Old Auto Tech That You LIKE?

I kinda miss distributors! I remember advancing the timing just to the point where the pinging started, depending on the quality of fuel.

Also real glass headlights, actual buttons that make click clack sounds, hydro p/s, and using an actual key to open and lock the doors, and start the car!
 
^^This without a doubt^^
Sure ain’t carburetors 🤨
Well, not SMOG carburetors. But a good carb on something that rarely sits seems to be trouble free? My KISS Suzuki ATV has been going strong for 24 year now, never touched the carb, but it is gradually running richer and doesn't need much choke to start unless its below freezing... I guess it has near 3000 hrs on it now? Its needed tires and a starter, a couple batteries and that's it. Lots of snowplowing, towing 600-1000lb loads of wood through the woods. I wish I had a car or anything that ran as reliably as that.
 
Digressing in some cases from "tech," per se:

A plethora of buttons, each possessing high-quality haptic feedback. Unfortunately the recent trend is toward poorly integrated, oversized grease pads with gloss black bezels that scratch easily and look terrible under direct light.

Car designs that don't make wheels of less than 18" diameter look undersized.

Glass headlight assemblies.

High-quality cloth seating material.

Port fuel injection, mitigating engine NVH at idle and generating far less cancer-causing particulate matter in the exhaust stream.
well as far as the buttons go, you might be in luck... to get a 5 star rating on the upcoming EuroNCAP safety testing, physical buttons will be required. not just an Ipad stuck to the dash.
 
Reasons why I avoid new cars:

Prefer manual transmission
Prefer manual windows in the long run
Prefer keyed ignitions
Prefer colors interior and exterior
Prefer standard three controls for heat/AC
Prefer far less electronics leading to...
Prefer hand operated emergency parking brakes. Despise electronic versions after last weekend
Last, they can keep their maintenance mode crap which is part of electronics

Something tells me I need to look at that 85 Celica Liftback
 
This is obscure, but I miss mechanical odometers. I loved seeing the 9s line up before a thousand-mile rollover.

I also miss tenths on the odometer - I guess they figure it's not needed because the trip meter has them.
Having seen the clockwork of a mechanical odometer, I can imagine how easily they used to get rolled back. Am happy they moved on from that, and have redundant "secret" odometers you can read with a scan tool.
 
Cars that do what I want when I tell it to/less intrusive nannies. Ex goes into park if I open the door in gear....
Yeah seems like everybody has a "soft start" blower motor now. When I change speeds I want the thing to change speeds now, not gently spool up over a series of seconds. I even hate mandatory AC with the HVAC in defrost-- if it's a low 40's morning and I start my car, the AC cools the windscreen before the coolant warms up for heat and outside air condenses on it. And wipers that come on with the washer, but they come on before the windshield is wet, so they scrape dirt all over, unlubricated.
 
Having seen the clockwork of a mechanical odometer, I can imagine how easily they used to get rolled back. Am happy they moved on from that, and have redundant "secret" odometers you can read with a scan tool.
You're right, the ease of rolling the odometer back was a huge disadvantage, but purely from an aesthetic point-of-view I preferred the look of the mechanical ones.
 
I miss the days when car makers were so stingy one overly bright dome light barely covered the car. 😝

It’s nuts they have lots of small lights and pesky map lights and those leds lighting cubby’s .
 
Fog lights, as they're going away slowly but surely

Sure they might be useless nowadays but they had a functional cool look to them IMO
 
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