Sweet spot is Japanese cars from the '90s and '00s. They are more reliable, more fuel efficient, have safety features and spare parts are often still available. Rust remains a topic but not as much as with older cars.

Visibility out of something like a '57 Bel Air is excellent. Back then visibility was something people cared about, and having the pillars be as thin as possible was highly desirable. In comparison, modern cars have horrible visibility with thick pillars, high belt lines, high hoods, and tiny rear windows. Of course, the whole thin pillar thing did come at the cost of a weaker roof, less crash protection, and basically no rollover protection so there does need to be some balance, but with modern cars I hate how I feel dependent on things like backup cameras and blind spot monitors because I can't effectively see out the car.

Yeah, if I had a choice for an electric conversion, I think my ideal pick would be a newish car that somehow had its engine ruined way before its time. Like, maybe it was owned by some idiot that never got the oil changed until it burned out completely.

And while newer cars have the annoying tracking crap, that's solvable. If you're paying a mechanic enough money to completely convert a vehicle to electric, it won't be much more work to rip out the tracking tech while they're retrofitting it. You might need to just completely throw out the existing infotainment system, but that would still be a rounding error on a project that large.

Most definitely.

I only saw it in tropical turquoise.

There are services like this already.

https://ev-works.com/

https://www.fuel2electric.com/

https://amprevolt.com/

No idea if these companies are any good. They're just the top results that popped up. But it looks like there are a fair number of companies already doing this. It looks like the cost is from $10k to $90k.

Certainly is: there was a group of people doing just that at the University of Calgary(?), but it was years ago and they have almost certainly graduated by now. If others are still doing so, I am not certain.

afaicr the most difficult part was the infotainment system. Installing the motors and stuff was easy, to engineering students at least haha.

If I did that I would just be another selfish, ignorant asshole complicit in the destruction and collapse of the natural systems that allow me to breath and eat. No, it would have to be electric. Even then I wouldn't really want it because of the tires and the raw materials needed to create it in the first place.

It's really quite nice. I was just in a rental car with a touchscreen and hated how hard it was to hit buttons while driving because your finger is bouncing from the road. With the knob you stay leaned back in the seat and rotate the knob and slap it down to activate things. Don't have to worry about missing the target. The only thing it's not great for is scrolling a map.

At least it's a physical interface

Well there was period where I changed cars every 2 years. For a total of 3 cars, and then I didn't need one any more. Not the most egregious example but I did like changing them. It's like any other toy, it's easy to get hooked on upgrades and trying out new models.

I drive them until the cost of fixing them significantly exceeds the cost of getting a new used car. Accounting for it being a pain in the ass to shop for cars etc.

But yeah every 3-5 years sounds about right for typical middle/upper class families. My parents did pretty well when I was little and I remember them doing 2 or 3 year leases.

I don't buy cars anymore. I didn't used to buy them either.