I love the cars of my youth. But I can’t deny that there are some great modern features I wish my old vehicles had.
As much as I hate turning into a cliché, I have to confess—the cars, music, and fashion from my schoolboy years are still generally the vibes I like the best. I’m going to be driving and restoring cars from the ’90s and ’00s until gasoline goes extinct, but even I have to concede that there are some modern niceties I wish my “golden-era” cars had.
My personal favorite automotive developments aren’t even all that new. I’m a huge fan of blind-spot monitoring lights and heated steering wheels; I’d call those out as features I wish some of my hoopties had. Collision mitigation emergency braking is also excellent when it works well.
I like Apple CarPlay OK, but I’m honestly just as happy putting my phone on a high-quality windshield mount and streaming music over Bluetooth. Wireless charging is almost universally garbage and touchscreens are inferior to hard keys … I drive dozens of new cars every year and remain convinced of this. The fact that it’s illegal to text and drive but not use a car’s nine-inch infotainment computer is so goofy.
But I’ll keep going with that rant another time. Meanwhile, we’re curious to hear what The Drive readers are into, from an automotive technology standpoint. Or at least, those of you who are still with me driving cars from the past.
For those of you who love old cars, as I do: What modern feature would you actually want in your vehicle from the past?
