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've decided to cheer for Kripke too on that front - yay for unsafe old cars! Plus, he totally showed us how unsafe it was when he had them get into that car accident and Dean nearly died...perhaps if he had been wearing a seatbelt, John would have never had had to sell his soul...(yes, I am well aware of the horrendous demon attack and how Dean's probably was probably bleeding out long before that truck hit).

Anyway, yeah, I figure when Mary was alive, she held the babies...and after she died, it was probably crazy nests made out of dufflebags, or car-seats wedged into crevices...or Dean holding him in his lap or something.

My Dad had a VW hippie camper van (similar to the one John was going to buy, but a later model) and it had the most useless seat-belts on the front seats. They were just lapbelts and didn't even really pull taught when you yanked on them. To top it off, after he had 5 kids, my Dad solution to the limited seating problem was to rip out all the camping equipment and built extra benches out of plywood crates. It was super safe, let me tell you *sarcasm*

It also annoys me when some people actually write like the Impala has two separate front seats that are independently adjustable...I mean, at that point, you have to wonder if the author has even seen the show...or wonder if they are blind and perhaps only listen to it.

Forget about obsessing over the weirdest things...I think we get annoyed over the weirdest things :P

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

You have to take into account the age of the writer. Quite possibly they have never seen a bench seat in a car.

Or lived without a cell phone. But maybe we shouldn't go there...

[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.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, the cellphone thing in wee!chester fic gets me too. (Side note: I loved in After School Special, when they had Dean use a big-ass cellphone that was accurate to 1997...not sure anyone picked up on that).

But, even if they've never SEEN a bench seat in their real life, they've seen it ON THE SHOW. It's quite clear in nearly every single Impala scene. So, yeah, little to no forgiveness from me there :-P

[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.)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Haha, I don't mind...it's a valid point. But I'm going to counter with: If the Winchesters were concerned about gas, they wouldn't be driving a '67 Impala :-P

In any case, I'm still going to go with the idea that unless we are told otherwise (like the tape-deck) the Impala is still accurate to it's original specifications.

[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?

[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

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

But people who SHOULD know better do it all the time! It drives me insane. I mean, I see errors in regards to the early 2000s.

[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).

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

There you go! Story ideas!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly...sometimes I look on people's profiles "How old is this person? - ok, they are 18, they get a pass for being naive (depending what they've got wrong)...but if they are my age or older, they don't have any excuses.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what exactly it was, but someone got something majorly wrong that involved 2005. It wasn't even a facebook/youtube kind of thing, though those kind of errors tend to ping my radar anyway...it was something really egregious.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Bizarre. Maybe something to do with Katrina? I know there's been some stories about Dean's hunt in New Orleans right before he got Sam...which would have happened right after Katrina, and some fics completely ignore that it happened.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

It was something like that. Though I tend to be slightly more forgiving of forgetting to include things than I am inserting things that don't belong. I think it's because omissions tend to stick out less, unless you're really thinking about the date/location rather than just kind of thinking, "okay, pre-series story."

I think it may have been something like they referenced a disaster or war or something equally important that happened very recently- like 2009. It was very confusing.

[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.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, that'd be confusing.

[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

[mymuseandi.livejournal.com]

No air conditioning, no windows in the back, and those plastic-y seats that your legs get stuck to

That sounds so uncomfortable. LOL Thank god for advancements in automobiles! \o/

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Good old days? I got my first AC car in 2009...and my apartment doesn't have AC...mind you, I live in Canada. We only have to suffer through 3 to 5 months of hot weather (depending where we live). Not like Singapore, where it's 32 degrees every single day of the year (and rains every day sometime between 3pm and 5pm).