11 Features You No Longer See in Cars

Mental Floss ^ | February 11, 2014 | Kara Kovalchik

[EveningStar]

It's hard to picture what today's teenagers will wax nostalgic about 30 years from now when they reminisce about their first car. (It still required gasoline, perhaps?) Who knows how automobiles will change in the future; what we do know is how different they are today from 30 or more years ago. If you fondly remember being surrounded by two or three tons of solid Detroit steel with a whip antenna on the front from which you could tie a raccoon tail or adorn with an orange Union 76 ball, and enough leg room that you didn't suffer from phlebitis on long road trips, then you might also miss a few of these.

1. Bench Seats

[CodeToad]

Trucks still have full sized spares. No fancy rims but not those donut tires cars have.

[fanfan]

The computer that lives in my car has serious mental health issues. Sometimes she sounds resentful.

The latest is that we can’t get my cell phone to work through the car, but hubby’s works.

Now the trunk won’t open, and there is no key/lock.

I think she is in love with my husband, and resents me. I better watch my back.

[Secret Agent Man]

i never liked them b/c invariably a stinging insect made its way inside the car.

[CodeToad]

Dodge trucks still have external antenna. Sucks in car washes.

[Jewbacca]

Inward facing rear seats:



I have a Land Rover Defender in Israel that I will never let go of, not only because it's indestructible, but because with the inward facing seats I have both ample space for the kids, I can stow a ton of junk in it.

It also has these flip-up front vents that work much the same as the triangle windows for fresh air. (Look just below the front windshield):



The final thing that is missing is something I don't miss: rear facing seats in a station wagon. Thank G-d for Star Wars. I spent many an hour shooting tie-fighters out the back of my parents station wagon.



And finally, for that matter, station wagons. Not that I miss them, but does anyone make them?

[diamond6]

I want the rubber bumpers back. It pisses me off that they got rid of them. Its just a money making scheme.

[CodeToad]

Trucks still have steel bumpers. Been rear ended twice. No damage to me.

[j_tull]

2008 Avalon Limited

[CodeToad]

Some motorcycles still have them.

[Western Phil]

Its been a few years, but I drove a Model A to high school and helped Dad farm with a Massey Harris Challenger and a Massey Harris 44. The Model A and the 44 had electric starters, but the new battery always went to the family car, a 48 Ford. Next it went to the 44. Last to the Model A. Eventually the 44 starter didn’t always do the job. The Challenger had no battery. That meant a lot of hand cranking. Don’t ever remember having a kick on any of these engines. There were no stories of Dad or my older two brothers having broken arms or dislocated shoulders. I suspect people that had those problems failed to adjust the spark and choke properly for starting.

[Fledermaus]

Wife’s truck blew a tire on a trip and had to put on the donut spare. Bought a new tire and then a month later another blew, again on a trip (boy, did I hear it).

This time she had it towed to a dealer and bought four brand new tires and had the last new one put in as the spare.

[Fledermaus]

Now those were the days.

[alloysteel]

I actually got a LOT of practice with a hand crank, not on an automobile, but on a farm tractor, an Allis-Chalmers WD-45. Any time the temperature dropped below about 25 degrees above, the 6-volt battery just could not do it. And that WD-45 had to go EVERY day, in Wisconsin winters, as I had a dairy farm, and the barns did not magically clean themselves. The crank was on a clip on the real-wheel fender, and no thinking user of one of these machines ever threw the crank away, sooner or later it was going to be used.

John Deere two-cylinders had a huge flywheel on the left side of the engine. Open the petcocks (compression release) in each cylinder, set the choke butterfly just so, throttle just cracked open a little, turn the flywheel around to “LH-Impulse”, spit on your gloves, set your right foot on the rear axel housing, mutter a prayer (or something, the word “god” was used a lot), and HEAVE on that flywheel. In rapid succession, move the butterfly on the choke, twist the petcocks shut, and jiggle the throttle a little, to be rewarded with a huge black cloud of unburned hydrocarbons, and the warming sound of PRUPT-ah-ah PRUPT-ah-ah, smoothing out (a little) as the engine speed built up, all the way to about 450 RPM.

[zeebee]

A backup camera is great for what is directly behind you.

The camera has a very wide angle so you can see to the sides also. I don't even turn around anymore.

[Fledermaus]

Don’t forget the contorsions possible with that HUGE steering wheel.

[Fledermaus]

You could strip the screw hole of the handle. That sucked. Then we’d use pliers! lol

The roll-up could also strip or break on the inside and you’d have to “push” the window up by hand...if it stayed up.

[CommerceComet]

I had a Fiat with a manual choke. It was a 1974.

You're right - I remember that. My brother's girlfriend had a Fiat of about that vintage which had a manual choke. A boxy, four-door thing - not the cooler Fiat X1/9.

[Fledermaus]

The lighters in the cars were electric. You pushed in the knob and the tip would contact the nodes and the flat coil on the end would heat up like a hair dryer.

Once it “popped out” it was glowing red and you put it to the end of your cigarette to light it up. Same for a joint or joint roach.

[Fledermaus]

I remember the throttles. Flooding many of engines.

[elcid1970]

My wife’s ‘86 Pontiac had a full size wheel well with a donut spare in it. I threw it away & bought a full size spare.

My 2002 minivan has the donut which is winched up underneath the floor pan. And no stow-n-go seats, I greatly prefer the removeable ones.