So today, as I slid behind the wheel of my car, turned the key, and heard it start, a slight tear formed in the corner of my eye. It was the tear of memories, the tear that can only come from remembering something from the not so great past. And my past memory was of my 1978 Plymouth Volare.

Now, you are probably thinking I’m sixty five years old, but sadly, this was my first car, and the car was in its twenties when I bought it. In my defense, I was a young person out on my own for the first time. Also, I drank a lot back then so the car looked much better.

Back then, you couldn’t just step in the car, turn the key and go. You had to prime it. And it ate some serious gas.

On top of that, I had further fuel difficulties. I had a little problem with the choke of the Big V, and a friend of mine fixed it. After this, I made a personal promise to never pay people with beer to fix mechanical things. It seems that they start drinking while they’re still working. So two hours and a twelve pack later, my friend, who we will call D, had my car “fixed.” After his adjustments, it went thirty miles an hour without touching the gas and got about seven miles to the gallon.

Believe it or not, I am going somewhere with this story. I just needed to lay out the background first. So let’s see…1978 Volare, seven miles a gallon, and I can no longer drive through school zones because I can’t slow my car down to the 25mph speed limit without riding the brake.

And that made me think about this:

Has anyone noticed how much even the non hybrid cars have evolved through the years?

Right now, we are in the middle of a movement toward greater fuel efficiency, but when you look at how the cars used to be, it is amazing. Consider this: the average car in 1975 got 13.5 miles per gallon. I think that my Volare was right on schedule with that mess.

We might not be moving as fast as we want people to move, but we are moving. While at times I do miss the Volare with her burnt orange interior that was so roomy multiple children were probably conceived in it (I’m still paying the child support on some of them), at least now I can make it around the block without refueling.

Subscribe

Filed Under: General

If you enjoyed reading this article... Subscribe to Our Feed