Yes, the modern car owner has become too spoiled.

[Ghoste]

At auctions, I frequently lament the fact that only a very small handful of people know how to operate a manual transmission and when our teenage babysitter couldn't open the door on our Nitro because she hadn't seen a pushbutton latch before I thought it was amusing, but this is too much.  A friend of my wife  was relating how she was at a drive-thru window this week in her husbands pickup and couldn't get the window down to place her order.  She had to open the door for all of this and the only problem with the window... it was a manual crank not power operated!  She claims she had never been in a car without power windows before.
She's 35.

[Troy]

I believe it! This one lady at work was absolutely appalled to find that the car she borrowed from her parents didn't have a back up camera. Not to mention the 15 minute rant about having to dig the keys out of her purse (how quaint!). She's old enough to have driven cars without all the modern stuff so I guess she just forgot.

Same with navigation, Bluetooth phones, and iPod docks. At least half this country would go into a vegetative state if all the gadgets died at the same time.

I've seen people open doors at the drive through because they couldn't get the car close enough but that's a completely different failing.

Troy

[Ghoste]

It almost sounds like a great drive in movie, "The Day The Gadgets Died", except that no one knows what drive ins are anymore. 

[Todd Wilson]

I've seen people open doors at the drive through because they couldn't get the car close enough but that's a completely different failing.

Troy

I've had to open my door because the electric window wouldnt work! HAHA!


Todd

[bordin34]

That's why my newest car is circa 1974. I actually prefer manual to power windows, you don't need to get the key just to roll down a window.

[BlaineKaiser450]

Yep, some people that have been in my 1993 W350 are shocked that I drive a vehicle without airbags and 1/3rd of them don't know how to use manual windows

[b5blue]

  I'm cave man then, I pretty much decided my 89 Cherokee is too new for me. I thought OK engine in front, stick shift tranny in the middle, axle in the back, hand crank windows so I'm good to go but I just want my Charger for my only ride. 

[bakerhillpins]

At auctions, I frequently lament the fact that only a very small handful of people know how to operate a manual transmission and when our teenage babysitter couldn't open the door on our Nitro because she hadn't seen a pushbutton latch before I thought it was amusing, but this is too much.  A friend of my wife  was relating how she was at a drive-thru window this week in her husbands pickup and couldn't get the window down to place her order.  She had to open the door for all of this and the only problem with the window... it was a manual crank not power operated!  She claims she had never been in a car without power windows before.
She's 35.

  priceless.

This is very typical. I see this stuff all the time with the FD when we have a big storm come through. Power goes out for a day or so and people expect the FD to shuttle fuel to them and keep their generators running and hold their hands. It's nuts.   

I have a theory it's all because they have eliminated shop classes from the high school curriculum and replaced it with college prep junk. Nobody learns to be self sufficient. 

[John_Kunkel]

Count me in as spoiled, I absolutely love all the modern doo-dads...........................until they start malfunctioning. 

[RECHRGD]

I've seen men who cannot even change a tire.  I'd tear up my man card if I had to call AAA to change a tire for me....

[troutstreamnm]

Heck...alot of people hardly own any tools these days.  I sometimes wonder if my nephews know how a hammer works 

[tan top]

Count me in as spoiled, I absolutely love all the modern doo-dads...........................until they start malfunctioning. 

  yeah me too

[Back N Black]

A friends wife called him at work because she could not get in her car because the battery in her remote was dead. He told her to just use the key and she said what?? the key?

[SFRT]

once upon a time I had a friend that lived across the hall from me. very 'smart' opinionated guy going to college etc etc....one day I run into out landlord in the hall muttering and shaking his head..the guy had called him because the 'light didnt work' in the living room anymore....landlord comes over....tunrs out the lightbulb was burned out. genius-lad DIDNT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE A BULB.


true story.

[Mopar440+6]

I keep running into this over and over. I went to college for Mechanical Engineering. Entirely too many of my classmates and most of my professors were very, very book smart but hadn't the least bit of common sense. I currently have the same issue at my job. It makes me almost a little sick to think that these are the people in management and other positions of power...

[A383Wing]

had a customer come into the shop with a 4 door something-or-other......complaint was that the power windows did not work on all doors except the drivers door..it worked.

Customer bought car new

the fix for the non-working power windows was that the "lock-out" switch was activated on the drivers door control panel.

customer never knew it was there

(and these people vote and reproduce)

[67tbird]

I had to show a new A&P mechanic at a midsized FBO where I worked how to change his oil. He didn't last long, kept leaving dipstick on top of engine after oil changes.

[Kern Dog]

Technology CAN make a person lazy. Who here has a cell phone but ALSO has all their numbers memorized? What kid today can correctly recite the multiplication tables without using a calculator?

[aussiemuscle]

I've seen men who cannot even change a tire.  I'd tear up my man card if I had to call AAA to change a tire for me....

this will soon be the norm. a spare tire is now an optional extra on some cars.

[Cooter]

Not very many cars would get sold today if these gagets weren't on the list of bullsh*t options...Sad to say, but the world is going this route...Men will turn in their man cards, and people will depend more and more on the CRAP that is optioned out on cars nowadays...

You really begin to get a feeling of standing high on a mountain overlooking Dumbass valley when one of these idiots can't function in an older car without all the "Doo-Dads" on it...I agree with the statement about "Entirely too many of my classmates and most of my professors were very, very book smart but hadn't the least bit of common sense. I currently have the same issue at my job. It makes me almost a little sick to think that these are the people in management and other positions of power."  EXACTLY!

[rp23g7]

Our Explorer has a lock/unlock on the key fob, and the 41 has a electic solenoid to release the door.  Sometimes when i drive the Coronet i reach for my key and think, "hey, where  is my unlocker"  oops, wrong car

[Charger_Fan]

I've seen men who cannot even change a tire.  I'd tear up my man card if I had to call AAA to change a tire for me....

Me too.

I made sure all my kids know their car basics. There's no way I'm sending my offspring out into the world without knowing at least the basics. Now whether they actually use that, is a different story. Both my sons take their cars in for even basic fixes & oil changes...my daughter however, will come over & do tire swaps in the driveway. She doesn't want to spend the money on something she knows she can do herself. She prefers that I watch, to give reminders & pointers, because she doesn't trust herself completely yet...but that's ok by me, it makes me smile. A couple months ago, she did her first oil change (with a little supervision, or course).

[Mike DC]

Technology CAN make a person lazy. Who here has a cell phone but ALSO has all their numbers memorized? What kid today can correctly recite the multiplication tables without using a calculator?  

This.  

It's all in your point of view.  The average amount of knowledge isn't going down, the old stuff is just being replaced by newer stuff that people didn't used to know.  

I'm sure there were guys like us complaining when the first generation no longer knew how to use a flintlock rifle.  Or a manual spark control on the steering column.  Etc.
 

[Brock Samson]

 Tires are so much better now then pre Radial tires that you seldom if ever see, or experiance a "Blowout" anymore, those and overheating used to be so much more prevalent on the side of the road. I doubt you kids under 40 even know what I mean. So,.. everybody had to have to change a tire or add prestone at the very least, now everyone pretty much has cell phones and AAA cards. A a result more than one entire generation has not so much as a clue.
  Cars arn't geared toward D.I.Y. (Do. It Yourself) anymore, you can void your warrentee on the high end German Cars if the bolts that hold the engine cover are tampered with. The battery on my '99 Chrysler is under the headlight and requires the car to be jacked up tire to come off before you can even see the damn thing,.. anyhow. I'm old now, I remember in the mid sixties when a wide held prejudice against getting power windows in a new car was they might not work when the battery died or under water. 
But, I bet few of you could chase down or skin a Mastodon either...