It’s been unusually cold here in Vancouver, where the averages for December and January are low 3 and high 7 °C (37/45 °F). Lately we’ve been getting as low as -14 °C (7 °F) and occasionally all the way “up” to -3 °C (27 °F). We also got 19 cm (7½”) of snow, which is quite a lot more than we usually don’t get. Don we now our heavy jackets, and utter “F”-words that aren’t fa-la-la-la-la! This necessitates shovelling, sweeping, and brushing snow; chipping ice; spreading sand; sitting in a cold car waiting for the inside frost to dissipate from the windows, and driving on roads unplowed by trucks Vancouver hasn’t got.
Years ago, Popular Science magazine had an “I’d like to see them make…” column. Readers sent in their product ideas, and PS paid $5 for each they used.
Why, I’d gladly pay a penny to be gassed with insecticide in a small, enclosed space!
Some of the car-related ideas show the kind of thrifty ingenuity that makes you go “Gee!” in grandpa’s garage…
…some of them demonstrate that the past is a foreign country…
…some of them were more or less prescient…
…some were mooted by technology evolving elsewise…
…some were clever, but never gained traction…
…some were less than completely thoughtful…
…and some of them were nutty:
With this cold weather lately, I could wish fast idle were still a thing. Carbureted engines have a fast-idle cam that props the throttle partway open while the choke is closed, creating enough flow through the intake tract that even though a lot of gasoline condenses on the cold manifold walls, a burnable amount still reaches the engine.
There are sturdy reasons why it’s a good job we don’t have them any more: starting a cold engine and immediately revving it caused tremendous wear, especially since most motor oils in the carburetor era had very poor cold-flow characteristics and it took awhile for them to reach all the friction points while the engine was revved up and grating itself. And it was none too friendly to automatic transmissions, universal joints, engine mounts, or final-drive gears to take the slam hit from engaging a gear with the engine running fast.
My 2007 Honda Accord, which I have extensively kvetched about, is like other fuel-injected cars in that it doesn’t need much of an elevated idle speed to cope with even the coldest of starts. There’s no fuel flowing through the manifold; it’s injected right behind the inlet valve, so there’s no condensation to speak of. But there are also sturdy reasons why I want a manual fast-idle control. The engine, coolant, and heater-defogger just don’t warm up very fast with the engine calmly ticking over at a 750 rpm curb idle, and I feel like an ape—a very cold ape—sitting there with my foot on the accelerator. Oil flow is no issue with synthetic 0W20; besides, I start the engine and give it a few moments at its low idle before raising the speed. I’d just really rather have a switch or knob or something to un-footcuff myself from the accelerator. That way I could warm the engine (etc) and clear the windows, lights, roof, hood, and decklid in parallel rather than serially.
Some of the school buses I rode had a throttle control on the dashboard: pull the knob to raise the engine speed, then it either stayed there by friction or you rotated the knob to lock it in place, like the one on this ’91-’97 FJ80 Toyota Land Cruiser:
I don’t need that level of adjustability; just a switch to raise the idle to 1,800 RPM or so. Ideally pressing the switch again would cancel it, as would touching the accelerator or brake or shifting out of Park or Neutral. It’d be useful in summer, too, for speeding up the A/C compressor enough to move significant heat while stuck in one place.
That said, this unpleasant weather has also added something to my very short list of things I like about this car: 2︎⃣ means second gear and none other, right from the start until something else is manually selected. Not first and then second as with all the Torqueflites, Turbo Hydramatics, and assorted other automatics I’ve driven over the years. This is terrific for reducing torque to the drive wheels for slip-free departures from stops and snowed-in roadside parking spaces. Yes, the car has traction control, and that’s a help, but it’s a frenetic, instant-by-instant reaction to wheel spin. By reducing the engine’s mechanical advantage over the wheels, skipping first gear helps stave off the wheelspin in the first place. This last week or ten days, I’ve made whole trips in 2︎⃣ for the traction assist when starting forward, and the engine speed boost while cruising along at 30 – 50 km/h (20 – 30 mph) on a short trip.
If we zoom out for a wider view, I could draw up a good list of features I miss from older cars: wing windows, pull/pull rather than push/pull stalk operation for high-low beam selection, and ignition keys inserted straight forward into dashboard-mounted locks like it says in Scripture, for starters. I could put together a pretty hefty list of stuff I’m happily rid of from the older models, too—wind leaks from those wing windows, for example, and carburetors entire. And as I’m peering overtop my glasses to see stuff at close range and elsewise galloping along towards membership in the get-the-hell-offa-my-lawn-goddamn-kids-today-got-no-respect brigade, the list of features I don’t want might be biggest of them all. I’d be tickled to never again hear of “infotainment”. I don’t want touchscreens or any other kind of permanently-illuminated dashboard, or pushbutton start/stop. I don’t want my car (…refrigerator, toothbrush, fly swatter…) on the internet to any degree, and I don’t want my car rifling through my phone to find music or anything else. I’ve lost all of those fights before they’ve even begun; sooner or later I will have to buy a car with some or all of these. The Accord already has a perma-lit dashboard, which I intensely dislike.
Okeh, now you: what do you miss or wish gone on your present car? What would you like to see them make for your next one? What do you wish they wouldn’t?
Want:1) An external speaker so I can ask the driver in front of me why they insist on stopping a car length or more behind the car in front to them.
2) A programmable electronic sign in the windscreen, with a mirrored font option getting right lane bandits out of the right lane.
Don’t want: 1) Touch screens for HVAC. What’s wrong with sliders and knobs that I can find and adjust with out looking for them?
2) Connectivity. It’s a car. Not a phone or PC or my office.
End of rant. For the moment.
Wants:
Sunroof delete option
Automatic speed control that doesn’t freak out when it detects white semi’s or any largish other white object including cars, suvs, snowbanks, buildings and immediately panic slows the car -often in traffic.
Move the tablet device off the dash the only thing I use it for is adjusting car setup and navi. Could be done with an app.
Fully adjustable passenger seats with same range as driver.
Washer for backup camera lens.
Carpeted flooring.
Backup cam
Dislikes:
NAV system that has to verbally tell me when to turn, etc etc etc. Cannot turn it off or turn the volume down. The system turns itself back on and turns the volume back up.
19″ wheels and low profile rubber.
NAV system, phone works fine – but major profit center. So not gonna happen.
Black interiors as only option.
Tiny side mirrors.
Lane departure.
Like to have:
A billion power pop up rear facing light bar for the idiot brodozer tailgaters who plague my highway drives
I bought my floor mats at CT or $40 and they are much better than the stock ones.
What car doesn’t keep the Nav settings when you turn the car off and back on?
That’d be my 2018 honda accord. Drives me nuts! It’s a commonly reported problem/issue. The designer implementor should be punished for this. I like the car for the most part.
That is pretty lame. Settings like that should persist at least through a key cycle. I could understand going back to default if the battery is disconnected or goes dead.
No one’s mentioned column shift (or I missed it), which was considered a great advance in the late 30s, before power steering. I’d rather not have a console in the knee either, and their armrests never seem to be at the right height.
I’ve had radio buttons on the steering wheel for 33 years (’88 Bonneville) and can’t live without them.
My DTS has automatic cornering lights (with signal or wheel turn), but they’re not terribly bright and too low. I’ve used the trunk pass-through more than I expected. I can carry 8′ boards and still close the trunk.
I forgot one and see no one’s mentioned it in all of these comments. Why do so many speedometers today go all the way up to 140 or 160 mph, which means the speeds we actually drive are crammed into just half of the dial?
Here’s my ideal speedometer — round of course, goes up to *only* 110 mph, hash marks at every 5 mph increment, and numbers at each 10 mph increment.
(I realize the metric system would be a further improvement, but good luck on the US ever adopting it.)
The reason for the 140 marking on the speedometer is when it’s switched to Km/H mode. In my current vehicle, only the numbers are visible when the ignition is off. After the ignition is on, either MPH or KPH lights up.
Oops, forgot the photo. Here it is.
Want- (tried to not cover what others have)
The crotch cooler vent under the steering wheel for the AC
A real hand/emergency brake lever between the seats (yes I use this). I would prefer it to be up beside the steering wheel like in rally cars, but I can dream.
Heated seats and STEERING WHEEL (I made my own on my last car – fast and hot – excellent).
A proper parking location for the cell phone. This is now like R2D2 in the X-Wing. Integrate it, including charging. Car’s nav is inferior and becomes redundant.
A defeat button for the traction control and stability control systems. Because, winter. I could write an entire article about this.
Don’t want – pushbutton start/stop. Reasons above by others (DS). But I can tolerate this.
Automatic intermittent wipers. None of these I have had ever worked properly, always ending up at high speed.
Auto dim mirror – give me a prism. These things don’t dim enough.
Another one I’d vote for bringing back the crotch cooler.
Please tell more about the make-your-own heated steering wheel!
Take one fuzzy steering wheel cover, dip in lighter fluid….
Variety in design. Wider variety of colors. (I’m sick of silver four door transport pods) 2 door hatchback coupes . Color keyed interiors. Floor mounted hi beams. I drove semis 30 years . Ever go around a cloverleaf at 0330 and try to dim your headlights while steering a 40 ton truck around a ramp while flicking a highbeam stalk ? Bah humbug. Wing vents. Stop with these generic toothpaste tube pod cars . I’d take a 85 Thunderbird in a hot second or an 81 Dodge Mirada just to be different.
The admittedly 10-years-obsolete 2020 Grand Caravan was constantly criticized for not having all the modern driving assist features that the other minivans had by all the reviewers. To me having the basic ABS, stability control and airbags and not having the nagging yellow triangle constantly flashing in the periphery is all I really want that the Caravan has. I was actually relieved my Caravan didn’t come with the auto-start/stop as well — another example of a feature I could do without.
I’’d rather do the driving, thank you, and I fear that all the driving aids would make me complacent and lackadaisical when I drive cars without the driving-aid features. It’s bad enough the rear view driving camera on my van is conditioning me not to turn my head to look behind when backing up.
The only features I miss on the van are Apple’s CarPlay and radar guided cruise control.
Absolutely love the Caravan’s full stow-n-go also. Makes for a nice urban pickup truck when I convert the rear to a fully flat surface within a minute for hauling stuff.
Can I de-content a new car. The shot below shows everything I need except for maybe one minor annoyance. There is a key, knobs, a push-pull stalk, normal sized side windows, glass head lamps, electric side mirrors, multi-adjustable seat for me, analog gauges, a stick with clutch, and my tunes via an iPod plugged into my head set. Oh, and I have the swivel center vent. Damn, how lucky can one get!
There are many features of a modern car which I really like. The first is Android Auto. For a business person it is very convenient and when combined with Spotify, it makes the whole experience a lot nicer. I use the nav all the time as it can allow you to skirt the worst of Vancouver’s horrible traffic.
I could never go back to a car without heated seats but I don’t like keyless ignition. For example, if I am putting fuel in the car with the fob in my pocket, someone could jump in and drive away, at least for a while. Would this ever happen? Unlikely, but I always pocket the key if I am out of the car for any reason.
Another feature I like is how modern cars just run so well. They don’t require a lot of work to keep them running well,either.
The weather has been horrible but we seem to be returning to normal now.
I guess it depends on the MFG but on my PTS cars it won’t start if the fob is outside of the vehicle, even an inch or so. So if it is in your pocket and you are out of the car it won’t start.
I meant to say originally, Daniel, what an absolute ripper of a QUOTD! This will fly. And 160 comments on, and counting…
Having read all the comments so far, including mine, I’m convinced that if CC had a bunch of under-25 enthusiast commenters, they’d all be saying “What the beehive is wrong with these old farts? I mean, old cars are cool an’ all, but they just don’t get it, and pretty much don’t know how to use this stuff properly”. And when there are proper dumb faults in electro things, they’d have long found how to get round them.
In short, this is what cars now are, in just the same way that a 50 y.o. might’ve the semi-auto trans of a Model T so much better than the stupid and klutzy column shifts of a damn new 1940 model, not to mention the newer car’s plain foolish liquid hydraulic brakes and distracting radio, etc ad infinitum.
In even shorter short, the views here are vastly entertaining, but ain’t the future or worth a damn in it.
Agreed.
I would be quite happy to have all the controls be voice actuated, actually. That’s already a thing to various/considerable degree on some cars (Tesla, especially), because I’d like to totally skip the touch screen era.
I like the idea of telling my car what to do; it’s why I use cruise control constantly as soon as it’s possible. Having to monitor my speed and then use my foot to control that is frightfully archaic and tedious.
Repost when you have an AARP card in your wallet.
You give 25 year olds too much credit, as someone closer to 25 than 50 in age I still go primal when electronics don’t do what I demand.
I don’t believe there is a generational divide between things like touchscreens vs. tactile buttons. Both have their place, I’d never go back to a phone with buttons, that’s arcane, but I’m looking at my phone when I type on its keyboard. I’m not looking at the road when I change the temperature with a touchscreen HVAC system. I can use it just fine thank you, it just sucks to compared to a 90s car. For a world so ostensibly obsessed with form over function, I have a fundamentally difficult time accepting touchscreens aren’t being foisted into cars because they simply look tidier.
I always wanted a car radio that could record what was being broadcast, at will. How many times have you heard something—music, or something on talk radio—that you wanted to save ? Last time I checked, I was told there used to be an imported brand, perhaps Blaupunkt or Telefunken, that made such a radio.
S
You know, I never got why that wasn’t a thing either, especially if they could record AFTER the car is shut off for a set period of time. Before the days of podcasts I remember listening to talk radio shows on the drive and being so disappointed that I arrived to my destination just as it got interesting, or worse yet just then got out of the commercial break. Even the cheapest of cheap portable Walkman’s had record buttons on them, but I don’t think I ever saw a factory or aftermarket automotive cassette deck with one.
Once in 1990 I was driving to Michigan’s upper peninsula, and while going through the Milwaukee area, I heard a song I liked on the radio. I had my Aiwa “jam box” in the backseat, so I brought it to the front passenger seat, pulled the antenna up and recorded whatever station it was both ways of the trip. At the time, Chicagoland didn’t have much metal/”hard”rock played on the radio, and It was neat having a tape of different stuff recorded on the move.
I was more a “classic rock” guy but I discovered Dio for the first time on that tape and my horizons got expanded a bit. Recording on the move should always have been a thing.
It was a thing. Chrysler offered cassette decks with recording function (microphone on coily cord) in the early 1970s. They were made—at least some of them—by Philips. Info here and here. I think the intended use was very important executives dictating very important memos.
Wow, now I have definitely seen those in 71 B bodies but never knew they were anything beyond just a cassette player. Now I’m imaging the secretary dictating the memo for the executive who curiously chose a 71 Roadrunner:
“Earnings are down this quarter *meep-meep*. In order increase revenue we’ll need to cut labor costs *meep-meep”.
Have you ever used a streaming service like Spotify? You can store any song you like.
Nope, and shan’t. I want as little as possible to do with the cloud and _____-as-a-service.
One lone feature has created a possibly lifetime bond between me and my car. It was never advertised or listed in an options list, so it was a happy surprise after I took the car home. It’s the “DISP” button on the infotainment cluster. With one push, the damned distraction is switched off (and, rarely, on). When it comes to dashboard LCD screens, black is beautiful. If only I didn’t have to turn it on to see the time display!
Hallelujah!
Recently replaced the 1986 Jetta GL (high trim level) with a base model 2013 Mazda3. Both are 4 door sedans. Weight is 2230 for the Jetta, 2970 pounds for the Mazda, cars are of similar exterior dimensions. Safety improvements add weight to be sure. Engine HP is 90 for VW, 148 for Mazda. Both have 5 speed transmissions, the Mazda automatic, VW manual.
The added power, even with the extra weight, is nice to have, and MPG is about the same for both cars. The both coincidentally have 14.5 fuel tanks, which made this easy to compair. I have to admit for the around town traffic I don’t miss the manual trans much.
Mazda has independent rear suspension, VW twist beam, so doesn’t lift a rear wheel on sharp cornering, a nice upgrade, although the Jetta has always handled well even with the inferior rear design. Mazda handles better, Jetta has slightly smoother ride and less road noise, probably because of higher profile narrower tires on the VW. 185/60 R14 vs 205/55/R16. Mazda’s previous owner did upgrade to alloy wheels from steel, using stock size tires.
4 wheel ABS brakes vs disc/drum non ABS is a winner for sure, and traction/stability control on the Mazda is also a great upgrade. And 6 airbags, tensioner seatbelts, five 3 point seat belts (VW has 4 and center lap belt) and 0 bags, of course. You tube videos of both cars doing offset crash tests shows VW cage collapse and face full of steering wheel, while Mazda holds up well, no intrusion into passenger compartment. Safety has come a long way from ’86 to ’13.
VW has large windows and thin pillars, vision is great. No real blind spots, smaller outside rearview mirrors work fine and don’t annoyingly stick out as far as the Mazda’s large side mirrors do. First time I took the Mazda on the freeway, I watched the car next to me vanish from sight, huge B pillar blocking view and larger mirror seeing nothing. I bought spot mirrors and removed rear headrests which helps a lot, but rear/side vision is still inferior to the VW, takes more head turning, VW wins on the vision front.
Mazda has power windows and mirrors, VW manual winders and cable remote mirrors. Both have manual locks and key ignition, Jetta has sunroof which Mazda lacks, I haven’t opened sunroof in years anyways, so no big deal to me there. Upholstery and carpet quality on the VW is much higher then the Mazda, its still in fine shape after 35 years, I doubt the Mazda’s trim will hold up nearly as well over time. Back seat room is less in Mazda, and Mazda’s trunk in smaller as well, 11.8 vs 15 cubic ft. Jetta has rear seat fold down armrest with cupholders, Mazda does not. But Mazda has 60/40 folding rear seat backrests, Jetta is fixed. Mazda trunk lid has gas struts that don’t intrude into trunk, Jetta has hinges that intrude when lid is closed. Overall, Mazda has more useful space for cargo, but less rear legroom. I don’t often have rear seat passangers, I was able to carry a 6ft ladder to my rental in the Mazda, no way in the VW.
They both have amber rear turn signals, VW has glass headlamp lenses that are still clear, Mazda’s plastic headlamps were yellow and cloudy on the top portion, turtle wax polish, some old socks and a lot of elbow grease cleared them up well, I was happy not to have
to buy replacements. Mazda has 4 speaker radio with CD, VW cassette with 4 speakers, Mazda has USB inputs and power points for phones, I like the center console, armrest
and cupholders in the front which the VW lacks.
All in all, a nice up grade.
Daniel, the lack of engine cold high idle speeds is as you know a function of emissions and fuel economy. As a temporary measure, presuming your cold weather doesn’t persist forever, I’d suggest brake torqueing your car on the coldest of days for a minute or so say at about 1500 rpm. The trans fluid will heat up rather quickly, and if the cooler is part of the radiator, will transfer that heat to the antifreeze.
Back in my dealership days, when using a transmission fluid exchange machine (plumbed into the cooling lines) this was a quick way of heating the trans fluid enough to open the thermostatic bypass valve in the transmission and thus commence the fluid exchange.
Brake-torquing is one method I use for warming up the powertrain in a faster hurry (and those 2nd-gear starts also help on that front). I’ve also been known to hold the steering wheel against one stop or the other while holding the engine speed higher than curb idle to warm up other parts of the engine bay.
I would like to go back to the days of having full control. Here is what I miss.
Foot switch dimmer
Bat Wing windows
Rear view mirror without auto dimming
Analog gauges that are lit when I turn the lights on
4 Speed Auto – 17 Ford F150 10 speed is very tempermental
Ash tray
Engines you can actually work on without having a NASA degree. Some are still fairly simple, but I dislike having to “throw parts” in an attempt to resolve issue.
I miss GM being GM of the 60’s as opposed to today’s “gm”.
Likes –
Back up camera
Navigtion
Dislikes –
Radar Speed control
Auto Shutoff
All nanny driving utilities – Annoying. Lazy people – seem to be moving towards a vehicle that will drive people around while they sleep. This is my opinion.
The inability to turn such features off. Some manufactures do allow this.
Most pre-AOD Ford automatics WOULD start in second with the selector in 2. The C4, C6, and FMX (owned one, drove others) would. The A4LD would. (Owned one.) I THINK the E4OD/4R100 would. (Been a while, memory fuzzy.) I know the AOD would not…I don’t remember if the AOD-E/4R70W/4R75W will.
It looks like just about everything has already been touched on, but here are a few things that come to my mind in no particular order of importance:
I appreciate spare tires… even a pizza cutter spare will do in most situations where a can of frick-a-flat and a decal reminding you to call roadside assistance may not. Adequate ground clearance and tires with a sidewall are requirements, too. Though I usually shift into four wheel drive in low traction conditions, more control over an automatic transmission is nice for certain situations. Full instrumentation featuring gauges that don’t have their indication doped down by a computer for the average consumer, please… I can handle it! Vent windows are good for extracting the wayward fart and many other things. Kick panel vents too. I do like floor mounted dimmer switches for some reason (maybe because I’ve replaced a couple mounted on top of the steering column). The separate “city horn-highway horn” feature on my Peugeot 404 was pretty smart, as well. Cornering lights. Physical locks and keys- a rental Mustang with a dead battery hosed me pretty bad once, and it would’ve been a non-issue if I could’ve gotten into it to operate the hood release easily… and the stamped sheetmetal “key” hidden in the remote didn’t operate lock hidden under the pry-off cover on the door handle. Ugh. This may not be a popular opinion, but I would like to see ash trays and cigarette lighters return. I don’t smoke these days, but quite a few people still do, and it’s foolish to pretend they don’t. I know many of them will continue to flick their ashes and butts out the window, but at least this provides them with no excuse not to do the right thing. Would love to see a return to real colors being available inside and out, as well as ala carte options.
Please make the huge LCD screens go away! Even when they’re turned down low and displaying a black image, they still produce light and screw with my night vision. I’m well enough infotained for the road by a stereo that has knobs and buttons, and controls that are intuitive enough to operate by feel allow me to keep my eyes on the road. I also prefer to have full manual control over headlamps, HVAC/defrost functions, wipers, and not have the functions tied together. Having my deliberate effort to avoid spraying light into someone’s bedroom window while pulling into a driveway at night, thwarted by the electronics on a car that supposedly knew better than I… Nope!
I have a hard time with this one. On the one hand, yes, philosophically, I want a spare tire—preferably a real, full-sized one. But if I’m honest with myself, this is purely a reflexive, habitual, philosophical preference. I cannot remember the last time I had to change a tire (now please excuse me while I go knock on wood for half an hour). Moreover, spare tires can be very dangerous: tires age whether they’re rolling on the road or stowed in the trunk, and a tire over five or six years old is iffy as all hell even if it’s never touched pavement. This danger can be obviated with a full-sized spare and a 5-tire rotation pattern, but how many of us keep on top of rotating even four tires, let alone five? And for the matter of that, this makes those mini spares a whole lot more dangerous than they already are: the T135/90D15 one in my Accord is 15 years old. It would cost a fortune to replace—close to $500, that is if I could find a new one to actually buy—for an item I’m almost certain never to use. Or I could spend $160 on a 130/90-15 or 140/90-15 motorcycle tire instead. Which is safer, a new misapplied motorcycle tire, or an old mini spare? Whee!
I suppose my view on this is skewed by living and mostly driving where there are lots of tire shops within limping distance or at least a quick call to CAA will set things right. If I were driving further afield, that would probably put some sturdier ground under my preference for having a real, up-to-date spare tire.
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!” –Jack Nicholson
Yes, please. At least one!
Not in my car, they don’t! Most cars offer a “smoker’s package” as an accessory item, and that’s as it should be.
Because when you smoke, the world is your ashtray! (See also: dog owners. Yes, I know, not all, etc.)
and without bogus “Ohhhhhh…shyeahhhhh…so if you want the red, that’s a premium colour, so that’s going to cost you an extra $2193” crapola about it. (let alone BMW’s “Sure, we’ll paint your new car any colour you specify for an extra $5K, in case you’re uncomfortable with your neighbours forgetting their place and gaining on you”).
I think I ranted about this further up the thread.
I’ve had some amazingly bad luck with tires in my lifetime, and in fairly recent years (got my license in 1993). I’m not sure if this has to do with my usage patterns or failure to perform proper wood knocking, but I have learned to keep a fully inflated and serviceable tire and required tools to change said tire at the ready on any trip. I’m having a dry spell of late, not having to use a spare in the last four or five years, but don’t think complacency ever will catch me off guard. At present, most of my trips are on primary and secondary roads in somewhat populous areas, though I still venture off the beaten path a handful of times per year… occasionally getting far enough away from civilization to lose cellular service. This also brings to my mind, memories of venturing out in single digit temperatures with only tennis shoes and a light jacket… because all I had to do was make it from the house to the truck, then reverse that procedure once I got to my destination. No thought given to the notion that I’d be ill prepared to deal with -5 degrees (‘murican units) if everything didn’t go according to plan. This was in the days before I had a cell phone; the latter would make it a bit less risky, if not ideal.
Good point on the age of the spare. I too have considered that, and the price shock for a new temporary spare has led me to keep the old one in service. With all of my tire misadventures over the years, I have actually worn one out, and then had a tire shop somehow forget to put the spare back in the trunk… I of course only figured that out when I went to fetch the thing after my next flat, and found the trunk cavity empty. In both cases, I purchased unused replacements from cars in the wrecking yard. IIRC, my concern with a motorcycle tire was that its load capacity was significantly less than the tire it would be replacing. Having put more miles than I’d rather on pizza cutter spares, I’ve grown to accept them as an adequate stand-in for a real tire. Seems like the biggest issue is keeping them inflated to 60psi so that they’re ready to go when needed, since they only displace a couple of puffs of air.
One of the things I miss about ashtrays and lighters in cars, is that little bit of extra information they can give you when looking at a used car… I remember taking a lighter with the telltale white crust of having been used to light cigarettes out of a car and presenting it to a salesman who was crowing about how it “had NEVER been smoked in”… =)P
The only car I have ever had that didn’t have a spare tire was my 2015 Kia Rio.
Not surprisingly, it was with the Rio I had my first flat in like 30 years. That flat 30 years ago wasn’t much of a problem as I had a full sized spare. On the Rio, like a doofus I drove on it and ruined the tire.
My Golf has a full sized spare wheel. It is clad with a cheap-o temporary tire. When I eventually buy new tires, I will put the best to spare and have a completely functional spare wheel and tire.
I doubt I will ever use it.
I agree re spare tyres. Our Peugeot has a tyre inflation kit instead of a spare tyre. We thought that’d be fine, until the day we were on an isolated road in the middle of nowhere and the tyre blew. The bead unsealed which meant the inflation kit was pointless. There were no houses and no cell phone signal. Eventually a passing farmer gave me lift home to ring the breakdown truck. So for want of a spare tyre, we lost several hours and had to pay for the truck…
Remember looking a a “Dodge Challenger”, with a tire inflator” (no spare tire)
Immediately thought “bad idea”.
I forgot to mention one biggie I wish for: heater ducting that blows hot air forward on my accelerator foot, which tends to freeze because it’s up there in a dead-air zone, ahead of the downward-rearward airflow from the floor ducts.
My DTS has 4 heater openings in the driver’s footwell, which seems excessive. I know this because the blend actuator would switch to cold air after 15 minutes for the first 9 years I owned the car, so I taped the 4 holes closed for long trips and wore extra socks. This June, I found out I could replace the actuator without dismantling the dash, so I did. CarMax had sent the MI car to Florida to sell rather than fix it in 2013, the turds.
I realize I’m not the norm in terms of buyers of most anything, I don’t like to be “sold” anything, rather I want to buy what I want. I’m rarely the target market for anything these days, but what makes me sad is that I often don’t have the option to buy what I want even if I’m willing to pay more for it…spare tires, extra lock cylinders, etc. rate higher for me than navigation/entertainment systems, wood trim, plush carpet, etc. Utility should trump style or glitz in a car, even to the extent of paying for things that you might rarely use…spare tires, etc…because when you need it, you need it, especially far away from home. I know people have auto clubs, but what happens if you have a problem miles from nowhere with difficulty getting any help? It is kind of like insurance, nobody likes to pay for it, but when you need it you need it, and it should trump any kind of “nice to have” but something that doesn’t really affect the basic operation of a vehicle.
Actually went back a few weeks to look for this so I could comment with something that happened recently (to my Mother’s car, not mine, but I put it in category as if I owned the car rather than her, since I keep the car up for her).
She had her car battery go bad today. We have one of those “battery boosters” you can hook up to help start the car…but the problem is, it is kept in the trunk of the car. And if your battery is truly flat, …you guessed it, there’s no way to get into the trunk. She has a 2006 Impala which albeit isn’t a feature filled model, but to me, this is required feature…who wants to keep all their tools, battery boosters, etc in the passenger compartment (instead of the trunk)….for the case where they cannot open their trunk (i.e. if the battery goes flat on the road where you don’t otherwise have access to tools that might be available outside your car, for instance in your home shop. Her car lacks the fold down rear seat (blame my Dad, he didn’t think he needed it but to me it should be required in a car that doesn’t have mechanical access to the trunk should the battery go bad. If the trunk is full, it would be miserable to get to the kiddie escape latch to open the trunk from inside, but it can be done…but if you don’t have the tool to remove the back seat cushion in the passenger compartment, guess what…you are out of luck.
To me, this is akin to eating your meat and vegetables before you have desert…and to me points out an engineering lack on the car. Sure, batteries don’t go bad often, but they do, even on long trips, when you might not have access to tools (outside your trunk). I know some cars have ways around this, and I even found a youtube video from a guy in Manitoba that rigged up a cable release that ties into the kiddie escape latch (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XnlEpOT3LE). He rigged up a fishing line and remote access into the passenger compartment so he could pull the escape latch remotely. To me, GM should make this standard on models, especially those without a fold down rear seat, so if you have to get into trunk to get to tools or battery booster when you battery is dead…you can. If they save money leaving off the trunk lock cylinder, this should be available instead…it makes me feel like a chump if I buy a car that doesn’t have this kind of utility, especially if they put money saved leaving off the lock cylinder into something glitzy that I really can live without (even if I’m more likely to use it on a daily basis)…like insurance….pay for it even if you rarely use it.
Same for spares…even with better tires, what happens if you get puncture in a sidewall? Aren’t tires required for the operation of your vehicle? If so, think of a spare as insurance…yes, it costs money, takes space, decreases fuel economy due to weight, etc…but to me, even if you go years without using it..does that mean it is unnecessary? I don’t think so….but again, I’m not the target audience for lots of things, but it makes me sad that more people don’t think along these lines when they pick features they want included in their vehicles.
Flat white paint on the Honda Fit please! Here on the southern tip of Africa we are lucky to get hybrid and full petrol versions of the new Fit, but only with CVT transmission, and all paint options are metallic. Colours are a bit off in my opinion. Navy and red are a bit formal, a flat grey option, light or dark, would have been more on trend.
I had a good laugh at the squared-off oil cans suggestion, back in the early seventies my Dad used to bake bread in squared-off oil cans which he had cut the biggest side off. It always got a reaction from visitors.
What a difference a few days make. There is no longer any snow and we have a sunny day here in Vancouver.
That amt of snow went away in a few days?
Yup, pretty much in one night.
That’s because when it rains here, it really rains.
Actually, the pics you see up above are from roughly this time last year. This week, a considerably bigger amount of snow went away in a couple days’ time. Pic one:
…pic two:
…pic three:
…pic four:
…and pic five. We were supposed to get clobbered by a giant storm last Thursday: ice pellets, then a snow dump, then freezing rain. I guess the storm got sent UPS or elsewise lost or stolen or strayed; it never arrived. Instead temps jumped from -9°C (16°F) to 2 to 7°C (36-45°F) and the rain came and melted down all the ice; slush, and snow.
Wait, you still have those crocks that contain spreadable cheese in Canada!?? I really miss those things. We had a whole collection of those when I was a kid. Arrayed on the kitchen window as well.
As for features missing in modern cars, last year I went on record as liking the floor-mounted highbeams switch…which it seems like I’m the ONLY person who liked that. Oh well. This year, I’m going to complain about the lack of standardized windshield wiper controls.
Sometimes on a stalk on the left, sometimes on a stalk on the right. Likewise, the options for activating wipers vary from car to car. More than once I’ve sat in the rain trying to figure out how to properly activate/use the wipers on some unfamiliar rental car when something seemingly as simple as turning on the wipers (and having them wipe at a chosen speed) ought to be pretty much idiot-proof.
Ok, well maybe in my case it is idiot-proof and that’s why I can’t figure it out.
Those crocks are many decades old, from my grandparents’ house in Seattle. Spreadable cheese, you say? Interesting; didn’t know. My ergonomics article on standard-and-nonstandard controls is scheduled for rerun this Friday!
The crocks originally had a metal bail like old canning jars that fit in the groove of the lid’s knob to lock the lid down for a tight seal. There was also a gasket. My mother used to get yummy port wine spreadable cheese for our Triscuits, but in smaller, cheap plastic containers.
Metal bails still more or less present; gaskets long gone. There were some cool old jars, too—Mason and otherwise—under the basement stairs. We still use the serviceable ones.
That “dream” of the doors being transparent , to help find the curb really got me chuckling.
The cone shape protector around the door “keyholes” was , imo, a good idea.
It reminds me of Watson’s older brother’s scratched watch, which led Sherlock to deduce he was a drunk.
Ash Trays- some of us still smoke.
When I bought my Hyundai Veloster in 2014, I was mortified that it didn’t come with a spare tire. I *immediately* walked from the sales counter to the parts counter and bought the extra-cost spare tire, jack, and lug wrench kit on the spot.
Fast-forward to this year. I’m driving through a work zone in rural Wisconsin, and suddenly hear a loud bang. The low-pressure warning light comes on, and the car begins handling erratically. I pull over and discover a slashed sidewall, a separated bead, and a dented wheel. I carry an inflator for emergencies, but no amount of inflating could have saved this tire…and I was surrounded by wilderness, on a Sunday evening when all tire shops were closed. I nonchalantly switched to the temporary spare, and was on my way in 45 minutes. It held all 500 kilometres of the journey home.
Vent windows.
Plus many of the items mentioned above too numerous to list.
I love the adaptive cruise control on my Subaru. Most of my driving is on 2 lane country roads and I find regular cruise control almost useless because you almost always end up falling someone and they are unlikely to be going the exactly your speed. I did have an interesting situation just after we got the car. I was going through a hilly area and as we were going up a steep hill a large flock of birds swirled across the sky (starlings?). Because of the hill it seemed to be right in front of us. As the Subaru uses cameras to figure out what is going on, it got confused and shut down the adaptive cruise. It was not a problem, but shows the limitations of all of these systems.
I miss the two round indents on the back of the glove box door where you could place your drink when eating in the car. I know we have real cup holders now but the back of the glove box door just seems so quaint.
Yeah, but I always wondered just what those things were for. I mean, unless you were parked – like, maybe at the drive-in movie? – there was never any way that a cup of anything would stay balanced in those little indents. Not to mention that whatever was in the glovebox would come spilling out.
I’ll admit to being a bit of the “God never intended cars to have cup holders” guy…but at least modern cup holders actually HOLD the cups.
Exactly, when you were parked. Like at the drive-in burger joint, or the drive-in movie. Maybe not while parked at Makeout Point, though; an errant leg or arm could easily cause a spill.
Also keep in mind we’re talking about an artefact from when a “large” drink was a bit smaller than today’s kid-sized item; we weren’t yet buying our liquid diabetes by the half-gallon Super Giga Quaff tankard.
I’m amused to see these cupholder comments here, since just this morning I started writing an article on… the history of cupholders.
We take cupholders for granted now, but It’s amusing to see the struggles that carmakers faced in designing a cupholder that actually held cups.
Features I’ve had on past cars and miss on my current car: ABS, traction control, an HVAC system where I can punch in the desired temperature and the system takes it from there, heated seats.
I’d like cloth upholstery as an option on better-equipped cars and on prestige marks (likewise, more tire sidewall instead of less). Cadillac has vinyl seats standard in their lower models, probably because the Germans do, too. Does anyone actually like those? I can just tolerate cooled leather, but cooled/heated cloth would be more comfortable in temperature extremes.
Yes, please! Cloth in actual, real colours. And higher-profile tires for those of us who have the impudence, the temerity, the unmitigated gall to drive in the real world with potholes and curbs and stuff.
I miss rub strips on doors and even bumpers. My car is a 2005 and has rub strips in all doors; so did my earlier cars. Subsequent generations seem to have all abandoned this feature in favor of sharp body-side creases positioned to invite chips and dings from other peoples’ doors in tight parking lots.
Something I DON’T miss and am glad to see fade away: power antennae.
I would like to be able to operate the power windows with the key turned to accessories, and be able to sit in a parked with the door open without an annoying beeping sound, I know the bloody door is open, I opened it !
I hope my next car will have the classic 3 rotary dials for HVAC, but I fear it won’t.
Going back 40 years, but I have great memories of the floor head light dimmer switch in my old Torqueflite Valiants, especially on dark winding roads, my left foot was able to rest on it and instantly dim the lights at short notice.
Lots of good things listed. One thing I didn’t see – Separate side sun visor, at least for the driver side. One of the worst things is driving alternating directions into the sun and having to constantly flip the visor from front to side. Sometimes knocking my glasses off in the process.
The 86 Taurus had it. I have never seen it since.
Interesting! I wasn’t aware (or didn’t remember) the ’86 Taurus having side visors. Sounds very useful.