h a l f b a k e r yBirth of a Notion.
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I've had about a dozen cars in my life and it occurred to
me
on this lazy, daydreamy Sunday afternoon it would be
interesting to see what became of them. Pictures of
subsequent
owners, junkyard history, where the recycled steel went
to,
what they might have been made into now. Hey, are
some of them still
driving? Where are they?
The idea would be a database of that stuff. Look up your
DMV
records, put them into the database searchand go down
memory lane. Maybe even have other owners talk about
the
car, be kind of a bonding thing to talk to others who've
owned
cars that I've owned, post pictures, look at pictures
others have taken.
Kind of a Facebook for cars. Grillbook?
And just to prove that the internet is now entirely filled
up, "grillbook.com" is actually registered. Allthough
probably for a different meaning.
How Many Left?
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/
Tangentially related to this idea - this website will give you statistics on any car type sold in the UK and tell you how many of them are left on the road [hippo, Sep 13 2021]
Carstories.com
https://web.archive...p://carstories.com/
A very fell flat version of this idea just asking people to tell stories about their cars. [doctorremulac3, Sep 14 2021]
[link]
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+ I couldn’t even remember how many cars I’ve
owned in my life! This would be great, kind of like
Carfax , but more personal. Except for the fact
that most of the cars I have owned were already
used cars, they must have a previous owner report. |
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Oh yea, this would all be voluntary. You'd log in
with
your car's information to put it out there so other
owners could search for it then put in their stories
if
they wished. |
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But only those who wanted to participate would be
included, absolutely. |
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Cool link Hippo, gonna check and see if there's a
single Yugo still running. A buddy of mine bought
one and I remember how it shook getting up to
speed and how the cardboard doors would bend
when you'd close them. Eh, about 40 or so left.
Compared to my current car, a Ford Mustang which
has like 1,300 or so. |
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Where do you get parts for a Yugo? Machine them
yourself? Why? |
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And ladies and gentlemen, trans and non-binaries,
further proof that the internet is full: |
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"wheresmycarnow.com" has already been registered. |
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I know the VW camper van I spent a lot of my childhood
summers bopping around Europe in, is registered with the
UK DVLA as stored off the road. I'd like a "Can I buy it back
please?" function for just this sort of situation. |
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Exactly. The thing is, it's not so much about a
particular car
as much as a particular time in your life, the
memories associated with it. |
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Facebook should add a search function for this.
Wonder if it's patentable. I think you'd be hard
pressed to find somebody who WOULDN'T use this. |
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// a particular car as much as a particular time in your life,
the memories associated with it.// |
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Cars aren't unique in this respect, but, I think they develop
personality, or something similar that lives in the same
region of our minds. Certainly a lot more than other
frequently used mechanical devices. I have no emotional
bond with my fridge or the bicycle I ride daily. In fact no
bicycle ever, and they've been involved in some serious
memory-generating activities. |
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Curious, anybody else here start driving at 13, or
earlier? That was 3 years before the legal driving
age where I live and me and my circle of friends
would keep close watch on our respective family's
cars for when parents were out of town so we'd
"have wheels". Made copies of all the keys, had a
pretty big car pool at our disposal. We were an
industrious group of kids. |
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Not criminal in any other way, had a guitar shop
downtown, traded guitars, very legit, we just
needed wheels is all. We safely drove to get where
we needed to as industrious kids, we just didn't
have the appropriate paperwork. I tell that story
to people and they look at me like I just admitted
to running a South American drug cartel. |
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I was about 9 when I learned to drive on an old
Willys Jeep. Beautiful beast, about 3 moving
parts. |
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Anyway, were we the only ones who started driving
as soon
as we could peer above the steering wheel? |
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[doctorremulac3]; not me personally, but I have plenty of
friends who grew up on farms & started driving very early. (I
went the other way, & didn't start my license until I was 18;
but by that time I knew most of it anyway, just hadn't
actually done so...). |
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//an old Willys Jeep. Beautiful beast, about 3 moving
parts. // |
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Can't have been safe if one of the wheels fell off. |
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I see how you could get away with driving too young in
the US, Around here at least you can drive past a cop over
the speed limit with half your exhaust and lights missing,
blow through the next stop sign and nothing would
happen. A parked cop I saw barely even looked as a gang
of ~30 kid on dirt bikes wheelied their way around city
hall. |
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In the UK, I leaned to drive at ~20. It took about 9 months
of lessons - not to learn how to drive, more to pass the
test. Passed first time, which was a shock, and much to
the annoyance of my friends who took 2 attempts
minimum. I don't think you could get away with it at 13.
1. Somebody would probably report you. 2. You'd make a
mistake, be it on a complicated junction or a fast stretch
of narrow road. 3. A policeman would spot you and want a
word. |
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Not that there's a lack of 13yo's hooning around some of
the rougher parts of residential urban decay, but I think
they know to stay out of the way. |
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//We safely drove to get where we needed to as
industrious kids, we just didn't have the appropriate
paperwork. I tell that story to people and they look at me
like I just admitted to running a South American drug
cartel.// |
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Tell that story in rural PA, it'd get a shrug. In the UK, it's
cartel level. In the absence of guns on the "what's
dangerous" spectrum, cars are pretty much next. You
were operating a deadly weapon with no training,
experience, insurance etc. Although running someone
over is still the best way to kill someone and get away
with it. Even if you reverse back over someone, it's still a
traffic offense, rather than assault with a deadly weapon,
which it should be once you can demonstrate intent like
that. |
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By the way, did get caught once. Parents got home
early, cop car in front of the house. I pulled the car
over,
jumped out and ran. Then composed my brilliant
cover story, walked around the block and walked in
like "Hey, who parked the car down the street?" I
probably had sweat running down my face. I seem to
remember the cop trying to hold back laughing. |
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Started driving at 14. Early learners permit in Alberta because of farming. I must have been 18 when I got my first wheels because they threw the book at me.
I found a job at an oil-tool distribution place about 20 km out of town and when I explained that I would have to hitch a ride every morning the boss sold me an old pick-up for 600 bucks.
I hadn't gotten a first paycheck yet but I'm a bit of an artist so I painted a 1990 sticker on an old license plate, (It was beautiful...I powdered some aluminum for a metallic effect and agonized over getting the serial number and the shadow line just right) |
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The transmission died within the first few days. I drove it backwards on a one-way for like 15 blocks to find a place to park and begged a buddy to tow it so I could thumb a ride to work. |
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Cops found it first.
Yikes! |
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No license.
No insurance.
Falsified plates.
Fraud.
...few other charges I can't remember right now. |
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The fine was several thousand dollars and I still hadn't received my first paycheck yet let alone payed off the truck.
It was 90 bucks a day off your fine back then for time-served and they locked my ass up. |
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Heh, my mom kind of went off on my boss and made him bail me out. |
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Not my proudest moment... but not the biggest turd I ever stepped in either. |
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At time of posting - carstories.com is available. |
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Is there a risk of getting drunk and texting an old car to get back
together? |
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See? Cars are like bookmarks to times of our lives. |
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Hey Pert, good research. Went to car stories.com
and it directed to another
site. Found a snapshot from the wayback machine
and didn't see where anybody actually used it. Just
prompted people to tell stories about their cars. |
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I think you'd need to draw people's attention with
the story of specific cars that people have owned.
I'd look that up and add a story, but probably
wouldn't just randomly tell car stories to strangers.
I did here but that's in the context of this proposed
idea. |
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Maybe this would work as a Facebook ad or
something. Not sure how you'd monetize it though.
Sell it to Facebook maybe? |
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...aged about 12, driving my dad's Peugeot down a very
steep private road with plenty of hairpin bends. I was
nervously keeping my foot on the brake all the way down
which meant that eventually the oil in the brake
hydraulics ran out and the brakes failed and we narrowly
avoided going over the edge...
...early 90's,
driving a Morris Traveller down Regent's Street in
central London a van ran into the back of the car causing
rotten (structural) woodwork to crumble onto the road and
the key to fall out of the ignition (the engine was still
running - the ignition lock was *very* worn). It took
ages to find the key and I was worried it had fallen
through one of the many big rusty holes in the floor... |
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Don't remember what kind of a station wagon it
was, but was stopped making a left turn and a
delivery truck rear ended me going full speed,
both the driver and his partner were looking at a
map back when maps were a thing. An Apple
computer in the back flew up and exploded against
the back of my head knocking me out. Came to,
put my hand on the back of my head and it looked
like I dipped in in a bucket of blood. First and only
ride in an ambulance, that was kind of fun. |
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Not sure how much brain damage I suffered but
might explain some of my crazy ideas on this site. |
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My dad borrowed my mum's Volvo 240, had new tires
fitted then set off to drive to a gig. First sprinkling of rain
after a long dry spell floats all the dust and debris out of
the surface into a slippery slurry. Gentle, slightly off
camber left-hander, understeers into the opposite lane,
hits the front wheel of a tanker full of diesel coming the
other way. Volvo obliterated but my dad gets our with his
Fender bass slung over his back (case obliterated),
removes the brand new battery, stereo and a spare
headlight bulb from the dash and walks 4 miles home with
just a few broken ribs and some glass embedded in
uncomfortable places. |
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The tanker driver didn't do so well, holding the steering
wheel that very rapidly rotated when the Volvo hit it was
not a good thing. Volvo 240s however, are a very good, or
at least sturdy, thing. |
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I personally know of 3 crash deaths, my brother in
law, and two friends of the family who lost loved
ones. As a parent that's my number one fear and I
let the kids know about it. I say "You may or may
not know somebody who gets addicted to drugs, or
ends up in jail for taking the wrong path, but you
WILL know somebody who dies in a car crash,
either directly a person close to somebody you
know. Cars are the biggest danger you'll face as a
young person. Treat cars with respect bordering on
fear because they can be death machines." |
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That was one prediction I would have been very
happy to have been wrong about. I wasn't. |
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We're sort of easing into the world of automated
driving, hoping to see fatalities drop for 5% a year
or so as additional safety features are added.
Unfortunately, two of the three deaths I know
personally of were caused by reckless driving and
I'm not sure there's a technological remedy for
that. |
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Hmm. Let me re-think that. |
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You're right about the young and cars, but I'm fortunate I
don't know anyone, probably because the road deaths in
the UK are half the US, and within that they fell by
2/3rds between me being born in '82 and now. Those
deaths are especially skewed toward the young, I think
it's half of them are of drivers 17-19. I think by waiting to
20-ish I kept my hormone-induced insensitivity to risk on
a mountain bike instead of in a car. |
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//hoping to see fatalities drop for 5% a year or so as
additional safety features are added.// |
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I'm on the fence about some of the newer ones. In the US,
maybe, but I took a very new Toyota around Italy and the
thing scared me. It has lane-keeping assist which is
supposed to take the wheel and guide the car back into
the lane when it senses crossing a white line. Except it
went off far too frequently, it saw white lines
everywhere, a change from wet to dry surface, the light
road surface between the skidmarks of a dual-wheel
truck, all sorts. It slammed on the brakes when a
cardboard sheet fell off a truck. It did all it's beeping
almost did that half the time I was driving down a narrow
street. If there are parked cars, you're supposed to keep
to your side of the road while oncoming traffic passes you
and then maneuver around them smoothly. You can do
that at reasonable speed but the car thought it was a
crash every time. Same for a Volvo I rented a couple of
years ago in Cornwall. |
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Actually, Cornwall might be the downfall of the self
driving car. "OK car, this is a 2 lane 60mph road" "it's only
10ft wide." "yes, get on with it, and mind those hedges,
there's solid stone walls in them". |
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[bs0u0155]; I've from others that the "auto lane keep" is
terrible. Some cars just beep when you start going out of
your lane, & that's fine (unless, as you say, it goes off
constantly...).
But having the car "take over" is the wrong solution, IMHO.
Steering is kind-of the "fundamental" part of controlling a
car; either I do it, or the car does it, but not both. |
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9 years old, and my cousin was 10: we drove a VW bug 'fieldpiece' up and down over corn rows and gopher holes all summer. Later that same year, crazy grandma* gave us the keys to drive the Buick Thunderbird down provincial Highway 16 to the Pit Stop for burgers, reasoning that the T'bird was automatic and therefore 'easier' than the standard-shift Vdub. I was tall for my age, but still needed blocks on the pedals and pillows behind my back. |
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*Crazy grandma died of mixed medications at age 50... not, as you might expect, in a car crash with a 10 year-old driver. |
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ach, sometimes i want to forget. should have kept the jeep;
should never have bought the flood honda. |
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// it went off far too frequently, it saw white lines
everywhere, a change from wet to dry surface, the
light road surface between the skidmarks of a dual-
wheel truck, all sorts// |
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And with that review, I have no interest in having a
car with lane assist till they work the bugs out. |
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I clicked on this believing, at a quick glance, that it reads
"Cats of my life", and thought what a great idea for a book. |
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Telling the story of all the cats you've had, how you came
about them, how they passed, etc. |
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So now I gotta start over with "cars", (But of course it led me
to think of 8th, naturally.) |
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Hey [bliss]. Nice idea - worthy of it’s own Shirley? |
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Hey, thanks, but the idea passed. I did think knowing how you
came across your cat story would be cool, since the mystics
say they find you, you don't find them. I know that's true for
one of my cats. |
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[blissmiss], yeah, my cat "adopted" me (was technically my
former flatmate's cat...). |
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