I posted on that topic a couple years ago and was roundly beaten about the head and shoulders for suggesting it. But I still believe that there has been very little significant change in automobile design since approximately 1965. Putting aside the essentially meaningless gadgetry that has nothing to do with the basic functional needs a car should supply, there was all the basic stuff available in a deluxe
1965 car, you could get stick shift or automatic, air conditioning, power steering and brakes, windshield washer, two speed ELECTRIC wipers, radio, carpet, etc. There have been a lot of manufacturing improvements, better rust proofing, fancier radios (but that has nothing to do with car design), more speeds in the transmission, and stuff like that but really there is almost nothing new of significance to 90% of the people who drive a car. If you want to got to even more basic functionality, it was all there in the late 40's.
Today's cars all are kinda bland and boring. They all are comfortable, practical, start up everytime thanks to their many sensors, computers, FI. So they're great, and I shouldn't be complaining.
But some of the old cars are cool to drive. I was driving along the Pacific Northwest coast a few summers ago, and in front of some people's small house was a sea foam green late 50's/early 60's VW bug. Not a full convertable, but it had the cloth top where most of the top slides all the way back. The bug wasn't in mint shape. It had a few battle scars, dents, faded paint in spots but you could tell it was a daily driver. Very cool car. With the top slid back, probably a blast to drive into the small town for coffee or errands. I guess I need to get me an old VW now!
There will probably not be any major changes in functionality either. Improvements of existing systems, yes. Today's cars are more refined, more efficient and easier driving, but windows going up and down with a motor is still the same idea.
Yet the idea of an electic motor driving the car along with the engine is a rather new idea, I think. And it has only been implemented successfully in the US in the last decade or so.
There is also an all electric car in the works, with a gasoline motor that drives a generator. This is something different, too.
Personally, I wish the days when there weren't windshield washers, power brakes and air conditioning weren't around. Nothing like not being able to see out the window in the bad weather. It is always fun trying to get warm before heaters, too.
I suggest that if you leave in the Northeast, you just go in your car. Don't turn on the windshield washer. Keep the off. And simulate not having power brakes by stopping real slowly. And just for fun , don't turn on the heat. Then tell us if they make things better.
The electronic gadgetry doesnt make much better. Electric windshield wipers were a great step forward from those manifold vacuum driven Ps.O.S. We always had heaters in our cars, even back to the 41 Ford we drove.
Air conditioning came later, but was a godsend. It did not have a $600 computer. It had an on/off position and a thermostat. Not bad, really.
Far better braking and suspension all around, better handling on the vast majority, and MUCH better reliability. Fuel mileage is about the same, but they run cleaner. Higher specific output, and more use of pressurized induction and fuel injection is just the star of the changes that allow the last two to co-exist.
Electric wipers that run when you push down the pedal going up a hill are a huge improvement over the vacuum motors. I don't think that is a gadget at all.
They've also been around for close to 70 years now. I'm not aware of any mainstream vehicles that used vacuum wipers past the mid-50's. I'm guessing that Packard was one of the last; and by the end, most vehicles used an auxiliary vacuum pump off either the fuel pump or the oil pump instead of manifold vacuum. I will grant you that there were some pretty dramatic improvements in vehicles during the first half of the 20th century; the difference between a "brass era" car and a 50's car is incredible.
You could pluck anyone off the street today and put them behind the wheel of a decent 50's car and with a little familiarization they could drive it safely and comfortably in today's traffic. Which was the whole point that several people were trying to make earlier in this thread.
A case could be made that the American automotive industry peaked around 1971 and it would be difficult to argue with that; certainly the period between about 1976 and only a few years ago was witness to some seriously suckful products put out by once-proud manufacturers.
Ford Falcons of the early '60s had vacuum wipers, and American Motors used them through the late sixties.
The later fifties was a great era for gaudy automobile design. Chrysler took it a step further with their land yachts that had such quirky features as big tail fins, a rear view mirror that stuck up from the dashboard, an odd shaped steering wheel, and push-button transmission controls. The 57 Plymouth gave a preview of the dual headlight look with the parking light next to the headlight. It resembled a face with a black eye.
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