You know you are getting old when:

[scottyrocks]

I got my eye on the Pontiac Solstice roadster. It would be a toy, mostly, and I've yet to see one at a price low enough to justify the expenditure. Give it a couple more years, maybe.

I went through a '60s-vintage British sports car phase, lasting from the early 1980s until just recently. Had a couple Triumphs and my fave, a '64 MGB, which was a blast to drive. Just about any low-end four-door built in the last 20 years outperforms it by most any measure. But for just tooling around on a sunny day, it had few rivals. You always knew where it was and what it would do under most any circumstance. No blind spots with the top down. Parking a snap. Hell, when I spotted an open parking space on the opposite side of the street, I just looked to make certain there were no cops and did a mid-block U-turn.

BMW Z3 roadsters can be had at prices I might consider, and to my eye they're considerably more attractive than their successor, the Z4. But I hear that repairs can be frightfully expensive. I'm hoping that's among those bits of conventional wisdom that just ain't so.

Argh! This post made my heart race. I've wanted an MGB or Midget my entire life and never got one.

Last year I was reading up on the 1st gen Frogeye/Bugeye Austin Healey Sprites, another favorite of mine. There's a guy not too far from me who restores and sells them - a real pro. I still may do it.

 

[EngProf]

Argh! This post made my heart race. I've wanted an MGB or Midget my entire life and never got one.

Last year I was reading up on the 1st gen Frogeye/Bugeye Austin Healey Sprites, another favorite of mine. There's a guy not too far from me who restores and sells them - a real pro. I still may do it.

This falls into old category of "Be careful what you ask for, you might get it." As a long-ago Bugeye Sprite owner I can say I never owned a worse car and I've owned a lot of cars.
A go-cart with some cheap sheet metal attached...
(I only bought it because I was dating an attractive blonde who thought it would be fun to ride around in a sports car.)

As a normal US car owner, how was I to know that you had to use some-sort of special brake fluid? Good old US DOT brake fluid ate up all the seals and the brakes failed right in the middle of downtown. Dangerous... annoying... Fortunately, since it was just a go-kart I drove home using only the hand brake.
Hydraulic clutch seals went out shortly after...

In winter: outside temp. = inside temp. (always)

I paid $275 for it and sold it for $275. Very happy to be rid of it... After all these years I still get a pleasant feeling about not having it.

 

[Zombie_61]

...The turning point will be once it's easy to get cheap and fast electric recharges for cars most anywhere, and batteries are small and portable enough to have half a dozen available for long trips...

This is one of my three issues with electric vehicles. The current battery technology is far too inadequate for them to be practical for most people. They're fine if you're only going to use them to drive to work and back and live reasonably close, or take short trips around town, but it you have to rent a room while you're waiting 8-12 hours for your vehicle to recharge, I can't see that being feasible. Second is the expense; the price tags are usually twice that of a comparable combustion engine vehicle, and when it's time to replace the battery current estimates are hovering around the $5,000 mark. Third...they're too quiet. I've had some roll past me in a parking lot, and I hardly heard anything. Considering the number of nitwits who carry on throughout their day with their faces and attentions permanently affixed to their cell phones, I can see this becoming a serious safety issue.

 

[tonyb]

Argh! This post made my heart race. I've wanted an MGB or Midget my entire life and never got one.

Last year I was reading up on the 1st gen Frogeye/Bugeye Austin Healey Sprites, another favorite of mine. There's a guy not too far from me who restores and sells them - a real pro. I still may do it.

Do it, man! You'll love it.

 

[tonyb]

This is one of my three issues with electric vehicles. The current battery technology is far too inadequate for them to be practical for most people. They're fine if you're only going to use them to drive to work and back and live reasonably close, or take short trips around town, but it you have to rent a room while you're waiting 8-12 hours for your vehicle to recharge, I can't see that being feasible. Second is the expense; the price tags are usually twice that of a comparable combustion engine vehicle, and when it's time to replace the battery current estimates are hovering around the $5,000 mark. Third...they're too quiet. I've had some roll past me in a parking lot, and I hardly heard anything. Considering the number of nitwits who carry on throughout their day with their faces and attentions permanently affixed to their cell phones, I can see this becoming a serious safety issue.

Early adopters almost always pay a premium. Most peoples' daily driving is well within the range of the electric vehicles already on the market. Battery technology is always improving. Many electric cars have gasoline engine backup, which powers a generator which provides power to the electric motors.

Electric cars are the future, no matter what we Ned Ludds might feel about it.

Not far from where I sit at this moment is a light rail stop with adjacent car parking. The overhead structure of the parking facility is covered with photovoltaic panels which power the electric car charging stations directly beneath them. It's a thing of beauty, this literally driving on sunshine.

 

[1mach1]

Early adopters almost always pay a premium. Most peoples' daily driving is well within the range of the electric vehicles already on the market. Battery technology is always improving. Many electric cars have gasoline engine backup, which powers a generator which provides power to the electric motors.

Electric cars are the future, no matter what we Ned Ludds might feel about it.

Not far from where I sit at this moment is a light rail stop with adjacent car parking. The overhead structure of the parking facility is covered with photovoltaic panels which power the electric car charging stations directly beneath them. It's a thing of beauty, this literally driving on sunshine.

I do think that this technology is super cool, and I'm all for it. However, I will never drive one out of pure love for the gasoline V8 engine. Its just my thing.

 

[tonyb]

I do think that this technology is super cool, and I'm all for it. However, I will never drive one out of pure love for the gasoline V8 engine. Its just my thing.

I can dig that. Although a couple weeks ago I had a chat with a fellow standing alongside his new Tesla who tells me the acceleration on those things will convert just about anybody.

 

[1mach1]

I can dig that. Although a couple weeks ago I had a chat with a fellow standing alongside his new Tesla who tells me the acceleration on those things will convert just about anybody.

Yeah, my heart jumped when I saw a video of a Tesla whipping the snot out of a Dodge Hellcat Challenger. Geeeez.

 

[tonyb]

Yeah, my heart jumped when I saw a video of a Tesla whipping the snot out of a Dodge Hellcat Challenger. Geeeez.

Yup. Zero to 60 in the sub-4 second range. That's snap-your-head-back acceleration.

 

[1mach1]

Yup. Zero to 60 in the sub-4 second range. That's snap-your-head-back acceleration.

Yeah, even a old school gearhead like me cant overlook that! Phenomenal!

 

[Zombie_61]

Yup. Zero to 60 in the sub-4 second range. That's snap-your-head-back acceleration.

At Tesla's prices they'd better do that and cook my breakfast every morning. I'll never have that kind of money to spend on a car, so I guess I'll never find out.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

I cannot tell one foreign car from another today - they all look the same to me. Dh bought a new-used car a few years ago and it was the first foreign made car we ever owned, it was a Hyundai Elantra 4-door. The first time I drove it I went to Walmart and parked it. Naturally, Walmart was packed so I came out of the store, went to the car, and try as I might I couldn't get the electronic key to unlock the door. After about 5 minutes of repeatedly hitting the unlock button, I finally called dh. His first question was, "Are you sure it's the right car?" I told him of course it was the right car. His next question was for me to look at the trunk of the car and tell him what the emblem looked like. I said there was an "H" on it. He asked if it was sitting straight up or leaning to the side and I told him it was straight up. He starts to laugh hysterically, barely able to tell me I'm trying to unlock a Honda, not a Hyundai. It seems that my car was actually parked in the next row. That would have never happened with a vintage car. I never had trouble distinguishing between a Camaro and a Firebird back in the 70s. Now days I make a mental note of exactly where I parked because we have three foreign made cars that look exactly like all the other foreign cars out there.

 

[tonyb]

Tesla is coming out with a model priced around $35K, which these days is in the "just an ordinary car" range.

 

[GHT]

I went through a '60s-vintage British sports car phase, lasting from the early 1980s until just recently. Had a couple Triumphs and my fave, a '64 MGB, which was a blast to drive. Just about any low-end four-door built in the last 20 years outperforms it by most any measure. But for just tooling around on a sunny day, it had few rivals. You always knew where it was and what it would do under most any circumstance. No blind spots with the top down. Parking a snap. Hell, when I spotted an open parking space on the opposite side of the street, I just looked to make certain there were no cops and did a mid-block U-turn.

On the front page of this month's MG Enthusiast, is an MG Y Type like mine, but the whole drive train, engine, gearbox, propshaft and differential are all of the 'B' series, the one that goes into an MGB.

Yeah, my heart jumped when I saw a video of a Tesla whipping the snot out of a Dodge Hellcat Challenger. Geeeez.

You have such a way with words. Cracked me up.

I cannot tell one foreign car from another today - they all look the same to me. Dh bought a new-used car a few years ago and it was the first foreign made car we ever owned, it was a Hyundai Elantra 4-door. The first time I drove it I went to Walmart and parked it. Naturally, Walmart was packed so I came out of the store, went to the car, and try as I might I couldn't get the electronic key to unlock the door. After about 5 minutes of repeatedly hitting the unlock button, I finally called dh. His first question was, "Are you sure it's the right car?" I told him of course it was the right car. His next question was for me to look at the trunk of the car and tell him what the emblem looked like. I said there was an "H" on it. He asked if it was sitting straight up or leaning to the side and I told him it was straight up. He starts to laugh hysterically, barely able to tell me I'm trying to unlock a Honda, not a Hyundai. It seems that my car was actually parked in the next row. That would have never happened with a vintage car. I never had trouble distinguishing between a Camaro and a Firebird back in the 70s. Now days I make a mental note of exactly where I parked because we have three foreign made cars that look exactly like all the other foreign cars out there.

If you have an extrusion like an aerial, tie a thin strip of ribbon to the top to help you identify it, you won't have the embarrassment of trying to get into the wrong car then.

 

[Edward]

On the front page of this month's MG Enthusiast, is an MG Y Type like mine, but the whole drive train, engine, gearbox, propshaft and differential are all of the 'B' series, the one that goes into an MGB.

Wholly or partially bright red? Sounds like (at least a replica of) of the the MG works race cars that were rallyed.

 

[OldStrummer]

Argh! This post made my heart race. I've wanted an MGB or Midget my entire life and never got one.

Last year I was reading up on the 1st gen Frogeye/Bugeye Austin Healey Sprites, another favorite of mine. There's a guy not too far from me who restores and sells them - a real pro. I still may do it.

The very first car I owned was a 1961 Morris Mini. Morris and Austin made the same car, just with different nameplates. And they shared the powertrain with the Bugeye Sprite. I have frequently entertained the idea of purchasing a restored one just for the kicks of having it.

I do think that this technology is super cool, and I'm all for it. However, I will never drive one out of pure love for the gasoline V8 engine. Its just my thing.

Instead of a "classic" Mini, when I found the house I purchased a year ago had a Level 2 charging station, I went out and bought the cheapest electric vehicle -- cash -- just to see what the buzz was all about. A year later, I find it's my daily driver.

Of course, I'm the perfect customer for it: I live six miles from work, and have at least three shopping/grocery stores within a mile or two. It gets me where I'm going (and actually is a fun drive!) before my ICE (internal combustion engine) - powered car warms up. (And it's ALL electric, not a hybrid).

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Have you calculated the cost of the juice to charge the car?

 

[1mach1]

^^^^^
Have you calculated the cost of the juice to charge the car?

Or the environmental effects those batteries will have in many years to come? [emoji14]

 

[scottyrocks]

Electric car proponents never talk about that stuff.

 

[belfastboy]

Tesla is coming out with a model priced around $35K, which these days is in the "just an ordinary car" range.

Allegedly......if they ever work out the production bugs.....the jury is still out on whether they are a legit car company or a tech play