As car dudes and dudettes, we live and breathe this stuff. Sadly, we’re in the minority when it comes to the general population. The majority of people don’t have a freaking clue about their car, about other cars, or about anything other than reality television. Understanding that, it makes more sense that there are lots of lame and false automotive myths floating around that the uninformed believe with no basis in fact. You know the ones we’re talking about. American cars are far less reliable than imports, the Prius has no environmental impact, old cars are safer than new ones, etc.
In this sea of stupidity, we’re looking for the deepest trench of dumb. Whether it is a racing myth, a muscle car myth, a modern car myth, or anything in between, we’re looking for the lamest automotive myth. What is the rock bottom stupidest thing that people believe that isn’t remotely close to being the truth about cars?
What’s the lamest automotive myth?
Front wheel drive is better in the snow.
I’m not going to say the name of this company, but their commerecials show a person asking for a report before they buy a used car. People think that tells the whole story about a car, well guess what, it’s only as good as the people reporting to it.
Fact; I was involved in an accident over a year ago. There was over $4,000.00 of damage to my car. A very big name insurance company paid for all the repairs to my vehicle. It’s been over a year since the repairs were completed and I just ran a report to see if the accident showed up in their report, and guess what, it ain’t their.
So beware folks, things arn’t always what they seem and what ever happened to truth in advertizing.
very true, and it is sad..the deeper the totalling of plucked tin can back to normal has annoying secrets its whole runtime.
“My buddy has one just like that, that’ll pull the wheels on the street.”
That’s the one I hear consistently ….
Agreed! Probably a quarter of the people who approach me to talk cars mention something like “I had a (fill in the blank) that would pull the front tires a foot (sometimes 2 feet) off the ground”. Drives me crazy.
As a Mopar guy I sometimes hear of the mythical 383 Hemi.
the most annoying to me, is how far they go to make an inline four cram as much gas as a 400 foot pound v8 and then call it balanced and powerful. It is truly the most falsed glory on planet earth..and people still fall for it even mounted sideways. Fuel air size tricks alot of people in the car world..the robust sound just might have a hollow backside.
God I could go on forever… The Front Wheel Drive better in the snow myth is among the worst.
How about:
– “I have a big block 350 Chevy” (no such thing)
– “I have a Pontiac big block” (no such thing)
– That all 350s had 350 hp from the factory
– The mythical “427 hemi” …. Depending what idiot I’m talking to, it’s been a Dodge, a Chevy and a Ford
– Factory 5 speed manuals in any number of 60s muscle cars
– All American cars are unreliable, all Japanese cars are bulletproof
– Quadrajets can never be made to run right and you should always replace with a Holley
– That camel hump heads are worth any sort of real horsepower anymore
– Anything about 3/4 or “full” race cams
– That you need 4-bolt mains to make any horsepower in a SBC
Actually, there was a Ford 427 Hemi. Mickey Thompson made up a few sets of Hemi Heads that he used on a 1964 427 Thunderbolt.
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1008_mickey_thompsons_427_ford_hemi_engine/viewall.html
Yes, and it wasn’t factory. There were hemi smallblocks too, but Chevy didn’t put them in any cars. 😛
The SOHC 427 Fords were all hemi….
And the dumbest is listening to movie cars squealing tires on the dirt and shifting through 739 different gears as they drive down the freeway…
the reported gas mileage any make 🙂
only milk and juice come in 2lts.
Uhhh, milk comes in gallons
Aussie speak mate, we used to have gallons and quarts then they buggered up everything I ever learnt at school by going metric on me , even changed the money too!
The 200 mpg carburetor.
That’s my favorite one as well, for its pure tinfoil hat quality.
Another pet peeve is the idea that open differentials only send power to one wheel. Reality is they always give a nearly exact 50/50 torque split. (The trouble is, of course, if you can’t get power to one wheel, you can’t get power to the other either.)
Old guys in hot cars are having a mid-life crisis.
It’s economics and demographics. No more kids in the house + peak earning power = get a car like you always wanted. In my case, I’ve been having a mid-life crisis since I was a teenager.
that electric cars save the environment,you have to plug it in for hours,on hours of the magical self producing electricity thats right no impact from producing the juice……..dumb asses ,ever look in to battery replacement?not cheap
If you cant see the smoke stack at the power station or smell the coal burning there, it must not exist.
‘Not as sensational as some of the others, but here goes: setting a [modern] automotive battery on concrete will cause it to discharge.
This tale seems to be left over from way back when batteries had wooden cases (?).
There’s more to it…concrete outside can be very cold in winter, and if you set a battery on it the battery’s temperature will drop, and so will the voltage. It will act like it is discharging, just because of the temperature change. Of course no one thought of that, especially the toothless old guy who told you the myth
Unintended acceleration. Every study by everyone has shown thse cases to be ‘pedal misapplication” meaning the idiot driver had theri foot on the gas instead of the brakes. At most the dreaded slipped floor mat. And now we have cars that “park themselves” you can see the lawsuits coming from people who no longer bother to learn how to park.
Engine break in periods…
Run it like you stole it from day 1 I say!
Oil change every 3000 miles..
Literally started by Jiffy Lube.
“Ralph Nader proved that the Corvair was unsafe, and he made GM stop production of that car.”
No, actually the introduction of the sporty Mustang and the follow up Camaro from Chevy, both with more available power, is what caused the end of the ‘Vair. Pure market forces, not Ralph.
1) Zero Emissions vehicles ( they aint no such thing )
2) Everybody that drives a Mercedes is a conceited asshole ( I do . I’m not . And I didn’t buy for the brand but because the one particular model suited me better than anything else currently on offer )
3) Prius’s are a low impact environmentally sound ‘Green ‘ vehicle ( have a look see at the environmental impact building a Prius has … then talk to me )
4) My Prius gets 52 mpg at 75 mph ( yeah and South American Tree Frogs fly North for the summer )
5) The Cadillac SRX is not based on the same platform as the Chevy Equinox etc ( GM propaganda plain and simple …. there’s not a Caddy in the line up thats not based on a cheaper GM products platform)
6) The new JEEP Wranglers are extremely reliable and safe ( yeah well make sure you up the anty on your life and health insurance if you buy one … you’ll be needing it .. and errr … buy some tools while you’re at it )
7) Obama and his Administration have turned the US automotive industry around ( and around and around .. never really going anywhere )
8) GM has paid all the Tax Payer funded loans back ( which is why we’re some $27 Billion in the hole currently …. thank you very much GM and FIAT …. oops …. meant Chrysler )
9) FIAT buying ( well we gave it to them but … ) Chrysler has been the best thing thats ever happened ( for Sergio Marchionne and the FIAT SpA Executive board … maybe )
10) E/V’s are the automotive industries Salvation …. rectifying all and every problem created by personal transport vehicles ( If you believe that I’ve got some mighty fine swampland for sale ….. cheap ….. one Hurricane and Oil Spill only …… developer and construction ready )
Well that’s true about the Escalade, but not about the SRX. The first generation was Sigma, which wasn’t shared with Buick, Pontiac, or Chevrolet. The new SRX is a hybrid platform that was shared with Saab, but yes, it has similarities with the Theta and Episilon that is used for Chevrolets. The CTS is on the Sigma II platform, which isn’t shared with any other GM cars and the Cadillac ATS will be the first application of the Alpha platform, which will be used for the Camaro. Unlike Cadillac, Lincoln doesn’t have a single unique platform. That sort of thing happens all the time in the car industry. Even the Bentley Continental is based on the VW Phaeton.
59 and 60 Chevy’s will lift the real wheel off the ground at high speed because of the tail fins.
“It has a Corvette engine in it”
There are so many cars with a corvette engine it suprises me that there is a running ‘vette on the earth
Ha!
If you change brands of oil you will harm your engine. I have a Honda minivan with over 200K on it and it’s had different brands, different weights, synthetic, conventional & blends and even mixed at many different combinations of and that baby purrs like a kitten.
That EFI makes more power then a carburetor… OH SHI- ctrl-Z! ctrl-Z! ctrl-Z!
Got just one, and one I haven’t seen listed yet. “All engines need a certain amount of backpressure (exhaust) to make any power.” You’d be surprised at the “supposed” knowledgeable mechanics I’ve heard this from! My Father-in-Law, an automotive service tech. for over 40 years once told me this, when I was building my last rod (V-8 S-10). I looked him dead in the eye and said “That must be why Drag-Cars and Roundy-Rounders run mufflers and restrictive exhaust.” Dumb-A$&! . There’s a diference in pipe sizeing to keep velocity up, and restriction.
Every town seems to have a girl who owned a pink Corvette and used it to beat the snot out of all the local guys on.
Every town seems to have had at least one fabled drag race involving real dragsters on city streets
If you are over 55, you remember at least a handful of cars you could have had for a song . . . cars like Hemi Mopars or Shelby Cobras or 427 Corvettes.
The myth of someone who knows someone, goes to a garage sale and picks up a complete 50s/60s Corvette Fuel Injection unit for $50 because the owner’s son once had a FI Corvette and had trouble with it so he took if off and replaced it with a 4 BBL and moved away leaving it behind.
Yeah, I’m 56, and saw this happen more than once.
One example, although I wasn’t the one that bought the car: In 1978 I was along for the test drive and watched $2000 change hands for a 69 GTX with a 440 six pack and 4 speed.
Also saw a 1953 Jaguar XK120 sell for $1000 in about 1970. Rough car out of a field, but still running. Not a bad price for the fastest car in the world (in 53); just look what either of these sell for now.
Nobody wanted those things back then. I would follow up with more examples, but I don’t want to waste your time.
The deal about cars for a song can be pretty real. Get an old Hot Rod with the car ads in the back and freak at the pricing. Remember, the big wing Road Runners that are worth $100~200K and up now were killing the dealers in 1970, couldn’t hardly give them away. What’s a straight 383 69 Dodge Charger worth now? I passed on one in 1980 because I was just married and didn’t have $500 pocket money.
Buying a new car to save money on gas.
In car hydrogen generators.
The Prius.
Zero Emissions.
Almost anything sold to increase mileage.
@# spark plugs
Swapping the air in your tires for nitrogen. If someone has had this done, send me a sample. I’d like to mass spec it.
Kevin
Myth: Cops giving out tickets actually make our roads safer.
“old cars are unsafe!” ever see the propeganda video of the 59 impala vs. the new car crash test? what a load! that crusty x frame didnt stand a chance! put that sucker head to head with a 63 imperial and we’ll see who walks away!
ETHANOL!!! How does an “alternative fuel” that consumes as much fossil fuel to
produce as it yields, but only contains 60% of the BTUs a good motor fuel? And it
also drives up the price of of any food product or animal feed as well, making it
double lame…
the car that was so fast nobody could get the 20 off the dash
The bullshit about the dual quads in the trunk of 69 Z28’s
That is not a myth. It is a fact. Chevrolet never installed the dual quads on the 1969 Z/28 at the factory. It was done at the dealership who also supplied the special fiberglass hood that was used with the dual quads. Same for when you ordered headers. They too came in the trunk (1968 Z/28)
Bad muffler bearings may cause your car to fail it’s next smog inspection!
The Myth that the 1969 Chevrolet 427 COPO program included the Chevy Nova. That is false. You could get the L72 425HP 427 in a Chevelle or a Camaro under the COPO program. When Don Yenko asked that the Nova be included, Chevrolet refused (the power to weight ratio was too low) so Don built 28 427 Novas by ordering L78 375 HP Nova SSs then removing the 396 short block and substituting the L72 short block. There is no such thing as a 1969 427 COPO Nova.
The lamest story I heard is the story that somone’s friend had 6-71 blower on their street car and they were able to shut it off (like in mad maxx) to conserve gas mileage and flip a switch to turn it back on for street racing.
A friend of mine (a very talented machinst) tried to make something that would allow him to do this using a motorcycle clutch setup. He actually got it to somewhat work (but the torque load of the blower, even at low boost just ate the clutches) and said it got worse gas milage with the blower freewheeling than with it running! Apparently engine vacumn made the blower rotate on its own so it would stay running after he got it started at least. He also said there was a few second disconnect between stepping on the gas and the engine doing anything with the blower free wheeling.
I think the ebay electric blowers are a pretty good myth.
The old supercharging book I have has a note in it that if you break a belt on your street blower, you can limp home because engine vacuum will rotate the rotors and let the engine still breathe.
The old ” it does this or that when the secondaries kick in…” It’s not the secondaries “kick’n in” it’s the automatic transmission dropping into second/passing gear.
Actually, the much larger myth is that electric cars are somehow bad for the environment because of their batteries. Electric cars are still bad for the environment, but comparing the environmental cost of production, use and disposal of an electric or hybrid car to even a comparable car, such as an accord, the prius is absolutely and unequivocally better for the environment. And my weak ’68 c10 with a 700-r4 and a small carburetor is much much worse than either of these cars.
Bottom line: if you think about it carefully, we should actually love the prius and the volt and the leaf. Gas is a finite resource. Gas should be used for fun. Fun is what hot rods are for. Priuses are for commuting, not driving. We can find creative ways to make electricity without emitting carbon, and very little foreign oil is used to make electricity–this is a good thing. The main reason we hate priuses and the like is because their drivers are smug and condescending. But, their existence could very well allow us to perpetuate our beloved hobby–like it or not.
Final point: I do have a way to double, triple, quadruple or even quintuple your gas mileage, drive down gas costs and reduce our dependence of foreign oil. It is the most radical proposition you will ever hear. It is called carpooling.