Another SPN Fic Pet Peeve...

[hells_half_acre]

 The Impala was built in 1967. CARS BUILT IN 1967 DID NOT HAVE AIR-CONDITIONING. 

Take it from someone who spent their childhood spending part of every summer on 3 day roadtrips (one way) in old cars...in the 80s! Old cars do not even have the OPTION of air-conditioning. They have air VENTS, but that's hardly the same thing (they just stir the hot air around really).

So, please stop writing about how the boys are all sweaty because the air conditioning is "broken"...write instead that they are all sweaty because they are driving around in a car that was built in 1967!

Thank you

PS: Yes, I do realize that improvements can be made to old cars - such as installing a tape-deck, which they have obviously done. But until I see canon proof that they've taken the time to install an air-conditioning system, I am going to continue to be annoyed by this.

ETA: Both auriliawestlake  and dairygirl  pointed out in comments that AC was invented in 1939 (MY MIND IS BLOWN) and that it was actually an option when purchasing a 1967 Impala...so, I guess I've been way harsher on fic-writers than is actually warranted. That being said, AC was an expensive add on, and for some reason I doubt Sal Moriarty (bible-giver-outer-extraordinaire) would spring for an expensive add-on. Basically, I'm still going to go by the assumption that the Impala does not have any add-ons unless I'm told differently (like the tape-deck)....I just spent far too much of my childhood driving around in non-AC old cars with working and lower-middle-class people who couldn't really afford the car, let alone expensive optional features.

Also, the Impala would have had lap belts (that are probably never used)...and is an automatic transmission...and has a bench seat....and yeah, I think that's everything covered in comments. Feel free to chime in if I've missed something.

ETA (AGAIN): Ok, auriliawestlake  also pointed out that the automatic transmission would have been an extra add-on when purchased from the factory - so there is evidence that the original owner went for the luxury extras. So, I PROMISE TO BE LESS HARD ON PEOPLE...but personally, I still would rather assume everything is "factory-standard" unless otherwise shown or told.

Comments

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

And seatbelts--wouldn't have them, either.

Which leaves me with the question of how John secured a baby Sam while driving the hell all over the place...

I'd love to hear ideas on that.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Haha, true...actually, I'm pretty sure it STILL doesn't have seat belts - meaning they never installed them after the fact like they much have done with the tape-deck.

Maybe he wedged a carseat into one of the back footwells. It's either that or he just gave him to Dean and told him to "hold on tight" - because you know, that's a really good way to mentally scar Dean more.

If he's anything like my dad, he probably just rigged up something using rope and bungee cords.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

The Impala doesn't have seatbelts now, I would swear that on a bible. (I actually sorta cheered Kripke for not caving to being a safe example. Much as I would never not use one myself and make all my passengers as well.)

Putting a babyseat in the footwell and having Dean back there to watch it would work, so that's what I'm going to use.

Thing is, my daughter was born the year before Sam and carseats were just starting to get pushed. But without seatbelts it would be a deadly projectile in an accident--or even a fast stop. I figure for Dean, Mary just held him in her arms like all the moms did before we were told that was a bad idea.

And you have no idea how much this question was bothering me for a long time.

SPN fans obsess over the weirdest things...

[alexseanchai]

I'm thinking the latest they could or would have gone without putting AC into the Impala was the reconstruction circa ELaC. Either that or they're very tolerant of high temperatures, or they just flat-out avoid hot places. Though that last looks like a valid theory, since the only times we can pin them to somewhere in the West or South are fall or winter.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I sort of go by the fact that every time we HAVE seen them driving around in the sunshine (including after ELaC) they've had the windows rolled down...people with aircon always choose rolled-up windows and air-con over driving around with the windows down.

So, I'm going to be waiting for the day when one of them says "man, could you turn down the air-con, I'm freezing!" before I believe that Dean upgraded the Impala past the tape-deck addition.

[alexseanchai]

Only if they're willing to pay for the gas, because it takes more gas to run the car with AC than without. And a '67 anything drinks gasoline like there's no tomorrow, so maybe we just haven't seen them on a hot enough day to spend the gas money.

(Don't mind me, I think I'm just arguing to be arguing.)

[mymuseandi.livejournal.com]

I never really knew that. I know about the bench seats and the seat belts, because of the show and how the boys never stopped to release seat belts when they get out of the car, but it never really crossed my mind that they don't have AC! I think i took it for granted that they do have it from the start. LOL

But just wondering, how is it like when they were driving in cold weather or rain? You rolled up the windows right, so wouldn't it be stuffy?

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

They still have the vents and heating...? Just not a/c.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

That's why you have the air-vents - basically, they work just like the air-vents in your car do now when you don't have the AC on. They blow air from the outside into your car (or circulate the air in your car)...so that it doesn't get stuffy (or AS stuffy as it would get without any circulation whatsoever.)

It's just not COOL air - it's whatever the air temperature is outside, or hot air (old cars had heaters, they just didn't have AC).

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

*sigh* "not as stuffy" is all too right. (I still have to shudder when I think of my childhood road trip to Montana in the back of a Bronco II. No air conditioning, no windows in the back, and those plastic-y seats that your legs get stuck to).

When I had my own car, it had cloth-covered seats and at least I could roll the window down.

[mymuseandi.livejournal.com]

Ah, i see. That makes sense. I think i tend to forget about the good old days when not every place has a/c. LOL

[elsewhere-kels.livejournal.com]

This, and the resulting discussion, is a great thing for me to know! Thanks! :)

...Now I definitely want Dean-with-a-high-fever (to the point of hallucinations) fic where John ends up installing air conditioning after-the-fact. XD

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

There you go! Story ideas!

[auriliawestlake.livejournal.com]

Um... Not to be picky, but air conditioning first became an option for automobiles in 1939 (Packard offered it as an add-on for $274, which, at the time, was hella-expensive), and by 1967, half of all cars manufactured had air conditioning. So, it's entirely possible the Impala has air conditioning. It's also entirely possible that it's perpetually broken - kinda like my dad's old '65 Ford pickup, which had an A/C switch, but it did little more than make a rattly noise when flicked.

Yes - I'm a bit of a car-geek.

[auriliawestlake.livejournal.com]

Oh - and seatbelts (can't forget them) weren't required to be installed (by law) until 1968, but most 1967 models had at least lap-belts for all passengers (and, speaking from experience, the lap-belts had a tendency to 'disappear' into the seat's cushions, particularly if the seats were bench-style). Laws governing the actual usage of seatbelts weren't introduced until the early 1980s (depending on the state).

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Huh, well I stand corrected. Still, it would have been an expensive add-on - and yes, we don't know much about the original owner, but I highly someone who drove around giving bibles to the poor could afford an add-on.

I think it's still going to annoy me, despite the fact that it's technically possible it has AC. I just really think it doesn't - or my mind just assumes that it's factory-standard (no add-ons) unless told differently.

I was thinking there should at least be lapbelts, because my Dad's old van was just a few years older and had lapbelts (that yes, would also disappear into the bench seat never to be used).

Thanks for the info!

[dairygirl.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is factory-installed A/C. but I believe it was an option, not a default like now. I was skeptical about the A/C myself, but after looking at listings for several 1967 Impalas for sale, more than one has indicated A/C available (or was removed and only has hookups).

For proof, check out the Impala options on this page: http://www.oldride.com/library/1967_chevrolet_impala.html

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected. Still, unless I'm told that the original owner took that option (or it was installed later), I think I'm going to continue to get annoyed by the use of AC in fic.

I just spent way too much of my childhood driving around in old cars without AC, because no one in my working/lower-middle class family could afford fancy add-ons...to the point where I obviously didn't even know AC existed until it started to become standard.

Thanks for the information though! And the cool link!

[dairygirl.livejournal.com]

I agree about the automatic transmission (the shift lever is on the steering wheel for pete's sake) and I know shoulder belts were not installed for a few more years yet. Actually, I did not have a working A/C in my previous car; my current one is still capable. And yeah, bench seat is something I only vaguely remember from when I was a kid. Not common any more.

I have to say I am surprised at auriliawestlake comment about automatic transmissions because more than 75% of the 1967 Impalas I have seen for sale recently have automatic, not standard transmission. Curious...

[redrikki.livejournal.com]

Yay, continuity discussions. Man, I love stuff like this as I too am obsessed with such details (a trait I inherited from my dad). I've never run across the A/C thing in fic, but every time they talk about the Impala being a manual transmission I want to cringe. It's clealry an automatic what with the lack of gear shift and all.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I cringe when people write about the front seats like they are independent and fully adjustable from each other - it's clearly a bench seat - and the impala clearly doesn't have a manual transmission. You can also tell by the way Dean drives...if it was manual transmission, he's have one hand on the shifter while he's racing around.

[trystan830.livejournal.com]

my dad had a 65 Impala... and i even drove it a few times when i was in high school... but danged if i remember if it had AC. when i was a kid, we had a 65 Impala, a Rambler from the 60s i think, a 72 Dodge Dart... i *think* my 77 Aspen had AC, but no clue if the others did. (i started driving the Aspen when it was 11 years old already. heh.)

to note: whenever i write fic, i don't seen to mention the weather for the most part. huh.

(sorry for all the edits.)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

For some reason people always like to stick in this line in their fic about how either Sam and Dean can feel the sweat dripping down their back while they are driving because the AC is broken, and they are thankful to find a motel... (or it's an excuse for Sam to be in an extra pissy mood). I find it very strange. It sort of sounds like porn, but I don't actually read porn, so I don't know why people feel the need to put in the line. I don't think Sam's bad moods have to be qualified.

My Dad had some sort of Chevy, but I can't remember what model anymore. I just know that we called it "the boat." Other than that, it was VW vans and Ladas (yes, Ladas), and then my uncle had a new old car every year it seemed. Damned if I knew which ones they were - they all blended together and he always bought them when they were on their last legs and then ran them into the ground.

[strangevisitor7.livejournal.com]

My pet peeve about the Impala is when writers refer to it as a two door - Do they not even watch the show!

I actually almost bought an 1968 Impala (yes I'm that much of a fan girl) and it did have Air conditioning. I was also surprised how big the back seat really is - i don't think Sam would be as cramped as some writers insist. BTW Most fun Test drive ever!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Oh man! That would be a VERY fun test drive!

I know what you mean about it being roomy. I've never been inside one, but I found the location shoot once while everyone was on break and peered into the windows of one of the ones they use on the show. Not only was it cleaner than any classic car that I've ever seen (except at car shows), but I could easily see how it'd be a great car for two guys to fall asleep in at the side of the road (and I don't mean anything naughty by that).

And yes, I'm with you on being annoyed when people write it like it's a two door.

It seems I've going to have to lessen my ire about people writing about AC though...I seriously did not know that AC existed that long ago. I guess that's what happens when you have weird hippie parents who only drive VW vans and extremely cheap cars.