Crazy driving in 1939!

[Flivver]

Cars depreciated rapidly in the pre-war era because technology was moving so fast then. I have some NADA Used Car Guides from the 1920s-1930s that show this quite clearly. Today, a ten year old car is not much different from the new ones, but in 1939, a 1929 car was an antique. A pre-1925 car was almost pre-historic in 1939!

Two key advancements that arrived around 1925 were balloon tires and four wheel brakes. Once drivers got used to these advancements, they felt unsafe driving a car without them. And. even in the late 1920s, early 1920s cars were worth almost nothing. By 1929, a 1922 Cadillac that cost $4,000 new was worth around $50.

 

[Guttersnipe]

That hasn't changed very much really; the value of new vehicles still seems to depreciate at an almost double declining rate.

For example, the MSRP on a 2000 Cadillac Escalade was about $46,000. The Kelly Blue Book value for a '00 Escalade is about $6,300...just saying

 

[Forgotten Man]

You got that right!

I've owned cars 10+ years or older... and when they start to break down, it never ends! We're talkin' dominos here folks! My Plymouth is built so simplistically that one thing goes out, I can rebuild it... and it will last quite a while. Things do need to be maintained on antique cars, but most of the time it doesn't cost nearly as much as the maintenance on a 70s to 90s auto.

A new car will drop in value soon as it's driven off the lot... some cars hold their value better than others but, never will fetch the price tag that the dealership places on'em.

During the depression, people would drive their ol' crates till they couldn't drive'em no more. I've seen photos in the 50s of Model A's still on the road! Not meny but there were still a few going a long. In fact, my uncle's first car in the early 60s was a 1930 Model A... I think my Grandfather bought it for $100. bucks at that time. Oh the funny stories my Mother told me about that car!

 

[Lexybeast]

The driving in these videos reminds me a lot of how people drive today in places like India and China. Rules are generally disregarded in favour of just getting somewhere and not hitting anyone on the way, so you can turn in front of oncoming traffic knowing they'll slow down. It's like a weird combination of aggressive-defensive driving. Maybe when vehicles start to get common in a country then driving starts this way and remains so for a few decades, then eventually becomes the system we're all used to.

I wrote a thing on Indian driving here: http://lexybeast.com/2007/03/on-rickshaws-and-driving/

 

[pdxvintagette]

A Portland FLounger just turned me onto this thread... but I see that no one else in Portland has actually made a comment! It is really wild to see this when you actually know the intersections and drive 'em on a daily or weekly basis. Have to say, 6th and Yamhill still is heavy with nutty pedestrians, but those clever little traffic lights have helped. And seeing that stunt at 33rd & Sandy is well -- wow. That is still a major intersection, and I drive that route A LOT. The only thing that would happen differently now is that it would be a guaranteed accident!

 

[scottyrocks]

It seems to me that the major difference in how traffic flowed at these intersections is simply the lone traffic light.

 

[Thunderbolt]

What does a yellow and green light mean? I thought I saw that in one of the videos.

 

[John in Covina]

Got Zinc?

For all of the Vintage Car owners and drivers I have recently heard that the zinc levels in modern oil has dropped to a level that using current grades in your vintage car can lead to damages to moving parts, especially camshafts for some reason. Several oil manufacturers have made special "racing" oil and zinc additives so you can get or boost the zinc back to necessary levels.

Zinc interferes with the Catalytic converters in the old levels and has been steadily dropping over the years in the various gradings.

Torco is one brand I got to hear about but there are others.

 

[Forgotten Man]

A Portland FLounger just turned me onto this thread... but I see that no one else in Portland has actually made a comment! It is really wild to see this when you actually know the intersections and drive 'em on a daily or weekly basis. Have to say, 6th and Yamhill still is heavy with nutty pedestrians, but those clever little traffic lights have helped. And seeing that stunt at 33rd & Sandy is well -- wow. That is still a major intersection, and I drive that route A LOT. The only thing that would happen differently now is that it would be a guaranteed accident!

Ah HA, a Portland resident!

I bet for you it really was something to see those intersections you know so well but to see them 70 years ago. .. I know I’d love to see parts of my humble town Monrovia how everyone moved along back in those days… maybe there is some footage that isn’t known, that maybe someone here in town is holding on to and not aware that it would be of value.

A friend of mine has been up to Portland a few times and recognized the areas in the clips… he said he could watch those clips all day and never tire of them. I gaze at them myself and try and picture what it would be like to walk down the streets and see a world like that… man, what a difference.

 

[dr greg]

Miles

A guy not far from me has a 28 Dodge I think it is, original motor, 1 million plus miles, and he still takes it round australia on rallies across the desert and so forth, things were made to last back then.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I loved these clips! Everytime I see street scenes like this I always notice the driving. Especially when cars, horses, peds, and trolleys all shared the road. I would always notice that everyone would just go wherever there was room!

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

A guy not far from me has a 28 Dodge I think it is, original motor, 1 million plus miles, and he still takes it round australia on rallies across the desert and so forth, things were made to last back then.

Why is everybody telling me that old cars did not last? That cars only got half the miles on them before they were shot compared to today? This is what my Mom tells me about the cars Granddad had in the 1950's-60's... I need enlightenment.

 

[dhermann1]

While some cars lasted like crazy, due to frequent oil changes, etc., the average car didn't last much longer than 80 or 100,000 miles at most, often less.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The idea that old cars didn't last is a complete misnomer, just like modern cars, with proper preventative maintenance they lasted just fine. Unlike modern cars, however, they were not "idiot proof" and required a lot of routine upkeep. If you go 9K miles on dirty oil in a modern car it's bad, but if you do that to a vintage car it's fatal!

Sociologically speaking, we tend to generalize the "Great Generation" as thrifty and practical. But just like today, there were those who couldn't be bothered do stuff like, adjust the brakes every few month, change the oil every 1500 miles, and tweak the idle setting for the seasons - let alone rebuild an engine's top-end every 50-100K miles . . .

. . . being the paradigm of wisdom he is, my godfather puts it best, "cars are like good women in that, if you pay attention to them, and treat them right, they'll be with you for a lifetime, but if you don't, they'll give up on right away." (and he drove a '41 Chevy coupe well into the 60's).

Why is everybody telling me that old cars did not last? That cars only got half the miles on them before they were shot compared to today? This is what my Mom tells me about the cars Granddad had in the 1950's-60's... I need enlightenment.

While some cars lasted like crazy, due to frequent oil changes, etc., the average car didn't last much longer than 80 or 100,000 miles at most, often less.

 

[Mr. 'H']

In fact, my uncle's first car in the early 60s was a 1930 Model A... I think my Grandfather bought it for $100. bucks at that time. Oh the funny stories my Mother told me about that car!

Jeez, that's a funny one. lol

Need to hear more about that tale one day!

 

[Forgotten Man]

Yeah, my Uncle had that ol' Ford till I think he sold it for a motorcycle... Well, story goes is that my Mother was riding with him to a dance one weekend and she was all dolled up and they're driving in this Model A... well, the synthetic roof those early Ford's had started to flip right up! All sorts of dust and insulation particles started to fly around the inside of the cab... My Mom told me she was coughing and her eyes were burning from all the particles in the air... and her dress was all dirty.

"cars are like good women in that, if you pay attention to them, and treat them right, they'll be with you for a lifetime, but if you don't, they'll give up on you right away.".

And that's why so many car guys name their cars female names. It's true about anything, you take care of something, it's going to serve you for a long time!

 

[StraightEight]

Amazing how the mundane can be mesmerizing if you simply wait enough years. I wonder who would be more fascinated: us watching them go about their routine chores or them watching us. I'll bet they'd be disappointed at the balance of what has and hasn't changed.

For all of the Vintage Car owners and drivers I have recently heard that the zinc levels in modern oil has dropped to a level that using current grades in your vintage car can lead to damages to moving parts, especially camshafts for some reason. Several oil manufacturers have made special "racing" oil and zinc additives so you can get or boost the zinc back to necessary levels.

WAY OT: ZDDP or zinc dialkyldithiophosphate is being reduced, however the most exhaustive study I've seen concludes that it's really only an issue for modified engines running high-lift cams, in which case the extreme lift can squeeze out the oil film and, without the extra zinc protection, momentarily starve the wear surface of lubrication. I know some people who have switched to Shell Rotella diesel lubricant which maintains a higher level of ZDDP, though probably not for much longer as diesels adopt more sophisticated catalyst technology. In very under-stressed engines such as, say, a stock 1948 Buick 248 straight-eight, this is not an issue. I have rebuilt two of these engines and the biggest wear item I have found is the lifter face, which pits and spalls over the years. The flathead guys represent the largest community of people who tune very old engine designs for higher power output (not many people are hot rodding old Buick engines, in other words). They swear by Marvel Mystery Oil, which is now a subsidiary of Turtle Wax, and I have taken to putting in a shot to the tank and sump of the old Buick.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

The idea that old cars didn't last is a complete misnomer, just like modern cars, with proper preventative maintenance they lasted just fine. Unlike modern cars, however, they were not "idiot proof" and required a lot of routine upkeep. If you go 9K miles on dirty oil in a modern car it's bad, but if you do that to a vintage car it's fatal!

My Granddad is quite a mechanic and penny-pincher. I guess the reason he might not have kept the older cars longer is that he would always buy his parents cars from them. They would get new cars all the time and sell their nice older cars to Granddad. Hmm.. I'll have to ask him more about that.