Give a Shout-Out for the Crank among us!

Do you remember when all cars had cranks to roll windows up and down? My Dad’s first car, a 1937 Dodge, had crank windows.

I don’t remember when “power windows” first came on the scene but I do remember they were limited to only the most expensive cars. Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Chryslers had them first. My best friend’s dad drove a private limo for Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios in Culver City, CA. The first one I remember riding in was a 1951 Chrysler and it had crank-up windows. His next car was a CADDY and it had power windows. As teenagers we delighted in running them up and down. Swish down, swish up, down and up, down and up again. Norm’s dad would finally tell us to knock it off.

I don’t think my Dad owned a car with “power windows” until his 1975 Mercury Marquis.

Did any of you ever have a crank-up window that broke? I can’t recall a single instance of such a failure. Oh sure, the little knob at the end might wear out but a trip to a hardware store could solve that problem.

Today, in our comfortenience society power windows are found on all but the very cheapest cars. Even my Jeep came standard with power windows. It’s a Jeep, for pete’s sake. Who needs them? I’m still completely capable of turning a crank to roll my windows up and down.

Now I won’t argue the occasional convenience of being able to roll the passenger window down to tell that creep on that side of the car that your windshield doesn’t need washing, but that type of situation rises so rarely that having a window that goes down and up at the push of a button seems pointless.

Who among us convinced the car companies that we wanted this “convenience”? Does it somehow make that person riding around in one of those ridiculous looking Toyota XB cars feel more important to drop the driver’s window in one fell swoop at the touch of a button? It's nuts, if you ask me.

The real problem with “power windows” is that they are expensive. Every time you raise or lower a window you are incurring costs that will eventually come due because all of these systems break eventually. Fixing them has become a very expensive process. Some of the earlier mechanisms utilized an electric motor turning gears that moved a bar the raised and lowered the glass. Today, unfortunately, on many current model cars they have gone to a system using cables to do the job. There is a cable on one side for raising the window and another to lower it. There is a great deal of tension kept on the cables to allow for a smooth operation.

The worst thing that could happen to the old motor and gear system was the motor would wear out. Replacing it, though not exactly inexpensive, was a small price to pay when compared with today’s cars. The cables in these "hi-tech systems cannot be replaced. Fixing the window requires replacing the entire control unit, and there’s one in each door with a power window.

I just replaced one on my Jeep that failed late in our trip north this summer. The cost you ask? $424! Yikes! I don’t have any idea how many times the window had been cycled up and down before it failed, but each time cost money, obviously. The engineer(s) who designed and created a mechanism for raising and lowering windows electrically that costs nearly $500 to repair/replace should lose their jobs. They are totally irresponsible and inconsiderate of those who will use their creations. It's outrageous!

The service guy at the Jeep dealer said, “This is a part that never should break.” Right. I believe that. Each of these things has an breaking point built into it. The maker can predict almost exactly when one or the other of those cables is going to fail. They determine it in their product-testing phase of production that the auto manufacturer required. The manufacturer says it should last a certain length of time. By then the original owner will probably have bought another car. I shudder to consider how much it would cost to fix the system controlling my “moon roof” that I also didn’t need. I seldom even retract the upholstered cover that keeps the sun out.

In addition to the cost there’s the inconvenience involved in a window failure. The default setting seems to be in the down position. When can it be convenient to have a window that can’t be raised. We got home from Washington without a flooded car thanks to a clever mechanic in Illwaco, who removed the inner door panel, pushed the window up to within ¼” of being completely closed and clamped a pair of Vise-Grip pliers beneath the window frame to hold it in place.

It was an interesting repair bill. The parts list showed only “1 pair Vise-Grips”. The total cost was $60. Add that to the $424 and you’ll understand why I feel the convenience of raising and lowering the widows electrically is an overrated convenience. I might have just left the Vise-Grips in there but the "diagnostic" charge at the dealer was $95 just for looking at the problem.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE CRANK!