PSA: Lock your car.

[MineralMan]

56. I used to have an early 60s Falcon station wagon.

It was the easiest car to work on I've ever owned. Today's cars, with all the electronics and computers, are almost impossible for owners to maintain for themselves. Now, a 1960-65 Falcon is not a clean-running vehicle, so that's a real problem environmentally. But, If something broke, you could fix it in your driveway. I know, because I often did. Clutch slipping? Well, no big deal. About four hours and you're back on the road. The manual transmission was light enough to pull and handle by hand while lying under the car on jack stands.

Need a valve job? The cylinder head takes less than an hour to remove and take to the machine shop to grind the valves. Another hour to reassemble and you're back on the road. Everything about the economy cars of those days was simple, cheap, and repairable by anyone with basic mechanic's skills.

Nothing sold since the 90s fits that category any longer. In many ways, that's too bad, although today's cars are far more reliable, non-polluting, and the things will start and run in any weather, every time.

It's nostalgia, really, and not at all practical, but nostalgia is a nice thing to imagine.