Dear V-8 Buick caregivers who have that road trip itch, What's the point of owning a classic car if you don't drive it? However, going to an unfamiliar place with a car that is much more vulnerable than most can be unnerving. Modern GPS navigation can help, but there is no hiding a GPS system so that your classic car remains classic. Smart phones would appear to be the obvious answer, but even mounting these is difficult without detracting from the classic look of your car. Both Apple and Android have an answer to this: voice-dictated directions that tell you where to go without needing to look at your smart phone at all. This feature has been around for a while and can be used with any car, including a classic. However, Apple has added to iOS 15 some additional conveniences. If your car has a Bluetooth capable stereo, not only will Siri (Apple's voice system) dictate the driving instructions over your stereo, but it will then allow you to play music from your smart phone in between the instructions. Biquette has a Custom Autosound stereo with Bluetooth: Other ways to have Bluetooth in your classic are a hidden stereo or a Bluetooth conversion for your car's original radio. The simplest is a simply a portable stereo that supports Bluetooth. I ran a test to see how well Biquette's stereo works with my iPhone SE and Siri. Everything worked just as it would in a modern car. However, there is one potential issue that is less of a problem for a modern car - background noise. I still haven't replaced all the window weather-stripping and Biquette's exhaust is louder than I would prefer. On the freeway hearing the instructions could be a problem especially for a car without an overdrive transmission. Nonetheless, it is worth an experiment if you have a need to travel with your classic to unfamiliar place. It sure beats fumbling with maps like we have all done in the past! Cheers, Edouard
Why would your classic be more vulnerable than a new one? Unless you have it zip tied, duct taped, and wire capped, I'd trust a mechanical machine MORE than one with 27 computers
Dear Mark and V-8 Buick caregivers, Back on Thanksgiving eve 2010, I took my mom to a hear stylist appointment in my trusty wagon. While trying to get out of the parking space, Biquette was hit by another driver who has clearly debilitated and probably on some heavy-duty pain medications. It took 6 months to restore my wagon and in those days the insurance company found a new front bumper and front grill within days. Recently, I know of guys who spent years looking for a good front bumper core for a 1965 Buick A-body. I suppose if you really don't care about your classic Buick, then having it totaled in an accident is no big deal. Biquette has been in our family for over 50 years. To say that I'm terrorized about having another accident is accurate. I don't think my fears are excessive considering how rare Buick parts and especial Buick wagon parts have become. Edouard
I Completely understand your concern over getting clobbered by someone else It sounds like you may maintain your Buick very well, and I’d have no reservations about driving it cross country
Dear Mark and V-8 Buick "realists," Really? Would you drive my wagon across the country if you needed to be absolutely certain it looked at beautiful as it did when you started? My dream is to pull a vintage travel trailer across the country. I can see from the RV world that trailers get really beaten up and those folks simply allow their rigs to degrade. Many RVers travel full-time and have no choice. Their travel trailers are like cars of today - commodities to be used up and thrown away. There is good reason for it, taking care of possessions like station wagons and travel trailers has become too difficult. When maintenance becomes too burdensome, what choice do you have but to throw away? My wagon has over 270,000 miles on her. There are extremely few 56 year old cars, with that many miles, in such good condition. The odds of her existing at all are extremely small. You point out (somewhat correctly) that the car is in decent mechanical condition. If that was sufficient to guarantee success in a cross-country journey - indeed the success would be assured. But is it? What about all those uncertainties that could turn against my wagon and cause disaster? The odds that she would have come this far are vanishingly small. Is this the right time to press her luck? Yes I'm an odd duck, but I think good and hard about such things. Effectively, my wagon simply shouldn't exist - the probability of her existing is simply too small. So how do you take care of what is effectively a singularity? I am living a time when humanity itself is facing what I also perceive as overwhelming obstacles. We have been lucky until now and still we insist we can take that luck for granted. There is plenty of misfortune out there to scream disagreement. I am facing my own medical trials and I cannot pretend otherwise, I have very little confidence in the suffering I'm being asked to go through. Our science isn't as good as we claim and we substitute meat-ax methods as if they were miracles. Are we honest about our achievements or our we reluctant to face our limitations? What do those limitations imply about what little control we have over our future? I have no choice about my own suffering, but I will at least keep my wagon out of harm's way as much as possible. In my mind anyway - she has already suffered more than enough. Edouard
