Technology — it’s constantly advancing and disrupting existing technologies at an ever rapid pace, and when it comes to the automobile industry, it’s no different. Especially in the past ten, even five years, in-car technology has developed at an ever-astronomical pace to the point where even relatively inexpensive cars offer features such as forward collision alert, emergency braking, 360-degree surround camera, navigation with real-time traffic updates, and self-parallel parking. Of course, as new tech features are added, “old” technology must go by the wayside, much to the dismay of some buyers.
Having a 6-disc in-dash CD player AND a cassette player was quite the big deal in 2004.
One of those such rapidly disappearing features is the CD player. As a kid who grew up in a time where in-dash CD players were a novelty, it almost pains me to call the CD player “primitive”, but it’s the truth, no matter how sad it may be. In fact, these days CD players are a novelty once again, as many cars no longer offer them. MINI, among other brands, no longer offers them at all. BMW still includes them as standard, despite the addition of more advanced audio technology, though I’ll be honest when I say I’ve never used the CD player in my 2016 228. In fact, the last car I used a CD player was in the last car I owned without bluetooth audio, my 2004 Toyota Highlander.
Remote 3D view from your phone… who’d ever have envisioned this a decade ago?
So while I personally do not mourn the loss of the CD player, many others do. And numerous other automotive technologies have disappeared over the years too. Remember physical car keys? Manual hand brakes? CB radios? DVD-based “rear seat entertainment systems” with flip-down LCD screen? What automotive technology do you miss having most?
Those spin-open vent windows. Flip them open and you got a lot of air moving real fast
+1
Agreed. I’ve driven my ’63 VW Bus and my ’59 Beetle to work this week and realized how much I wish newer cars had those. Even with a/c, sometimes it’s nice to ride with the windows down.
In addition, I also miss flow through fresh air ventilation systems.
I miss them as well, but most buyers would complain about the wind noise they generate.
Foot operated dip switch , why are they put on stalks?
I like to keep both hands on the wheel when cornering , not take one hand off to prevent blinding the oncoming driver
100% agree !!!
And that’s why I love those adaptive headlights that do the dipping for you when they detect oncoming headlights.
My wife – CD players in cars, she has an extensive collection.
Interesting. I have a 10-year old Sierra and have no idea whether the CD player works or not. I never used it.
I wish it had Bluetooth in it, though. It is a pain having to plug in my phone to listen to Spotify. (Yeah, first world problems.)
I added aftermarket Bluetooth to my Highlander so I could listen to iHeartRadio and Pandora (as well as take calls) but she gets bummed when its time for a long trip and there’s no CD player.
I spent an inordinate amount of time a few winters ago ripping my CD collection to a USB flash drive. By no means, perfect, but doesn’t take up a lot of space and those silly plastic jewel boxes last longer.
Geez, Brendan, what a set up!
How much time/space do I have?
Here are just some: wind wings; hand crank windows; vinyl flooring; manual transmissions; rear wheel drive; radios with just five buttons and two knobs; coupes; station wagons.
Don’t forget the hardtop coupe, hardtop sedan (I wasn’t born yet when the hardtop station-wagon was commercialized).
As others mentionned, CD player and I could go a bit further back with casette player. And anyone who remember linear speedometer?
Amen
I don’t think I’ll ever miss having CD’s because I never really used them. Even in 2003 I was bringing my MP3 player into the car and taking advantage of the cassette adapter. And I use an iPod Touch for all my contemporary audio needs. Old habits die hard I guess.
And my 2013 Focus has physical keys and a manual parking brake, so I guess I can’t mourn those just yet.
I suppose I miss the separate key/fob combination. Modern keys (like mine) have the remote lock/unlock/trunk release/panic button integrated right on the key, which makes even the more basic ones extraordinarily expensive to replace, about $120 minimum. Fortunately my key has gone through the wash twice and still works, but if I do ever have to replace it I’ll be very grumpy about it. Those fobs only cost about ten dollars to replace. Although if I remember correctly those passed the laundry test as well.
The 2013 Focus should be able to be opened by the old separate remote. I know that you can do that on the 2012 and down with the integrated key and remote. I believe the only change for the 2013 was the key blade and the transponder and remote frequencies stayed the same. I know I took the key I kept from our wrecked 2010 Fusion and programed my 2009 Econoline to accept the remote functions. I also know that Ford offers a key w/o a remote for the 2013 up C platform vehicles because I got two of those with the two integrated keys for our 2013 C-Max.
Very interesting info. Thanks!
What I miss are keys that were just keys, without any electronic stuff in them whatsoever. The kind you could just go down to the hardware store and copy if you needed a spare. Even with the separate key/fob combo most relatively recent cars required a chip in the key in order sto start, which has to be programmed at the dealer. I’m sure it makes the car more difficult to steal, but it means you have to go to the dealer and over $100 if you need an new key.
No you don’t have to go to the dealer and spend $100 on a key on many cars. For example with Ford and Chrysler cars as long as you have 2 keys you can add one yourself with nothing more than the 3 keys. Many hardware stores and locksmiths also have clone keys If you have a working key they ping it and download that to the new programmable key. Of course that doesn’t count as another key so you can’t add a 3 key with an original and a clone of that same key.
I can’t speak for other makes, but I can program a bladed key for new Chevy cars and trucks myself, as well as the remote on the “switchblade” keys. If you already have a key, you start it, turn it off, and insert the new key immediately and the chip “learns” the vehicle. If you have no keys at all, I can have a key cut from VIN info, then perform a 30 minute “learn” procedure: Turn the key to the run position for 10 minutes; you’ll notice all the cluster info lights “check on”, as they’re supposed to do, within a few seconds they’ll all go out except the security light. At the end of 10 minutes, that light will turnoff, too. Turn key off for 10 to 15 seconds, repeat the “turn to run position” for another 10 minutes, At the end of that 10 minutes, repeat process, again. At the end of the third 10 minute “turn to run position”, turn key off. It is now programmed and vehicle will start. If vehicle has a separate fob (as all Chevy trucks do), that must be programed by a technician with a laptop.
$120 sounds like a dream… on BMWs and MINIs, the cost for a replacement key fob is $250.
Jaguar quoted me $579 to make and program a new key for my X-Type. Not sure how much of that was the fob/key (it’s one of those switchblade affairs).
I found two aftermarket fob/key blanks online for $50 for the pair, and a good local locksmith cut and programmed them for $180. Damned near jumped for joy after having to change my undies from Jaguar’s quote.
An actual day/night rearview mirror, with an actual lever. The automatic ones never dim enough for me.
Funny, but I could not stand my lever operated one in my new Civic, but then for the past three decades, all of my cars have had the auto-dim mirrors. After putting up with it for a year, I had the dealer install the OEM unit from the next Civic up the chain. I have an EX-T that didn’t come with it. Starting with the EX-L and up, Civics do come with it. That should confuse a few folks when I trade the car in, since Honda (heck anyone these days) does their options as ‘packages’ instead of allowing you to cusomize, unless you do it after the fact like the example here.
Totally agree! 2007 Subarus are lousy.
Not only are auto-dimming mirrors not particularly helpful (I can flip the lever just fine, thanks), but I had the misfortune of discovering that when they fail a caustic fluid drips out and damages the plastic in your center console. And replacement isn’t cheap either.
I kind of miss the multi CD player, but I can bluetooth my entire music collection from the phone so I think it’s just nostalgia. Same goes with bringing in fresh air without turning on the climate control. I still don’t like automatic rear view mirror dimming. Would rather have it be manual.
Floor vents, to direct a nice cooling breeze into the footwell. Also, I loved the windshields that cranked open from the bottom. Who needed air conditioning?
Fresh air cowl/floor vents! Preach it, ArBee!
While we’re on that, how about a vent system that allows you to have warm air to your body and feet to keep you comfy and cool air to your face to keep you alert?
I miss the keyless entry combination locks you’d find on Ford products that we discussed a week or so ago. I loved the feature on my T-Birds, and after a decade with my only GM car, a ‘97 Pontiac GTP, when I finally got back into a Ford (my 2007 Mustang), I was kinda bummed it didn’t have that feature.
As to CD players, my Mustang has one and I almost never use it. My Civic didn’t come with one, but it hardly needs it with all the other music options. From Apple CarPlay to a simple thumb drive with tunes on it, you just don’t need a CD Player anymore.
And as to the keys… yeah, I don’t miss them at all. If it weren’t for the need for a key to start those T-Birds I mentioned above, I wouldn’t have needed them back then either, as I always used the combination on the door, even to open the trunk!
I’m fine with my Mustang’s CD player, though with satellite I hardly ever play it. But, today with only crappy music coming over my favorite channels it was nice to put in a CD of driving music while I drove down the Interstate.
One thing I wish our Mustangs still had was an inside trunk release like the one on my ’86 and ’03. I am real careful with my keys and always only lock it with the remote, but a couple of months ago I had a brain freeze and laid them down in the trunk while I loaded some stuff 60 miles from home. The last thing I saw as the lid came down was my keys. Needless to say, I had to call AAA and wait for him to show up. It’s also a royal pain to have to go into the house when I am working in the garage and need to get in the trunk to get the keys.
One thing I REALLY like in the new car that I didn’t even know I wanted is the backup alarm. Our garage spot is small and the alley is really narrow so it’s tough to see when backing out. It’s amazing how sensitive it is.
The blind-spot alert LEDs in the mirrors are nice for when a bicyclist is in the bike lane next to you, too.
Couldn’t agree more about the backup alarms. Careful as you may be backing in tight spots, it ‘s great to have the audible warning. The downside is switching to a vehicle that doesn’t have them and falling into the trap of “No beep, everything’s fine. [Crunch.]”
Hahaha so true! Basically any of these electronic safety-nannies I’m fine with as long as I don’t forget how to actually drive because of them. (Kind of like how no one remembers phone numbers anymore because of cell phones.)
That would by the only criticism I could muster for them, that and designers deciding to make sightlines worse and windows smaller. Otherwise this is the kind of tech I like, it serves a useful purpose that wasn’t previously fulfilled by anything, and therefore doesn’t push out any good old tech in its wake.
Well stated.
Agree , one of the most useful features, definitely not a gimmick
Reversing alarms are great, so long as they don’t go into full panic mode when a butterfly flutters past. Honda Jazz……
Funny you mention the manual parking/hand brake. My new 2017 RX350 doesn’t have a manual brake. I always thought the purpose of it was to stop your car in the (yes, unlikely) event you lost your regular brakes, as well as parking on a hill etc. I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to use mine if I were moving.
Yes, I’m an old guy but the owners manual in the glovebox has 752 pages! Gaaaa!
Your RX should have an electronic parking brake, with its switch located to the left of the heated/cooled seats controls.
Now there’s something I miss. An owner’s manual in one language that isn’t 75% lawyer-talk for the common-sense-challenged and 25% information!
I miss car makers competing on quality versus features. I’d far prefer if the money I put towards a car went to nicer leathers, quieter interiors, better plastics and other harder to market items versus a laundry list of silly features I don’t care about. I swear a 90s Bimmer, Lexus, or MB just feels more sumptuous then its modern day equivalent. Same goes for non-luxury marques- compare the leather in a 90s Toyota/Honda/Nissan to the trash upgraded surfaces available today. It’s really no contest.
Focusing more on the question at hand, I miss having physical controls for seemingly minor things- the last Honda Civic without a volume button is probably the most egregious example, but there are others as well. Does anyone think we’ll ever see OEM stereos with physical EQ buttons again? I doubt it.
“I swear a 90s Bimmer, Lexus, or MB just feels more sumptuous then its modern day equivalent.”
Yes! The luxury I enjoy is that of good design. This is clearly evidenced in the simplicity and ease of use found in a Mercedes W124. There are no confusing and no redundant controls. There is no display screen whose menu needs to be negotiated to do something as simple as change the temperature or the radio station. Every part on the dash is made with quality and had user interface well considered when designed. This is real luxury – the pleasure in using simple, logical controls.
The 124s do not have remotes for opening door locks; that function must be done by manually by inserting the key blade into the tumbler on the door handle. I can do that; it is not hard.
Yep. And good design shouldn’t have to be a luxury.
I recall hearing that Honda went back to a regular knob for volume after (completely justified) popular loathing of the previous touch control, so maybe there’s hope.
An emergency hand crank. Just in case. I had it on my Peugeot 404, and used it once a few times, mostly for fun. Mine started on the first crank every time.
A difficult item to fit these days Paul most cars are now front drive with the engine sideways in the chassis, my Hillman has a hand crank it lives in the boot along with the jack wheelbrace and wait for it actual spare wheel, floor vent, vent windows crank windows a proper hand lifted parking brake and manual transmission all fitted standard, it even sports a CD player.
Pulling the parking brake in an emergercy will only make things worse in my Citroen unlike most cars the park brake operates on the front wheels, theres a very good reason they are called parking brakes and most definitely not emergency brakes, locking up an axle will not help in an emergercy.
Did the later cars with this feature still carry a risk of breaking one’s wrist? I seem to recall you had to retard the spark on the Model T or else you were in for a pretty bad time.
I suppose. It always was all about how one held the handle so that couldn’t happen. technique, in other words.
Meaning, one pulled up, with the palm above the handle, so if it kicked back, the handle would pull down and open your hand/fingers in the process. If yo pushed down, with the handle facing the other side, yes, it could kick back into your palm and wrist.
When the engine catches, the overrun on the mechanism means no risk/harm.
The guy in the video is not doing it right. 🙂
Like so many things in life, it’s all about doing it the right way. Millions started their Model Ts without ever hurting themselves.
The reality is that modern cars with more accurate ignition timing are not likely to kick back anyway. When’s the last time you saw a modern engine kick back with an electric starter?
That is a fair point.
Very early Volkswagen Beetles had them as well as VW Buses through 1958. They had a special nut on the crank pulley that was designed to push the crank start lever out of the way once the engine started. When one of my friends bought a totally stock ’56 Bus, we all took turns crank starting it just because. It was quite easy.
On the first turn:
Front bench seats so you can take an extra passenger if necessary. Keyholes for the trunk and front passenger door.
Good question! After some thought all I really miss is dashboards with words rather than icons. Some of the icons for secondary functions get pretty inscrutable. I’m a visual thinker but I’ve had to look up icons in the manual more than once.
“Can you identify all these” could be a nice QOTD…
Indeed! But credit where it’s due…I Googled up that graphic from a Daily Mail article, which says 9 out of 10 British drivers have had a symbol light up they couldn’t recognize.
I can make a guess at most of them, but what is #26? Unlocked charger port door? Snake detected in car?
Is that the dashboard of a real UK car? If so, I’d have to ask “What the hell is this sh!t?” That dashboard is more complicated than my entire car.
As for the icons I can’t figure what the difference is between Icon #41 and Icon #53? #41 is a gas pump with raindrops and #53 is simply a gas pump. In Icon #41 is the car asking the driver to fill up the tank in the rain? Sheesh. → If all 56 icons lit up at once I think I’d take a sledgehammer and bash the electric snot out of that dash board.
#53 is low fuel, #41 is for moisture in the fuel or fuel filter.
I’m pretty sure that’s a graphic designer’s composite, based on VW instruments with the minor instruments moved off centre
Roger, I sure HOPE that is a graphic designer’s composite…..
I don’t miss CDs in cars. Even though they were better than cassettes and 8 tracks to some extent, they still hogged up space in the console, glovebox, map pockets or just tossed slobbily about the passenger compartment like them. Even though I use my phone to select albums to play’it’s still less distracting than fumbling through a stack of CDs trying to find the exact right one to listen to, often only to find I left it at home.
I miss a few technologies, keeping this interior centric though I’d go with real keys, roll up windows, pull up locks, vent windows or some sort of flow through ventilation, and an array of analog gauges (not LCD drawings of them) connected directly to sensors and not sanitized by the computer.
Cruise control on a stalk. E32/34 had the best design.
The CD player thing reminds me of when I got my Retina MacBook Pro, in which they ditched the CD/DVD drive completely. I could honestly say the only CD player I owned was 3,000 pounds. (Which was my Mini.)
How about “real gauges with needles” instead of graphics on a screen. Screens are very capable mind you, and I’m glad to have them where appropriate, but one of the pleasures of driving an old sports car is watching the quivering needle on the oil pressure gauge. (PS: I see I’m echoing XR7Matt on this one.)
Really nice cloth upholstery, preferably in color.
I loved the below-dash air vents with latching doors on them in my grandfather’s stripped A-body Dodge Darts. And I really miss rear engines, and the light manual steering, solid braking, and temperate passenger compartments that they made possible. One of my all-time favorites among my own cars was a mildly hopped-up ’68 VW Fastback. A simple car with room for 4 adults that was easy to drive in town and confidence-inspiring on the highway.
My ’04 Falcon had a “panic button” on the key fob. I loved it because if I ever lost track of where I parked, I could just press that button quickly and listen to where the honking was coming from. Yeah I probably startled a few people but it was very handy… None of the cars I’ve had since have had that feature.
While this isn’t old technology, I do miss not having nav in my car anymore… Not because I ever used it for route guidance, but because in my old Subaru I’d leave the screen on if I was in an unfamiliar area or stuck in traffic and I could easily spot shortcuts on the screen. My understanding is some cars will only offer cellphone mirroring nav technology nowadays and I like that kind of “incidental” nav usage, I don’t always plot in a route…
Interesting… every car I’ve seen over the last 25 years or so with a remote fob has had a panic button. (I’m in the US, but both foreign and domestic cars had them.) never used it in an actual panic situation but it had 3 uses:
1. Like you did, to find the car in a crowded lot.
2. To scare the crap out of people near the car.
3. To accidentally get hit in my pocket as I’m getting out of the car, scaring the crap out of me.
My current car has it as the red-marked button on the fob.
I find it strange that your other cars don’t have the panic button on the fob. My 2013 Focus and my dad’s 2016 Passat both have the function.
Also, a stand alone Garmin or other dedicated GPS unit can do the same thing you describe, plus you don’t have to stress out your phone/battery in the process. That’s why I have one.
Installing Android Auto on your phone will also let you do the nav/map thing you describe. Every car I’ve owned with remote key fobs including my current cars (2016 Honda Accord, 2014 Honda Civic) have panic buttons. I just used it the other day to find the Civic in a crowded Walmart parking lot.
My 2014 Fiesta ST did not have a Panic button on the fob. All of Mr. X’s recent Fords have had it. Not sure why the Fiesta didn’t rate.
Weird. My mother’s 2016 Fusion fob has a switchblade key and a panic button.
Words and gauges. Here’s the pinnacle, a ’63 Studebaker Avanti.
My Ecoboost Mustang has gauges galore. Fuel and temp in the normal place, oil pressure and vacuum/boost above the nav screen. Selecting gauge mode in the display gives a choice of tire pressure, cylinder head temp, oil temp, intake air temp, and voltage. You can view all the numbers at once, or as gauges one at a time.
And many of the readings you see are likely sanitized to avoid unnecessary warranty claims from customers irate that their oil pressure is fluctuating. Ford’s idea of an oil pressure sender on any modern car is a on/off switch that closes at 6-7PSI of oil pressure. I undid that on my Cougar, I screwed in a genuine sender and jumped the resistor behind the gauge that is there to point it straight up to look pretty. Can’t do that on the newer cars since the instrument panel sources all information from the computer
And the demise of actual words on them, as I assume you know, was a cost cutting measure to avoid having to translate the labels for every country they intend to sell the car in.
What technology do I miss? I miss the lack of technology.
In other words, when things were all mechanical, there was a degree of simplicity that has been lost. Don’t get me wrong; I love fuel injection and the various safety advances. So much else has been made complicated, thus harder to repair, and electronics simply don’t age gracefully (usually). When things were all mechanical, it was easier to diagnose and fix the various problems that arose.
Mr. Grumpy will go home now.
Ditto. Fuel injection is better than carburetors. Electronic ignition is better than physical points.
Beyond those two, everything else is purely bad and unnecessary.
Having had more experience than I ever wanted with points and carburetors in my teens, I agree with you 100%.
A computer to optimize the engine performance I can agree with, it’s when it starts insidiously invading the rest of the vehicle like an electronic cancer that my eyeballs glaze over.
I do miss the mechanical simplicity of old cars as well. What I miss was the low cost and ease of repair, plus, mechanical devices usually warn you of impending failure unlike electronics. I also miss the ability to tune and tweak parts, but I guess that’s why I still have old vehicles to tinker with but not daily drive. That said, modern electronics are very reliable and fail much less frequently than the old mechanical counterparts.
Agreed. Electronics have brought a magnitude of performance and reliability that was previously unknown. I have a comment below, responding to Will Stopford, that illustrates the dark underbelly of electronics and (semi?)modern vehicle construction. Also, this scenario played out over the course of five months, not one weekend.
An ammeter. Voltmeters provide very little information while a good sensitive ammeter could diagnose many ills where whether current was drawing was an issue.
Jason, you beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing and wholeheartedly agree…..I miss the LACK of technology. I miss the simplicity and straightforwardness of automobiles that were the norm until the mid-1960s.
As you pointed out, when things were mechanical, they were easier to diagnose and fix. Also components were for the most part easily accessible and replaced and maintained. As long as regular maintenance is done and parts are available the automobiles of that long ago era could be kept in running condition almost indefinitely. Still see a few Model A Fords running around.
By the way, anyone remember manual chokes?
Sure, just change the oil and filters every thousand miles, grease all those chassis fittings every few hundred, get full tuneups regularly (plugs, points, condenser, timing) and keep those brakes adjusted (you think they adjust themselves?). Valve job and ring job every five years or so. Likewise shocks, hoses, etc. Remember when every corner had a service station with two bays that were usually full? Yes those were the good old days.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Recall my fathers generation arguing about the merits of such newfangled features as automatic transmission and power steering. Air conditioning? What a waste. Just crank open those vent windows. More than a few saw any attempt to make driving easier as an affront to their masculinity. Seat belts? Bad idea. Better to be “thrown clear” in a crash, and by the way, don’t talk about accidents because it’s bad luck. Oil changes and lubes every 1,000 miles, tune-ups ever year and cars that rarely made it to 100,000 miles – yeah they were the good old days.
While some advanced technology on today’s vehicles seem to be solutions in search of a problem, the overall effect has made today’s vehicle the safest and most reliable in history.
When my dad was on interstate sales for days at a time, he’d sometimes have to have his car serviced while away from home – don’t miss that!
Here in Australia one of the oil companies had the idea of a ‘passport’ for kids where you could get it stamped by the gas station each time Dad filled up. That was fun; he’d take it away every trip, then bring it out to show me where he’d been, and we’d follow his route on the various state maps. Some stations had plain utilitarian stamps while others in little towns often had lovely ornate ’20s-’30s designs that were wonders of the engravers’ art. Still got mine somewhere.
Remember when every corner had a service station with two bays that were usually full? Yes those were the good old days.
When a kid could find work wrenching on cars instead of flipping burgers at a fast food place now on every corner? Yep. Good old days.
Now every new or renovated gas station has a snack isle bigger than an entire two bay service station. Grease up the ball joints or grease up your arteries, progress has chosen the latter I guess.
@Halwick: I have a car with a manual choke; a ’64 product of FoMoCo. So my answer is ‘Yes’ to your question.
I just realised I’ve never owned a car with a manual choke, though I’ve driven quite a few. They weren’t hard to use. Maybe the advent of the automatic choke is when the rot started to set in.
I miss taking cars to the dealer or mechanic because their technology broke repeatedly and predictably. Each newer car we’ve had over the decades has been a significant improvement in reliability. My almost 15 year old Scion xB has never seen a mechanic or dealer except for a warranty issue early on. All it’s needed is tires, one battery, two air filters, one set of front and rear brake pads/linings and some oil changes. Nothing else. All done easily in my driveway or at jiffyLube. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this continues for some years longer. I’ve completely forgotten what it’s like to take a car to a dealer or mechanic.
The Acura is going on five years and has never had an issue or seen the dealer or mechanic, but then it’s barely broken in.
Try that with a new 1959, 1969 or 1979 Belchfire!
So much for that damn newfangled technology!
In the other thread about what car you lust after I said a Miata, and I plan to get one when it comes time to replace my Corolla. The problem with that plan is that the Corolla isn’t going to need to be replaced for a long time, will it?
I hear you, Paul.
I’m shaking my head at some of the comments — I mean, y’all are great, but what are you driving where stuff keeps breaking? I remember when people were reluctant to have power windows because it was “another thing that would break”. I’ve had four cars with power windows now, not once have they failed in any of those cars. I’ve had cars with nav, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, power seats… None of those things have broken.
Are people just afraid to buy a car with these features and enjoy them and get accustomed to them on the off chance they might eventually break? I want to go forwards, not backwards: the next car I have must have Bluetooth audio and blind spot monitoring, and maybe even AEB and a sunroof and ventilated seats.
Well now, William, pull up a chair here – young Will – to be fair to the Collected Codergery (CC) here, when much of the basic electrical stuff first started turning up, it WAS pretty approximate in operation, leading to inevitable conclusions along the lines of “I could wind my own window once”, ad infinitum. So marked was it that in the car trade, dealers would groan when, say, a top-line Commodore came for trade-in, knowing the prospect would expect big bucks whilst the dealer knew there was a heap to be spent getting windows and locks and such functioning again. This stuff is now utterly reliable, someone here may know why it became so.
Thus when a Perpetually Dissatisfied Elder (or PDE*tm) smells a new tech, they – alright, we – expect failure of the apparently unnecessary, and begin a rather absurd lament for that which once was. A lament written on a piece of very high tech that really only is most used by them for the production of words, like, hell, a damn typewriter, yes, but let me finish.
Also, lad, you “want to go forwards, not back.” Well, that’s called “youth”. By PDE age, going back isn’t possible, but I’m in no rush to go forward thank you very much because it’s coming up too fast already, so staying steady has a large appeal. And I’ll decide when the bloody wipers go on…but I’m going off-base.
You may see from my comment below I’m otherwise quite happy to drive the tech of 2018, as I reckon most of the commenters are in reality.
Yes, yes, you can out and play now.
So true, and memories are long. When I was little my Dad cursed working on hyro-electric power windows in the 50’s, with leaking fluid lines in the doors corroding paint on the door sills. Even my 1985 300ZX Turbo had power window and A/C failures. Today’s cars are better in just about every way (until components fail when they become disposable).
This young man below is one of my favorite YouTubers. He combines the skill and patience of an older mechanic with the enthusiasm of youth to work on that old-fashioned technology. If you like this vid, watch his others and subscribe – they are consistently informative and entertaining:
I love watching The Corvette Ben!
justy, you can always make me laugh, though did you mean Codgergery instead of “Codergery?.
My 03 Falcon utes heater has stopped working, I bear it no grudge even though I am a cold fish and hate the cold, its lasted 15 years and thats 5 years beyond its expected life.
But to fix it the whole instrument panel has to come out of the car, because thats the way it was built, everything in the IP was assembled in another factory, then assembled into the car. So its way beyond my level of very basic mechanical skills.
On any of my older cars I’m sure some Saturday afternoon tinkering would have had it blowing warm air soon enough.
Doesn’t matter though, in a few weeks I’m in the market for a near new Toyota Camry, Going to keep the ute though, I need an old Falcon in my life.
Ugh don’t remind me. The AC gave out in my ’04 Falcon… You’d get AC noise through the vents but no air. When I went to an auto electric place, they quoted some exorbitant sum to fix it as the whole dashboard basically had to be removed.
Somehow, I lucked out: the AC just started working again of its own volition. I never could get the heat working again though but, hey, it’s Brisbane, I survived…
Jonco, I meant actually meant to type “Codgery”, though I rather like your version!
Will, while I can’t speak for anyone else, I will happily expand upon my comment.
As you know, I have vehicles that range from 4 years of age to 55 years. My 2000 model Ford van experienced a crank-no-start condition early last winter, which thankfully was in my driveway when it decided to happen.
With it being a cold winter I admittedly wasn’t in a hurry to get it going so I waited until warm weather returned.
Getting out the multimeter showed the fuel relay switch to be fine. Taking off the kick panel in the passenger footwell showed the inertia switch to be fine.
Taking out the crank position sensor (which was a pill as it required dropping the a/c compressor which is in a very tight spot and I did this while laying on my back in a concrete driveway) showed it to be fine when checked with the multimeter although, for good measure, I replaced it with a different one which was also shown to be fine with the multimeter.
Testing the fuel pressure via the Schrader valve under the hood revealed zero fuel pressure. However, from all accounts online from various diagnose it yourself websites, this wasn’t necessarily a sign of a bad fuel pump. None of the other possibilities panned out, so a fuel pump it was.
The fuel pump on this rig (and like most currently), unlike the days of old, is within the fuel tank. The van has a 30 gallon fuel tank and it was half full so it wasn’t going to be an easy tank removal. Once upon a time, the fuel pump was mounted to the side of the engine block and highly accessible. Many accounts both in person and online talk about folks cutting holes in the floorpan to access their in-tank fuel pump. It wasn’t happening here as there is carpet to contend with.
So it got put on a rollback and hauled to a repair facility. The fuel pump was replaced and it started right up. Then it would not restart consistently unless one sprayed gasoline into the intake.
After a lot of head scratching, it was determined the new crank position sensor, which tested perfectly on the mulitmeter, was likely the culprit. Installing a second one fixed the issue as it appears the one I put in had an intermittent and undiagnosable problem.
So, thus my original statement. If I bought new cars and turned them out after five years or so I would never have to worry about things aging but those aren’t the cards I’m playing.
Please don’t think I’m sniping with this comment as I’m not – I’m just giving some insight into why I said what I did. Had the fuel pump on the Galaxie thrown craps (which would likely happen more frequently without argument) it would not have taken the extended amount of time, trouble, and aggravation to repair it. Plus, a fuel pump for it is much cheaper.
Hopefully this illuminates my original statement. Sure electronics are great when they work but they are far from infallible – and are a bitch to diagnose at times. As far as bluetooth, navigation, stereos, etc. I could not care less about that.
Jason: That’s why I wouldn’t have a Ford (or GM or Chrysler) of that vintage sitting around my house. Shoulda’ bought a Toyota. 🙂
Ok, Toyota didn’t build conversion vans. But seriously, the biggest difference between American cars and Toyota (and some other Japanese) was the difference in the quality expectations of their various little parts they bought from suppliers.
It’s a well know fact that the Big Three (especially GM) constantly badgered their suppliers for lower prices. And they got them! Along with lower quality. It’s not like Ford built all these little parts that fail so readily and inevitably. Or that the engine blows up or the transmission pukes its insides.
Toyota (and other Japanese brands to various degrees) have always had a very intimate relationship with their suppliers, and worked very closely with them to improve quality and still find ways to keep costs down. It was never an adversarial relationship. Ask the suppliers in the US what it was like dealing with the Big Three in the 90s and 00s. They were being pitted against each other, and constantly pressured and threatened to lose their contracts. That never happened at Toyota with its suppliers, who were seen as an integral long-term member of the family.
This is the key reason why Toyotas are consistently more reliable, and over the long haul. Of course there have been some issues; it’s inevitable. But it’s the batting average that counts.
There really is a reason why folks out here buy Toyotas if they want to keep their car past the 5-8 years honeymoon period for American cars.
I rather agree on the supplier issue. Rarely does anything good come from contentious relationships such as the Big Three have historically had with suppliers.
Yesterday a coworker told me of the active head restraint in his 2013 Chrysler Town & Country activating and slamming him in the back of the head at 70 mph. That’s inexcusable. And I blame that in large part on supplier issues – not that I’m blaming a supplier as they built to a specification.
On the flip side his wife has a 2000 4Runner she bought new; other than a recent water pump, power steering pump, and a timing belt, it’s needed little in its 200,000 miles.
The big thing I was trying to get across is simply how age works everything over and nothing is immune, with electronics being susceptible and more of a chore to diagnose (at times) than mechanical features.
Undoubtedly modern cars are far more reliable than older cars, but they aren’t immune to repairs. I’d also suggest that those of us that live in areas with harsh winters face far more repairs due to environmental damage. Around this area many modern cars suffer from failures related to environmental damage. Things like brakes, wheel bearing, ABS sensors, CV joints, exhaust systems, suspension components and many other things are commonly repaired on cars that are in that 5-10 year range. Many people around here get rid of their cars in this age range due to the frequency of repairs, My neighbour of example dumped his 2009 F-150 last year because it needed $7000 in repairs (including a broken coil spring from rust). Because the body was also rusting out (both cab corners were gone plus the box was rusting), he decided to replace the truck with a brand new F150 instead of repair the old truck.
I can also say from our small vehicle fleet at work, the repairs are fairly frequent when the cars get in that 5-10 year range. We have mixed brands, and some do better than others, but none are immune to unscheduled repairs. Surprisingly, we still see some driveline failures too, like transmissions and PTOS (on the AWD Fords). We typically dump our cars before they reach 10 years old due to the high cost of keeping them on the road. By that time they are worth very little anyway.
I bends my mind to hear you describe a totally different reality. A 2009 truck here is practically new, although I don’t know what owning a Ford of that vintage is like. But a 2009 Toyota really is like new, and their prices reflect that.
Speaking of, my 2005 xB has a street value of some $5,000! Seriously! They are in consistent high demand because they are unique in a number of ways, and of course because their utterly bulletproof. My brother sold his 2005 xB in Seattle last year for $5400.
How’s that for cheap and trouble-free driving? It really is like a toaster. 🙂
At the same time it bends my mind to see how long cars last in Eugene. Some of your finds that are daily driven there haven’t been on the roads here for decades. I like living where I do, but the environment is absolutely brutal on cars. Which is why anyone with a nice car on drives it six months a year.
I believe you on the high value of your XB and the reliability. The only real issues I have had with our Toyota’s are usually related to environmental damage. Even around here, Toyota’s command top dollar and have excellent longevity, but obviously no where near what you see in Eugene. I tend to try and keep my cars longer than average, and so I do care about long term reliability, This is also the reason why the last 3 out of cars we’ve purchased have been Toyotas (the other is a Subaru).
I am completely on the same page as you with Toyota. In regards to your comment above to Jason, my brother-in-law used to work for as an Engineer in the auto parts supplier business and he spoke first hand of the difference between the big three and the Japanese makes.
I would miss a CD player if I didn’t have one; for one thing, I can listen to the previous
Sunday’s main service to see how the music came off, and our faithful volunteer puts out a CD-R every week. For another, I can play the stuff I haven’t fed into iTunes (or whatever Apple is calling it these days)–often stuff I’ve digitized from records or tapes. I often like really long stuff, too.
And I do miss real fresh air vents–not what has to go through the A/C system and get blown through the dash vents. Nope, the real fresh air vents like GM used to have, or the cowl vent with the lever under the dash.
“Gee our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days!”
I miss the traditional drum-type odometers. Loved to watch the digits roll by.
Also a “small” thing called visibility.
Hydraulic steering, as opposed to the electric setups nearly every car has today.
My Fiesta ST had one of the best electric racks out there-it was lauded by about every auto reviewer out there. Yet, when I got the X-Type, with its hydraulic rack, I was pleasantly surprised at the steering feel. I get in Mr. X’s 2017 Fusion, and it drives really well but definitely feels disconnected compared to the X-Type.
I miss four barrel carburetors and the sound they made when you stood on it. Cars have become so advanced in the last 30 years that it seems almost hard to believe now that you used to have to do more than just turn a key to start the engine.
Always thought cornering lamps were great and they used to be pretty widely available, not just on luxury cars. Now, not so much. Any cars still have them?
VW Mk7 Golfs if you get one with the adaptive HID or LED lighting package have cornering lamps neatly hidden between the standard and high beam headlamps, pointed sideways
As a real luddite, I don’t miss any of these things as I daily drive an old poverty level car. Manual choke, check. Carburetors, check. Stickshift, check. Manual steering and brakes, check. None of this metal frisbee disc either. Crank up windows, check. Vent windows, check. A real key for the doors, ign., and trunk, check. Vinylish interior, check. 1 small belt driving the generator and water pump. No radio or ac. I did an electronic ignition conversion and had no gains in performance and it tended to burn coils so back to points and condenser. They get replaced on its yearly tune up which includes a valve adjustment. It has never seen a shop during my ownership and has never stranded me either. Minimalist motoring by choice and I couldn’t be happier. I am an old car and truck guy to the core. Instead of lamenting the loss of favorite features, why not get and use a car with them?
Since I own roughly 900 CDs I would really miss not having a CD player in the car, even though now I mostly listen to the sat radio. Fortunately for me I plan for my Mustang to be a forever car and it does have a CD player. I try really hard not to be a Luddite about technology but, at least in my opinion, some of the features added to new vehicles is of limited benefit. I appreciate things such as fuel injection, modern ignition systems, multi-speed transmissions etc. but some of the stuff I just don’t want. Just one example is the adaptive cruise control Toyota has added to their vehicles; I’ve been driving for 50 years and have never once run into the back of another car, and I don’t need a nanny to slow the car down for me when it thinks I’m getting too close. And all you kids get off my lawn.
I miss cars that had actual bumpers. Admittedly most manufacturers resonded to the old 5-mph bumper standard with the most cheap, heavy, and ugly bumpers imaginable, but they did work. Before the 5-mph bumper standard the bumpers on most cars were flimsy, but they came with optional bumper rub strips and bumper guards so you could at least gently touch the cars in front of, or behind, you when you were parallel parking.
You can’t do the same with today’s cars, trucks and SUVs with their stylish, but flimsy and easily damaged, molded bumper covers.
I miss bumpers too, not just for what they were designed to do, but because you could tie ropes to them. A Christmas tree on the roof? No problem. Tie it off to the front and rear bumpers and side to side to the back door handles. There is noplace to tie anything to on new cars.
Yes to bumpers (unpainted please….it is OK to have bumper covering in black or some color you won’t notice small dings with…but monochrome bumpers which really are part of the body of the car are not easy to live with..almost makes me want to buy a truck (longtime car buyer here)).
Similar to that, I miss rain gutters, not so much for keeping the interior clear of rain when you opened doors or windows, but also what you could do with them. My Datsun 710 had them, and we had an inexpensive rain gutter mount bracket bolted to a 2×4 which we used as carrier for all sorts of things…I had a canoe back then, great for ladders and such. I have a hatchback now which is pretty useful, but still can’t fit a long ladder…don’t need to do it often but when I do, it is nice to but something easily on the roof. Yes, I know rain gutters look clunky and aren’t too aerodynamic (but neither is a 2×4 bracketed to the rain gutter….but I don’t keep the rack permanently on top of the car, so for short time I’ll take the hit in fuel milage.
I know you can buy roof racks for cars without rain gutters, which are probably way more aerodynamic…but they usually have brackets specific to one make of cars or another…do I really need to buy multiple brackets for different cars?…and are expensive….the 2×4 rack worked fine on multiple vehicles (if they had rain gutters) and was cheap (less than $50).
When our family was small, 50 years ago, my Dad bought a cartop camper from a company called CampO’Tel…it slept 4 people inside, you climbed up to it from a ladder mounted on the side of the car, in the place a removeable picnic table (with benches, and plastic bins for washing up) was mounted during the drive. It had 2 water tanks that tilted down, one into a cabana that mounted on the side of the car, with holes in the cap so you would have a (cold) shower…and a primitive bag-type toilet. It wasn’t fancy, but it kept you out of the elements and away from animals. It mounted in the rain gutters of our car…and when not in use, cranked up to the ceiling in our garage…so another use for rain gutters on cars.
Guess I’m not so appearance oriented as some…prefer function to looks.
Painted bumper helps make the car look good for sale, but not much fun to live with (except the places that you pay to fix gouges in them) after the sale. I want a “comfortable” car that’s easy to live with.
The clutch pedal!
My hint:
Breaker-breaker 1-9, looks like we got us a convoy ……
My 2016 Tacoma will show me the pressure in each tire, not to mention the outside temperature and the speed limit of the road I’m on, but will not show me either the charging current nor the battery voltage. I miss that. Convetsely, our 2015 Golf shows what gear I’m in, and can be made to show engine oil temp, but doesn’t have a USB port or even charger, nor tire pressures or a rear view image. I’d like to have those , but not as much as I’d like an ammeter or voltmeter on the Taco.
Buttons on the dash! I’m typing this on a tablet with a touch screen. I have a phone with a touch screen. They are okay as I’m not trying to figure out where to touch or swipe while navigating a vehicle at the same time.
I never thought I’d turn into a grumpy old man on cars but when it comes to that give me my push buttons and stay off my lawn before I drive over yours trying to change my radio station on a new car!
HAHA, a great line!
Standard-issue round 5-1/4″ or 7″ headlights. Of course sealed beams were pathetic, but you could replace them with E-codes of your choice at a reasonable price. And the lights were glass, not plastic, so they didn’t fog up with age.
The last headlight I was able to replace myself, with a Phillips-head screwdriver —
’82 Renault LeCar –
$15 for a new, rectangular sealed beam @ Pep Boys. Done, in 15 minutes.
The ability to have cool air on your face and warm air on your feet. Not a lot to ask, is it?
+1
+2.
When it comes to all the safety stuff, I’d sure as shit miss it if I crashed and it wasn’t there. Add the useful ones that might help avoid it, like ESC or cameras. The more of it the better for me.
I don’t miss vinyl, windy windows, chokes, or floppo bench seats. I have no desire again to contend with leaky vents in windows and dash hither and thither, for In the Fortieth Year, God Invented Airconditioning, and Lo, all issues regarding Comfort, not to mention Safety, Were solved Thereafter and Peace Reigned in The Car.
I do not miss unreliability. The modern cars works with incredible predictability. The ones that don’t are because the owner bought a crap brand, to which the answer is “Read first, and don’t!”
I will, though, agree with numerous folk here who rail against over-complication. HVAC basics, audio basics should have clear, simple, marked knobs. If you want to go diving into refined sub-options of dubious merit, then confine that stuff to screens. And make all that tosh accessible at rest, btw: the only true task at hand is guiding several tonnes of metal along at speeds no human body was ever designed to withstand if halted short. BMW got it all wrong with that first i-Drive, and far too many went down the same rabbit hole of stupidity ever since.
So I miss a manufacturer brave enough to equip a car thus, everyday adjustment needs plainly met, the marketing stuff clearly separate. Once upon a time, Mercedes would have done this sort of thing if it was safest, which it is, and said “It is the best way, so adapt or don’t buy our car.” Long, long ago when the line Engineered Like No Other Car was not itself an engineered product from marketing.
I have had to explain to two of my grandsons what those cranks on the doors were for in my ’66 Mustang and ’79 Malibu. After that they thought it was fun cranking the windows up and down.
One thing I miss is windows you can actually see out of and the lack of blind spots when you are backing up. Sure, backup cameras are fine, but they don’t help much when backing out onto a street when you can’t see whats coming because of thick roof pillars and mail slot side windows. The first time one of my son in laws rode in my ’66 Mustang he said ” Wow, you can see out of this one!”.
Good QOTD Brendan! I miss fresh air ventilation systems that actually work well. My old cars without A/C had excellent fresh air systems than my modern cars. I also miss intuitive controls. I liked it when all HVACs systems had slide controls or rotary knobs you could easily operate without looking at them. I don’t like the button controls or touch screen controls to operate HVAC than many modern cars have. I also liked the old pull out light switches too, they worked well. I miss thin A-pillars that don’t create a massive blind spot.
I think some of the detractors here don’t quite understand the sentiments behind missing old technology.
I don’t drive vintage cars daily anymore. But getting in one of mine, after not driving it for a while, the simplicity is refreshing. I know my newer car is safer, more reliable and more comfortable, but the feel of a pushing an accelerator pedal attached to a cable pulling the throttle on the carburetor is a bit rewarding. The unfiltered feel of a cable clutch. The smells, the sounds the sensations and the lack of anything other than “car” is refreshing.
I don’t want to live in a tent, but it’s refreshing to go sleep in one, out in the woods, with nothing but the sounds of nature and the stars above, far away from all of the modern conveniences of urban life.
I love having thousands of songs on my phone, but I also love to go downstairs and listen to an old vinyl album. There’s something about easing that needle down onto an album and the distinct sound that comes from it.
Headlights housings separated from turn signal housings and cheap to replace. Recently had to replace a turn signal in my Audi. 10 bucks later i had a new one ready to be put in the car. Doubt I would get any headlight related part for 10 bucks in a new car.
Headlight wipers and washers. It was fun to see how different manufacturers developed different wiper mechanisms to sweep the unique contours of a headlight. Now cars only have washers at most, which I don’t think are sufficient enough to completely clean the headlight lens coated with road salt and grime.
Oh, where do I start…
– vent windows
– fresh air vents
– full size spare tires
– cassette players (I still have all my mix tapes from the 1980s – it would take WEEKS to duplicate all the mixes with modern technology, and I’d have to digitize some of the more obscure vinyl…)
Mr. Big Beat: I, too, still have a bunch of audio cassettes. About 500. As long as they keep playing I will keep using them. So far very few have conked out due to old age. I’m amazed that some of these 30+ year-old cassettes still work properly, but I do keep them rewound and away from direct sunlight and heat in general. The sound is pretty good, too. At one point I had an aftermarket cassette deck installed in my old Falcon . . . except I blew the speakers out after just a few years circa 1995/96 listening to loud music from 1 band. I couldn’t resist jacking ^UP^ the volume way high listening to Black Oak Arkansas songs like “Taxman”, “Rebel”, “Fightin’ Cock”, “Too Hot to Stop”, “Swimmin’ in Quicksand”, “Red Hot Lovin'” and plenty more. Anyway, there’s just a hole there now in the metal dashboard where the radio was some 20-odd years ago. Let’s face it, you don’t blow your speakers out listening to FIREFALL or THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS . . .
+1
plus
– three pedals
– crank sunroofs
– visibility/greenhouse
– not-power seats
– not-electronic keys
– manual HVAC
– cloth seats
Vacuum powered accessory servos!
The only things I really miss would be manual HVAC controls — I hate being blasted with freezing air when it’s cold outside but the inside of the car is warm from sitting in the sun — and fabric upholstery. Leather/pleather suck in the South.
I miss Lincolns sound insulation from the 70s, if thats some kind of technology…
Currently drive a 2018 Buick LaCrosse…
I miss a true tilt steering wheel that has a wide tilt arc from down low in the lap to almost touching the windshield. The LaCrosse has such power adjustments that automatically position upon start-up and exit, but it is extremely limited.
I also miss my CD player…
I guess I assumed that people who regularly read this website tend to drive older cars. I have now realized that many of the readers actually drive new cars.
One more comment: both of my street-legal emission controlled, less than 20 year old motorcycles have carbs and chokes. Worst feature of these bikes. Neither has a tach … not really necessary.
Curb Feelers.
Oh and although it’s not as much Tech as De-Evolution: The Full-Size Spare.