lrobalo

300 straight 6 with 4 speed manual with the granny gear...hard combo to beat.

Legendsk

Good thing the OP limited the question to comparing current trucks with 70's. After reading the posts, I believe if it had been left open the 70's would have lost. Most of the arguments favoring the 70's would apply even more to horse and wagon.
Breed and grow your own engines. Engine issue - swap in a new one in less than 5 minutes.
Waste products and emissions? Mostly have a little value and useful on your garden or crops.
While stock vehicles were a little uncomfortable, they were easily modified to any comfort level you wanted. And the basic frame and body were easily repaired by virtually anyone.
Fuel - very cheap, but you could easily grow your own. In fact weeds or grass along the side of the road were great fuel.
Remote start? Sure, will your new high tech truck come when you call it?
Sync reliability makes it impractical to drive the current truck by yelling at it.
If you have one to many, can you just stagger out to the truck, tell it home and wake up in your front yard?

It's a good thing I'm an engineer and love technology, because sometimes..........

me1234

To anyone who doesnt think global warming exists. Just look at what SPF you have to use now to avoid a sunburn vs. what SPF your parents had to use. More UV Rays are comming through the atmosphere now than the amount that used to pass through, thus cooking skin more easily. A major misconception with Global warming(most likely from its name) is that everything is going to get hotter. Global warming is actually random climate change. Some areas will get freezing, other areas will get hotter than they used to. Winters will last longer than they used to in some places. Likewise, some places summers will be longer than they ever have before. Rougher storms and hurricanes will occur. As well as tornados appearing bigger(and smaller) in areas where they have never occured before(I believe we have already seen some of this this year). Since the ozone layer, yes there is in fact one, is being detiorated by our emissions from our vehicles global warming is occuring.
Dont get me wrong, I do realize that money is a HUGE factor(almost the entire thing really) that keeps a country running. Our country can't hope to continue if we focus all out efforts on making clean(environmental friendly) vehicles, power sources, toilets, homes, tires, pavement, concrete, and everthing else. Some things simply can't be environmentally friendly(without making America bankrupt). However, we should at least make some effort to be a little bit nice to the environment.

Now to the original question lol. Personally, I think older trucks are cooler, and pretty much all older cars in general. The thickness of the metal is awsome and they could demolish pretty much any door today if you really wanted to give someone a nasty door-ding. Not to mention accidents. The engines seemed more manly and as mentioned earlier could easily outrun one of today's trucks.

However, newer vehicles are safer. As mentioned previosly, hubs no longer have to be turned to turn 4x4 on. Newer vehicles have airbags. Newer vehicles had anti-lock brakes, better handling, traction control(mixed reviews on this one. Never tried a vehicle with one and have hears bad things about it), and a vast array of bonuses. The metal in todays vehicles is thinner . However, the vehicles of today are designed to take the impact of the crash instead of the person inside the car taking the impact. I wouldnt call them "disposable" as some previous comments have said. I would just say vehicles of today don't last as unharmed in a crash as they used to. Personally I believe the real reason the sheetmetal on cars is thinner today is bc the price of sheetmetal has gone up, and car companies cant make a vehicle for a good price with thick metal, not because they are safeter. I think auto companies found out they can make thinner metal cars safer vehicles after they were forced to thin the metal out, and then used safety as their reason for doing so. (I think it would be awsome of motor companies today offered thicker metal vehicles as an option. Especialy to construction companies so they will get damaged less easily on the job).

So my decision, older vehicles for coolness, newer vehicles for safety, and other bonuses.

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

Global warming is a myth.

deerhunter42

No way! I had a 1968 Ford 3/4 ton four wheel drive that I bought used. Best truck I ever owned. My buddy bought a brand new 1971 1/2 ton truck. This was when they first forced pollution control crap on them. His truck was a piece of junk. Mine had more power, got better mileage and was far more reliable. I put 100,000 on mine, got 15 mpg, 12mpg with a camper on it, and sold it for almost what I paid for it.

Then I bought a 1975 Dodge 4X4 3/.4 ton pickup. This was the worst vehicle I have ever owned in 50 years of owning vehicles. The thing got 7mpg and almost immediately started burning a qt of oil per tank of gasoline. The starter went out, the coil went out, the roof lining fell down, it was a total lemon. Sold it for 900 bucks and was glad to get rid of it.

My 2008, 2010, and 2012 trucks are much better then anything built back in the 70's with fuel injection etc. But they cost 8 times as much as similar trucks back then.

sgtpatiolantern

Some of my favorite Ford pickups are from the 70's. Pop the hood on a truck in that era and there wasnt much to it. Wiring was a bare minimum, and by today's standards would be as low tech as they come. Fuse panels had maybe a dozen or so fuses.

Modern vehicles entertainment systems are probably more complex than the entire electrical systems on the old girls.

But for convenience and comfort, I really dig the new trucks. More often than not they have essentially replaced the family car as a more useful, roomy, and convenient vehicle. As far as reliability goes, I believe the majority of Ford trucks are extremely reliable. I realize there are some horror stories out there, but none have touched me or anyone I know. In fact, the reliability aspect was just another selling point for me. Given the choice, I would choose modern over the dinosaurs any day. Much better thought out, way more comfortable, and arguably more reliable and efficient.

Kevin_MacArthur

That first paragraph might be one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

dubya

Sorry Ohio; I don't seem to remember that being a problem here... (in Texas).

deerhunter42

Global warming does exist. So does global cooling. Through the eons the earth has went from glaciers to rain forests and back. We humans were not even in existance yet.

Global warming and cooling will continue but we humans have: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, WE DON'T CAUSE IT AND WE CANNOT STOP IT!!

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

You're crazy man. No such thing as global warming. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to throw another tire on the fire.