I remember a day back in the early '80s when Mom came to school to pick me up after band practice. By this time, we were a two-car family. We'd gotten a Ford Econoline van that Dad used for his commute to NAS Belle Chasse while Mom drove the Mustang.
After I hopped in and greeted Mom, she turned the ignition key, but the Mustang failed to start. Since the engine was cranking it ruled out the battery and starter. I hopped back out and popped the hood, scanning for an obvious cause of the no start condition. Not seeing one, I removed the air cleaner to do a deeper dive.
After a few minutes I also had the distributor cap and rotor off. This is when I noticed the distributor points never opened when I turned the crank using the fan. Since I didn't have a feeler gauge, I eyeballed and set what looked like the proper gap. With everything buttoned back up, I nodded to Mom to give it a try.
That old 302 cranked right up and we were on our way. Since I wasn't driving yet, I was no older than 14 when I carried out this field repair.
The well thought out designs that went into these old cars allowing even young, non-driving teenagers to keep them in proper form was amazing. There seemed to be an implied understanding between the automotive engineers of the big three and shade tree mechanics, "You know, you can always bring it in to a dealership, but we get it. A lot of you guys like to turn your own wrench, so we'll do what we can to make all the systems accessible."
Somewhere along the way, auto manufacturers abandoned this agreement.
We bought our first new vehicle in 2012, a Ford Focus. Over the years, it's clocked a respectable 230,000 miles. With it, we traveled extensively within the area bounded by New Orleans, LA, Seaside, FL, and Washington, D.C. It's even gone international with road trips to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. Mechanically, the vehicle was sound, with only standard wear and tear items needing to be replaced.
Unfortunately the control board regulating the transmission started throwing errors while we were on the road in Mobile, AL, and refused to allow shifting out of 1st gear.
Unlike the simple adjustment I made to the 'Stang as a teenager, this was well beyond a simple field repair. Also, well into the mid-'90s, I was still able to walk into any AutoZone and get nearly any mechanical part for the 25-year-old 'Stang. It turns out that transmission control boards were a dealer only item, and even Ford didn't have a supply of them readily available for a 10-year-old Focus.
The expenses of the rental car needed to get back to Maryland, the 3 month wait for parts, and the actual cost to replace the control module made for a very lean holiday season that year.
I recently had to change out the battery on the Bronco, an operation that would take 5 minutes on the 'Stang. Let me just say, I love this Bronco. However, some aspects of its design have me scratching my head. Swapping out the battery required removal of the air filter, air filter housing, and part of the fan shroud. The bolts holding down the battery were not easily accessible, and they were a different size from other fasteners securing the battery and cables. Moreover, there was a groove along the battery base that slotted into the battery tray. You couldn't simply lift it out; it had to slide further forward into the engine bay before it could be removed.
I'm not sure how I feel about buying a new vehicle in the future. Prices are in the stratosphere without a comparable rise in quality. Meanwhile, on board electronics continue to be more pervasive and invasive and may be surreptitiously sending telemetry about your driving habits back to the dealer and non-neutral parties like insurance carriers.
Unfortunately, as we move further into an era of smart, connected vehicles, I think the days when a teenager with a decent toolbox and a Chilton's car repair manual could solve most car problems are gone. While modern cars offer incredible features and efficiency, we've traded some of our autonomy and privacy in the process. The challenge for the future will be finding a balance between pricing, technological advancement, and maintaining our ability to truly own and control our vehicles.
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