Ah yes, the good old days. When gas cost pennies per gallon, you could rent genuine Shelby Mustangs from Hertz, and the cops didn't have radar. When Toyota was still an obscure Japanese automaker, Hyundai was still in the construction business, and Motown still dazzled the world with brazen displays of power and performance and style. When sex was safe, and racing dangerous.As Frank Markus points out in our cover story, one of the common refrains about the good old days is that you got more car for your money. When you look at the prices-$3000 to $4000 would buy you a decent ponycar in the late 1960s-the good old days certainly seem great. But today's cars deliver a degree of functionality and durability, safety and quality, performance and efficiency that could scarcely be imagined back then. So are we really getting a raw deal today?I pulled the Motor Trend back-issue file from 1961 to see what cars customers could buy 50 year ago, and how much they cost. To make a valid value comparison with today's cars, I considered their affordability in terms of average weekly earnings, using Social Security Administration data that show the average American earned $78.59 per week in 1961, and $782.92 per week in 2009-the most recent figure available. The results are fascinating.