I miss the full sized spare tires they used to use, the donuts that are used now, are barely bigger than Krispy Kreme
My car didnât come with any type of spare. Instead, it has a plug in air pump, and, if needed, you can attach a can of fix a flat to it. I should check the date on it. The ownerâs manual says Iâll need to replace it after a while if I donât use it.
A few notes on the comments in this topic:
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It is illegal to flick cigarette ashes out car windows in many states (forest fires).
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The 1964 car safety act required safety belts and collapsible steering posts. removed the horn ring, and required the PRNDL shift order (banning PNDLR).
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The components on the cars I have owned that failed most often were electronic sensors for the engines and rubber seals on windows, doors, trunks, tail lights, etc.
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I have never lost a computer to a failed hard disk. All of the computers that I owned that failed had an electronic part on the motherboard that failed. On two of them an electrolytic capacitor exploded, spattering the circuit boards with corrosive liquids and ruining them. One of them had a rechargeable battery soldered to the motherboard fail. It forgot all of the factory settings and there was no way to get them back (the manufacturer is gone).
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On the increasing speed of obsolescence:
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- The phonograph disc record appeared in the 1890s. A modern record player can play nearly all of the records ever made. You can still buy them, though the new ones are low quality. And *I just bought some new records.
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- Just try to get players and tape for reel-to-reel, 4-track cartridge, 8-rtack cartridge, cassette, Betamax, and VHS. There are no quality components made anymore. I have thousands of tapes I canât play.
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- At least CDs havenât changed. But video discs and TVs keep changing, making old materials obsolete.
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I wrote thousands of computer programs in my life. Fewer than 20 of them can be run today because they kept changing the computers. One of them I wrote again 5 times to be able to use it on the newer computers. It is a sobering fact that most of the work I was paid to do in my life is now gone.
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They need to keep making the parts as long as people have those cars.
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I hate menus in car controls. You have to take your eyes off the road to make any changes. I like tactile knobs where the position positively indicates what the control is set to.
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I always want a winter driving control that leaves out first gear. Traction control is totally useless. Itâs good at braking when I hit a pothole.
I miss the following features in cars my father or I used to have:
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The GM Turboglide shiftless transmission.
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The Pontiac Tempest with the engine up front and the transmission in the back.
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The pushbutton gear selector in the Rambler.
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Crank windows (I have never owned a car where all of the power windows worked at the same time for more than two weeks).
Iâve never seen that law enforced. Have you?
I hope youâre exaggerating, because I used to prefer crank windows, but Iâm a convert now that power windows are a lot more reliable than they used to be.
Since this has been revived,âŠNo I have not read all the previous replies.
The feature I miss: vent windows.
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Just for the recordâŠ
What makes and models are you talking about, and how old were these vehicles when you bought them.?
I ask because I have owned 5 cars with power windows, and none of them ever needed repairs to the power windows. Even after as long as 11 years of use, none of these carsâ power windows ever failed.
Reminds me of that terrible accident several years back when 4 UO students ran their pickup off the road and into a lake. Two died 'cause they couldnât get the doors open. The other two died 'cause they couldnât get the tailgate down.
Okay UO alumni, lets hear from youâŠ
Itâs illegal in almost every state Iâve lived inâŠand itâs NEVER EVER been enforced. If itâs not going to be enforced, then why bother.
You need to buy more reliable cars. Electronics are by nature magnitudes more reliable then mechanical devices. Iâve been owning cars since he 70âs and found the electronics far far more reliable then the mechanical counter parts.
You have no idea what youâre talking about. As a software engineering manager whoâs been working in the computer industry for over 45 yearsâŠI can assure you that disk failure is several magnitudes more prevalent than electronic failure. In the telecom equipment our company designs and sells we switched to SSDâs because the industrial SSDâs were far more reliable then the HDDâs. In fact when our techs did a PM service call if the customer had HDDâs - weâd switch them out to SSDâs (FOR FREE). They were on a fixed price maintenance contract, so it was cheaper for us in the long run to replace the HDDâs with SSDs.
There are some very very good turn tables made today. But you have to pay for it. They arenât cheap. I still have my 1980âs Thorans turntable. Comparable new one is double what I a paid for mine. A top of the line Groovemaster is over $6,000. I worked with an engineer back in the 80s who left the company to design and build extremely high-end turntables. Price started at $50,000. He did decently well until CDâs came around. The problem with turntables is the getting quality vinyl recordings.
You need to buy more reliable vehicles. Weâve owned 7 vehicles since the mid 80âs with electric windows on a total of over 1,000,000 miles - and NEVER EVER had a problem with even one window not working properly.
Either youâre buying the most unreliable vehicles or you have no idea what youâre talking about. Sounds like both.
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PROBLEM⊠What problem?
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Are you getting enough fiber?
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Iâm starting to suspect he only drives old British cars. Lucas electricals will prejudice you against anything that isnât manual. After all, the old saw is that the Brits drink warm beer because Lucas makes the refrigerators. 
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⊠or simply that he buys old wrecks of any make.
I have never had any electronic failures on my cars, with the exception of a couple of sensors on my '86 Taurus, but those failures took place w/in a couple of months of buying it, brand new. None of my other cars have ever had any electronic-related problems, even after as long as 11 years.
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I need to go back and read all the comments as someone may have mentioned this already. But I miss the seats. By old, Iâm talking late 90âs, early 2000 here. Someone scrapped a 95 Silverado yesterday in running condition (what a waste). Those seats are like sitting on your couch. New trucks, the seats are firmer and the headrest is often obtrusive. I know the seats have changed somewhat for safety purposes. But, boy, those cushy seats were comfy.
No, they donât. There is an agreement in place to support cars for 10 years. Manufacturers plan for that and only continue to carry parts if they are used in newer cars.
If you want proof of that, try and buy a Ford left rear fender for a 1978 Mustang II or a headlight trim ring for a 76 Dodge Diplomat.
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+1
However, it is still possible to buy ânew old stockâ fenders for Studebakers that were manufactured decades ago. When Studebaker went belly-up, some entrepreneur bought their entire stock of parts, which was⊠massive. That supply is beginning to dwindle, but some NOS Stude body parts are reportedly still available.
That being said, that massive overstock of parts was probably just one more example of long-term mismanagement at Studebaker. It is really a losing proposition for a company to stock replacement parts for more than a decade.
Sealed beam headlights, side vent windows, bench seats, radios with analog tuning dial.
I have an old S-10 with a bench seat and a newer Ranger with stiff bucket seats. The Ranger, I can not sit in for more than an hour or two and my butt is aching. I have to put a cushion on it for any longer drive and itâs still uncomfortable. The bench seat in the S-10 is like sitting on a couch. I can sit on that for hours no problem. The move towards these stiff bucket seats in all vehicles has been terrible.
All were at least 10 years old when I bought them (to avoid the hefty excise tax).
Each time I had one repaired, a few weeks later another one quit,
There was a fault in the Ford windows that caused them to jam.
I canât get parts for the GM windows because Pontiac is gone.
You actually think that window components were different for all of GMâs marques?
Really?
Pontiacs were essentially just Chevys with different trim for at least the last decade of their existence. With the exception of things like tail lights, grill, and some dashboard details, almost every âPontiac partâ is also a Chevy part. Pontiacâs demise has nothing to do with the availability of window parts.
Maybe if you had just bought one new vehicle and kept to the service schedule you would still have it and not all those problems.
As for needing second gear take off better tires might be the answer .