AJT123

I've noticed we talk about this a lot and I can give one reason that you've all heard from me.... Cars were better then because the #1 goal wasn't gas mileage.

I could go on and on but curious on what others think and say first.

Obviously there are exceptions.

SW17LS

I think a lot of this is that people havent driven that many new cars. As someone who drives a lot of new cars, and buys new cars every few years, there isn't anything my older cars had that my current cars don't have, and nothing they did well that my current cars don't do better.

The one thing is the availability of sedan options...there are fewer sedans, and the ones that still exist have to make a statement in some way to get somebody to buy them over an SUV (that statement is either efficiency or dynamism). I also prefer bigger engines, and the downsizing of engines is a shame. Those things still wouldn't keep me driving an old car, because there is so much new and exciting about newer cars overall it outweighs the negative changes.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

that is such a crazy sweeping generalization. when you say old, how old?

gm's 1990 cars were better than today's cars? that's absurd.

SW17LS

The reality is we have more excellent cars available to consumers all over the price category than ever before. There are actually very few truly terrible cars out there today, whereas 20-30 years ago that was not at all the truth

We were just talking about the late 90s Accord, this car was just not a desirable car, I'm sorry.:





I would take a 2023 Accord over one every moment of every day

AJT123

I get what you're saying, but the engine is just the heart of the car. But in your price bracket you get to have your cake and eat it too, like I said there are exceptions. They can leave that 48volt thing at the door, but otherwise yes. All that is for is to make start/stop smoother, primary agenda. Leave all that crap out, just give me ICE.

Your old cars didn't shut off at stoplights which made you have to deal with jail-braking (I would too) them just FWIW. Kinda sad that you have to jail-brake a car such as that as to not be annoyed by it. I always assumed that all start/stops were 100% seamless and that nothing like HVAC was affected but I was wronnnnng.

This isn't intended to be an argumentative thread or whatever with sweeping generalizations. Just, older cars.

Oh I think their trucks could have been better then but that's debatable. They all weren't recalled or junky, junked lifters on otherwise excellent V8s because of cylinder deactivation crap.

TangoRed

There has been various times where older cars used higher quality interior materials than the current-gen version of the same car. Outside of that, I think cars have gotten progressively better.

signdetres

Agree completely. Cars just keep better and better.

chuyrobles

Older cars were simpler and easier to work on for the DIY’er. Other ‘better’ categories are not desirable - better at pollution, killing its occupants in a collision, etc …

Gas mileage is not the #1 goal, for manufacturers. It is, and has always been, profit.

909

Agreed. But regarding motors in general, I prefer working on older 2 stroke boat motors because they're lighter, faster and more powerful.

Simple easy to maintain motors with less moving parts which now are sadly banned.

For example:
https://streamable.com/0r92wp

Toys4RJill

I don’t like everything in new automobiles. I sometimes drive my fathers Toyota with the 8 speed and I hate it in day to day driving. My 5 speed V8 4Runner with full time 4wd is better in daily driving. I personally don’t love screens either. I do love my optitron gauges over my older gauges. I find Toyotas gated shifters superior to anything other. I also find older interiors are more complete and comprehensive compared to many new interiors. Older cars also had a cd player as well

AJT123

In some ways, sure. But not so much in others.

For example I love modern lighting in cars. A beautiful front end with good DRLs, verrry nice. Headlights are so bright these days. Even still just give me xenons which only require bulbs or at the worst a ballast.

Of course it is but regulations have forced so many cars into sterilization. Trust me, the MB engineers aren’t happy about 2.0ts going into $75k cars either. A lineup of cars has to meet CAFE.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

the right to repair will only get more challenging on newer cars, where they tend to have more proprietary tech to get things to work and change/repair. older cars are just simpler by nature = more fun to tinker with!

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

great post.

exactly, it depends, so just saying "why were old cars better" is too vague.

so you're talking about maintenance, not function. modern car lighting is better in every way functionally. but yeah, replacement cost is hugely expensive. that goes for a lot of things. that 20 yr old F-150 - not so bad to fix or repair even an accident. A new one with mostly all aluminum body work and 'fancy' lighting and parts? $$$$$$$$$$$

yeah... most of them. almost all new vehicles are better than almost all old vehicles in almost every single way.

and then you get more pollution and worse economy, two things the power that be say we must improve on.

maybe if the thread title had been "in what ways were older cars better?" rather than "why were old cars better" I could get on board.

swajames

The number one goal is sales. Without sales, there can be no profit.

Profit would be maximized by making the same car as efficiently as possible for a long a period as possible. That quickly falls apart in a competitive market, sales will quickly fall off a cliff as you are perceived to be behind the curve so continuous improvement is necessary to sustain or improve sales performance. New cars can't be like old cars for good reason!

Striker223

Old cars have cheaper parts and less systems that can fail, generally speaking parts are cheaper and easy to get. Working on them is a mixed bag, modern stuff is designed to be worked on while on a lift so if you have one great....if not have fun with that.

Newer cars that are the same price adjusted for inflation are usually just as high quality of materials and fit. Issue is the dollar is so weak now that something from 2000 is nearly 2x the cost to make an equal tier item now. 100k is the new 60k car and this is easily reflected when you look at newer cars.