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Seems like early 2000s cars were the last of the good cars. You had full airbags by that point but cars were mostly still just basic fuel injected internal comb
by asdff 1y ago
Seems like early 2000s cars were the last of the good cars. You had full airbags by that point but cars were mostly still just basic fuel injected internal combustions engines with sensible transmission choices that had seen probably decades of iteration at that point. If you wanted some crazy infotainment its not hard to roll your own with the standard sized stereo slots in those cars. No telemetry. No "driver aids" behaving nondeterministically. Mechanical linkages vs by wire. Just a car. Starts with a key. Exactly what is says on the tin and nothing more or less.
- MisterTea 1y agoI miss them too. Re. the radio: Now its a big useless screen that shows me useless data while still hiding all the useful data that I can get over OBD-II. And whats worse, that screen is tied to your fucking cars computer and configures your car so you cant remove it, no matter how much the software sucks. I hate my 2022 CR-V's garbage infotainment screen. Its a shit UI, shit audio quality, and the Bluetooth is bugged to all hell. I already have a computer with me in my car called a phone that does everything but better. And that's not saying much.
- spacecadet 1y agoI own a bunch of impractical cars, but my daily driver is a 2005 Honda. I always explain to people exactly this. It's the last good year before everything became too digitized and wireless. It's got physical controls, a real horn, a cable driven throttle and at 350,000 miles with so little maintenance and no sign of stopping. I also own a 05 55 AMG, also all mechanical, but oh so impracticable :D
- LightBug1 1y agoThink you're onto something. I'm still rolling a 2005 Toyota. Incredibly functional, reliable, and I can add whatever I want and choose instead of having it forced down my throat by the current wave of nonsense ... Oh, and zero worries about it being hacked !
- avgDev 1y agoAh, I agree for the most part, however, safety has definitely moved forward. There is a lot more to safety than airbags and seatbelts.
- strulovich 1y agoMy car hit the breaks for me last week on a highway. I’m quite happy with the computerization of cars for this reason. It could be better as the link shows the downsides, but it probably has saved (tens of?) thousands of lives overall.
- szundi 1y ago[dead]
- avgDev 1y agoEven the structures of cars have improved. The crumple zones and structural rigidity is constantly evolving. I also like sensors and crash avoidance tech.
- stavros 1y agoMy car hit the brakes for me last week on a highway as well, except there was no reason to, there was nothing there. I'm not as happy.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y agoI intentionally opted out of these sort of driver assist features because I don't trust the firmware going into them. If a safety misfeature can be disabled manually you also run the risk of an insurer denying a claim if they find out it wasn't engaged. Better to not have it in the first place and use the mark I eyeball for safety.
- stavros 1y agoYeah, I'm not happy I have them, but I'm happy other drivers have them. I guess they help overall, since I need to be careful to keep a safe distance from the guy in front of me anyway.
- qualeed 1y agoBackup cameras are amazing. Especially now that I have kids shorter than my trunk line, I appreciate them even more. A lot of the other stuff, though, I agree with you.
- giantg2 1y agoBack up cameras can easily be added aftermarket if wanted. But frankly, many of those older cars had much better rearward vision that anything today.
- taeric 1y agoWe must have driven very different cars. Rear visibility has always been terrible, and rear cameras are a god send.
- giantg2 1y agoCompare an 80s Caprice, 80s Nova, and similar to any car today, and I think you will clearly see the rear visibility today is much worse.
- taeric 1y agoThere were some cars with better visibility. I would question the caprice being one, but generally smaller cars did have better visibility. Such that something like a Kia Soul has ok visibility. Still is absolutely nothing compared to using the backup camera. And the side mirror blind spot detectors are pretty awesome. On all cars.
- giantg2 1y agoThe backup camera has limited field of view and most require you in a heads down position. This is not helpful for maintaining awareness of your surroundings. It will not help you see a bicyclist speeding by. The blind spot detectors can fail and lead to a false sense of safety, especially on multilateral roads. Show me the FARS data that supports these as actually saving lives.
- sugarpimpdorsey 1y agoI'm routinely ridiculed for driving a car with a traditional ignition key, and insisting upon it, as if it's exclusive to Luddities. Everyone else can enjoy their reflection/replay attacks or whatever. Honorable mention to Toyota who has still not completely abandoned this simple, functional technology for a clunky fob that can be easily hacked. FWIW, fobs are not for your convenience. It's for theirs.
- globular-toast 1y ago> FWIW, fobs are not for your convenience. It's for theirs. Same with touch buttons. Not for you convenience, it's for theirs.
- taeric 1y agoI'm curious who you are routinely interacting with that they care about your car keys. :D I do think the writing is on the wall for old fashioned keys, though? For one, they don't really give you that much protection. As laughable as poorly done key fobs are, a physical key is a pretty low bar as far as deterrence goes. It can be annoying to consider, but cultural norms protect cars far more than anything else. Is why many in suburban areas can get away with having their keys in the cars at all times.
- sugarpimpdorsey 1y agoKeys have been chipped for > 30 years. The technology is proven, secure, and reliable. Kia and Hyundai learned this the hard way when they tried to shave pennies a few years ago. Fobs just created another attack vector catering to people too lazy to take it out of their pocket or purse.
- gottorf 1y ago> people too lazy to take it out of their pocket or purse Keyless start has another legitimate function besides laziness: it allows you to leave your car locked with the engine (and AC) running while a baby or dog is inside. Of course, you can accomplish the same by having two keys with you; you decide whether that's another example of laziness. :-)
- _heimdall 1y agoI came to the same conclusion. The exact year varies a bit by manufacturer. Chevy's pre-2008 were in a good spot, maybe 2007 for the avalanche body change? Quite a few Hondas and Toyotas were good through the early teens, especially the 4 cylinders. I have a late 80s GMC pickup, 2005 Buick, and a Chevy Volt. The only one I have any real issues with is the Volt, though that's only been the last couple years as the battery is getting old; the most frustrating thing is needing to run questionable software on an airgapped laptop just to turn the Volt back on when a high voltage safety flag is flipped tripped in the computer.
- potato3732842 1y agoReally depends on the particular model and when it got refreshed and how much the OEM cares about it more so than the manufacturer. Sometimes the platforms that the OEMs don't care about are great because the idiot dick swinging engineers who want to hit their KPIs neglect them. Sometimes they're terrible because they get phoned in. The flagship platforms are usually safe but sometimes they put too much bleeding edge tech in them.
- _heimdall 1y agoYep that's very true. I always heard good things about the original Chevy Trailblazers, mainly because the motors were extremely reliable and Chevy basically ignored the model until they had to kill it off due to emissions of the inline 6. The 00s Chevy interior was another story, and I hear the transmissions used were either fine or time bombs.
- rigrassm 1y agoYou wouldn't happen to have the software you used to work on your Volt bookmarked that you could share? I've got a Gen 2 Volt that I plan to keep for as long as it makes financial sense and sometimes that shady software is the only option for avoiding the dealership.
- _heimdall 1y agoI don't remember the name of the exact setup I have. I know I've seen people on the Volt forums have success with the GDS2 software and a VCX Nano OBD2 adapter, though I've never used that myself.
- rlf_dev 1y agoThere still are cars being sold without much of new "technology", I daily a MY2024 Abarth 595 that still doesn't have start-stop, ECall, auto braking, telemetry, lane-assist, the infotainment is replaceable by a standard third-party box without messing with the rest of the car and still has a traditional ignition key. It's a basic turbocharged FIAT FIRE engine, so maintenance is stupidly cheap and anyone can do it.
- asdff 1y agoCase in point, that's an almost 20 year old platform now.