According to You: Long-Lost Automotive Trends You Miss
Everyone here at Hagerty Media is thrilled to see how you, readers, take our questions and run with them. Last week’s question—what automotive trends do you miss?—was answered with a nice array of elements from our automotive past. We know there are long-lost trends that we thought would never die off, and stepping back to see how life has changed because of them can be revealing.
We may never know why a trend must die, but these automotive trends are at least not forgotten. So let’s see what everyone came up with.
Luxury Does Not Equal Technology
@TingeofGinge: Luxury, implying high-build quality and not just electric or “smart” toys in your car.
CB Radios
The Hagerty Community really ran with my suggestion of the Citizens Band radio:
@70AMXguy: Bought a pristine ’82 AMC Eagle with factory CB/trailer pack from a retired couple. Saved me countless hours on HWY 401 in Toronto. Learned a few “choice” words from the trucker guys in English AND French … good days.
@DUB6: I started driving semi-trucks in the late ’60s and really put on the miles in the ’70s, right when the CB phase was at its peak (along with cowboy boots) in trucking. And sure, when we piled into the family car to make a trip in those days, the CB came out of the rig and went right along with us. Each of my kids got handles and each took turns calling out to find out where the Smokeys were up ahead. Great fun.
In my trucking life, the CB was as important as having an empty bottle on board (TMI?), and it saved me more than once. I suppose that most of the truckers today are just using their cell phones for a lot of what we relied on our CBs to do. Auto drivers, too. But honestly, I would still consider digging out the ol’ Cobra 29 and sparking it up if I were driving across the country again!
@Dan: Ten years ago I bought a used truck that had a CB in it. I made a cross-country trip in it and the CB came in very handy. The interstate was shut down from a bad accident one night and a trucker who happened to be a local guy came on his CB and said, “I know a way around this if anybody wants to follow me.” A bunch of us did and it probably saved us a two- or three-hour wait. I didn’t have a handle but I was towing my 1966 Charger on a trailer and they just named me Charger Guy. It stuck all the way across the USA from San Fran to Cincinnati. 🙂
Turn Signals
@WRLotus: To be only mildly sarcastic, one trend that I would like to see come back is turn signals.
@Sajeev Mehta: You bring up a good point, because Tesla deleted the turn-signal stalk from its mass-market Model 3 sedan. I actually didn’t mind the buttons on a short test drive at city speeds, but the arrangement feels odd and I would hit the wrong button if I was concentrating on something else on the freeway.
Vent/Wing/Smoker’s Windows
@JohnG: The door vent windows and floor foot vents like in my parentss 1977 Chevy C-10 truck. Pull them open at 55 mph and all the dirt on the floor flies all over and in your eyes.
@DUB6: Wing windows, baby! Open that door vent window at speed, and you better be prepared or there goes the paper map on the dash, along with any drive-thru napkins you put there, and maybe even that pair of “cheap sunglasses” (nod to ZZ Top here)—whoosh. Been there—done that!
@NovaResource: I’m sure the loss of vent windows has to do with aerodynamics but I agree with you. I’d love to see them make a comeback.
@Sajeev Mehta: I heard the loss of vent windows was due to the proliferation of air conditioning in every car. Kinda makes sense, as they started disappearing around the time everything could be ordered with A/C . Also, don’t door-swap your project car to reinstate vent windows: That was absolutely not worth the effort. Or maybe it was, and I just can’t enjoy the benefit yet.
Analog Vehicles
@TG: Completely analog vehicles. Even though I swore I wouldn’t, I just went up to #6 … a 1972 Ford F-350. This thing is as analog as it gets, without a microchip or transistor to be found with the exception of the aftermarket radio. It performs all the same basic functions as a modern truck, and the only 1s ands 0s going on might be the turn signal flasher
@Tom: TG, your turn signal relay is a bimetallic strip–type deal. Purely thermal/mechanical! (Zing! —SM)
@TJRL: Real buttons, analog gauges, and radios separate from sat-nav screens! My passengers used to be able to set the radio or sat-nav whilst I reversed out of the driveway. Now we only get a single “infotainment” interface, so the reversing camera stops anything else being done. Worst, if a passenger changes the radio station the sat-nav screen I was using disappears!
@Trekker: I miss the simplicity of older cars before the advent of everything “computerized.” Their mechanical feel, sounds, and smells, analog gauges, engine bays where you could actually see the engine and work on it without a digital reader or sensors, unique designs that clearly separated makes from each other, and simple things like vent windows and roll-down windows that don’t require a motor and switch that ultimately goes bad, and costs hundreds/thousands to replace/repair. Finally, I miss having the tactile feel of actual switches/knobs for A/C, temp, fan, radio, etc. Touchscreens are a distraction that requires the driver to take his eyes off the road to find the right “spot” on the screen.
@Ryknot: Analog gauges. Am I the only guy out there who has no interest in driving a computer? I detest the gauges of today; of course I can’t afford to drive one anyway, but still.
The Devaluation of Child Safety?
@Chris: Yes, I know safety is a factor in the change, but where I live kids these days are not supposed to sit in front seats until they are 13. Some of my fondest childhood memories in the ’70s were sitting “shotgun” while driving with my dad. Just side-by-side chatting, operating the radio or eight-track (!), or rooting around in the glove compartment. I felt like less of a passenger than a “co-pilot.” Not recommended, but I even recall being really small and sitting on the armrest between Mom and Dad during road trips in our big Chrysler Newport!
@NovaResource: It’s surprising that I’m alive. I was brought home from the hospital as a newborn in the front seat on my mother’s lap in a 1966 GTO. No car seat or seat belt.
Maybe you might think I was a bad parent but I let my kids sit in the front seat when they were under 13. I just made sure they had on a seatbelt and the seat was as far back as it could go to keep them far away from the airbag if it ever did deploy. I find adults sitting so close to the steering wheel are far more at danger from an airbag than children far from it.
@TG: My aunt used to sit me in her lap and let me steer.
Actual Colors
@Steve: Colors. Try to buy any new vehicle that isn’t blue, silver, red, black, or white. Yes, exceptions are out there but for the most part the new-vehicle color palette is very monochrome.
@DUB6: When I was driving long-haul for a big company, they at first had a really distinctive paint job, using the company colors. I used to get hailed on the CB by company name from great distances as other truckers and even regular car drivers knew our “colors.” Then, the manufacturers started making all-white trucks significantly cheaper, so we converted—and blended into the traffic so no one knew who we were. Lots of free advertising out the window, IMO. I still have pictures of some of those “company colors” trucks, but I don’t know of anyone who took or saved a photo of one of those plain white ones.
Bench Seating
@William: I miss bench seats for front-seat passengers. With those, you had more legroom up front—especially since you didn’t have a console taking up space between the two seats. The car felt more spacious, and, most importantly, you could get in on the passenger side and slide across to the driver’s seat if you needed to.
@Dennis: Bench seats, so my dog can sit next to me instead of the shift handle, which on my EV could be a toggle switch.
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Last car I had with wing windows was an 86 TBird Turbo Coupe. They were power as well, no cranks. It had AC too. My wife loved that car.
What do truckers use if not CB’s?
Hagerty says I’m posting too quickly. What? I’m very slow compared to others here.
It’s just a poorly worded message. What’s happening is that several people are trying to post at the same time and the system can’t deal with it all. So, the system blames it on you. It’s frustrating, though.
Not just more exterior colors being available, but I would love to see more interior colors become available too, like white, gold, bright blue, and red. I also miss tires with a thin white or red sidewall stripe and white lettered tires.
You don’t like just black and grey?
I do miss vent windows because they could bring in a ton of air without blasting the side of your head. Remember vents under the dash? Some of those worked well.
I also like more tactile switches and have no desire for a screen. I keep cars a long time, and if it’s an unpopular car I bet a bad screen would be game over for some models.
When you combine electrical gremlins with something like a transmission, you get a real mess, since you can’t check it very well while driving. Pulling and replacing the tranny when replacing one likely sensor is not a great option either. I see a lot of cars in the junkyard that look reasonable that I figure had a transmission or engine go bad and they cost too much to replace.
I guess that I just miss the simplicity of older cars.
Vehicle colors. I feel as if we are slowly being weaned to gray, black or white. As a matter of fact GM has begun charging $495 if you want your car in another color than white. I can remember when you could choose from 15 or more colors, solids, metallics, sometimes 3 greens, or 3 blues, or 3 reds, golds, browns, orange, burgundy, premium “glow”, “firemist”, or “moondust” paint! I never thought much about wraps, but this may be the only way left to choose a vehicle with color.
I miss the old floor mounted dimmer switch. You know that feeling of stomping on it when the oncoming vehicle has their brights on and you let ‘em have it.
Kinda like slamming down the old telephone handset on a sales pitch, or some obnoxious idiot. ;<)
My wife and I have three 245s – hers, mine, and ours. Power windows and locks are fine with us, but everything else is analog. We can operate everything without taking eyes off the road, including read the speedo. Needle straight up is 60 and anything else can be ‘ball-park’ from there. All were bought used so we could not chose colors, but at least they do have actual colors.
No one mentioned the manual wind down and wind up windows. I love the precise control I have over the window I’m opening or closing. However, I do like the electrical window on the passenger’s side since I really couldn’t reach it while driving.
Ben a while now, but when my daughter started driving, she got in the car and asked how do you open the window? No switches on the door
I agree with practically all these comments, but the lack of variety in interior and exterior colors has to be primary. I never want to see another silver exterior or black interior.
RE: Flashers (“blinkers”); a real “sign of the times”: I-91, heading towards “Sorry Excuse” (OOPS: Syracuse) NY,
right around exit 11 was a favorite landmark of mine: “Comet Flasher”, as of this past Summer 2023, it is no more, just a vacant building!
Both my trucks are NON-diode, ’68 Ford F-100 and our ’56 IHC S-120 with 4WD, both have wind wings, tubes in the radio, points, condenser & coil. My newest car is an ’02 Lincoln Torn Car, best car we’re ever owned, has saved us a ton of money.
New cars and EV …. same as drugs, the best idea is to just SAY NO.
I miss cars that could be repaired by almost anyone with a basic set of tools and a good ear.
I find it hard to believe that no one specifically mentioned the demise of the manual transmission. Besides making the driver feel more as if he/she is in control while driving down those beloved twisty roads in something sporty, being one of the 5-6% of 4×4 truck owners who actually drive off-road, I can’t imagine driving on soft beach sand with an automatic determining what gear it thinks I should be in, when I know from experience. Guess I’ll have to keep my 07 Frontier 6 speed…don’t think it’s available in 4×4 with a manual any more. Same with Toyota and the other truck makers–at least for the US market.
Lower down the list is being able to order a vehicle equipped the way you want it, not what the manufacturer wants you to have. They seem to forget that the customer doesn’t have to buy, but the seller has to sell. It’s particularly irritating when the options you want are submerged in two different “packages” that are mutually exclusive, so you only can get part of those desired options.
And finally…what the heck happened to green paint on cars and trucks? Have the paint companies stopped making green paint? A nice emerald green metallic, or even a dark British Racing Green looks great on 99% of what’s being built.
Rave over.
Our new Lexus NX Hybrid is BRG metallic. Nice color.
I was under the impression the vents went away when the side impact crash testing became an item. Just like the rear doors on a 4-door…..those windows used to “roll” all the way down. Now, many stop at 2/3rds down. Heard it was also because of side impact crash improvements that prevented it’s future. In fact, if you notice, most bottom window frames don’t allow (comfortably) for the driver to rest the arm in the window opening.
I heard a reason rear windows don’t roll all the way down is to prevent unbelted children from climbing out the windows while driving.
However, neither answers is correct. The real reason is because of design. Since most rear doors are longer at the top than the bottom (to allow for the rear wheel arch) there isn’t enough room inside the door for the window to go all the way down.
Dimmer switch on the floor, didn’t have to constantly raise your arm using the stalk.
Sorry but that’s a BS excuse.
Which do you do more … use your hi-beams or turn signals? Because the hi-beam switch is usually the same stalk as the turn signal.
So if you have to “constantly raise your arm” to use the hi-beams, do you not have to
“constantly raise your arm” to use your turn signals? Or are you “THAT GUY” that doesn’t use your turn signals?