Besides the obvious difference in the price of a gallon of gasoline, many things have changed since I started driving 30 years ago:
* we didn’t worry about mpg
* AC was an option
* only huge monster luxury cars had power windows
* there was no seatbelt laws
* high school guys used to get part-time jobs working at the gas station pumping gas. Now there are no full-service stations, and no jobs for high school guys at gas stations.
* no one bothered to lock their car doors much less have a car alarm.
* I think AM/FM radio was an option. Maybe an AM radio was standard.
* bucket seats were an option. Why don’t they make bench seats anymore?
* Nissan was Datsun
* Japanese cars were too small and uncomfortable
* automatic transmission was an option
* my first car was an Opel – anyone still know what auto maker that is? German, I believe. Why don’t they sell it here in the US anymore? It was a hand-me-down car from my brother, a bright blue 2-door, stick-shift. I wish I have a picture of it.
November 7th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
According to Wikipedia (everything here is a quote): Opel was acquired by General Motors in 1929 and continues as a subsidiary. Opel is GM’s largest European brand and with Vauxhall forms GM’s core European business.
Opel models are also sold under other GM brand names, such as […] Saturn in the US. […] the Omega was briefly sold in the US as the Cadillac Catera. Other models sold in the U.S., but slightly modified, include the Saturn L-series, Chevrolet Malibu and Cobalt. The majority of future Saturn models are expected to be either identical, like the Saturn Sky, or closely based, like the Aura, to European Opels. The Pontiac LeMans (1989-1994), which was the first car produced by Daewoo in South Korea for export to North America, were based on the Opel Kadett (now Astra) and larger Rekord (now Omega). Opels appeared under their own name in the US in the late Sixties, when they were sold through Buick dealers as captive imports.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I had the Opel around 1977. Might have been a few years old by the time I got it from my brother.