Left pedal?
Left pedal?
ValuePack wrote: Technology schmecknology, I'm going to buy a Mercedes 220D 4 speed with a full array of mechanical gauges and live in a cave. Now get off my lawn.
Seconded.
stuart in mn wrote: Bench seats and column shift.
The last bench seat died this year with the last W-Body Impala. 
Column shifters are on their way out.
pinchvalve wrote: The car frame may disappear someday. They are still in use in many trucks, but with the demise of the Panther chassis, are there any body on frame cars left?
None left! The Panther lives on under a handicapped van, but all cars are now unibody.
Javelin wrote: Column shifters are on their way out.
Not going to happen. Trucks, and I mean trucks you use for truck things, not the cushy F-150 Lariat leather-lined power-everything waste of a truck chassis, will always have column shift so you can sit three-across on the vinyl bench seat.
I can see it going out in minivans, though. The newer Dodge products have the shifter on the dashboard like a schoolbus. With the tiptronic (name?) feature, you bonk the shifter into the steering wheel when you downshift.
Unless you meant column MANUAL shift 
Reminds me of something an engineer wrote a while back.
"in the old days, the transmission sat under the floor between the seats, so we put the shifter on the steering column and had complex linkage to go to it. Now, most cars have the transmission at the base of the steering column, so we put the shifter on the floor between the seats...."
Knurled wrote: "in the old days, the transmission sat under the floor between the seats, so we put the shifter on the steering column and had complex linkage to go to it. Now, most cars have the transmission at the base of the steering column, so we put the shifter on the floor between the seats...."
that made me laugh ... 
still chuckling
Javelin wrote: Column shifters are on their way out.
I really don't understand this. My dads old minivan (93 Quest) had a column shift and since there was no big center console, there was this nice open area between the front buckets. Provided a decent amount of extra room for road trips when you had a couple bags of food, coolers, and luggage. We could fit a smaller cooler between there for drinks or have a bunch of food that people in the front seats and middle row could both access.
My contribution might have already disappeared: Push out hinged rear windows. Found on the same minivan. They only opened a few inches. Can't find a picture but they were secured with these 
fritzsch wrote: My contribution might have already disappeared: Push out hinged rear windows. Found on the same minivan. They only opened a few inches. Can't find a picture but they were secured with these
They're usually power windows, now. Kinda neat, you can watch the mechanism moving.
Well, carbs and distributors are long gone. Alternators will be next. They'll be built into the flywheel, taking the starter with it. Crank windows are on their last legs for sure.
Javelin wrote:pinchvalve wrote: The car frame may disappear someday. They are still in use in many trucks, but with the demise of the Panther chassis, are there any body on frame cars left?None left! The Panther lives on under a handicapped van, but all cars are now unibody.
Corvette?
dinger wrote: Late model BMW's have no dipstick and temperature gauges that keep the same needle position over something like a 30 degree range. "Stick shifts and safety belts, bucket seats have all got to go"
When we’re driving in the car It makes my baby seem so far
Will wrote:Javelin wrote:Corvette?pinchvalve wrote: The car frame may disappear someday. They are still in use in many trucks, but with the demise of the Panther chassis, are there any body on frame cars left?None left! The Panther lives on under a handicapped van, but all cars are now unibody.
Hrm, I don't know if that counts as a real frame or not. It's pretty "integrated" (as opposed to just dropping a body on). Might count though!
In reply to Knurled:
Sorry, I thought we were talking about cars, not trucks. Obviously full frame construction, bench seats, and column-shifts will forever remain in full-size truck-dom... 
It's more of a spaceframe now than a body-on-frame, isn't it?
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