I love modern electronics in my truck, but when they don’t work..

[CraigC]

My wife has a new `25 GMC Yukon. The shifter is electronic and won't let you shift out of park until you put your seatbelt on. I had to buckle up just to pull it out of the garage so I could wash it this afternoon, ahead of the coming cold snap. That's the kind of thing I hate on a new vehicle. It should do what I tell it to, not the other way around.

Few years ago I found a fully restored `62 Chevy like this one on Ebay. I should have bought it, done a few updates/upgrades, swapped in a V8 and called it a day.

[JimT]

My wife has a new `25 GMC Yukon. The shifter is electronic and won't let you shift out of park until you put your seatbelt on. I had to buckle up just to pull it out of the garage so I could wash it this afternoon, ahead of the coming cold snap. That's the kind of thing I hate on a new vehicle. It should do what I tell it to, not the other way around.

Do what we did hauling hay out of the fields ... leave the seat belts fastened all the time .. just put a small cushion over them if you can't shove 'em out of the way.

[jeepnik]

Most sears have a pressure sensor in the seat. It's plugged in. Jumper the plug.

[marlinman93]

Marlinman. Can you turn a wrench? Can you connect plugs? For all the hoopla new cars only have different, and easier, diagnostics.

Doubt it's easier? Look at the quality of today's "mechanics".

Obviously I can since I built both of the old cars shown in my previous post myself.
It's definitely not easier! Yes, I've been turning wrenches for over 60 years, and everything is easier on pre computer cars when engine bays looked empty compared to modern cars!
I did a spark plug change on my 2006 Ford Fusion and it took 4 hours to remove the throttle body, complete intake, and all the coil packs, just to get to the plugs! Then replace the plugs, intake gasket, throttle body gasket, etc., etc. and finish assembly. A job I can do easily on all three of my old vehicles in an hour for all of them, and not take anything off but the plugs.
They may have easier diagnostics, but old cars don't need diagnostics as there's nothing so complicated to even require them.

[marlinman93]

My wife has a new `25 GMC Yukon. The shifter is electronic and won't let you shift out of park until you put your seatbelt on. I had to buckle up just to pull it out of the garage so I could wash it this afternoon, ahead of the coming cold snap. That's the kind of thing I hate on a new vehicle. It should do what I tell it to, not the other way around.

Do what we did hauling hay out of the fields ... leave the seat belts fastened all the time .. just put a small cushion over them if you can't shove 'em out of the way.

Both of our newer cars have to have the seat belts connected if we set anything even slightly heavy in an empty seat or the darn warning keeps telling us someone doesn't have a seat belt on. Just a bag of groceries can trigger the warning.

[jkbrea]

I refuse to own a vehicle ... or even rent one ... that does stuff on its own. My truck does not have electric windows or automatically dimming lights or even lights that turn on by themselves. It has a stick transmission and if you want to unlock the doors you have to put a key into the door lock. Yes, it's old but so am I and we are happy together.

I tried to look for a 'old school 70s pickup . A decent running one starts around 15-20 grand! A non running one starts around 3-5 grand.!

My dream truck would be an early 70's GMC long bed 4x4...........but throw in heated seats and steering wheel!! It's -10 ° here this morning.

[CraigC]

We have a pretty good arrangement. If we're in her car, she drives. If we're in my truck, I drive. That way the only thing I have to deal with is the red seatbelt light in my truck that flashes for a few minutes before it stops. I probably could've had it disabled when I got the rebuilt cluster.

I still think about that `62.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Now this is a no-frills truck!

[lthardman]

I spent several decades as a volunteer firefighter. When I started, the fire pumps were all mechanical. A basic knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, and physics rewarded you with water at the volume and pressure you needed. Starting about fifteen years ago, the mechanical controls became electronic. And everything became both more complicated and a lot less predictable. Something that shouldn't get wet does get wet, and the electronic controls become useless. I have seen relatively new engines/pumpers have to be taken out of service in the middle of an incident when their fire pumps went down. That rarely happened with the old mechanically controlled pumps.

Who would ever guess that electronics might get wet on a fire scene....

[Streetstar]

My Cheyenne with the factory 396 is a fun truck and all --- but 95% of the time i'll take the modern 'Taco

[marlinman93]

Here's another strange thing I never thought I'd have trouble with on a newer car! Drove my 2006 Fusion Saturday and no problem. Then got up Sunday to head out and it wouldn't start. Just a click and nothing else. I opened the hood and first thing I checked was the battery date. A 3 year battery was dated 7 years ago!
No big deal as I pulled the battery and headed to the same place I got it to buy another. None on the shelf! Headed to another of the same store and same issue, none there. Talked to automotive guy and he said they dropped that battery due to low sales!
So headed to two different auto parts chain stores and one had none, and the other only had 1 year batteries to fit. Who buys a one year battery? So yesterday I called around and found a Battery Exchange store about 20 miles away that not only had the battery, but it was a 6 year battery. They also gave me a 10% military discount so I finally got a battery.
But considering how many Ford fusions were sold between 2006-2012 which all use this battery, I'm shocked that sales would be low. Hope I don't have a tougher time 6 years from now! If this was my old cars all I'd need was any battery that dropped into the tray and cables got bolted to, but there's a very specific size and height for the Fusion that requires the battery to fit, and no cables so the hard metal "straps" have to be the exact height on the battery or they don't have enough movement to fit on the posts. Great engineering Ford!

[marlinman93]

Yay! I called around yesterday and found my car battery! A place called Battery Exchange about 20 miles away had a 72 month guarantee battery in stock for $172, and when I asked if they gave a military discount he said sure and knocked off another 10% to make it $155!

[Scott Tschirhart]

That’s a great thing to know. We have one of those stores here in San Antonio