Cool things that are still being made

SteveM(PA)

SteveM(PA)

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Speaking of products that endure through several decades, I'd like to talk about a few things I like that are still around. The first is the the Mk1 VW Golf (or Rabbit). Did you know that this car is still being manufactured, in South Africa? The tooling apparently came from the plant here in Pennsylvania when it closed down in the early 80's (the same plant that manufactured the one I once owned, my first car 🙂). It looks a little different, but it is still true to the original Giugiaro design...a car that I'm sure many of us owned/drove.

http://www.vw.co.za/models/citi/
 
Pretty cool! I drive an 82 Vanagon Westfalia and they still make the Transporter equivalent in South Africa too. A lot of Vanagon drivers buy imported accessories from there like quad headlight grilles and bush bumpers.
I just wish they still made the Mk I Scirocco! My favourite car of all time!
 
I actually hired and drove a brand new mk1 golf when I last went back to south africa (born there) with my father - was an absolute blast! we thrashed the crap out of that thing and it was suprisingly very fun to drive!

Also, I had to answer:

Film
and
Those little polystyrene/foam airplanes that you put together and fly... theres like 30 of them - all old and new planes, and they cost something like 50c each! I remember them from at least 14 years ago
 
I was thinking along these lines a while back when I realized how many "old" designs I had within reach:

Zippo lighter
Fisher Bullet Pen
Moleskine notebook
Western Electric Model 500 telephone (yes, you can still buy the same basic phone)
Classic black handle Buck knife (factory used to be 3 miles from where I'm sitting)
Hewlett-Packard HP-12C RPN financial calculator

The "newest" of these designs is the HP-12C, which has been in production for more than 25 years. The rest have all been made more or less the same way for more than forty years. Great designs never get old.
 
The car in that post looks just like my old 1978 Rabbit. My first car.

Other cool stuff still being made has to include Stanley planes for woodworking. Some of the designs are more than 100 years old, and are still being produced. Same goes for the Record planes made in the UK.
 
John, it's so funny you mention the HP12C.. I have one on my desk. My coworker has one that's about 10-15yrs old and it's pretty much the same.

Necco wafers, not only are they the same as they were 50yrs ago. They still have the same packaging!
 
Levi's 501. Invented around 1873, some of them (not enough) are still being made in the US. In fact, you can buy replicas of the first pair. Still state of the art.
Fender Telecaster, Invented 1951, still produced in the US. Still state of the art.

And two weeks ago I went to buy a brolly, with my son (and believe me, you need one right now), from james Smith on New Oxford St: http://www.james-smith.co.uk/
 
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Fountain pens... nothing glides over paper better. I confess to eschewing address labels on envelopes just to write my return address with any of my pens. My wife just doesn't get it... and shakes her head in disbelief. 🙄
 
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