Rich Knapp

As you can tell by this post I am in my mid 40's. OK here it is don't make sence. We pass laws for No stereo head phones, talking on cell phones, restrictions on new drivers, things on windows, no load exaust, to load of music while driving and driver distractions all to make driving safer to hear whats going on around you like sirens, horns, people. Heck do you remember the waving hands that stuck to back windows with sayings on them they got pulled off and eleagle because driver destaracting. Ok so instead they make drop down TV screans to distract drivers behind you, BIG stereo systems factory options, hands free phones so the police car next to you don't see you are pre-ocupied talking about the stock prices, what to pick up on way home at were or who broke up with who and why and what time the next party is. Cabins so quiet you don't hear any out side noises includeing fire trucks, police cars, horn or even a person haulering "Look out" Isn't that like telling a theif " no you can't have by car keys but here have the keys to my house" ?

tdub2112

AMEN!

MGDMike

Yeah, I do feel you on the not hearing stuff coming down the road. But to each his own I guess.

RLSH700

Good points. I'm getting skeptical about loading cars with these things as I think that making a car too quiet prevents people from hearing the important things. My Intrepid isn't silent on the inside by any measure but it isn't that loud on the inside. I think people have become anal is all. The complaints about the loud music being played on the radio I can understand having grown up on a busy street, but on the other hand my parents didn't have to stay in the same crummy house for 30 years either.[:@]

I think that parents getting their kids cars with the DVD players are doing them a great disfavor. When we took the 7-8 hour trip to my Grandparent's house, it was boring as things could get, but we learned patience which is something we need to teach kids in the twitch generation. I couldn't believe how when I caught a ride from some friends that have kids started playing a DVD on a trip that would take only 15-20 minuets at tops. What happened to just having a conversation with your family? I feel like I'm over double if not triple my actual age by complaining about this stuff.

DSkippy

I get what you're saying RLSH, I did the mind numbing peeve my parents off immeasurably (I was a bad kid back in the day, now they call it HDD) so I was bouncing around avoiding plastic paint stirrers (they hurt and are good for close quarter combat aka child discipline in an auto back in the 70's) and enduring my mom and dad telling me to stop touching my sister (insert WV/VA joke here).

BUT, now that I'm a kid, if it's more then four hours (trip to mom in VA from NJ), I will typically go 3 hours w/o movie, then plug notebook into inverter and sound into tape adapter and quell the rumble from the back seat. Maybe I'm shirking, but all I know is the mindset of all involved is notably better upon arriving in VA (or back in NJ) at the end of the trip.

To this, I'm surprised, no clever entrepreneur hasn't created a bracket to hold notebooks from inverted from the interior car ceiling, encumbered rear view possibly?

Anyhoo, ours lives on the console and it pipes the kids down w/ no need of threats or anything. W/ this said, we also utilize 20 questions, which works well too.

anthem SS

When i was a kid growing up in NYC, my parents really didn't need a car but my dad wanted one. When we would go out on weekends, we went to far places to get away (New jersey) and it was great. i didn't need things to keep me occupied, he had an 8-track player w/ two extra speakers in the rear deck - that was the joint back then (BTW this was '69 in our brand new Impala). We would name all the cars on the road back then AS WELL as the years or just take in the scenery. Kids now HAVE to be entertained because the parents don't have all the smarts to keep them occupied or in line. If my dad had a TV in the car when i was growing, he would have had to replace the rug a few times from me barfing. i'm done!

RLSH700

LOL! I remember those days just in the 80s to early 90s primarily. I learned very quickly that even if my dad was driving we were not to do anything to make him mad, because the driving wouldn't prevent him from disciplining. We primarily would get travel games that we would play together and when my parents finally decided to get a tape player for the minivan we would listen to books on tape which we still do when we ride together.

When I go to visit my parents its about a 7 hour drive that I have to do by myself so what I do is I say a set of prayers, schedule my driving to listen to my favorite radio shows, have selected CDs ready, and various other forms of entertainment.

The most interesting trips though have to be the ones that my parents and my one aunt and uncle go together on and brought all of us. We would rent a full-sized van and take a trip to say Colorado. Which takes a couple days. On the way down, I would sleep on the floor as my uncle would drive 13 hours straight with the speedometer bouncing between 80-90 the whole time as we listen to stories about Dirk Pitt (a James Bond like character). Those trips were interesting.
I hear you about the Laptop thing. My father had to get an adapter one time because he had to get his tax work done before the trip was over and the battery would not last 7-8 hours, though his first laptop was able to use a regular adapter.

anthem SS, that is a point I never thought about. Having a TV in a vehicle could cause motion sickness. I can remember when 7 passenger conversion vans were the first vehicles to have TVs. I remember asking my parents back in 1991 if we could get the conversion van over the Caravan over that. Didn't happen, and looking back I'm glad. Who would want to drive one of those awkward things? We tried bringing our 7 inch black and white compact TV one time as it had a power adapter for the van, but it couldn't hold a signal and we came to the conclusion that it was more trouble than its worth.

DSkippy

Never got motion sickness in a car; well almost never, the typical combination that would elicit motion sickness in a car was a day out on the lake w/ my folks (especially if it were hot), follow this with some cokes and then cigarette smoke in the car; makes me queasy to think about it.

RLSH700

That is enough to make me car sick without the car included into the equation. The only times I can recall getting car sick was when I was working on homework, crammed into the back seat with little ventalation on a bumpy/twisty ride, and the time that for some reason the scent from my cousin's minivan mix with the scent of stale candy and for who knows why everytime I got in there after a couple minuets I was getting sick.