We at MyStarCollectorCar are part of an older generation of car guys who cut our teeth on vehicles from a bygone era.
There were plenty of reasons why we embraced the car hobby and learned along the way.
Jim Sutherland
The main reason: we grew up in a culture where cars were an important part of our lives. There was no internet highway that we cruised with electronic devices, instead we had real highways with real internal combustion engine vehicles to hit the road of life. It was a golden era for car guys.

It was also a learning curve when we were teenagers because most of us drove well-seasoned cars that were all we could afford with our part time job incomes. Our bargain basement vehicles were almost relics when we bought them, so we learned about cars on the fly because they were old with retro features-and we were young and eager to learn. Even the hard way to learn on far too many occasions.
The first thing we learned was how to use an automatic choke because very few garden-variety retro rides had fuel injection back in the day. An automatic choke was an unforgiving piece of equipment that needed to be kept in perfect working order. In short, it needed to engage for cold starts and disengage once the engine reached warm temperatures. Any weakness in the automatic choke system or the driver’s generous use of the gas pedal drowned the carburetor in excess fuel.

The best way to determine whether a car guy is too young to understand how to use a choke can be found in many car programs when the host pumps the gas pedal like a bicycle pump while the starter is engaged for a cold start. Welcome to Flood City–just on the outskirts of Engine Fire Town if the carb is worn-out.
Our second area of expertise is an even older choke system, specifically the manual choke. A manual choke was connected to a dashboard by a small handle or button and was operated by the driver inside the car. He or she needed to determine when the air/fuel mixture was right for the car via the choke’s position. It’s a simple enough concept in theory, but it required a learning process to figure out the perfect manual choke procedure to start the vehicle.

Once again, it is painfully obvious when a younger car guy attempts to start an old ride via a manual choke and even more obvious when they fail to disengage the manual choke after the engine is warm enough to run without it. Clumsy use of a manual choke by a younger TV show host is a permanent reminder of the car guy generation gap.

The third addition to our list also requires manual operation. The item in question would be a manual transmission. Manual transmissions used to be very common in older vehicles because they were cheaper than an automatic- enough of a price tag gap to make manual transmissions the runaway choice for many buyers.

The manual transmission was so common that most drivers from a bygone era learned due to necessity how to drive a vehicle equipped with one. The disappearance of manual transmissions meant younger drivers never learned how to use them, particularly the three-on-the-tree versions, so they never learned how to use a clutch and gear shift with any sense of coordination. The sad part is younger drivers have no shame about mastering this basic driving skill, even though manual transmissions are an excellent part of the true driving experience. But maybe we should just be happy they are looking through a windshield and not at their cellphone.
The fourth long forgotten item on our list is the vent window. They were small triangular chunks of side glass that operated separately from the main glass in the doors of a vintage vehicle.

Vent windows provided a little fresh air without the need to roll down the side windows and disappeared when car builders built in fresh vent systems into their vehicles. Most older car guys will know that a vent window could also be used to push air against the inside of a foggy windshield and will help clear it during rainy conditions. Younger car guys will ask “What’s a vent window?”-or give it a confusing new name on a car show hosted by a new age car guy.
The fifth and final addition to our list is the bumper jack adventure on old vehicles. As the name implies, bumper jacks were designed for use on bumpers back in the day. The burning question: where do I place the bumper jack on the vehicle? Get it wrong and the bumper got bent out of shape-or the jack detached itself from the vehicle, your hand got crushed, and people started calling you Lefty.

Bear in mind, bumper jacks had a hinky mechanical system that relied on notches and a spring-loaded catch to advance up the notches, so they were a recipe for disaster the minute they were used by a car guy. Good or bad, they were also a big part of the repair process for old rides because young car guys had to use what was available to them since roadside assistance via a cell phone was not on the table in days of yore.
We at MyStarCollectorCar would agree that our list of vintage vehicle features is no longer with us in 2025, but these ancient automotive artifacts provided an excellent learning process for young car guys from the past.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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