by Wallace Wyss –
As much as I, a California resident for half a century and more, think about moving to another State with cheaper housing and lower priced gasoline (paying over $4 a gallon now), one thing that keeps me here is the fact that California is kind to cars.
Every day I see cars like 1960’s Mustangs being used for daily driving. When I grew up in Michigan the rust would break through in about three years. You were forced to buy a new car or die of embarrassment.
I remember selling a used ’57 Ford convertible that I had just filled a gaping rust hole with Bondo and used a spray can to cover the Bondo. I stood in front of my repair while the young buyer was looking over the rest of the car. He bought it. Now, 60 years later, driving around Los Angeles, I see ’60s cars, ’50’s cars, ’40s cars and Model A’s every day.
Imagine a ’32 model A! My dad, who worked in the Ford plant at River Rouge might have built that car!
I can’t imagine driving the same car for decades. You would think you would want to try something new, like a 45 rpm record player, oh, I mean 8-track, oh, cassette, uh, maybe CD-rom?
And then too, if your old car is often in the background of in family pictures, it’s a little creepy to see the latest pictures where the people, who looked so young
when the car was new, now old and bent over while the damn car, if you babied it, looks ready to hit the road!
At a certain point modern insurance companies want your old car out of their coverage–they are in business to insure modern cars not collector’s cars. I can’t remember now how I insured my Ferraris, Mercedes Gullwings, Porsche Convertible D, and such but it must have been when they were considered regular cars not collector’s cars.
So you can talk about the beaches in Florida, or the beauty of the UP in Michigan, but the one thing you can’t take away from California is its climate that gives you the opportunity to drive your old car until the wheels fall off!
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR/ARTIST Wallace Wyss first became known as the author of 18 car histories. But now he’s a fine artist doing oil portraits of classic cars.
As an Arizonan, I’m so glad to hear you say you want to stay in California.
Come to friendly Texas where you’ll have a lot more money to spend on the cars you love!
After reading the editorial, a more proper title would be “California climate is kind to cars”. As a State California is anything but that! Why? Oh, I don’t know but would guess from the following:
1) Highest gas tax in the nation
2) Exuberant registration fees ($214 registration on a 14 year old motorcycle!!!)
3) Smog required on gas cars & trucks produced after 1975
4) Almost impossible to register a vehicle model which was never officially sold in California, even if it’s a model year 1975 or older. If the make model not in the State DMV system you are out of luck to get regular registration.
Anyone is welcome to add to this list.
@Edmon – careful with inviting people into your state unless you want the beautiful State of Texas become a shadow of it’s former self
A ’32 Model A? Hoping that was a typo…