I had a '72 F150 that had the stick on the steering column. I'm not a car guy, but boy it was easy to fix that thing when it broke down.
My 1st car was a '47 Plymouth Coupe that I bought from my Bro for $1. It had 130k + miles on it and got 25 mpg on both gas and oil. I always had a 2 gal can of Gulf Saphire Motor Oil and funnel in the "trunk". [boot for you unwashed]
Ya know...there's an unreal amount of info on the internets. Problem is at least 75% of it is bull doo doo! Ps...try this...pick a subject that you're proficient in and go online and ask the "experts" something pertaining to it. You'll be shocked, shocked I tell you, about some of the replies.
Some hung on into the 70’s. The first car I regularly drove was a 1971 Chevelle station wagon with the manual transmission shift on the steering column.
I’d until recently had forgotten that I used to carry a gallon of anti-freeze in any car I was driving. I don’t remember the last time I had a car engine overheat.
The Prius I rented didn't have a gas gauge per se, just a miles remaining. Fortunately most of the time it was in the gas sipping mode! I would definitely buy a hybrid Sienna if my Ody went to lunch!
I only tried it once--on a used car I was test-driving--but I weirdly could not get the hang of it. I learned to drive manual, and could drive my Dad's '63 Chevy pickup as a young teen, and my grandfather's '49 Ford tractor as a pre-teen, AND I drove more than one stick-shift car subsequently (including now! I drive a 2013 Honda Fit) but 16 year-old BRF was totally flummoxed in his one and only attempt to drive three-on-the-tree. Ended up pulling over, out in the country, and having my Dad drive us back to town and the person who was selling it. It wasn't a great car; I'd LIKE to think that if it had been a keeper and we opted to buy it, I would have figured it out.
What year was that? My wife drove a 2006 Prius for 15 years, and currently has a 2017. Both of them had a gas gauge.
It just would have taken practice. When I first learn to ride a motorcyle, well over 95% to this day are manual, I thought I'd get a handle on using the clutch instantly since by that time I had been driving manual transmissions for 20 years. It took a bit longer than that but not so long that i couldn't pass the motorycycle safety course I was taking.
It was a '24 and had a somewhat image with a bunch of lines crammed into an array of info that wasn't spelled out. As the rental was only for 2 wks I didn't bother reading the 1500 pg manual!
Motorcycle safety course! What motorcycle safety course? I didn't need no stinking motorcycle safety course! I had never even ridden on a bike before I bought my '56 BSA Road Rocket and drove it off into the sunset!
A friend of mine died almost a year ago. Among the bikes he had were a BSA, a Triumph and a Norton. I don’t know what’s become of them.
Oh I'm sure I would've gotten the hang of it. It was just a bit odd that I struggled, given that by that point I'd been driving vehicles with manual for over half a decade. I mean--at 10, I could handle a freaking tractor, but somehow at 16 I struggled with a sedan? That seems backwards. I figured out the shifting on a motorcycle easy enough; the fact that you need to lean when turning I figured out very quickly after I ended up in a shallow ditch, barely missing a mailbox.
A biker kinda reminds me of a saying about pilots. "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots"! Same goes for bikers.
The best rider I ever rode with was in his seventies. It's nothing like being shown up by someone who is 30 years older than you. I did find out he used to race.
On the other side of the coin a co-worker of mine came in 2nd at the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships back in the late 70's piloting a Pitt Special. We used to occasionally fly from Deerfield Ma to Montpelier Vt in a diff aircraft for work. On one of the return trips we had heavy clouds where visibility was zero. We had picked up a Sys Annalist who sat up front while I was in back and he said he was taking flying lessons. He completely lost his shit while the pilot relaxed in his seat. Pilot turned to me and asked why I was so relaxed. I replied I was watching him and won't get nervous til he does. Hole opened up over airport so easy landing.
AI could be used to issue a fake Taylor Swift endorsement of the orange fascist that he then accepts. That's something, I suppose.