roddy, when they would show him in his flashy outfits. Grandpa used to say Bob Barker got paid for every word he said. When they would describe the cars, and say “California emissions”, I thought they were saying “California ignition” and wondered what the difference was. Wasn’t until I was older and started working on my own cars when I realized what they were saying.
I too avoid new things like the plague. Not just because I’m an old soul and like the look and feel of the old stuff better. But because a lot of it was more reliable, and easier (let alone possible) to fix when the time comes. Also learn something in the process. I’ll keep my 1996 and older cars as long as feasible. My 2000 washer and dryer which came with the house, still built with the old school methods. When I replaced my stove I got the simplest thing there was. Love my 90s 50” projection TV, still use a C band dish and other than that, watch whatever is free on Roku. Too much free stuff to ever pay for TV. Modern engineering could be amazing, if it weren’t for modern economics. Back then, things were often built on the heavy side, and could last forever. And built so they could be repaired. Nowadays things are engineered to meet spec but within a razors edge of failure, then tossed. Or just flat out built with Thaitanium junk parts.