What are things that has faded away on modern cars and trucks..

[Ace-Garageguy]

32 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

Yeah, the squares back then always had something to complain about.  They still do.  

Yeah, and the herd-following sheep always went along with whatever was perceived as "the thing" of the day, without conscious thought, believing they were cool if they did exactly what everyone else did.

They still do.   

[iamsuperdan]

I didn't see it mentioned yet, but I mourn the loss of the in-car CD player. I still buy CDs, I still play them at home. 

When I bought my 99 Tahoe a few years ago, the first thing I did was upgrade the stereo, made sure it had a working CD player. Of course, the boy has sort of comandeered it, so now it's basically his truck, and he never uses the CD player.

I've already bought a new head unit for my daughter's first car. And we haven't even picked one out or bought one yet!

 

[Rob Hall]

I miss CD players also.  My current Jeep has one, but it is awkward to use since it’s inside the center armrest.   I mostly stream my music from my phone now. 

[Lunajammer]

1 hour ago, Rob Hall said:

I can usually identify the model without looking at the badging, but years are pretty much impossible since the demise of annual styling changes 40+ years ago.  

 

12 different auto makers, same year. With the exception of the Charger, good luck being a cop looking for a suspect vehicle. But I digress. 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

^^^ This has been mentioned before, and one of the favorite rebleats is always "but cars of the (pick a period) also all looked the same".

While true to an extent, there are periods when that just wasn't the case.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[iamsuperdan]

5 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

^^^ This has been mentioned before, and one of the favorite rebleats is always "but cars of the (pick a period) also all looked the same".

While true to an extent, there are periods when that just wasn't the case.

 

 

 

 

 

Car people can tell the difference with these three, but for the average person who doesn't know cars? They see three old cars with round headlights, two doors, pointy wing things on the back (because the average Joe doesn't know about fins), a chrome thing on the hood, etc.

 

Cars will always be reflective of the time they were built. There's a reason most cars from the 40s, 50s, 60, 70s, 80s or whenever will share very similar styling cues and colours. There are always exceptions, and are always manufacturers taking a chance with something different, but for the most part, trends are followed.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Blah blah blah. Buy a new car if you like them.

Don't if you don't. Blah blah blah.

EDIT: Make that "baa baa baa".

     

Edited June 5, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[bbowser]

On 6/5/2023 at 10:11 AM, iamsuperdan said:

I didn't see it mentioned yet, but I mourn the loss of the in-car CD player. I still buy CDs, I still play them at home. 

When I bought my 99 Tahoe a few years ago, the first thing I did was upgrade the stereo, made sure it had a working CD player. Of course, the boy has sort of comandeered it, so now it's basically his truck, and he never uses the CD player.

I've already bought a new head unit for my daughter's first car. And we haven't even picked one out or bought one yet!

 

Me too!  How do you even upgrade a car radio now?  The thing is built into the "monitor" on the dash that also controls everything else.  Remember Crutchfield catalogs?

[Rob Hall]

4 minutes ago, bbowser said:

Me too!  How do you even upgrade a car radio now?  The thing is built into the "monitor" on the dash that also controls everything else.  Remember Crutchfield catalogs?

Yeah, the head units are integrated into the screens..I know there are some aftermarket screens/head units designed to fit certain models available, but it seems uncommon.  It's been over 20 years since I put aftermarket stereos in older cars-- those were both 80s Fords..

As long as I have Apple Car Play and can stream from my phone and have good speakers, I'll be happy w/whatever factory setup my next vehicles have... really like the available McIntosh systems on some of the new Jeeps, tested a couple. 

[tbill]

More stuff I forgot about…., throttle cables, hydraulic power steering, transmission dip stick/tubes….

[1972coronet]

With the recent reintroduction of good ole Vinyl records, I'm just waiting for the day when turntables are "new" features in cars ! 

?

[Danno]

Good grammar?  [See topic title.]

[Tabbysdaddy]

44 minutes ago, Danno said:

Good grammar?  [See topic title.]

That just reminded me, buttons with words on them to tell you what they do instead of a symbol that you have to figure out. My friends traction control light came on and I said "your truck is slippery when wet".

[TarheelRick]

Two J C Whitney options that have not been mentioned are the "necker knob" for your steering wheel and the "blue-dot taillight modification". The necker knob's function is obvious, it gives you a free arm to encircle your favorite sweetie.  The blue-dot taillight, when installed correctly would make your taillights emit a beautiful purplish glow, it was also illegal in my area.   As I have progressed from one vehicle to another, each one has become more 'standard optioned' than the past one. My 2022 F-150 is almost a self-drive vehicle and requires an electrical engineer degree just to operate the radio.  Now, just recently I purchased a 1980 Pinto, crawling down out of my 150 and onto the ground into the Pinto is a virtual time-warp - I even have to dim my own headlights with a floor mounted switch.

One other thing I miss is the throaty rumble of '55 GMC truck mufflers or dual glasspacks (also illegal in my area).  Everything now tries to sound like a Mustang, although a well-tuned Mustang exhaust is some really sweet music.

Edited June 10, 2023 by TarheelRick

[espo]

On the subject of in car CD players. This doesn't go back all that far, but our then new '10 Dodge Charger had an AM/FM stereo with the ability to download our CD's into the memory bank of the radio. We had all of our personal music at our fingertips plus Sirius Radio. This was traded for our '18 Charger that is supposed to have the double through down top of the line radio. The problem now is all we get is the AM/FM/ stereo and Sirius radio. The radio will tell you if a tune you liked is playing on another channel. Our '09 Jeep Wrangler radio would hold up to 6 discs plus it had Sirius. How many here remember putting that new high tech "Reverb Sonic" on your optional rear seat speaker, if you had a rear seat speaker? 

[iamsuperdan]

5 hours ago, bbowser said:

Me too!  How do you even upgrade a car radio now?  The thing is built into the "monitor" on the dash that also controls everything else.  Remember Crutchfield catalogs?

I still buy my car audio stuff from Crutchfield!

On most vehicles now, changing head units just can't be done. Speakers and amps can be changed or supplemented though.

 

[peteski]

2 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

Two J C Whitney options that have not been mentioned are the "necker knob" for your steering wheel and the "blue-dot taillight modification". The necker knob's function is obvious, it gives you a free arm to encircle your favorite sweetie.  The blue-dot taillight, when installed correctly would make your taillights emit a beautiful purplish glow, it was also illegal in my area.  

Those knobs  were handy when the power steering took like 5 turns from stop to stop.  With rack-and-pinion the number of turns is greatly reduced.  BTW< in my neck of the woods, it was called a "suicide knob".  I like your version better.

I still see blue-dots on some older cars at the cruises. Nowadays, with LED taillights (many tiny light sources in the entire lens - no single bulb to place the blue dot in front of), it wouldn't really work. Yes, those were illegal, but the aftermarket lighting on many of today's cars is blatantly illegal (green, blue, or purple halos on headlights) and blinding LED headlights, both factory installed, and aftermarket are magnitudes more annoying than blue-dots, and cops seem to ignore them all.

[slusher]

6 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

I still buy my car audio stuff from Crutchfield!

On most vehicles now, changing head units just can't be done. Speakers and amps can be changed or supplemented though.

 

I do also mine is a 16  I have too have my music..

[1972coronet]

I don't enjoy feeling so "connected" to any vehicle. A stark contrast to feeling connected with a vehicle. 

To that end: sound systems ! I don't want for nor do I need for Yahoo Serious or 990 (my play on "XM") to tell me what to listen to ! Most of what I listen to wouldn't even be available on any of those "services" (like, yeah, XM et al. isn't going to have the mono edition of A Saucerful of Secrets or whatever other obscure edits that I dig).

I'll take C.D.'s and/or cassettes all day long, thank you. Bollocks to touch screens for everything !

Edited June 11, 2023 by 1972coronet
*TYPO*

[Can-Con]

I went out of my way to find one of these units for my Trans Am.

Had it fully serviced and an AUX jack installed so I can play my phone through it if I want.

Funny thing is, when these were new everyone took them out,, "factory junk" and replaced them with aftermarket units from Radio Shack or K-Mart. These were actually better quality then 90% of the units that replaced them. Delco always made a great radio and the cassette mechanisms GM used in them were made by Blaupunkt.

[Bills72sj]

Leg room. Almost every thing made today has the inner wheel well intruding into the footwell. Look at anything new and the rear of the front wheel opening is within 4" of the front door opening. My Grand Prix has 19"!

The second thing is the corners of the car sticking up high enough to KNOW whether or not you will clear the obstacle. Modern jelly beans do not have this feature.

[Tabbysdaddy]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

I went out of my way to find one of these units for my Trans Am.

Had it fully serviced and an AUX jack installed so I can play my phone through it if I want.

Funny thing is, when these were new everyone took them out,, "factory junk" and replaced them with aftermarket units from Radio Shack or K-Mart. These were actually better quality then 90% of the units that replaced them. Delco always made a great radio and the cassette mechanisms GM used in them were made by Blaupunkt.

That's funny, I'm cleaning my garage and just came across this. I removed it from my van and put in a different one. 

[peteski]

14 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Funny thing is, when these were new everyone took them out,, "factory junk" and replaced them with aftermarket units from Radio Shack or K-Mart. These were actually better quality then 90% of the units that replaced them. Delco always made a great radio and the cassette mechanisms GM used in them were made by Blaupunkt.

My '85 Caddy Eldorado has a factory-installed audio system (radio/cassette) made by Bose.  Each of the 4 speakers has an amplifier built-in, and it sounds pretty good.  As I understand the speakers were tuned to the car's interior.

 

BTW, the "real" German company called Balupunkt is gone, and the trade name was bought up by a Chinese company that sells cheap electronic gadgets (like dash cams).  I bought one without realizing it, and it was really crappy. I ended up returning it to the store.  That's when I looked up Blaupunkt on the Internet and found out its fate.  Similar fate happened to many other respected names (at least by the older folks).  Fuller Brush and Bell&Howell are some of the trade names that ended up being own by Chinese vendors of cheap stuff.

[1972coronet]

18 minutes ago, peteski said:

BTW, the "real" German company called Balupunkt is gone, and the trade name was bought up by a Chinese company that sells cheap electronic gadgets (like dash cams).  I bought one without realizing it, and it was really crappy. I ended up returning it to the store.  That's when I looked up Blaupunkt on the Internet and found out its fate.  Similar fate happened to many other respected names (at least by the older folks).  Fuller Brush and Bell&Howell are some of the trade names that ended up being own by Chinese vendors of cheap stuff.

But, just think about the short term profits gained by eliminating the Middle Class ! 

[Rob Hall]

19 minutes ago, peteski said:

BTW, the "real" German company called Balupunkt is gone, and the trade name was bought up by a Chinese company that sells cheap electronic gadgets (like dash cams).  I bought one without realizing it, and it was really crappy. I ended up returning it to the store.  That's when I looked up Blaupunkt on the Internet and found out its fate.  Similar fate happened to many other respected names (at least by the older folks).  Fuller Brush and Bell&Howell are some of the trade names that ended up being own by Chinese vendors of cheap stuff.

Sad...I had a Blaupunkt stereo in my '96 BMW M3 back in the day, and a Becker head unit in my '84 Merc 500 SEL.    I remember putting Sony in-dash CD players w/ removable faceplates in my '87 Mustang GT and '88 Bronco II in the mid 90s.