Usually, when features on cars get phased out, it’s because the world’s moved on. Think about compact cassette players, vacuum-operated wipers, or six-volt electrical systems. The majority of people simply don’t miss those things because what came next was a sizeable improvement. However, every so often, a feature gets discarded for no immediately apparent reason. A feature that we miss. Today, it’s time to talk about gadgets, gizmos, and doo-dads we want to bring back from the automotive graveyard in the sky because not everything leaves when its time is truly up. I’ll start with an example.
This might come as a surprise to anyone more familiar with my premium hooptie tendencies, but my first few cars were all old and American, and most of them came with a delightful component of the HVAC system — a driver-facing vent under the steering column. While frequently referred to as the “ball-chiller vent,” this ingenious solution of ducting and grating will keep your unmentionables cool regardless of what you’re packing, to the point of being more effective than many ventilated seats on modern cars.
Plus, it’s a relatively simple system. There’s a vent set into an interior trim panel, a bit of ducting, and boom — you can stay fresh, even in high humidity. There are no extra electrical components, little additional weight, and it doesn’t require perforated upholstery. It was a great idea, and something sorely missed on new cars.
So, what car features of the past do you think should make a comeback? Maybe you’re a huge proponent of velour over leather, or found the turn signal-activated cornering lights on old luxury cars immensely helpful, or you just want normal cars to be available in actual colors aside from dark blue. Whatever the case, make your voice heard in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)
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Vent windows!
T-tops!
Anything that minimizes the separation of driver and the outdoors.
Anything that opens or is removable to let a little more sunlight and breeze into the vehicle.
Glorious greenhouses on wheels, like twenty one window buses.
Anything that moves us away from the rolling bunker of solitude trend.
To hell with safety.
Let me die mangled, with a sunburn, breathing fresh air, staring at the clouds in the sky!
Zapp Brannigan was right. Bring back velour, plush, thick, sexy velour.
Seriously that stuff GM put in their Buicks/Olds and Cadillacs back in the 70’s/80’s/early 90s wore like cast iron and felt like a million bucks. Plus I like me a nice burgandy or navy blue interior
No joke, in 7th grade I wrote about my dream car (I wish I still had that paper!) and it had velour seats, because I was so smitten with our new-to-us 1998 Mazda Protege.
My first car was an Olds 88 with the most amazing plush bench seat.. i miss that car
Number 1. . .and if I could only have one, this would be it. . . I want plush seats back, like a 1992 Buick seats that are all soft and plushy, and feel like your living room lazyboy. Ah, to dream a little dream.
And some others. . .
2. Vent windows.
3. Kick panel vents
(Running with your vent theme a bit here)
And for the garage junkies. . .
4. Actual fasteners the screw and unscrew. Not more clips and push/snap connections.
Agree. So many seats are just…not good. Buy a performance car, you expect a bolstered firmer seat to keep you in one spot. Buy anything else, and it should be comfortable.
I remember my buddy had a 1990 or so Buick LeSabre back in the day. We called the back seat the “couch”.
Bring back the transmission fluid dipstick and non-grayscale interiors
Yes to the interior colors! Bring back the blues, reds, and greens. I think the Vette and Z offer a blue interior, but it would be nice to see colors back in normal cars.
I want a ’58 Pontiac just because I can get a two-tone green exterior over a two-tone green interior.
Not for it to make a comeback, but I just want an in-car record player, just since they’re so neat and interesting
Lexus has good news for you…
Well yeah, I said I wanted one since they’re so neat & interesting because I already knew they existed
Well, I would consider that a comeback. But apparently it was 3D printed, so maybe with some handiwork you can achieve one yourself – or find one of those original ones in the post!
Oh ok, my fault…the 1 time I actually didn’t see the part about the newer one…whoa, that is really awesome! Thank you
The Mazda 626 recirculating center hvac vents, which cycled in and out over the 626 generations!
Radios with WeatherBand / NOAA weather.
Floor mounted dimmer switches. Almost all cars are automatics now. There are controls to operate with your left and right hands. Your right foot controls the accelerator and braking. My left foot wants in on the action.
Teach your left foot to brake. It’s a good skill.
If only there was a 3rd pedal that was dedicated to left foot use only….
Bumpers you can bump.
Windows.
Colors. Interior and Exterior.
bring back the gooch grease dehydrator.
I want to see a wine bottle storage area in every door card, at least on French cars. The Citroen AX had them, why did we stop there?
You probably will want ashtrays too.
Wait, they don’t do ashtrays anymore?
They’ve been replaced by cup holders and insulin needle disposal boxes.
AX only had bottle holders on the 3dr, as the 5dr didn’t have a front quarterlight, so needed that space for the drop-glass. They were also a bit too large for a wine bottle, being sized more for a 1.5-litre bottle of Evian or Vittel.
However the Mégane II 3dr had spaces in the rear seat side panels that perfectly fitted wine bottles, along with a recess in the parcel shelf perfectly sized for two baguettes, and a cooled glovebox for the soft cheese.
I hear you but the Megane II is an abomination that is better not spoken of.
Haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Auto Tilting Side Mirrors.
I would guess there’s less demand since backup cameras are mandatory, but they make parallel parking so much easier and it costs literally pennies to add in this feature.
They still exist. Apparently you just have the wrong car. 🙂
All my cars that have electric mirrors only do that if you leave it on the left or right mirror, but when you keep the switch in the middle they don’t move
Maybe I haven’t tried it in new enough cars but my 2005 Acura had it. I guess I’ve been just unlucky
Did have:
Didn’t have:
my 2016 XF has the auto tilt mirror
CD player. I have so many CDs that aren’t on streaming platforms. I have a lot of indie punk bands I would like to just throw in the car without having to digitize them and search on my phone for the right album.
Yes, bring back the CD player. It works, even if you are out of mobile data range, even if your Bluetooth has a freak out, even if radio reception sucks. I do miss them!
I prefer to be able to hold 100s of CDs worth of music in my palm.
Are you peeved about those dark years where manufacturers felt that giving us a CD player eliminated the need for an AUX in or is this a well-intentioned attempt to raise awareness of the concept of digital music player?
The latter. As an early adopter of the CD player in my car, I grew tired of (a) lugging CDs around in my car and (b) having CDs stolen from my car. When Digital Media Players came out I quickly switched to them, as I had already been using USB sticks, then iPods, and now my phone for music in my car. I digitized my CD collection more than 2 decades ago.
Manual Windows… Save vehicle weight.
Regular keys.
Basic cars, no mats, just a rubber floor.
Manual transmission.
Manual locks.
Under license plate gas cap.
Rain gutters.
Heck yes to rain gutters, manual windows and manual locks!
My YJ had the under plate gas cap. I don’t miss that. Stylistically nice, practically awkward.
I cringe every time some custom car builder says “we shaved the rain gutters, the roof is so smooth now!” My Saab has rain gutters, and no matter hard it’s raining or snowing, I never worry about crap falling inside. On all the newer smooth-roofed cars, you open the doors and it immediately dumps stuff inside. It boggles the mind how we took such a massive leap backwards in daily usability.
I suspect modern electric window mechanisms are lighter and cheaper than manual systems.
That, and I also imagine that designing doors to have all the space available for the crank at every possible point actually takes some engineering time, and it’s probably harder to make that space curvy/aesthetic.
Was the case for the first Lotus Elise!
…why the “regular” keys?
Even when newer cars have “regular” keys, they usually have a transmitter in the head of the key that has to send a matching code to the car. Just getting a key cut won’t do the trick.
I learned this in high school spending a while trying to jump someone’s car who had the top of one of their keys snap off. Couldn’t get it done and they had to wait for someone to show up; later turned out it wasn’t a dead battery or broken starter, etc.; just that car wasn’t detecting an expected signal.
These signals are a good thing, because we know the security of physical keys is mostly a “keeps honest people honest” thing.
I love not having to take my keys out of my pocket for my Prius, and if the battery dies it still has a manual key available to open the door and start it.
I’m so spoiled after having a fob that stays in your pocket and push start, I want to convert all my classics now.
Pop-up headlights weren’t really forgotten, but they are absolutely due for a comeback. I refuse to believe with modern lightweight and compact LED headlight assemblies we can’t figure out a way to make the assembly safe for pedestrian impacts.
If the headlights were pop ups on modern vehicles, they would be way too high. I think regulations dictate they have to be under 5 ft from the ground.
In addition, I cannot think of any pop-up design that isn’t bad for aerodynamics.
Would be a bummer for me since I always drive with my headlights on.
Floor mounter dimmer switches. When driving in bad weather flipping the lights with out taking a hand off the wheel is a good thing.
Also makes it much quicker and easier to flash them to signal other drivers.
Uh
I never take my hand off the wheel to flip the brights on and off. I just put my finger on the stalk and push/pull. Are my fingers freakishly long?
I usually take mine off the wheel. Would probably vary vehicle to vehicle, but my hands are fairly small.
I forget already which commenter said this on another post (…or possibly this one, for all I know), but the dead pedal where your left foot rests serves the important purpose of being a brace point, in case you need to stand on the brake, for example. It can’t do that and be a high beam switch.
Besides, ideally we’d have adaptive headlights (like Europe already has) that just block out specific portions of your high beams to avoid blinding cars, rather than just an entire on/off toggle.
I just wish the rear side windows of my 3-door popped out like those on a Volvo 242, old BMW two-door (at least through the E46), CB7 Accord, or for that matter the third row of most minivans.
Edit: The “ball cooler” vent was my first thought in general, though.
Why, if I may ask? Was that better?
To be clear: I assumed you were talking about preferring them popping out rather than rolling down, but maybe yours are outright fixed and I hadn’t thought of that.
Yeah, they’re just fixed, unfortunately. The four-doors had four windows that opened, because 2000s Toyota wasn’t late-’70s GM, but alas, no rear ventilation for the two-doors.
It’d be neat if the back window popped open too (think Taurus wagon) since there’s a bit of a slope to the hatch and it’d make it just a bit easier to carry bulky things.
those turn signal activated cornering lights are supreme. my altima has them and I wish my other cars had them too
I used to work for Jatco and sell the CVT7 and 8 platforms to OEMs. I never imagined someone on this site would have that image and handle. I’m pretty sure that’s the Japan cut model because the torque converter is painted white. We didn’t typically paint the TC in the US for cut models. People at trade shows used to try to grab the inner workings and try and turn them like they were ‘hands-on’ toys.
Thank you for your service to the automotive industry.
(had to get back into character there)
Also: color-keyed interiors! Give me something with every square inch in red, please.
you would have loved my Fleetwood. Rich Dark red leather interior, and deep red shag carpet on everything that wasn’t leather.
A blood sacrifice I can get behind.
Saab’s Night Panel.
I own a saab with night panel. underrated feature
I love how iconic the Night Panel feature has become, as a contrast to how angry people still are about GM’s ownership of Saab, because…Night Panel only ever existed on GM-built Saabs. It was introduced on the 1994 “New Generation” 900, which is so often dismissed as “just a rebodied Opel Vectra.”
I mean, my ’87 900 has it, but only because none of the dash lights work.
I see this often cited, but do most cars’ dimmers not just go all the way down like my Prius’s?
If my Prius’s light sensor doesn’t detect much light and I roll the dimmer down all the way, it kills ~95% of the dashboard lights and indicators. Still keep the dim steering wheel buttons (helpful) and the safety-related indicators (cruise control, high beams, headlights, warning lights, etc.) but speedometer, fuel gauge, HVAC…they all go away.
Fly window.
Ball chiller vent, you mean a ‘Cooter Cooler’…….
I’ve been looking, but I haven’t seen it yet. How about the floor mounted high beam low beam button.
We don’t have wagons any more, but I’d get a kick out of seeing some SUV with a three-way tailgate.
For which you’d also want to bring back rear-facing third row seats (Mercedes being the last holdout), which are probably fairly unsafe, yes, but also a good time.