Really agree about touch screens. They're dangerous. We need knobs and buttons! I have a 97 Del Sol and a 2000 4Runner. Keeping them both till I die. Growing up in Detroit, I've been a car guy as long as I've been alive. Now? I HATE new cars.

Not just cars...all sorts of things we buy today are designed to either not be repairable at all, require specialized tools that a DIY'er can't get their hands on, or bespoke parts that are crazy expensive. It's not a path we as a world can keep walking down

It has occurred to me that technology after the 2000s has actually made vehicles worse. There are very few new cars I that I actually find to be desirable. Most of the cars I think are cool were built between 1964 & 2009.

I think it is crazy that Lincoln cars from the 70's and 80's like the Town Car looks small compared to cars today.

Excellent, thought-provoking video, HCG. As a 70-year old who once drove 25+k miles per year during my career, I definitely appreciated the safety improvements over the much more aesthetically pleasing cars of the ‘50s and ‘60s. I watch many of the police chase and vehicle accident videos available on KZfaq and am amazed at some of the wrecks people walk away from with barely a scratch that were undoubtedly fatal a few decades ago. But as you point out, there are trade-offs depending upon what is deemed important (or legislated). As for technology, my current daily driver has a touchscreen that is pretty intuitive and has a ton of features, most of which I’ve either never bothered to learn or used so seldomly that I forget how and have to refer to the manual. 🤣 Thanks for these weekly videos! 👍👍👍

Excellent topic, thank you.

And this is why I prefer older junky vehicles over a new one where I can have more access to parts to learn about em better than taking it to a dealership or a shop without the knowledge with old parts that could really help me learn how to make it possible for the new ones to last than to make it doe and get the latest one and so on.

Cheers from Orange County California 🇺🇸 Daily Driver 68 Dodge Dart Restored to driver level... V8 swap and 9 years on the road since swap, 115k on my rebuilt 318...

I love old cars but, the best cars were from 1990's to 2012, after 2012 is when all the garbage starts. Im driving two 2010's right now, great gas mileage, great traction in winter, inexpensive tires, both pushing 250,000kms.

Modern cars are terrible especially if you have back problems. You can have any car you want so long as it has no padding in the seats, rock hard suspension, and oversized rims with tiny tire profiles. Thank you automotive press for ruining everything.

from the perspective of a non-professional urbanist (someone who wants our cities to be accessible to a variety of transit options like walking, biking and using public transit alongside cars rather than having them be almost exclusively accessible to cars), i can pretty safely say that the core issue spawning all of these "tradeoffs" is american car dependency above all. since we here in the U.S. have (re)designed almost every city and town in our nation _exclusively_ around cars since WW2, everyone _needs_ a car to be able to do basically _anything_ (because it's both unsafe and highly inefficient to use any other means of transit [especially applicable to active transit, aka walking and biking]). if you wanna go to work, you _need_ a car. if you wanna go to the gym, you _have_ to take a car to get there (as ironic as that is). if you wanna hang out with friends, you _need_ a car at minimum for yourself, if not for each person going. what that leads to is cars being designed for the _largest_ possible market (and best advertising) so this highly restrictive city design philosophy we use currently can exist, which leads to almost every modern car sucking at being a _car._ p.s. not saying _having a car_ is bad, just that _everyone needing one to survive and lead healthy lives_ is bad. you can 100% drive if you want, i just want it to be a _choice_ rather than the only (effective and safe) option like it is now. p.p.s. yes this is long sorry, this is kind of a depressingly interesting topic (to me at least)

When I retire I'm going to buy a few 1970s vehicles to avoid EVs. I'll fix them up, put disc brakes all around and put modern motors in them.

Its sad because I actually love the exterior design of cars these past few years. I just wouldn't want to drive them though because i just really dispise flat screens

The trade off was reached between technology, servicability, reliability, longevity, power, simplicity and affordability by GM between 1997-2007 with the Gen III and GenIV without AFM or VCT LS 5.7, 6.0,6.2 and Vortec 4.8, 5.3,6.0,6.2 after that the GenIV begins too become more sophisticated and expensive requiring deletion and extra disassembly with little extra strength or performance. The Gen V engines, especially the L8T iron 6.6L has promise with upto 2000hp capability with boost or taking at least a 4.125" bore and at least a 4.125" to 4.25" stroke making a 441-454ci. It's still expensive, sophisticated and requires extra work. Ford reached it between 1987-1997 with the 300,351w and 460, the 302 remained until 2001. The 6.2, 6.8 and 7.3 gas V8s show promise but the don't have the aftermarket support and aren't affordable. Mopar passed their peak after 1978 when the B and RB died, the 360 remained until 2002. The 5.7, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.4 aren't cheap or simple and are gone now. There aren't many things I would be willing to gamble money on buying new and trust that they could run 400k+ miles like an iron Vortec 4.8,5.3,6.0, a Ford 5.8L or 4.9L I6.

Wall to Wall Touch Screens appearing now are Ridiculously Distracting I'm glad you mentioned this How can the driver possibly look at the displays across the whole dashboard and not be distracted even for a second

So many excellent points. Cheaper new cars, with fewer features, should be more popular. I actually like some things about modern powertrains. But I could do without power seats and power windows. Motorized doors serve no purpose. I loath touch screens. The only wreck lane keeping feature prevents is for someone who should not be driving in the first place. How much does that cost? Electronic climate controls are infuriating. A mirror or a window is more reliable than a camera. All I really need for a “radio” is to make the car a Bluetooth speaker. I don’t want any more than that. A well powered, smooth, reliable car with power steering, power brakes and basic AC and Bluetooth connectivity is all I need. They don’t sell that. By the time you get into well powered and smooth, all the rest of the junk gets piled on. Electric cars are even worse in this regard. They will never make a basic electric car.

You have expressed every view/opinion I have for the so called modern car...I loathe any vehicle that is "connected", & has touch screens. No one is permitted to works on my "non connected" vehicles!!!

I started out thinking your point of view was very America-centric but ended up thinking your presentation was very well balanced. Many thanks for another enjoyable video

There was a time when a mechanic repaired things but these days they most often only change the same thing when the knowledge on repairing most often are long gone and only written about in history books about a time when those who knew what they was doing got extinct.

The touchscreen's real purpose is cost-cutting, all those physical knobs and buttons cost the automakers more money than a single touchscreen and infinitely reproducable software.

I miss my first car, a 1969 Ford Falcon. 200 ci, easy to work on, cheap parts, and reliable.😮

New cars are an anomaly. They seem to be cheaper and lower quality in every way than old cars, with things like cheap plastic parts, yet they're more reliable and last way longer. Many old cars were lucky to hit 100,000 miles without blowing up and being abandoned in a field, with rust holes in the floors so big you can Fred Flintstone it. Meanwhile, you now have 200k mile Fiats, plastic parts and all, that run like they left the factory yesterday.

This was vary insightful. And not really biased, just informative.

The only problem with customers preferring the simpler, stripped down trim levels is many dealers just don't stock them so you're forced to either order one and wait while the dealer plays games with you or buy one of the higher trims with features you don't want or need. An example is all but base trim for most manufacturers come with leather heated seats, I hate the feel of leather seats and having them heated is an unnecessary for Florida which is where I live.

I agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree and agree ............

I don't mind touchscreens, in fact I don't plan to ever purchase a daily driver without one again. BUT, I do want it to still have physical buttons as well. I do not ever want to have to navigate through multiple different screens, to say, change the climate controls. And if the screen ever fails I'd like there to be a button backup for the radio as well. For now, both options are generally equipped on most newer vehicle. However I don't like that the trend is starting to shift to touchscreen only without physical buttons.

Great points!!

When detroit died so did America

Even with my 23 civic I had to locate a 6 speed transmissions now are either weak cvts or over complicated 9 or 10 speed units and ,,its no longer simple to upgrade a radio no longer standardized head unit size and everything has complex amp and wiring not like getting a pioneer and 4 speakers and being done

Man U nailed it!!!

1:50 the 59 had most of its front end removed

Modern vehicles are better in one aspect, one is the power and performance of the smaller engines 4 and 6 cylinders with hemi heads, better induction fuel injection tuning, plus the handling and brakes (except the anti lock part, hate it), drove a rental KIA midsize sedan has lively performance from its 4 cylinder compared to my 4 cylinder postal Jeep which takes a while to get up and go, I'll stick with my old iron, that KIA is so hard for me to get in, it felt like I was getting in a Camaro or small sports car, my Jeep is much easier to get in, as well as my 83 Coupe De Ville and pickup truck, the new stuff is just use up and throwaway. Another stupid car item I hate is the radio type knob to select the gears on a automatic transmission instead of a lever, or at least push buttons like on Chrysler cars, Edsels, Ramblers ,and Packards, I just have no perception what gear I'm in, until I look at the dash display and I touch the gas pedal. Seem like when BMW came out with the selector button, everyone else followed.

On the proprietary issue: How is it that 100s of models of SUVs across 40 years of production by all brands haven't managed to accidentally repeat nearly any part. We all complain that all the new cars look the same, but if one window on one model made for one 3 year "design cycle" need replacement, there is no chance of finding that part used. Interior parts, door mechanisms and starters! Worse than headlights: Alternators: two alternator sizes would cover 100% of all cars ever made. But every year every car is redesigned to NOT be compatible with anything ever built before. 2mm change in mounting hardware, and nothing but a new one will work. Where are the environmentalists on that issue! Forget about CO2 etc, where are the protesters on the waste of raw materials designed destroy our ability to keep our cars from becoming landfill at the end of warranty?

Funny, I saw a clip on news with 1964 First Ford Mustang the price was $2648. Now your lucky to get a new car for $50,000. Ironic!

I was born in 83, but I don’t buy anything newer than 72. All the good cars were made before I was born. I feel bad for the younger generations.

I agree new cars are not worth the money there are asking for . I don't know about the rest of you guys but ever time I pass a dealership it seem all new cars mostly only come in three colors white black and gray . I have two old cars a 1980 Z28 which came in blue and a 1971 Firebird which is red with a black top and ever time I drive them it really stands out compare to new cars of today.

Good piece

Amen

1973 daily driver, here I come

Yes. Peak auto was the aughts. It has gone downhill fast since then.

You bet ya ❤

1:22 the 340 duster he uses as the older car example is a unibody.

THANKS!

The LTD II on the thumbnail was a unibody, also the massive 70s Chrysler C-body was unibody..

TIL: air bags can expire! 😱

Car companies used to build what people wanted. Now, they have to try to make people want what they are allowed to build. Simple as that.

I hate all new vehicles.

Yes, yes and yes....

Modern vehicles are not only wayyyyyyy overpriced but they're made out of plastic as well and my 1996 Ford F150 with a 5.0L (302) Windsor V8 will outlast every single one of em (especially those overpriced plastic EcoBoost trucks).

Cars are so much worse now because of the regulation, it’s unbelievable. The regulators are fault for that.

In 2008 Obama got elected and found out that gas is taxed by the gallon. Cars got a thousand pounds Heavier.