old vs. new license plates
In yet another instance that the older I get, the more retro I’m becoming, I prefer old license plates (sometimes called tags) compared to new ones.
When living in CT I knew of three types of license plates.
CT very-old school:
As a kid I saw a few of these here and there. Blue field, white letters, CONNECTICUT on bottom, a registration sticker at bottom right and nothing else. Simple, effective and it worked.
CT old school:
When I registered my first vehicle, this is the style of plate I had. It was taller, had a small image of the state in the top left, followed by CONNECTICUT, and CONSTITUTION STATE on bottom. The sticker location moved from the bottom right to the top right.
My plate in particular was unique because I drove a truck at the time, so it said COMBINATION on the plate, replacing the CONSTITUTION STATE portion of it.
CT current:
This is the current CT plate, and it sucks. The embossed letters were replaced with printed, and the distinctive blue field was changed to a gradient. Sky blue on the top, white on the bottom. The all-caps was changed for Connecticut and Constitution State as well.
I remember when I first got one of these and thinking how utterly boring it was. Sure, it looks classier.. I guess.. but it lost all the character the old plate had.
MA old school:
I always considered this a boring-ass plate. It was very similar to CT very-old school design. White field, green letters, MASSACHUSETTS on top, reg sticker on top right.
MA current:
This is an improvement over the old design as it does look more distinctive. What’s interesting about this one is the addition of embossed letters at top left for the month. Why this is there I have no idea. Printed on top is Massachusetts with The Spirit of America on the bottom.
FL old school:
I’m on the fence to whether I like this plate or not. White field, orange letters, FLORIDA on top, county name on bottom, image of state in center, reg sticker on top right.
It is interesting that Florida allows the use of the letter I on plates. Most states don’t do that because it can be too easily confused with a 1.
FL semi-old school:
This plate is slowly but surely disappearing from cars, as per state law. White field, green letters, printed FLORIDA in top middle, SUNSHINE STATE (or county name) on bottom, image of orange in the middle.
FL current:
A simpler plate, however it has an extremely irritating dot-com on it. I’m the type that feels that web site URLs have absolutely no place on a license plate, because the state isn’t MYFLORIDA.COM, it’s FLORIDA, you idiots.
Anyway.. white field, green letters, MYFLORIDA.COM on top, image in the center changed to a pair of oranges, SUNSHINE STATE at bottom, or county name or the recently introduced IN GOD WE TRUST.
I chose to have SUNSHINE STATE on mine.
The saving grace of this plate is at least the bottom logo is still embossed rather than printed. But that MYFLORIDA.COM crap has to go.
States need to introduce a “retro” specialty plate option
I really wish states would wise up and offer a specialty plate that looked like plates did years ago. I guarantee they would sell like crazy and probably be the most sought after.
This is FL’s antique plate:
Specialty plates normally run for $25 to $50 a year that you have to pay extra for. I would happily put down the money for this if one of these were available for non-vintage passenger vehicles. Instead of ANTIQUE it could simply say RETRO, and believe me, scores of people would want them.
If anybody that reads this has any say-so in the design of specialty plates, please offer a retro option.
today’s kids don’t know anything about cars
Watch this video and I’ll tell you some interesting factoids.
The car in the vid above is a 1983 Buick LeSabre, and watching somebody actually having to learn this car definitely reminded me that 1983 was a long, long time ago.
In the beginning of the vid you’ll notice the guy asks “which drive” he’s supposed to use. That’s because someone today has never seen the overdrive selection as it once was, commonly known as “Circle-D”. It’s a D that literally has a circle around it. I’m guessing the circle is supposed to mean O for Overdrive. And while that sounds fancy, it isn’t. It’s just a gearing selection that saves gas at cruising speeds.
Later on in the vid he can’t figure out how to adjust the power seat. It’s not that power seats aren’t common (I had a power driver’s seat on my 2000 Alero), it’s that GM for as long as I can remember has always had the controls on the left side of the driver’s seat. As such, they’re completely hidden.
After that, he can’t figure out how to use the turn signal, however, I understand why. GM cars and trucks for the longest time had two levers left of the steering wheel, one in front of the other. The front one was for turn signals, wiper control, cruise and high-beam selection. The rear one was to adjust the steering wheel tilt.
Then he notices the highlighted “55″ on the speedometer. USA car manufacturers did this during the Carter administration when the vast majority of interstate speeds was the double-nickel. Carmakers fortunately stopped making speedometers like that in the mid-’80s.
~ ~ ~
1983 was 27 years ago. I was 8 years old then.
This month in 2010 I’ll be turning 35.
With autos in particular, I’m noticing the older I get, the more I can’t stand new cars. I’ve actually felt this way for quite some time.
Older GM vehicles to me feel a lot better than new ones do. I totally admit I’m a GM fan through and through, but there’s not a single car they’ve made since the mid-90s that I’d actually want.
Even with the shamefully low gas mileage an ‘83 LeSabre gets, which is about 14 city/20 highway, I’d happily drive it. Why? Because the truth is that I’d actually save cash by using it as a daily driver. When you take into account car payments, insurance, and the RIDICULOUS list of crap just to get a car’s computer to run right (fuel injector cleaning services, sensors galore, blah blah blah), the gas guzzler vintage Buick is actually cheaper to own and maintain.
That’s just plain sad.
Because of this, the chance of me ever buying another new car is very, very slim.
opera 10.50 on a netbook
If there’s one thing that’s ticked me off about using my Dell mini 10v netbook (which I do use often) is that modern web browsers suck on them. Why? Because they’re so frickin’ bloated and dog-ass slow. However, Opera 10.50 was just released, and I’m using it to type up this bloggo.
Verdict? It’s good. Better than good. Great, in fact. The reason? Speed. This thing is just as fast as Google Chrome without having to use that craptastic browser. I’m actually really happy with it, particularly when using the WordPress interface, which is a nightmare to work with in Firefox or IE8.
Opera 10.50 gets my thumbs up. I’ll be writing a work article on this later in more detail. If your browser has turned into a slow piece of crap, install Opera. You might like it so much that you use it all the time.
swordquest
This is definitely the coolest video game history vid I’ve seen in some time. Watch it first then I’ll give you my take on it.
I’d never heard of the game Swordquest for the Atari 2600 until I saw this video. Would I have liked it as a kid? No way. It required way too much effort to play it and I hated comic books. But I do respect it because it was a time when video game contests really meant something.
The thing that really gets me about the above vid is that it is one of the very few game contests that gave you seriously awesome prizes, as in the kind you’d be proud to display in your home. Not some dopey-ass store discounts, not some stupid coupon book.. none o’ that. We’re talking about the real true-blue stuff here.
I really like it when companies offer prizes that you really want. And unfortunately it will never happen again.
Why never? Because where there’s gamers on the internet there are cheaters. Companies have tried to run gaming contests before using internet. All failed. This is why prizes today are nothing but dopey discounts and coupons, because it’s something a company can afford to lose even if someone cheated to get them.
It’s too bad that’s the way it is these days, but it was awesome someone put a vid together showing how it used to be.
in preparation for the acquisition of a granny car
Yesterday I strapped four brand new tires on my truck. Cost: $370. Spent too much? Probably. But it will be worth it if it will increase the chance of selling my truck for the price I want.
I mentioned selling the truck a while ago but have not be able to take action on it until now because I only acquired the title very recently. This doesn’t mean the debt was paid off. It was simply moved, so I still owe the money. But technically I own my truck 100%.
My goal is to sell the truck so I can purchase a granny car. This is a debt reduction maneuver. The sale money acquired from selling the truck will knock my long-term debt down significantly, and allow me to purchase a granny car.
What is a granny car exactly? There’s a bit of a story behind that.
In New England or any state that gets a significant amount of snow, there are only two types of vehicles worth owning, that being a front-wheel-drive or a 4×4. Having a rear-wheel-drive vehicle is just plain stupid. Of course, there will be those that say, “I can drive a RWD in snow, that’s easy!” I know the type. Fools, all of them. It’s FWD, 4×4 or nothin’. Anybody that drives a RWD in New England during the winter season has a death wish.
This is the entire reason I own a 4×4 in the first place. My truck was purchased new in ‘05 and I’ve owned it ever since.
In Florida on the other hand you can drive anything. Cars that would be considered summer-only in New England are all-year in Florida. If you wanted to drive a RWD land barge sized car here, go right ahead. It’s not exactly the most economical, but totally do-able as a daily driver. Heck, you could even drive a dune buggy if you wanted to as long as it has all the parts to make it street legal.
Florida has a ton of old farts that live here, and that’s no secret. As such they drive very specific cars. Cars that are the definition of basic transportation. Plain, unassuming, boring boxy cars. These are granny cars.
Granny cars live a very good life in Florida. They’re never beat on, never redlined and are usually garaged most of their lives. It is “Florida car” defined.
I want one, and I’m going to buy one.
The granny car I have in mind is a very particular make and model made in a very particular five-year span. I won’t mention what it is or what years it was made because I sincerely believe it’s the ultimate sleeper car, and I want my pick of the litter, so to speak.
From my research, this is what I’ve found out:
- The engine used is basically bulletproof. I’ve read reviews of this car by people who have achieved as high as 275,000 miles on one – on a car nobody would ever think would be able to do that.
- One can be found easily for under $3,000.
- One can be found easily with under 60,000 original miles on it. I’ve even seen some with 26,000 original miles – for sale under the $3,000 mark. I’m not kidding.
- It’s a very comfy car.
- Kids hate it – which is fantastic.
- You could leave it in a parking lot with the windows rolled down and the key in the ignition, and nobody would steal it.
- The cost to insure one is next to nothing.
- It usually is loaded with options. Power everything, A/C, the works.
- It costs next to nothing to maintain.
There’s more but you get the idea.
The crazy part: This car must be within that five-year span I mentioned for model year, because anything outside of that span is a lemon and will be plagued with problems. Funny how that is, but it’s true.
Once I get one, which will hopefully be soon, I’ll give the scoop on what the car is, why it’s so awesome, and why I’ll probably be driving it for a good long time. Stay tuned for it.
