Parking brake cables rather than electronic.(vehicles are an endless candidate for this)
Manual transmissions.
Mechanical controls on household appliances rather than microchips.
Metal Jerry cans with actual spouts rather than the gay plastic jugs with safety tips.
Have you tried to pour gasoline into a car using a modern gas can? Fucking difficult. I miss the
The irony is they're supposed to be "safety spouts" but every fucking time I end up spilling gas all over the fucking place with these idiotic things.
I use surplus nato cans.
This is the way.
Fuck man, I had gotten literally just one gallon extra when gas prices were rising a while back, and tried to put it in the car. Fucking tip had to be pressed just right, but there was nothing to press it against correctly, kept slipping. Holding with hand gets gas on you. Then once you've got the damn thing carefully positioned to keep it pressed, it takes forever to empty. Spent ten minutes putting a fucking gallon of gas into the car. At least with one of those you won't be dipping into your reserve unless you absolutely need it.
Just chop the end off it.
You can buy old-skool spouts on Amazon, I did.
Fuck those stupid plastic safety cans.
the safety shit always makes me spill it everywhere and on myself.
I specifically bought a car because it had a manual handbrake and transmission. Also, whole the story of the useless gas can is comical and horrible and steeped in politics and injuries, there is a strong market for “replacement pour spouts and air releases for older gas cans” on Amazon and other places. Fixes em.
Just found out this evening that the wife's Vibe needs a new clutch. (Was hoping it was the master cylinder for the power clutch, but no.) $1800. But then again, that means it should be good for at least another 12 years (and we plan to keep it that long.) Clutches are wear parts, but they wear WAY more slowly than they used to. And yeah, I have my own supply of jerry cans and a proper spout for them.
Parking brake cables always used to rust and seize up on me. I drove automatics, and never used the parking brake because I didn't need it. When I did try out the parking brake, or someone else driving the car used it, it would stick in the on position. This happened to me numerous times over a period of decades in many different cars. I'm not sorry to see the end of parking brake cables, although I grant you, the electric parking brakes fuck up regularly.
By the way, a simple solution to the rusting parking brake cable problem would have been to use stainless steel in the cables. The car makers never did that. I used to replace my exhaust every couple of years. After Chrysler brought in stainless steel exhausts (they were the first, I believe, among US car makers), I haven't had to replace a single component on my exhaust over the life of five generations of my cars.
I use the handbrake every time I park. Avoids the pawl in the parking brake from getting stress. Save that as a backup. You see people parking all the time where they put it in park, then release the brake, and the car rolls a little then bumps against the pawl.
I guess one thing about the electronic parking brake is the car will apply it automatically.
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