Seventy In The Rear-View Mirror
It’s not the years, it’s the miles.
Do you remember when car odometers only went to 99,999 miles and that hitting that 100,000-mile rollover was like getting a new car?
It was cause to celebrate, as once upon a time, driving a car more than 100,000 miles was indeed special. A lot of cars never made it that far.
We did everything by the book, taking care of that car: Oil changes, lube jobs (what the hell is that?), brake adjustments, tune-ups and all sorts of other little things that we take for granted in today’s automotive world. In spite of our best efforts, many cars didn’t make it to that magical century mark.
And sometimes, we just pushed it, sometimes literally. We just had to get 100,000 miles out of that car.
Things would break or fall off the family ride, but we just kept it running and more-or-less safe, but it got us to and from work and ferried us on the annual family vacation until we could afford to replace it (or couldn’t afford not to replace it). You do understand that double-negative, don’t you?
And now? It isn’t uncommon for modern automobiles to get 300,000 miles on their odometer before they start having major issues. Of course, we still have to take care of them, but even that care regimen is greatly simplified.
