@1NJParent. So true. I was at the Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas last year. How about a car with no steering wheel and sorta no pedals? It was from BMW and looked really cool.
Those wire antennas. I remember the first time I saw a car with the antenna built into the rear window.
My grandmother had a transistor radio she placed on the dashboard. Yeah, no built in radio. Air conditioning was an add-on box (like later stereo systems.)
On a vaguely related note, when cell phones were the size of a carry-on bag.
I remember all of them and have had about half of them in my car or my parent’s car. Some I remember but never owned - diesel, T-tops, velour roofs. I think manual brakes may preceed me (not sure what my parents’ 65 Mustang had).
I owned nothing but manual transmissions for 30+ years, until about 8 months ago - just could find one.
I want a T-Top! I still remember the fun sound of my dad clicking the high beams on and off with his foot.
I often complain that my 2013 Elantra is one year too old to have the rear-view camera that lets you see things and people behind you in the driveway. But at least it has a CD player – which I use every day because I have about 25 CDs in the car.
Drum brakes at all 4 wheels was standard. Front disk brakes was an option. Drum brakes in the rear of cars lasted into the 1980’s.
One of the listed things, bias-ply tires, is still found in compact spare tires and trailer tires, probably because they can be made for higher load capacity in smaller sizes.
Some small light cars had rear drum brakes into the 2010s.
However, car brakes without power assist went away long before.
If anyone misses these old cars like a duped up 70’s Nova car ?..
Check out https://www.mecum.com/collector-cars/auctions/
I have a conference in the same building and getting tickets in Chicago.
I listen to AM radio all the time in my 2020 model. It has the best traffic and news that I know of.
Does anyone remember door locks that looked like small golf tees? You pushed them down to lock and pulled them up to unlock the doors.
I remember those locks. We also had some sort of safety locks on our Ford Country Squire. It was a slim silver cylinder that anyone could push down and lock, but you needed the ignition key to pull the lock back up. This became necessary when my 5 year old brother got mad at my mother, unlocked the car door and jumped out of the moving car. The car was slowing down at an intersection anyway but it scared the daylights out of everyone else in the car. Brother is still a handful.
Does anyone remember curb feelers? According to urban legend, it was supposed to protect your whitewall tires from scraping against the curb.
I remember when 1) cars did not have a rear view mirror on the passenger door, and 2) the windshield wiper motion would push both blades out to the edge of the windshield at the same time and then meet in the middle.
Drums, sure. I had those on several cars. But manual brakes - lack of power assist - is a very different animal.
Why is manual transmission on the list???
@PacNWparent By “curb feelers” do you mean those springs that came out at a diagonal and scraped on the curb? I thought those were so cool!
@HouseChatte Yes! That’s what I’m thinking of.
What’s wrong with a CD player. All of our cars still have them…in addition to being able to use our phones, and satellite radio. I like having my CD player.
But no more cassettes!
I mentioned upthread that my new 2019 car has a physical key. Is that considered so unusual?
Some recent cars have that kind of windshield wiper motion. From photos on the web, it looks like recent Chevrolet Cruze, Volt, and Bolt have that, as did the 2006-2015 Honda Civic.