Steering
Cars with unassisted steering gives descent road feedback to driver. Driver feels lively and engaging driving experience through unfiltered road feedback delivers to hands by unassisted steering wheel. Even cars manufactured in late 90s and early 2000 were pretty good, they had hydraulically assisted power steering that helped driver steered with uninterrupted information from the road. But now a days; most of the cars have power steering which are electronically assisted and electrical motor can either be switch on or off. So, it’s hard to know road feedback though some electric power steering is exceptionally good like Honda Civic. Somehow these new power steering stole that feedback and information from the road. It takes away from the driving experience.
Manual Hand Brake
To pull manual handbrake you need to use all your strength. Manual parking brakes are simple, safe and reliable. Even if you face any issue, It was relatively cheaper to get it fixed with help of local mechanic. Car enthusiast prefer manual hand brakes over electronic brakes. On other side Electronic hand brake requires fewer physical efforts; Electronic hand brake is a luxury feature. Electronic hand brakes are sleek and free up car cabin space. Since it is electronic there are several electric part are attached to it and hence You will need to get the car brakes regularly checked by an expert to ensure proper functioning of electronic hand brake.
Weight
Cars now a days are just a number more than driving experience. Car are losing mass due to horsepower and average fuel economy number games. Driver’s involvement is not just speed and power but driving experience also counts as well but unfortunately, we are losing driving experience. Prime example is Suzuki Swift second generation curb weight was 1030 KGS, fourth generation curb weight is 870 KGS. Now a days cars are just about Power and fuel economy numbers instead of feel. Ford and Fiat are exception to this rule.
Sound/Engine Exhaust
Many cars in 90s and 2000s decade used to be naturally aspirated and not turbocharged. 2020 decade is a decade of turbocharged cars. Due to couple of reasons like emission regulation, environment, social factors, many cars today are facing engine downsizing. Engines’ refinement is so well that sound output is almost muted or even down. Many cars are insulated so well that automobiles manufacturers had to put sound back to the cabin with help of speakers. Obliviously there are some cars which makes sound absolutely fantastic like Ford Aspire petrol, Ford Figo and Ecosports.
Unique Styling
Modern cars are getting bigger and bigger in size. Massive front grills, fake vents and fake exhausts in modern cars are actually irritating to eyes. Safety, Aerodynamics and other things have come into existence and car designs are screwed. But this was not the case few decades back. Designs were not so bad. But if you go back few more decades, cars were design purely for beautiful designs like American muscle cars, European sports cars, classic Italian design houses.
Physical Button
New age cars has everything inside controlled through digital touch screen which actually distracts driver. Driver will have to take eyes off the road to swipe menus to access A/C control, infotainment and volume. Even entry level cars like Maruti Alto and Renault Kwid offers touch screen infotainment system in top variants. Gesture control is incredibly fun but nothing is superior than old school buttons and knob. Physical buttons allow driver to access A/c controls, music system control, and heated seat control without getting distracted while driving. Physical controls are actually taken for granted until it started stripped away.
Aggressive Safety Features
No doubt car safety has drastically improved in every sense over the years but some time it makes situation worse. Safety system like Brake assist, lane keep assist prematurely corrects driver’s behaviour by making situation even worse when system slams the brakes too hard and oversteer wheel. if smart key battery is dead, the push start button does not work because car thinks you don’t have keys.
Maintenance and simplicity
Not too long few year back when anyone faces breakdown on highway, he could fix problem on their own without having too much worry about specialized spare parts and sophisticated equipment that need to buy from OEM manufacturer or certain type of diagnostic cable that can only be used by professional on certain type of machines. Though auto mobile manufactures offer roadside assistance service but nothing can beat local mechanics. When car warranty is expired, it is pretty sure that car owner is screwed. Nobody can comment on reliability. Take an example of Toyota it refuses to die at any circumstances and over long period of time.
Price
The year 2011, Honda City third generation was introduced at a price of INR 7 Lakhs but in the year 2020 cost of Honda city is INR 11 Lakhs. There is technological breakthrough in terms of power, safety and comfort every three to four years. Some cars are exceptional to this and really don’t jump much. If you compare technology vs car inflation, cars are generally offer at same priced but average purchasing power of common man has not increased enough to afford new car every 3 years and hence average ownership of cars in India is 6 to 7 Years.
Easy to read instrument Panel
Analogue Instrument panels were easy to read. It used to be simple, intuitive and predictable. Driver can get all required information at one glance but now it takes minimum two to three glance to know the speed, fuel and RPMs. Now have a look at instrument panel of brand-new cars. Tachometer tach goes backward which confuses the driver. Also, it’s not clear, Red needle on red or blue background, minimum space between the fuel gauge and multi-information display.
If you know anything add to this list lets know in comments.