New car smell

[Hitcher]

There’s something strangely arousing about the smell of a new vehicle. I am sure that this is something that motor vehicle manufacturers have spent millions of dollars researching and refining. Pheromones are probably added along with a range of other stimulants, truth be told.

My first really vivid memory of New Car Smell(TM) was in 1970 when my parents acquired a spanking new Ford Falcon 500 XW sedan. FM6472. It was Australian assembled too. In those days that was an attribute highly prized, given the slap-dash way New Zealand’s CKD car assemblers did what they did. Particularly on Mondays or Fridays.

The Falcon had a full-rubber interior floor, rather than the more common carpeted fare in other cars, including New Zealand assembled Falcons. In the interior even the white bits were black. Boy, could it get hot in there when it was parked in the sun. Best of all it had a factory-fitted radio. I still remember sitting in the driver’s seat the day Dad brought it home, barely able to reach the pedals as Joni Mitchell paved paradise and put up a parking lot. I was intoxicated by its New Car Smell as I read the instruction manual that even had photographs in it!

It was a manual transmission -- three forward gears with the shifter on the steering column. A neighbour got a new Falcon at the same time. He wanted an automatic transmission. To get one he needed to get a note from his doctor attesting that he had a bung leg. No shit.

The family’s previous ride had been a 1963 Vauxhall Velox PB. CA9838. Its colour was “silver sage” which, in reality, was a dull sort of beige shade which didn’t do a great deal to enhance a car that was singularly unexciting to look at. Bench seats front and rear. A full-circle chrome horn ring, and a speedo where a line appeared on a linear display, changing colour as the speed (in miles per hour way back then) increased. Power brakes were not standard kit. Dad had had a set of those fitted as an aftermarket addition. Nor did disc brakes figure anywhere. Drums back and front were all that were available to halt it, not that a 2.6 litre six-cylinder engine got it that excited. From memory I think Mr Vauxhall’s speedo display didn’t envisage these things going any faster than 120mph.

A bench seat in the front, with lap-diagonal seat belts for a driver and left-hand side passenger. No inertia reels, nothing for a centre front passenger nor occupants of the rear seat.

External rear view mirrors were not standard. Nor was a dipping interior mirror. Nor was a heated rear window. Neither was a radio. There were controls for a device that was supposed to heat the interior, and it sort of did. But the demisting fan was more than a little asthmatic.

But this beast was pretty reliable and ferried us hither and yon around Taranaki and towed all manner of stuff home in the farm’s trailer.

In those days six-cylinder Veloxes and Holdens were the staple rides of dairy farmers. Sheep farmers had the Chevy Impalas, Studebaker Larks, and Ford Fairlaines. They were rich. Landed aristocracy. V8s and poncy British rides like Triumphs, Vanguards, and Humber Super Snipes were also things that sheep farmers used to take their kids to boarding schools. Things have changed a bit on that score.

My sister, brother and I went to the local primary school, a sole-charge-teacher affair about a mile up the road from the farm and about 300 feet higher in altitude, being that much closer to Egmont National Park.

One of the things that a school of about 20 pupils across Primer 1 to Standard 2 struggled to do was to provide sufficient numbers for age-group sports teams. This meant that primary school rugby involved collusion with about six or seven other primary schools in the vicinity. Our team was called “United” and we wore black-and-white hoops, just like the grown-up teams in Eltham and, as I discovered during a trip to Rugby Park in New Plymouth, just the same as Hawke’s Bay. Back in those days the Ranfurly Shield was something other teams played Taranaki for. As a child one’s time horizon and sense of perspective is a bit more compressed than it is for adults.

So Saturday sport involved “transport” duty for parents with kids in different teams that needed to be delivered to grounds anywhere from Eltham in the south, to Tariki in the north and every possible country school in between. There were quite a few of those back then. Early age grades were played barefoot, usually on frosty grounds, as rugby is a winter sport. Some playing fields were sheltered behind hedges or rows of trees on the sunny side, and frost may not have thawed until at least midday, if at all. Ouch.

The town schools were very civilised. Most had fields that were uniformly flat and had markings on them. All fields, irrespective of location, had goal posts but some of the country schools required a bit of extrapolation to figure out where the edges and things were.

One Saturday at Pukengahu School, our usual pre-game activity of stepping out distances to put up corner posts also required us to remove of a mob of dairy heifers that a local farmer had put into the paddock a few days earlier to chew the grass down. Thanks for that. Dairy cattle chew grass at one end, and shit it out at the other. When the pasture is fresh and lush, as Pukengahu International Stadium’s had been earlier in the week, the resulting shit is also lush and green. So too are the young chaps who then play for 40 minutes each way upon it. The numbers and colours of hoops on playing jerseys became somewhat irrelevant soon into the first half.

There were no such things as changing rooms and showers at the ground. It happened to be Dad’s turn on transport duties. So after the match six cow-shit-encrusted young lads were stripped down to their jocks and made to sit on a tarpaulin that had been stretched across the Velox’s back seat to minimise further damage until the tarnished occupants could be delivered safely home to their mums. That sort of behaviour would not be acceptable in this modern age of airbags and Mummy Wagons (whoops, SUVs).

The car smelt a bit after that. Not a New Car Smell either.

[scumdog]

Love your psts of this ilk- especaillay THIS one.

I remember the Mk3 Zephyr I bought of the old batchelor gentleman a few years ago, he traded a '39 Ford V8 truck on it.
He had to pay 26 quid for seat-belts and heater to be fitted.

Back then when you bought a car you got jack-shit of what we now take for granted, these accoutrements were always 'extra'.

Ads use to tout 'Fitted with heater, seatbelts, tow-bar, monsoon sheild and AM/FM radio'. (Hmm, I don't theink there WAS any FM back then anyway.) Later on it would be 'Two-speed wipers, heated rear window and radial tyres' thrown in.

A Skoda had most of these as standard..

Surprisingly we survived sans these items we think are essential nowadays.

[unstuck]

I loved my old PB velox, was a great car after my 100e prefect. I like the smell of new machinery for some reason

[ellipsis]

...my first vehicle was a '62 Mk11 Zephyr, I haven't owned a newer vehicle since those times...it was 12 years old when I bought it, seatbelt laws had not yet been introduced and I had to sit on a cushion so I had enough push with the legs to operate the pedals...memories on memories and not all of them good, haha...I never actually got the Mk 111 as was the wild dream I had...and Mk1V's were only a thing talked about...never seen...my mates had FE Holdens and PA or PB Vauxhalls...races were generally slow and cumbersome things that we seldom got into...we laughed at other poor blokes who had Morris 1100s or Morris 1000s...long before then we were also transported on the odd occasions to rugby matches if we were not playing at parks where the "rugby bus', was going to, by our coaches or parents...( we never had a car), 5 cents each was the petrol money we paid the drivers...I think "regular" was 11 cents a gallon or close at that time...my Dad was real proud of the fact that I was the first person in the history of his family that could drive a car or a truck...seems odd to think of it now...the only 'new smell', vehicles I can remember were taxi cabs and the odd grey HQ Holden that I didn't really want to ride in, but often did...

[onearmedbandit]

My first experience behind the wheel of a car was a PB Velox my brother had and eventually gave me. 3spd manual on the tree too. My father always had new Toyotas as company cars but our boat-towing family vacation car was an XW Falcon 500 stationwagon, complete with bench seat, 3 stage auto, chrome ring horn 'button' and unfold rear tailgate window winder. Spent many hours sitting in that car listening to War of the Worlds on cassette.

[Usarka]

Mmmmmmm, volatile organic compounds. The sweet smell of poison.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8020stuff.html

[awa355]

Dad was able to buy a 1956 Dodge new. It was the 1st in NZ with a 318" OHV V8. 225bhp, had the 2spd Torqueflite transmission. Selector was a small lever mounted on the dash. It was cream and green. The window winders took barely 1 1/2 turns from up to down. The seats were a two toned check pattern.

My uncle had originally ordered it, with the 6 cyl engine, but after waiting so many months, he re ordered and got a new '56 V8Chev Bellair. A week after the Chev arrived, Aikmans phoned up to say the Dodge was in the country. Dad had just bought a near new '55 Velox. He sold the Vauxhall and took the Dodge. ,

[scumdog]

Mmmmmmm, volatile organic compounds. The sweet smell of poison.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8020stuff.html

yep, that's why the inside of the windscreen get a foggy film on it..

[JimO]

we went from a 1952 hillman to a 2 year old xw falcon, dad paid $3200 in 72, i learned to drive in the coon when i was 15 and i still own it.....

[98tls]

we went from a 1952 hillman to a 2 year old xw falcon, dad paid $3200 in 72, i learned to drive in the coon when i was 15 and i still own it.....

Least you could do is find a room for that thing,any decent human being would move themselves outside and that in just to ensure it survives.

[Hitcher]

The XW's piece of world-beating hi-techery was a boot release handle on the floor by the driver's seat where other cars had handbrakes.

[98tls]

The XW's piece of world-beating hi-techery was a boot release handle on the floor by the driver's seat where other cars had handbrakes.

Do you remember the differences between XW and XY Hitch?Every time i see a pic of either i still myself for selling a very well optioned XYGS.

[onearmedbandit]

Do you remember the differences between XW and XY Hitch?Every time i see a pic of either i still myself for selling a very well optioned XYGS.

The only thing I remember was the grill on the XY was the 'split' grill. No doubt there were other 'facelift' differences though. I remember the high beam switch on the floor as well. We had a second Velox speedo lying around, I remember as a nipper putting my finger in the back of it and spinning the roller up to 120mph.

[Virago]

The only thing I remember was the grill on the XY was the 'split' grill. No doubt there were other 'facelift' differences though...

Yeah, split grill - and different tail lights.

[scumdog]

we went from a 1952 hillman to a 2 year old xw falcon, dad paid $3200 in 72, i learned to drive in the coon when i was 15 and i still own it....

3.3, 3.6 or the big-block 4.1??