About the vent windows, you all failed to mention in my opinion, the best feature of those vent windows. By pushing the vent window out, it would create a negative air pressure vacuum that would suck the air out for smoking, for example. Or you could pull the window in towards you and that would force air into the vehicle positive air pressure, so there are two very practical purposes for those windows I personally miss and love those windows really helped the 460 air conditioning system 4 windows down 60mph. Since A/C was an expensive upgrade option.
@@njjeff201lol… mine was a heapa stick as well, with vents that opened in or out…i thought it normal, not defective, although looking back, everything else was defective… so… thanks. This has been a great nostalgic trip.
FRESH AIR WITHOUT WRECKING MY HAIR! THAT was the best thing - ok, the smoking ventilation too!. Think of all the women who used hair spray - for a REASON.
I think the worst modern innovation is the touch screen. I know they're useful but putting ALL the controls on them is madness. I prefer tactile swiches you can use without taking your eyes from the road.
Right! My friend got a new stereo system, and it has a touch screen , but with the options all being painted onto the screen, and there's no light, so you can't do ANYTHING at night without turning on the dome light so see what's what. How are manufacturers acting like cars are new and haven't ironed out the design kinks yet?
@@Schwarzorn This post seems to have come from the 1950s LOL What system have they bought? I've not seen anything like the one you're describing. Not saying it's not true, just that I've never seen one and it must have been extremely cheap.
@@4ebees I went and looked at it. It only says JVC, but I looked it up, and it seems to be the KW-M560BT. He bought it just last year. The "buttons" on the left side are the unlit problems. Trying to turn down the volume at night? Oops, just made it way louder. Let's try to feel lower for that - Button. Oops, just turned off the stereo. -_-
My 1984 Olds Cutlass Ciera had two benchseats and seated six adults. Olds did a convertible version, making it one of the very few six seat converible coupe (two door).
Well, during > 99 % of all car rides a spare wheel is just a heavy thing you are transporting around without use. In a world where you can use your mobile phone to call a service company which can deliver a new tire. 🙂
@@dabbasw31Deliver a new tire? What a bugman. Why carry a gun when you call the cops? Why have a fire extinguisher in your house? Just wait on the firemen. Why have bandaids? Just call a doctor
@@VndNvwYvvSvv As described: at least in industrial nations it is not efficient to transport a spare wheel everywhere. That thing has a weight and therefore increases the fuel consumption of a car. And unlike a fire or an injury a broken car usually do not threat your health.
@@dabbasw31 ",As described" lol. You made a non engineering statement without any idea of the percentages involved, Vastly outweighed by the utility and the extra weight from other completely unnecessary things. How much does you car weigh? One of mine is 1800 lb. I get 50 to 80 mpg. Electric cars are a joke to anyone who can list the losses and waste from end to end, not just the 5-10 year stated "lifetime" which is never realistic right out of the gate. Honestly, people should pass an IQ test before posting online....
@@dabbasw31 and that's WITH a spare. Why? The weight is negligible in efficiency unless you're in constant stop/go traffic. In which case you'd want something with hybrid regeneration. In which case ..... That spare tire weight is negligible to the extra battery weight AND the materials and resources for the tires that wear out much faster than a gas car. You've not worked on papers analyzing these things and it shows, normie.
Yeah, I thought this was going to be things that were pushed out and quickly died like the 80s digital dashboards (of course you could say that was a successful idea, they just tried it 25 years too early). Still an interesting video though.
@kirkboivin4357 True, ut , there was always one " LEMON GELATI " you know , it's a drop back bench , so , one of em has to pull the seat drop lever while you driving , one sec you lookin at the Rd , the same next second your lookin up the nostrils of the bloke sitting behind you and the roof of the car , yeah , fun times for sure . R
All of them failed on the cars I drove. In two of them, the mounts rusted so bad that I couldn't install any switches so I just did without high beams.
Pop up headlights - At least the headlights on my 1990 Miata don't turn yellow and become nearly opaque like the plastic headlights on more recent models.
It only takes a few minutes once every few years to give the headlights a cut and polish. It's much more work and much more expensive to fix broken pop up lights.
Bench seats in cars were important in my teens. If your date scooted over to be closer to you while you drove. You knew things were going well and might get better.
They were very dangerous if you were trying to fire a rifle and then closed the door because you would accidentally shoot down signs that would land on chains that acted as leashes for rotweilers. The the dogs would jump into the car and maul the driver.
I recall someone demonstrating how a thief could take advantage of a vent window and then trying to sell an aftermarket device to prevent that from happening.
Those ugly "vent windows," or "wings," as many people, like my tobacco-addicted parents, called them, were TERRIBLE....the annoying wind whistling, the rain water that would eventually drip in, often like a Goddamned faucet, depending on the car....NO THANKS, SO GLAD to just see them all GONE. They're just an old, bygone relic of the "smoker's era." Smokers just used them as an excuse to light up and pollute everyone's air quality, telling them that they wouldn't ever smell it or otherwise even know it was happening....except that this was JUST NOT TRUE. AT ALL.
@@jamescarrington5521 You're very wrong about the efficacy of vent windows. They are the only way to directly vent smoke and if combined with a vent that brought outside air into the car a courteous smoker could vent more than 99% of the smoke. It's a shame they were summarily eliminated along with ashtrays and cigarette lighters in an effort to make smoking in a car too inconvenient and inconsiderate to continue.
Vent windows were great and necessary. I believe they were stopped because of safety concerns. Like many of these other features, regulators found that people hit their face on them in an accident. I'd rather have the "batwing" and take my chances.
Vent windows were eliminated due to expense. Their passing was lamented by drivers for about a decade, until a new generation of drivers had forgotten about them.
The two most important innovations in car design are 1. Lights that turn on and off automatically combined with an alarm to tell you if you have manually left the lights on. 2. Fuel caps that cannot be taken off and left somewhere such as on the roof of the car.
Yeah. I always use them when I borrow my aunt's truck. And I don't think I've ever seen one leak...nor would it be a way to break into a car...unless people aren't closing them all the way (I.E. locking them). Honestly, tho, they're just gonna smash thru your windows if they really want to break in. Not that they won't break the windows regardless.
I wouldn't say that features that lasted half a century before becoming obsolete didn't stand the test of time. They stood the test of quite a lot of time.
When I and mum had Holden Kingswood it had the floor dimmer and never had issues. I've heard of people putting in floor dimmer or 2 as an engine cut out so when the vehicle is parked if someone tries to steal the vehicle the engine wouldn't start as a theft measure
You're right about replacing them. I started driving in the late 60's, and even into the 70's I bought a lot of cheap used cars. I had to replace 1 (maybe 2), 2 scews to hold it on to the floor, and 1 wire with a spade connector. Easy peasy.
@@3sierra15 So true... the floor mounted dimmer (dip-switch) was popular here in the UK, too. They were easy to swap if they failed-but they very rarely did.
@@Sandra-dt4ec I agree. Police get mad when you don't wear a seat belt. Why? Because if they have some years on the force, they have been on scene where they're scrapping a family just like yours off the highway.
If they made a truck with bench seats, "three on the tree" aka column shift, and floor mounted dimmer switch, they would sell VERY well. What a great multi-purpose vehicle they were.
Column shifts were replaced with floor shifters when they started using 4 and 5 speed gearboxes. Column shifts were much less exact in finding the correct gear when you had more than two gates. Plus, floor shifters were sportier and gave an impression of being a sports car. Floor shifters were a greater impetus to bench seats than were the "safety" or "comfort" of bucket seats. And with the floor shifters, consoles and their cup-holding capacity became a feature that bench seats did not provide.
And they also did what a truck should do. They worked. There was a base model. And it was a full blown grown up ass pickup truck. Unlike the base models now, that cant even pull an empty landscape trailer and get over 4mpg.
I don't think cars that had three on the tree with sale well in today's market. Mainly because drivers today have never learned how to drive stick shifts.
Most of these innovations were not discontinued because of consumers. A lot were done away with by number crunchers and designers trying to tell us what we want. After these items were gone for a while the newer generations, who had never had them or never knew they existed, did not see any of the practicalities anymore. A lot of American trucks still had many of these options well into the 90's and 2000's because trucks were still seen more as work vehicles than as recreational.
Many of the items were after market and never all that popular. One that bothered me was the white walled tires. They died because of the trend to pretend people were driving sports cars. Since race cars didn't use white walls, neither did sports cars. In an effort to look sporty, tires were being sold without the white walls. The same with floor shifters. Three speed manual transmissions could use a column shift no problem. (I never heard of any issues with the shifters) But when they started using 4 and 5 speed transmissions then column shifters didn't work because it was much more difficult to find the correct gate. Plus, sports cars used floor shifters and many consumers were swayed by the sports car idea. Floor shifters killed the bench seat, not any safety consideration.
Only rich people will be able to have cars soon, and that is a deliberate policy on the part of the Govt with their ever-increasing restrictions and the associated costs. This is also reflected by in the way they now have all this constant read-construction/strangulation going on that destroys the flow of traffic and inspires Road Rage everywhere. Soon, the peasants will be immobilized, and then the ruling class will get REALLY nasty.
Started working @Ford dealership 1970. Never had a leaking vent window although a Lincoln had to have window regulator go bad. Was an expensive repair as it was powered. Never saw bad high beam switch. Bench seat had 3 seat belts. Hood ornaments originally had thermometer built in for water temp. Some Pontiac ornaments were illuminated… looked kool! Bench seating was horrible for center passenger with trans bump in floor.
Of course as a young child sitting in the back of my Father’s Glacier Blue Ford I used to jump up & down on the center floor hump while holding onto the front bench seat.
Also forgot about "Floor Vents" those fun little doors under your dash that you could open to get a good breeze in the car without opening the windows. Of course the downside was when you first opened them there was a good chance that you would get blasted with a bunch dirt or sand, as they had no filters on them...🤣
@@JAbell1966 Extra stinky! But you didn't have to worry about anything splashing on you, as the intake was connected to that grill in front of the windshield.
Absolutely! Floor vents were so useful. Between those and the vent windows, it was great. AC is better, but when most cars didn’t have that, these were the next best thing.
I have to point out that almost every car shown in the section about column shifters were automatics and not column shifters or "3 on the tree" as we called them back in the days.
Curb feelers (18:00) were intended more to tell you when you were close enough to curbs to comply with local parallel parking regulations, which commonly required that the car had to be within twelve inches of the curb. They were not replaced with sensors and cameras (18:39) as there were several decades between the demise of curb feelers and the development of electronic alternatives. The main problem with curb feelers was that they easily broke off, getting caught in curb joints or cracks, and especially in frigid winter conditions -- _that_ was what was embarrassing, .
Agreed. This video appears to have been made by someone that never used these features, and failed to do proper research. They misunderstood nearly everything.
@@cherryjuice9946Exactly. When they talked about column shifters, they failed to mention this refers to manual transmissions, and most of their video shots were column shifters on automatic transmissions.
Some drivers used to add a trailing feeler to electrically earth (ground) the car body to the tarmac, to prevent the build up of static electricity. They may have thought that would prevent car sickness. Those must have worn out fast.
@@faithlesshound5621 I remember those as straps that would trail on the pavement from the rear of the vehicle. I asked my Dad what they were for and he said they were grounding straps that he thought were useless.
@@faithlesshound5621 I actually looked this up. Gates belt and hose company still makes static straps, although they are intended for forklifts. They are made of a special rubber that will conduct electricity enough to drain the static buildup. I was talking to a chemist friend of mine and he said at one point they changed the formulation of rubber used in car tires. One of the side of effects of the change is the tires now conduct enough that you don't need static straps. The thing about the old straps was that they were light enough that the wind created by driving down the road would blow them backward, so they didn't touch the road and wear down. As soon as you stopped, they went back down and touched the pavement. I guess at some point somebody decided to market these things as a solution to car sickness, but that was not their original intent.
I've made this observation on many a day, as I go through my day to day life seeing Fords that look like Chevrolets that look like Hondas that look like Toyotas that look like Nissans that look like Hyundais & many others... I'm sure I don't truly have a problem with it, as long as I can get a less expensive vehicle that can be mistaken for a luxury vehicle, that perhaps has some of the same features that they wouldn't've had in the past, but, I can see why it would be a problem for some people... You bought a MERCEDES, & you want everyone to KNOW you bought a MERCEDES, you don't want to be mistaken for some HYUNDAI KNOCKOFF!!!!!!...🤬🤬🤬 The vehicle I drive right now doesn't truly resemble anything else, though it does kind of look like a miniature version of the Nissan Murano (which was the vehicle I wanted to get, & will likely be the next vehicle I get, though the Nissan Murano does kind of resemble the Toyota Venza in some ways, so maybe I'll go for that instead... But, the Murano is WEIRDLY (arguably...) more luxurious than the Venza in some ways, though usually only in the higher trim levels of both...)...😅
...Woodies didn't quite go away totally. In the 1960s through the 80s, car manufacturers moved to using a false wood panel finish that was essentially a vinyl sheet applique of simulated wood grain added to the body, particularly on some luxury cars, station wagons and later, minivans.
My grandfather had a 1940's Dodge with AM radio with vacuum tubes....it took a while to warm up before it played... Windshield wipers were powered with engine vacuum...going up hills the wipers would slow down because of less engine vacuum. 😅
And, even worse, the wipers slowed down when you passed a car ahead of you. A complete disaster in rain / snow when you were sprayed from the carahead of you and really needed the wipers to speed up rather than slow down...
Was looking at the new Peugeot, hyundai and Renault hatchbacks yesterday. Couldn't tell the slightest difference between any of them. Decided to keep my current car a bit longer but in the long run what am I to do?
The plethora of regulations dictating size and location of equipment such taillights, turn signals, bumpers, etc result in cars that look a lot alike. Manufacturers have very little flexibility in design.
Remember when a Cadillac LOOKED like a step or 2 over all the other cars? Cadillac visually stood out in a class by itself. Not any more. Some Kias or Hyundais look the same as some Caddys. One has to look close to tell the difference.
@@troothcentral-qz9pz Maybe some but the biggest problem with traffic jams is too many cars on roads and streets that are too small, Autonomous Vehicles will make no difference,
@@dogwalker666 Not really. If all cars accelerate and decelerate at the same time we all move together. Humans wait or otherwise respond to the car in front, not the hive.
@@troothcentral-qz9pz That’s not the problem and as Autonomous Vehicles struggle with roadworks, Floods, and roundabouts, As they use google maps which really struggles with diversions, Google Maps tries to take people through the exit of a garage through the carwash and through a river, rather then the roundabout, Satellite navigation needs to be way more accurate, Then you have musk mobiles that have actual killed people.
That depends on the car. My dad, and then when he passed my brother, had a 64 Comet with NO seatbelts. They were not yet federally required. Neither did my MG Midget or my MG 1100 (both 1964 models).
There are several errors in this video. Most of the features vanished because the factory was too cheap to continue a featured because it dipped into their profit.
Cars today still have column shifters for automatics. Cars and SUV's not only still have roof racks for luggage, but people now mount tents on top of them. Wing windows are still a great idea and companies should bring them back.
Shows a cassette player while talking about 8-track tapes. Shows a floor-mounted gear shift while talking about steering column gear shifts. Shows a prop plane when talking about jet planes.
@@slactweak for some reason so does 99% of the general public as well! If memory serves, the four track cartridges were basically self contained, shorter, reel to reel format, originally used by radio stations for commercial announcements, or public service messages… In fact, I remember salvaging a few broken 4track cartridges, by putting them on a reel.
My 1984 VW Rabbit had those windows. They fell out because they were attached with glue. Got them upgraded with better mounting, and they lasted for years. I miss that car.
I'm surprised that the automatic cigarette lighter wasn't mentioned. It was mounted on the dash and when you mashed the botton, a cigarette would pop up lit and ready to be enjoyed.
@stephenlitten1789 Had those on last truck. They keep out rain when leaving windows cracked and parked, but like you said, when moving, the wind (and rain) would blow in.
They were aftermarket and did not sell well. The same as car phones. Because they were all tubes, they were large and ate space in the center of the dash. They were never popular since the car would have to be parked in order to use it.
I REALLY miss the bench seats, vent windows, luggage racks and curb feelers. Had them all on my MG's, either all or a couple at a time. And when I was young...we had a Rambler with a push button transmission.
I also had a Rambler station wagon that had push buttons for every thing. It was white with a red interior. It was built like a tank and the whole thing could turn into a bed as all of the seats went down, even the front seat. It was my first car and it was old when my parents bought it for me, I think they paid $100 for it. I loved that car.
I'm 84 and smoke. I never once had an ashtray catch on fire. Any time some non-smoker rode with me, I alway checked the ashtrays for things like tissues and candy wrappers later. Non-smokers are hazardous to your health. BTW, CDs can skip too when on a bumpy road.
Pop-up headlights used to be necessary for sports cars, because by law, all headlights in the United States had to be a standard sized circle or rectangle. This law was revoked in the 1980s, allowing automobile manufacturers to use custom, more aerodynamic headlights for their vehicles, eliminating the need for pop-ups.
Bench seats were great for making out at the local drive-in movie or lover's lane. I really miss push button shifters and vent windows. No station wagon third seat? No AMC/Rambler ceramic coated exhaust system? No swivel front seats? No swing away steering column? No talking cars?
Same.. I had a converted VW Transporter as a family car that could fit my disabled daughter's wheelchair in the back as recently as 2018. That had a bench seat in the front for an extra front passenger.
Yeah just slide over to the other side of the car. I've seen an awful lot of old black and white movies (cops, private detectives, gangsters) where the guy gets in on the right front door and then slides across the seat to the driver's side & steering wheel.
They also had canvas bags that hung in front of the radiator. I remember my mom filling a dishpan with ice and putting it on the front floor. She also had a towel that she put in the cold water to evaporate (while my dad was driving). This was on vacation road trips.
…the torpedo full of water (that was once ice) on the outside of the front passenger window. Those were great for about 10 miles out so in hot weather if you could find ice. Love ‘em all.😂😂😂😂😂
…the torpedo full of water (that was once ice) on the outside of the front passenger window. Those were great for about 10 miles out so in hot weather if you could find ice. Love ‘em all.😂😂😂😂😂
Actually, the antennas only came out when the radio was turned on and then retracted when the radio was turned off. My father had an automatic retractable radio antenna on his 1988 Jeep Cherokee. It froze in the winter and the motor, unable to move, burnt out. It cost $85 to replace. After the motor burnt out a second time, he had it replaced with a standard, non-retractable antenna. Someone could steal or break off your standard antenna many times before it would cost as much as an automatic retractable one.
The T-top segment features a Porche 911 and 3 consecutive shots of a Fiat X1/9 (my first car). They didn't have T-tops, but instead had a targa top, which didn't have the center bar, but still leaked.
The people doing this report don't really not know what they are saying because they are not old enough to know and so many of the supposed problems never happened in any of the cars I grew up with or owned
Taking out the starting handle (no fear of flat batterires) and window winding rachets ( never getting caught with your windows open), were in my mind the worst things removed from cars.
Yes bring back the engine crank definitely for small engine's, the engine's with big compression issues is another thing for anyone who aren't strong enough to crank the engine over
The Mercedes-star on hoods got the reputation for being a "crosshair for senior citizens". That was, because in the 80s and perhaps 90s people had to save up so much to get a Mercedes that only senior citizens had saved up long enough.
Forgotten accessory: Passing mirror, fit on the driver door frame. Two round mirrors separated by about two inches facing each other. The mirror head nearest the driver was canted out facing the oncoming traffic. The other mirror canted in and faced the driver. This allowed the driver to see what was ahead of the 14 wheel truck it was hoping to pass. I saw it as an option on Buick's and possibly other GM cars of the late 40's early 50's. Narragansett Bay
The Ford Eclipse is a small station wagon. The Ford Crown Victoria is an SUV. I have seen a Sheriff and three deputies driving their Crown Victorias off road, where the was no road.
I had a 1960's era Cadillac with self dimming headlights. I have had most of these things in my car & trucks in my 52 years of driving. I miss the vent windows the bench seats & the 3 on the tree shifters.
I remember in the early 90's, we got our first van. It had vent windows in the back, to go along with a little tv and NES. It was awesome! The earliest car I remember my mom having, had an 8 track player too, mid or late 80s. Bench seats would be nice now, so I could sleep in my car on my way home from a red eye flight if I get too tired. Other than hood ornaments, I don't remember any of the rest. We kind of came full circle with the end, woodies being phased out for all metal due to safety, metal being phased out for cheap plastic, to be cheaper to make and still giving the look that makes the product overpriced, and less safe.
I don't think these features flopped they were phased out over time due to changing esthetics and engineering requirements. Would you call the internal combustion engine a flop due to the advent of the electric car? With bench seats and shoulder belts were introduced both the driver and the passenger on the outside had seatbelts like we have today. Only the passenger in the center position lacked a shoulder harness, but they did have a lap belt. I really wish cars still had wing windows, and don't be fooled by the narrator saying they leaked, I never experienced rain leaking in. The reason water came in through these was because we'd open them a little to cool the interior as it could get stuffy and or to reduce the fog on the inside of the windshield. Record players in cars. Not that was a flop and I've never seen a car equipped with one. Or even an ad offering the option. Even as a child I knew that record players skipped when bumped and as a farm kid, I would have said no to one as over half the roads were either gravel or paved roads that were bumpy and rough.
I prefer column shifters: more leg room. One gimmick I hated was the pushbutton transmission. It happened before I was born, but thought it was totally unnecessary, as if they wanted to look "space age." But wouldn't that cause a sore finger after a while? A RECORD PLAYER, in a CAR? One time I pulled into a parking lot at 3:00 A.M. A cop asked me why. I said, "I'm changing a CD and I want to do it safely. Surprised, he said, "Oh, okay!" and left. It's risky to change a CD while driving. How the hell can anyone change a RECORD? The wing window was phased out to trim parts and weight. It wasn't much, but manufacturers were desperate.
@@davidlafleche1142 The third car I remember as a kid. The Pontiac Chieftain's A frame broke and Dad bought a used car, a 1962 AMC Rambler Classic. It was a push button automatic. No you don't get sore fingers from shifting, because you only shift when you need to, just like any automatic. The record player probably would have been the changer type. Put a stack of records on the spindle, a small lever in the spindle would hold several records without letting them drop. When the previous record ended, the tone are would return to the home position and the next record would drop then the tone arm would move to the outside edge of the record and that record would play. But a record player in a car wouldn't be very pleasant to listen to while driving when a road imperfection could cause the tone arm to skip or even slide across it. Either frustrating or maddening. I suppose you could use a mechanism to hold the tone arm down despite how rough the road got. Then you'd probably have to replace the needle often, but you'd also have to replace the records after awhile because the wear from the needle the sound would become muddy, not bright and distinct.
@@cynicalrabbit915 The Rambler may have been one of the best cars the USA ever made. Vastly underrated, AMC struck gold by making an affordable and dependable car. Not fancy, but it got the job done for a lot less. (Ironically, cheap as it was, AMC was the first car company ever to offer air conditioning as standard equipment.)
@@davidlafleche1142 Oddly enough 1 year after he bought it the reverse gear went out and he went back to the same lot and bought a 1962 Ford Falcon (powder blue) that one lasted several years and when it went TU he bought a (black 1961) Falcon. It was the last car he drove. My mother asked if I wanted it. At the time I was hauling another car that was given to us from my wife's grandmother's estate. I didn't like the grill on the 61 Falcon and wasn't a fan of black so thought it ugly and declined the offer. Very short sighted and in the intervening years have wished I'd taken her up on the offer. Those little 170 cubic inch engines ran forever and even with the automatic transmission had some get up and go.
Auto manufacturers liked to use vinyl roofs to hide rust perforation in rusted sheet steel panels, panels that would otherwise have to be rejected. It was thought by the manufacturers that the customers probably wouldn't notice the rusted roofs until after the warranty period expired, after which the manufacturers could claim that the rust was due to water that had leaked through holes in the vinyl or splits in the vinyl seams.
Bench seats, wing windows, lighters, ashtrays, and luggage racks were useful things and should at least be optional. I never knew what curb feelers were!
Cassette players came out BEFORE 8-track players. Having been a teenager back then: The big selling point was when a cassette came to the end you had to eject it, flip it over, and then reinsert it. As technology improved the machines automatically played the next side. Stopping and restarting 8-track players would cause the tapes to eventually twist causing the machine to end up playing the back side of the tape. You could always put a pencil in the cassette and unbind those tapes when they bound up before the machine would twist or eat it. Not so with 8-tracks. Disassembly or replace only.
@@kencory2476 Cassettes came out as a "compact reel-to-reel" tape player, then the 8-track (with its myriad of problems), then the cassette with its improvements, then the walkman brand that fixed the shake problem with jogging.
Bench seats that folded down into a bed (Nash, late '40s-early '50s). Also, one or more car makes had a switch on the floor when equipped with a signal-seeking radio.
I had purchased a car phone (it was called a bag phone) in the early 90's when I was with a sheriff's department working the road at night. Dispatch would often call me on the radio to make a phone call to the office. This would require finding a 24hr convenience store to use their landline. Since I was sometimes out in the back 40 it took a bit of time to do that. I had used my car phone with pretty much good results considering it was only serviced by a small network. The killer was when I submitted my $258.00 monthly phone bill for reimbursement and was rejected (the condition of buying the phone for use on duty, which was the only time I used it, was that I was to be compensated accordingly). Discontinued the service and still have the phone to this day.
Gas cap and opening in the center rear of the car often under a spring-door license plate. This was an innovation that to this day would still be very practical.
There’s that scene in the movie Groundhog Day, where he fixes the flat for the old ladies. And the sound the jack made, and the bouncing of the car brings back memories!
About the vent windows, you all failed to mention in my opinion, the best feature of those vent windows. By pushing the vent window out, it would create a negative air pressure vacuum that would suck the air out for smoking, for example. Or you could pull the window in towards you and that would force air into the vehicle positive air pressure, so there are two very practical purposes for those windows I personally miss and love those windows really helped the 460 air conditioning system 4 windows down 60mph. Since A/C was an expensive upgrade option.
Couldn’t pull glass in. Was a little out or a lot. Didn’t swing both ways.
ty. you wrote my comment before I got here. The drivers side vacuum ash tray.
@@njjeff201lol… mine was a heapa stick as well, with vents that opened in or out…i thought it normal, not defective, although looking back, everything else was defective… so… thanks. This has been a great nostalgic trip.
FRESH AIR WITHOUT WRECKING MY HAIR!
THAT was the best thing - ok, the smoking ventilation too!.
Think of all the women who used hair spray - for a REASON.
Wasn't a theft issue I worked at gm dealership in 60s factory rep in 69 said gm saved75 dollars per door by deleting vent windows nuff said lol
I think the worst modern innovation is the touch screen. I know they're useful but putting ALL the controls on them is madness. I prefer tactile swiches you can use without taking your eyes from the road.
Right! My friend got a new stereo system, and it has a touch screen , but with the options all being painted onto the screen, and there's no light, so you can't do ANYTHING at night without turning on the dome light so see what's what. How are manufacturers acting like cars are new and haven't ironed out the design kinks yet?
@@Schwarzorn This post seems to have come from the 1950s LOL
What system have they bought? I've not seen anything like the one you're describing. Not saying it's not true, just that I've never seen one and it must have been extremely cheap.
@@4ebees I went and looked at it. It only says JVC, but I looked it up, and it seems to be the KW-M560BT. He bought it just last year. The "buttons" on the left side are the unlit problems. Trying to turn down the volume at night? Oops, just made it way louder. Let's try to feel lower for that - Button. Oops, just turned off the stereo. -_-
@@Schwarzorn It's amazing what can be sold as if it meets some standard of utility.
People who make these things should be publicly shamed LOL
It's insane to use a touch screen for any car control.
I loved bench seats ,vent windows and floor dimmers
Yea, I remember those as a kid. :)
@@sanchellewellyn3478 I remember them as as kid too. And as an adult. My F250 has window vents.
I remember watching my cousin install an 8 track player in his car
@@shawnneice4322 do you remember the 8 track that he played?
My 1984 Olds Cutlass Ciera had two benchseats and seated six adults. Olds did a convertible version, making it one of the very few six seat converible coupe (two door).
Another item that miss is the full size spare tire-- actually ANY spare tire at this point.
Well, during > 99 % of all car rides a spare wheel is just a heavy thing you are transporting around without use. In a world where you can use your mobile phone to call a service company which can deliver a new tire. 🙂
@@dabbasw31Deliver a new tire? What a bugman. Why carry a gun when you call the cops? Why have a fire extinguisher in your house? Just wait on the firemen. Why have bandaids? Just call a doctor
@@VndNvwYvvSvv As described: at least in industrial nations it is not efficient to transport a spare wheel everywhere. That thing has a weight and therefore increases the fuel consumption of a car.
And unlike a fire or an injury a broken car usually do not threat your health.
@@dabbasw31 ",As described" lol. You made a non engineering statement without any idea of the percentages involved, Vastly outweighed by the utility and the extra weight from other completely unnecessary things. How much does you car weigh? One of mine is 1800 lb. I get 50 to 80 mpg. Electric cars are a joke to anyone who can list the losses and waste from end to end, not just the 5-10 year stated "lifetime" which is never realistic right out of the gate. Honestly, people should pass an IQ test before posting online....
@@dabbasw31 and that's WITH a spare. Why? The weight is negligible in efficiency unless you're in constant stop/go traffic. In which case you'd want something with hybrid regeneration. In which case ..... That spare tire weight is negligible to the extra battery weight AND the materials and resources for the tires that wear out much faster than a gas car. You've not worked on papers analyzing these things and it shows, normie.
The “digital dashboards that became obsolete” came back again with a vengeance in the 21st century.
Yep. That's what is in almost all new cars now
So did push button transmissions
Definitely a case of seeing something that would be a trend, but pushing it too early.
I had a Nissan 300ZX, and loved the digital dash. I also loved the pop-up headlights.
I think the old ones look cool fr
So bench seats didn't stand the test of time ? Over 60 years of bench seats seems like a good run to me !
Yeah, I thought this was going to be things that were pushed out and quickly died like the 80s digital dashboards (of course you could say that was a successful idea, they just tried it 25 years too early). Still an interesting video though.
I want bench seats in my car!!!!
@@unknownhuman5507 look into the new Scout Terra. It's going to have a retro style bench.
Re: Bench seats : Do you remember what it was like to adjust the seat? "Ok everyone, altogether. I need to move the seat forward a little"
HAHA ,
The 8 track , Google that will yah , gimme a break ,
They were awesome at drive ins or other parking adventures 😅
@kirkboivin4357 True, ut , there was always one " LEMON GELATI " you know , it's a drop back bench , so , one of em has to pull the seat drop lever while you driving , one sec you lookin at the Rd , the same next second your lookin up the nostrils of the bloke sitting behind you and the roof of the car , yeah , fun times for sure . R
Yup, remembering
I never EVER had a floor dimmer switch go out on me. They always worked.
All of them failed on the cars I drove. In two of them, the mounts rusted so bad that I couldn't install any switches so I just did without high beams.
Yeah, me either! That is one feature I miss, actually.
Yes, in the rust belt they could be problematic but where I grew up they lasted forever. @bobbabai
I picked one up at a parts store, and installed it to use for my led light bar. Love it
I never had a stalk-dimmer switch go out on me. They always worked.
Pop up headlights - At least the headlights on my 1990 Miata don't turn yellow and become nearly opaque like the plastic headlights on more recent models.
It only takes a few minutes once every few years to give the headlights a cut and polish. It's much more work and much more expensive to fix broken pop up lights.
Bench seats in cars were important in my teens. If your date scooted over to be closer to you while you drove. You knew things were going well and might get better.
The automatic seatbelt was the worst inovation, ever.
Yes I had one. Always in the way. Got rid of that car pronto
They were very dangerous if you were trying to fire a rifle and then closed the door because you would accidentally shoot down signs that would land on chains that acted as leashes for rotweilers. The the dogs would jump into the car and maul the driver.
@@thebadash4165Say what?? 😂
Forgot who the comedian was that said "Every time that seatbelt straps me in by itself, I expect to hear a dark voice say "Good evening, Mr. Bond!"".
@@hellogoodbyeagain I was referencing Tommy Boy. Something Rob Lowes character did.
I still like vent windows, have them on my 1978 Ford.
I recall someone demonstrating how a thief could take advantage of a vent window and then trying to sell an aftermarket device to prevent that from happening.
Those ugly "vent windows," or "wings," as many people, like my tobacco-addicted parents, called them, were TERRIBLE....the annoying wind whistling, the rain water that would eventually drip in, often like a Goddamned faucet, depending on the car....NO THANKS, SO GLAD to just see them all GONE. They're just an old, bygone relic of the "smoker's era." Smokers just used them as an excuse to light up and pollute everyone's air quality, telling them that they wouldn't ever smell it or otherwise even know it was happening....except that this was JUST NOT TRUE. AT ALL.
the breeze from a vent window was a life savor back when a lot of cars did not come with ac's
@@jamescarrington5521 You're very wrong about the efficacy of vent windows. They are the only way to directly vent smoke and if combined with a vent that brought outside air into the car a courteous smoker could vent more than 99% of the smoke. It's a shame they were summarily eliminated along with ashtrays and cigarette lighters in an effort to make smoking in a car too inconvenient and inconsiderate to continue.
@@jamescarrington5521 you seem like a very bitter person.
Vent windows sucked the cigarette smoke out. Back in the days when everyone smoked.
They also sucked IN hornets and other undesirable insects.
@@NCF8710I got hit in the face with a bee because I had wing opened to the max!!
@@georgemckinney6875 The bee must have been knocked senseless after its travels.
Vent windows were great and necessary. I believe they were stopped because of safety concerns. Like many of these other features, regulators found that people hit their face on them in an accident. I'd rather have the "batwing" and take my chances.
Everyone?
Vent windows were eliminated due to expense. Their passing was lamented by drivers for about a decade, until a new generation of drivers had forgotten about them.
I've always had to buy very used cars. That vent window would be nice WHEN the ac fails.
@@jasonrist6582 very rare that a car’s ac fails
@@JonathanMoosey just like e new lightbulbs don't fail... /s
@@JonathanMoosey you don't know. i tend to have 10+ year old cars. that's what usually fails. that and miscellaneous electronics
@@jasonrist6582 I have never had a car where the electronics fail and if something does fail, it’s not typically an important part
The two most important innovations in car design are 1. Lights that turn on and off automatically combined with an alarm to tell you if you have manually left the lights on. 2. Fuel caps that cannot be taken off and left somewhere such as on the roof of the car.
The narrator did not mention the principal benefit of bench seats.
Paradise by the dashboard light
@@KCFlyer2 Meatloaf 😄😄😄
@@KCFlyer2😂😂😂😅
The ash tray on my motorcycle didn't work out as i had hoped .😮
Bet you appreciate the increased fuel economy when the weight of the ashtray was removed.😊
I always like to hang an air freshener from my motorcycle mirror. Really makes the ride more enjoyable.
Ha ha ha! That's hilarious!
@@six-pack1332 Your 'Old Lady' and FDS 🚫(Feminine Deodorant Spray)
Mine was lazy too, waste of money buying it gym membership.
Many a young couple learned the facts of life on a bench seat at the local drive in theater.
Practicing their night moves...
@@usaturnuranus My first third base.
It's more like they first put knowledge into practice.
a yes, back seat sex at it's finest
@@Quinn37. Back then, as Sex Ed wasn’t common in schools, it more likely a sense of discovery. But then, info was surely passed on the street.
They need to bring those vent windows back ASAP. It was an absolute genius, yet so simple design.....
Yeah. I always use them when I borrow my aunt's truck. And I don't think I've ever seen one leak...nor would it be a way to break into a car...unless people aren't closing them all the way (I.E. locking them). Honestly, tho, they're just gonna smash thru your windows if they really want to break in. Not that they won't break the windows regardless.
I wouldn't say that features that lasted half a century before becoming obsolete didn't stand the test of time. They stood the test of quite a lot of time.
I miss vent windows, column shifters, and dimmer switches on the floor.
Floor vents
Floor mounted dimmer switches lasted at least 100,000 miles, in my experience! Plus, replacing them is a piece of cake, vs column toggles!
When I and mum had Holden Kingswood it had the floor dimmer and never had issues. I've heard of people putting in floor dimmer or 2 as an engine cut out so when the vehicle is parked if someone tries to steal the vehicle the engine wouldn't start as a theft measure
You're right about replacing them. I started driving in the late 60's, and even into the 70's I bought a lot of cheap used cars. I had to replace 1 (maybe 2), 2 scews to hold it on to the floor, and 1 wire with a spade connector. Easy peasy.
column toggles are a distraction
Bring back the floor mounted dimmer switch! No matter how busy your hands are on the steering wheel, your foot can always tap a floor switch.
@@3sierra15 So true... the floor mounted dimmer (dip-switch) was popular here in the UK, too. They were easy to swap if they failed-but they very rarely did.
Insurance companies and lawyers forced these changes more than consumers did,
Insurance companies and lawyers be damned!
That and the federal government....
@@antonbruce1241 Absolutely! That's phase two!
@@Sandra-dt4ec I agree. Police get mad when you don't wear a seat belt. Why? Because if they have some years on the force, they have been on scene where they're scrapping a family just like yours off the highway.
Yup
Some things I never heard of. I LOVED the floor dimmer switch!!!!
Sooo easy and convenient.
lol you must be a young one!
My 77 New Yorker had a 2nd button you could tap to change the radio station.
If they made a truck with bench seats, "three on the tree" aka column shift, and floor mounted dimmer switch, they would sell VERY well. What a great multi-purpose vehicle they were.
Column shifts were replaced with floor shifters when they started using 4 and 5 speed gearboxes. Column shifts were much less exact in finding the correct gear when you had more than two gates. Plus, floor shifters were sportier and gave an impression of being a sports car.
Floor shifters were a greater impetus to bench seats than were the "safety" or "comfort" of bucket seats. And with the floor shifters, consoles and their cup-holding capacity became a feature that bench seats did not provide.
I still have one, lol.
In my head I heard "three on the tree" every time narrator said "column shift"!!
And they also did what a truck should do. They worked. There was a base model. And it was a full blown grown up ass pickup truck. Unlike the base models now, that cant even pull an empty landscape trailer and get over 4mpg.
I don't think cars that had three on the tree with sale well in today's market. Mainly because drivers today have never learned how to drive stick shifts.
Most of these innovations were not discontinued because of consumers. A lot were done away with by number crunchers and designers trying to tell us what we want. After these items were gone for a while the newer generations, who had never had them or never knew they existed, did not see any of the practicalities anymore. A lot of American trucks still had many of these options well into the 90's and 2000's because trucks were still seen more as work vehicles than as recreational.
Car manufacturers have been into telling us what we wanted for soooooo long! Just look at the utterly UGLY stuff they push out these days!!
Exactly
Many of the items were after market and never all that popular.
One that bothered me was the white walled tires. They died because of the trend to pretend people were driving sports cars. Since race cars didn't use white walls, neither did sports cars. In an effort to look sporty, tires were being sold without the white walls.
The same with floor shifters. Three speed manual transmissions could use a column shift no problem. (I never heard of any issues with the shifters) But when they started using 4 and 5 speed transmissions then column shifters didn't work because it was much more difficult to find the correct gate. Plus, sports cars used floor shifters and many consumers were swayed by the sports car idea. Floor shifters killed the bench seat, not any safety consideration.
Only rich people will be able to have cars soon, and that is a deliberate policy on the part of the Govt with their ever-increasing restrictions and the associated costs.
This is also reflected by in the way they now have all this constant read-construction/strangulation going on that destroys the flow of traffic and inspires Road Rage everywhere.
Soon, the peasants will be immobilized, and then the ruling class will get REALLY nasty.
One could also argue that if a product / feature had lasted for over 60 years, then it did pass the test of time.
Started working @Ford dealership 1970. Never had a leaking vent window although a Lincoln had to have window regulator go bad. Was an expensive repair as it was powered.
Never saw bad high beam switch. Bench seat had 3 seat belts. Hood ornaments originally had thermometer built in for water temp. Some Pontiac ornaments were illuminated… looked kool! Bench seating was horrible for center passenger with trans bump in floor.
Of course as a young child sitting in the back of my Father’s Glacier Blue Ford I used to jump up & down on the center floor hump while holding onto the front bench seat.
I was always the centre passenger as I suffered from motion sickness
Also forgot about "Floor Vents" those fun little doors under your dash that you could open to get a good breeze in the car without opening the windows. Of course the downside was when you first opened them there was a good chance that you would get blasted with a bunch dirt or sand, as they had no filters on them...🤣
That's one I don't remember ever hearing about. Can't imagine what it was like passing over a road-kill skunk...
@@JAbell1966 Extra stinky! But you didn't have to worry about anything splashing on you, as the intake was connected to that grill in front of the windshield.
Absolutely! Floor vents were so useful. Between those and the vent windows, it was great. AC is better, but when most cars didn’t have that, these were the next best thing.
My 92 Plymouth Sundance had floor vents. I miss that feature in the car that replaced it. It did have an aftermarket filter box.
I have to point out that almost every car shown in the section about column shifters were automatics and not column shifters or "3 on the tree" as we called them back in the days.
Actually the majority of the vehicles shown during the column shift segment were actually floor shift, including a couple with Hurst shifters.
the window vent mom called a fart window. lol
😂🤣
Now that's funny! Your Mom must have been great!
Your mom must have been a lot of fun!❤
Curb feelers (18:00) were intended more to tell you when you were close enough to curbs to comply with local parallel parking regulations, which commonly required that the car had to be within twelve inches of the curb. They were not replaced with sensors and cameras (18:39) as there were several decades between the demise of curb feelers and the development of electronic alternatives. The main problem with curb feelers was that they easily broke off, getting caught in curb joints or cracks, and especially in frigid winter conditions -- _that_ was what was embarrassing, .
Agreed. This video appears to have been made by someone that never used these features, and failed to do proper research. They misunderstood nearly everything.
@@cherryjuice9946Exactly. When they talked about column shifters, they failed to mention this refers to manual transmissions, and most of their video shots were column shifters on automatic transmissions.
Some drivers used to add a trailing feeler to electrically earth (ground) the car body to the tarmac, to prevent the build up of static electricity. They may have thought that would prevent car sickness. Those must have worn out fast.
@@faithlesshound5621 I remember those as straps that would trail on the pavement from the rear of the vehicle. I asked my Dad what they were for and he said they were grounding straps that he thought were useless.
@@faithlesshound5621 I actually looked this up. Gates belt and hose company still makes static straps, although they are intended for forklifts. They are made of a special rubber that will conduct electricity enough to drain the static buildup. I was talking to a chemist friend of mine and he said at one point they changed the formulation of rubber used in car tires. One of the side of effects of the change is the tires now conduct enough that you don't need static straps. The thing about the old straps was that they were light enough that the wind created by driving down the road would blow them backward, so they didn't touch the road and wear down. As soon as you stopped, they went back down and touched the pavement. I guess at some point somebody decided to market these things as a solution to car sickness, but that was not their original intent.
Love the style of older cars. Most cars today are too generic in appearance.
You could tell the make and model of a car a half mile away ... Real chrome
Can’t get comfortable with a giant console dividing the front seat.
Most 21st Century cars are like the mass produced baby mansions: they both lack character, got no soul.
I've made this observation on many a day, as I go through my day to day life seeing Fords that look like Chevrolets that look like Hondas that look like Toyotas that look like Nissans that look like Hyundais & many others... I'm sure I don't truly have a problem with it, as long as I can get a less expensive vehicle that can be mistaken for a luxury vehicle, that perhaps has some of the same features that they wouldn't've had in the past, but, I can see why it would be a problem for some people... You bought a MERCEDES, & you want everyone to KNOW you bought a MERCEDES, you don't want to be mistaken for some HYUNDAI KNOCKOFF!!!!!!...🤬🤬🤬
The vehicle I drive right now doesn't truly resemble anything else, though it does kind of look like a miniature version of the Nissan Murano (which was the vehicle I wanted to get, & will likely be the next vehicle I get, though the Nissan Murano does kind of resemble the Toyota Venza in some ways, so maybe I'll go for that instead... But, the Murano is WEIRDLY (arguably...) more luxurious than the Venza in some ways, though usually only in the higher trim levels of both...)...😅
They are dull as buggery. Modern cars suck.
...Woodies didn't quite go away totally. In the 1960s through the 80s, car manufacturers moved to using a false wood panel finish that was essentially a vinyl sheet applique of simulated wood grain added to the body, particularly on some luxury cars, station wagons and later, minivans.
I had a '65 ford wagon with false wood.
@@keith7046 There's nothing worse than having false wood. Or am I being a bad boy, there???
@@antonbruce1241 No, you're right. It was fading and starting to peel.
And Family Trucksters!
@@steeleslicer1217 Ah yes, too bad they don't make them anymore.
Loved Loved Loved Vent windows
To this day, I still miss the floor dip-switch.
And the distinctive sound of clicking!
I don’t
My grandfather had a 1940's Dodge with AM radio with vacuum tubes....it took a while to warm up before it played...
Windshield wipers were powered with engine vacuum...going up hills the wipers would slow down because of less engine vacuum.
😅
My '57 Ford had vacuum wipers. Hated those.
@@keith7046
Yeah...didn't understand why they were not using electric motors....😄
And, even worse, the wipers slowed down when you passed a car ahead of you. A complete disaster in rain / snow when you were sprayed from the carahead of you and really needed the wipers to speed up rather than slow down...
@@hanswendeberg597 AMEN!
My 1959 Chevy had a tube radio. Warm-up was pretty quick, though.
Many, many of the new cars look so similar. So unimaginative, so boring.
Was looking at the new Peugeot, hyundai and Renault hatchbacks yesterday. Couldn't tell the slightest difference between any of them. Decided to keep my current car a bit longer but in the long run what am I to do?
I call them eggs with wheels.
The plethora of regulations dictating size and location of equipment such taillights, turn signals, bumpers, etc result in cars that look a lot alike. Manufacturers have very little flexibility in design.
Remember when a Cadillac LOOKED like a step or 2 over all the other cars? Cadillac visually stood out in a class by itself. Not any more. Some Kias or Hyundais look the same as some Caddys. One has to look close to tell the difference.
I know most of the Teslas look like a computer mouse 🖱️ @@gregkleinfall1901
My grandson will be able to tell my descendants that he remembers when cars had steering wheels.
@@williscopeland7114 Self driving cars are a silly idea, I hope they never get approval here.
@@dogwalker666 Self driving cars would solve traffic jams if nothing else.
@@troothcentral-qz9pz Maybe some but the biggest problem with traffic jams is too many cars on roads and streets that are too small,
Autonomous Vehicles will make no difference,
@@dogwalker666 Not really. If all cars accelerate and decelerate at the same time we all move together. Humans wait or otherwise respond to the car in front, not the hive.
@@troothcentral-qz9pz That’s not the problem and as Autonomous Vehicles struggle with roadworks, Floods, and roundabouts, As they use google maps which really struggles with diversions,
Google Maps tries to take people through the exit of a garage through the carwash and through a river, rather then the roundabout,
Satellite navigation needs to be way more accurate, Then you have musk mobiles that have actual killed people.
I love floir dimmers. As well as the wiper switch on the dash. I get so sick of accidently hitting them when trying using turn signals.
Same here.
Clutz
Vent windows were popular because that's where my Dad let his cig smoke out.
Without freezing us out in the winter.
excuse me no seatbelt for the middle passengers.? There were seat belts for the middle passengers.
Sometimes!
That depends on the car. My dad, and then when he passed my brother, had a 64 Comet with NO seatbelts. They were not yet federally required. Neither did my MG Midget or my MG 1100 (both 1964 models).
There are several errors in this video. Most of the features vanished because the factory was too cheap to continue a featured because it dipped into their profit.
Oh gawd, those ugly cars; veritable petrol guzzlers.
I have a center seat belt in my 2011 chevy silverado. Soooooo.
Cars today still have column shifters for automatics. Cars and SUV's not only still have roof racks for luggage, but people now mount tents on top of them. Wing windows are still a great idea and companies should bring them back.
They were always a US feature, And now automatics have flappy paddles.
@@dogwalker666 "And now automatics have flappy paddles."
Or they are on the floor...
Heaps of modern cars have push-button transmissions too.
@@andoletube It only took them 60 years to go back to that...
Shows a cassette player while talking about 8-track tapes. Shows a floor-mounted gear shift while talking about steering column gear shifts. Shows a prop plane when talking about jet planes.
Makes me think the whole thing was AI generated.
@@BlankBrain AI could do a better job than this video.
@@gj8683 Four track tapes came first!
@@altriplett9099 Wow. I completely forgot about 4-tracks. Kudos.
@@slactweak for some reason so does 99% of the general public as well!
If memory serves, the four track cartridges were basically self contained, shorter, reel to reel format, originally used by radio stations for commercial announcements, or public service messages…
In fact, I remember salvaging a few broken 4track cartridges, by putting them on a reel.
My Dad's Oldsmobile had a speedometer that changed colors with changing speeds. I thought it was pretty cool.
Folks today will never realize the joy and convenience of a vent window. If you never used one, it can't be explained to you.
I used to love them because anyone who smoked could open it and I wouldn't have to die in the back. They were good at drawing out the smoke
They served a purpose but they did create wind noise.
They were great for keeping windshields from fogging up when it was raining on cool days.
My 1984 VW Rabbit had those windows. They fell out because they were attached with glue. Got them upgraded with better mounting, and they lasted for years. I miss that car.
I'm surprised that the automatic cigarette lighter wasn't mentioned. It was mounted on the dash and when you mashed the botton, a cigarette would pop up lit and ready to be enjoyed.
It was also good for starting fires if you were camping.
And the receptical has since become a standard for 12v electrical devices.
Those things stress me out. My sister would tease me with them. Act like she was going to push it on my arm or whatever.
I liked vent windows because they diverted wind from blowing into the window next to it.
The downside is they were noisy. With AC and flow through ventilation becoming standard, they were no longer necessary.
And were quieter
Then there was the great window accessory - the monsoon shield. Theoretically stopped the rain but not the breeze
@stephenlitten1789 Had those on last truck. They keep out rain when leaving windows cracked and parked, but like you said, when moving, the wind (and rain) would blow in.
Open the vent windows, open the lower air intake ( I had a handle to pull) and the ventilation was awesome. !
I miss the vent windows.
No drive-ins? No bench seats? How sad!
Made back seats popular!
I remember the drive in as w kid, it was great, but saddened to see it close and pulled down
@@jacobbellwood6184 I remember going to the drive thru in our pajamas in case (we kids) fell asleep. High School, it was not a problem!
I had never heard of car record players before
neither have i
Oddball option on higher end vehicles and just wasn't practical when the car was mobile
I remember record players as a kid . 4 track was next then 8 track cassette, and so on .
They were aftermarket and did not sell well. The same as car phones. Because they were all tubes, they were large and ate space in the center of the dash.
They were never popular since the car would have to be parked in order to use it.
A home record player could skip when you just walked by it. In a car? What were the designers thinking?
I REALLY miss the bench seats, vent windows, luggage racks and curb feelers. Had them all on my MG's, either all or a couple at a time. And when I was young...we had a Rambler with a push button transmission.
I also had a Rambler station wagon that had push buttons for every thing. It was white with a red interior. It was built like a tank and the whole thing could turn into a bed as all of the seats went down, even the front seat. It was my first car and it was old when my parents bought it for me, I think they paid $100 for it. I loved that car.
Bench seats had unique functionality and us baby boomers remember them fondly.
I'm an old guy and this was a great drive down Memory Lane, since I remember virtually all of the items on your list. Thanks much for a fun video!
I'm 84 and smoke. I never once had an ashtray catch on fire. Any time some non-smoker rode with me, I alway checked the ashtrays for things like tissues and candy wrappers later. Non-smokers are hazardous to your health. BTW, CDs can skip too when on a bumpy road.
😜🤪😝🤑
I bought my first car when I was !7. It was a 1955 Ford with bench seats. I have great memories of those bench seats that I cannot share. LOL
So do I, my friend. So do I...😉
Yes!
Sure ya did pops. 😂😂
🫢
Good times.
Pop-up headlights used to be necessary for sports cars, because by law, all headlights in the United States had to be a standard sized circle or rectangle. This law was revoked in the 1980s, allowing automobile manufacturers to use custom, more aerodynamic headlights for their vehicles, eliminating the need for pop-ups.
Example: Lotus Elan of the 1960s. They were vacuum powered (you can't beat a vacuum for lightness).
Bring back the tail fins. So many of the new cars look alike.
Bench seats were great for making out at the local drive-in movie or lover's lane. I really miss push button shifters and vent windows. No station wagon third seat? No AMC/Rambler ceramic coated exhaust system? No swivel front seats? No swing away steering column? No talking cars?
I loved my bench seats.
Many a young couple learned the facts of life on a bench seat.
Same.. I had a converted VW Transporter as a family car that could fit my disabled daughter's wheelchair in the back as recently as 2018. That had a bench seat in the front for an extra front passenger.
@LyleFrancisDelp you posted my comment before I could!!! If you had a full size car you had a twin bed for a backseat!
AND 1/4 windows.
Yeah just slide over to the other side of the car. I've seen an awful lot of old black and white movies (cops, private detectives, gangsters) where the guy gets in on the right front door and then slides across the seat to the driver's side & steering wheel.
Hood ornaments started out as rad caps and thermometers. How you supposed to aim that thing now without the hood ornament sight. 😅
When I was a little kid I used to sit on my grandpa's lap and would line the hood ornament up with the line on the side of the road to drive
Getting rid of vent windows saved automakers money. That was the primary motivation. That's true of a lot of these features.
01:38 OMG I was just talking to my wife the other day about those vent windows and wish we had them back lol, I did love those :)
Swamp coolers before A/C . The little torpedo full of water on the side of the car.
They also had canvas bags that hung in front of the radiator. I remember my mom filling a dishpan with ice and putting it on the front floor. She also had a towel that she put in the cold water to evaporate (while my dad was driving). This was on vacation road trips.
…the torpedo full of water (that was once ice) on the outside of the front passenger window. Those were great for about 10 miles out so in hot weather if you could find ice. Love ‘em all.😂😂😂😂😂
…the torpedo full of water (that was once ice) on the outside of the front passenger window. Those were great for about 10 miles out so in hot weather if you could find ice. Love ‘em all.😂😂😂😂😂
Automatic retractable radio antennas seem to have died out as well. They disappeared into the body when you switched the engine off.
Non retractable ones got ripped off and used in fights.
Actually, the antennas only came out when the radio was turned on and then retracted when the radio was turned off. My father had an automatic retractable radio antenna on his 1988 Jeep Cherokee. It froze in the winter and the motor, unable to move, burnt out. It cost $85 to replace. After the motor burnt out a second time, he had it replaced with a standard, non-retractable antenna. Someone could steal or break off your standard antenna many times before it would cost as much as an automatic retractable one.
Very cool video! I love how you explain the past without putting it down like so many do.
The T-top segment features a Porche 911 and 3 consecutive shots of a Fiat X1/9 (my first car). They didn't have T-tops, but instead had a targa top, which didn't have the center bar, but still leaked.
I always thought curb feelers were an after-market item.
The people doing this report don't really not know what they are saying because they are not old enough to know and so many of the supposed problems never happened in any of the cars I grew up with or owned
Bullseye!
Then where did all these features go if they were so great unc?
They took out ash trays because all the smokers just used the world as the ashtray.
Many of them have decided not to smoke inside a car as the smell will reduce its value.
my first car had vinyl roof, floor dimmer switch, column shifter, ashtray, bench seat, and hood ornament. name that car!
Pretty much 80 percent of them from 1970.
@@northdakotaham1752 i dunno, that particular combo is pretty rare-more like 60%.
Blimey! Forgot all about my floor dimmer and vinyl roof.😎20:03 Now that's what I call a Woodie.
Taking out the starting handle (no fear of flat batterires) and window winding rachets ( never getting caught with your windows open), were in my mind the worst things removed from cars.
Yes bring back the engine crank definitely for small engine's, the engine's with big compression issues is another thing for anyone who aren't strong enough to crank the engine over
Great video. It brings back some memories
I've had 3 cars with pop up headlights. A Reatta, a Fiero and a Corvette. Every single one had problems associated with them. Never again.
I was fortunate my 1987 Pontiac Fiero "Pop Up" Headlights never gave me issues..I always sprayed Lubricant on the headlight hinges
My '70 LTD had doors that popped up. They were awesome.
I've had 2 corvettes, never problems with pop ups
My 88 RX7 still works fine.
My 85 Fiero's headlights were never a problem. Everything ELSE however....still loved that damn car though.
The Mercedes-star on hoods got the reputation for being a "crosshair for senior citizens". That was, because in the 80s and perhaps 90s people had to save up so much to get a Mercedes that only senior citizens had saved up long enough.
Push button transmissions are back in modern cars.
A fun and interesting look at the past.
Forgotten accessory: Passing mirror, fit on the driver door frame. Two round mirrors separated by about two inches facing each other. The mirror head nearest the driver was canted out facing the oncoming traffic. The other mirror canted in and faced the driver. This allowed the driver to see what was ahead of the 14 wheel truck it was hoping to pass. I saw it as an option on Buick's and possibly other GM cars of the late 40's early 50's. Narragansett Bay
So, bench seats were around from the 1920s to the 1980s? I'd say they _did_ stand the test of timr 😊
My 2004 F150 has a bench seat. Love it!
Nice review for oldies like me.
I'm not seeing how features that were in cars for 5 or 6 decades are said to have not stood the test of time.
Good ol’ station wagon! And I’m not THAT old! :D
The pre-SUV. There was NOTHING wrong with wagons. Loved them.
The Ford Eclipse is a small station wagon. The Ford Crown Victoria is an SUV.
I have seen a Sheriff and three deputies driving their Crown Victorias off road, where the was no road.
So now they put a flatscreen in the middle of dashboard…
I had a 1960's era Cadillac with self dimming headlights. I have had most of these things in my car & trucks in my 52 years of driving. I miss the vent windows the bench seats & the 3 on the tree shifters.
I remember in the early 90's, we got our first van. It had vent windows in the back, to go along with a little tv and NES. It was awesome! The earliest car I remember my mom having, had an 8 track player too, mid or late 80s. Bench seats would be nice now, so I could sleep in my car on my way home from a red eye flight if I get too tired. Other than hood ornaments, I don't remember any of the rest. We kind of came full circle with the end, woodies being phased out for all metal due to safety, metal being phased out for cheap plastic, to be cheaper to make and still giving the look that makes the product overpriced, and less safe.
i still miss the floor dimmers. i never had one to quit on me. there is so much traffic now that you can rarely use your brights anyway
You must have lived in the south. Up north, the salted snow corroded the switches.
Bring back tailfins , 8 tracks , vent windows and Woody's .
So that no one will buy them?
My father had a Woody when we were kids, we used to take it to the beach
@@aspenrebel
Your father had a woody. That’s how you came about. A bench seat was probably involved too.
I don't think these features flopped they were phased out over time due to changing esthetics and engineering requirements.
Would you call the internal combustion engine a flop due to the advent of the electric car?
With bench seats and shoulder belts were introduced both the driver and the passenger on the outside had seatbelts like we have today. Only the passenger in the center position lacked a shoulder harness, but they did have a lap belt.
I really wish cars still had wing windows, and don't be fooled by the narrator saying they leaked, I never experienced rain leaking in. The reason water came in through these was because we'd open them a little to cool the interior as it could get stuffy and or to reduce the fog on the inside of the windshield.
Record players in cars. Not that was a flop and I've never seen a car equipped with one. Or even an ad offering the option. Even as a child I knew that record players skipped when bumped and as a farm kid, I would have said no to one as over half the roads were either gravel or paved roads that were bumpy and rough.
I prefer column shifters: more leg room. One gimmick I hated was the pushbutton transmission. It happened before I was born, but thought it was totally unnecessary, as if they wanted to look "space age." But wouldn't that cause a sore finger after a while?
A RECORD PLAYER, in a CAR? One time I pulled into a parking lot at 3:00 A.M. A cop asked me why. I said, "I'm changing a CD and I want to do it safely. Surprised, he said, "Oh, okay!" and left. It's risky to change a CD while driving. How the hell can anyone change a RECORD?
The wing window was phased out to trim parts and weight. It wasn't much, but manufacturers were desperate.
@@davidlafleche1142
The third car I remember as a kid.
The Pontiac Chieftain's A frame broke and Dad bought a used car, a 1962 AMC Rambler Classic. It was a push button automatic. No you don't get sore fingers from shifting, because you only shift when you need to, just like any automatic.
The record player probably would have been the changer type. Put a stack of records on the spindle, a small lever in the spindle would hold several records without letting them drop. When the previous record ended, the tone are would return to the home position and the next record would drop then the tone arm would move to the outside edge of the record and that record would play.
But a record player in a car wouldn't be very pleasant to listen to while driving when a road imperfection could cause the tone arm to skip or even slide across it. Either frustrating or maddening. I suppose you could use a mechanism to hold the tone arm down despite how rough the road got. Then you'd probably have to replace the needle often, but you'd also have to replace the records after awhile because the wear from the needle the sound would become muddy, not bright and distinct.
@@cynicalrabbit915 The Rambler may have been one of the best cars the USA ever made. Vastly underrated, AMC struck gold by making an affordable and dependable car. Not fancy, but it got the job done for a lot less. (Ironically, cheap as it was, AMC was the first car company ever to offer air conditioning as standard equipment.)
@@davidlafleche1142
Oddly enough 1 year after he bought it the reverse gear went out and he went back to the same lot and bought a 1962 Ford Falcon (powder blue) that one lasted several years and when it went TU he bought a (black 1961) Falcon. It was the last car he drove. My mother asked if I wanted it. At the time I was hauling another car that was given to us from my wife's grandmother's estate. I didn't like the grill on the 61 Falcon and wasn't a fan of black so thought it ugly and declined the offer. Very short sighted and in the intervening years have wished I'd taken her up on the offer. Those little 170 cubic inch engines ran forever and even with the automatic transmission had some get up and go.
I put an aftermarket record player in my ‘56 Chevy. It played 45’s upside down and did not skip, even when going over railroad tracks.
Auto manufacturers liked to use vinyl roofs to hide rust perforation in rusted sheet steel panels, panels that would otherwise have to be rejected. It was thought by the manufacturers that the customers probably wouldn't notice the rusted roofs until after the warranty period expired, after which the manufacturers could claim that the rust was due to water that had leaked through holes in the vinyl or splits in the vinyl seams.
Bench seats, wing windows, lighters, ashtrays, and luggage racks were useful things and should at least be optional. I never knew what curb feelers were!
Split bench seating and column shifters need to make a comeback. They are the best!
Cassette players came out BEFORE 8-track players. Having been a teenager back then: The big selling point was when a cassette came to the end you had to eject it, flip it over, and then reinsert it. As technology improved the machines automatically played the next side. Stopping and restarting 8-track players would cause the tapes to eventually twist causing the machine to end up playing the back side of the tape. You could always put a pencil in the cassette and unbind those tapes when they bound up before the machine would twist or eat it. Not so with 8-tracks. Disassembly or replace only.
I don't know why so many people get that backwards. As a musician, Cassette players were the greatest thing thanks to Walkman technology.
Nope - too complex and bulky
I don't think so.
@@rudymummey5432 I edited my original message. Kinda lengthy but cleared up the doubts.
@@kencory2476 Cassettes came out as a "compact reel-to-reel" tape player, then the 8-track (with its myriad of problems), then the cassette with its improvements, then the walkman brand that fixed the shake problem with jogging.
Bench seats that folded down into a bed (Nash, late '40s-early '50s). Also, one or more car makes had a switch on the floor when equipped with a signal-seeking radio.
Also, the Rambler into the 1960's. Of course, that sprang from Nash but had its own marque starting in 1958. A nice feature.
My father had a car phone. I remember sometime around 1972 calling him on it and he answered.
I had purchased a car phone (it was called a bag phone) in the early 90's when I was with a sheriff's department working the road at night. Dispatch would often call me on the radio to make a phone call to the office. This would require finding a 24hr convenience store to use their landline. Since I was sometimes out in the back 40 it took a bit of time to do that. I had used my car phone with pretty much good results considering it was only serviced by a small network. The killer was when I submitted my $258.00 monthly phone bill for reimbursement and was rejected (the condition of buying the phone for use on duty, which was the only time I used it, was that I was to be compensated accordingly). Discontinued the service and still have the phone to this day.
Gas cap and opening in the center rear of the car often under a spring-door license plate. This was an innovation that to this day would still be very practical.
Old cars look so much better ❤
Luggage racks are for tiny vehicles. They are still required today in the tiny cars we have.
?
My Nissan Armada has a luggage rack and it is not small by any measure.
Luggage racks are still on cars and SUV’s. Sometimes it is a option and then sometimes it is factory installed
You didn't cover bumpers.
Also the huge jacks we used to have instead of the tiny crank models of today
There’s that scene in the movie Groundhog Day, where he fixes the flat for the old ladies. And the sound the jack made, and the bouncing of the car brings back memories!