Seven features that have disappeared from modern cars from cigarette lighters to car phones – how many can you remember?
CARS have radically changed over the years thanks to the progress of modern technology.
Gadgets and features that once were viewed as the height of fashion or cutting-edge innovations have nowadays gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Even built-in CD players seem destined to be discarded in the dustbin of history as streaming services like Spotify take over.
But classic retro stylings and gadgets still hold an appeal – how many of these seven features do you remember and would you want to bring any of them back?
Manual windows
Before electric windows, you had to wind up or down your window by hand – and giving your arm a mini-workout at the same time.
If you got caught in a sudden downpour, you’d frantically wind-up the window as fast as possible before you got drenched.
Power windows though were first introduced way back in 1941 when they came with the Packard 180, with the car using a hydro-electric system to operated them.
The tech had actually been invented during World War 2 to help lower or raise army vehicle roofs.
However it was only really during the 1970s, 80s and 90s did the feature really catch on with General Motors, Ford and Cadillac all adding the feature to their models.
Nowadays, the driver can operate all the windows by pressing just one button, bring the window up or down, as desired.
But anyone wanting to opt for manual operation, some vehicles still have a crank-handle window.
In the US the Jeep Wrangler base trim comes with manual windows, while in the UK the Dacia Sandero still has manual windows.
Analogue driver dials
Back in the day, driver dials were pretty much all black plastic backgrounds, white numbers and orange needles – analogue and giving clear readings.
Anyone wanting to know how many miles a trip had been had to read the old-school odometer before setting off, then take the new reading at the end and do some mental arithmetic.
These days though driver dials are digital with digital instrument cluster ranging drastically in design, style, shape and setup – and the driver can usually customise these to their own preferences.
Fresh air vents
Anyone who has owned an old-school Land Rover or Citroen 2CV will no doubt remember that air con in those days amounted to little more than a physical vent you had to open or close by hand.
Opening the vent helped you keep cool – or as cool as possible.
While if you were cold then you had to close them – and putting on a woolly jumper might help too.
Or wrap yourself up in a blanket, if there was one.
The invention of air con and heating changed all that though and allows you to set the cabin to whatever precise temperature you want.
Often you can have climate differences between the driver and the front seat passenger, so everyone is happy.
Pop-up headlights
Once upon a time these were seen as the ultimate cool thing to have on a flashy motor.
But safety regulations and design laws have all but put a stop to that.
There are still some retro and classic car owners lucky enough to be driving around with pop-up headlights.
Currently social media is awash with Miata owners posting videos of drivers greeting one another in traffic by popping their headlights up and down.
Who doesn’t miss the glory days of the 80s and 90s when pop-up headlights were widespread on cars and supercars of the day – such as the Porsche 944 and the Lamborghini Countach.
Car phones
Back in the mists of time, well the 1980s and 90s really, and before the invention of the mobile phone and Apple Car Play, many top-end luxury cars came with a car phone.
The trend seems to have started in the 1970s and hit a high with the rise of the Yuppie in the 80s and died off in the 90s.
But the first car phone came to these shores from the US as early as 1959.
Motorola had introduced the car phone on the other side of the pond in 1956, using radio technology to connect a car phone to landlines across the US.
The first car phone call in the UK connected Postmaster General Reginald Bevins in Lymm, Cheshire, to motor manufacturer Lord Rootes in London in 1959.
The historic moment was captured by the BBC, with people being able to subscribe to the South Lancashire Radio Phone Service.
There was one significant problem with it though – only six calls could be made at anyone time.
Manual handbrakes
Years ago, every car came with a manual handbrake that you had to put on or off by hand.
Woe betide anyone not carrying out this function properly as soon enough, if you’d parked on a slope, then you’d soon realise the car was rolling down hill and rapidly picking up speed.
And learner drivers had the dread of having to carry out a hill start – finding the ‘bite point’ of the engine, without over-revving it, and then releasing the handbrake while hoping the car didn’t lurch backwards.
Nowadays, that’s all gone thanks to modern technology and often come on automatically or can be operated by depressing the footbrake.
Cigarette lighters
There’s good health reasons why this gadget which was once prevalent has died out, so it’s not really sad to see them go.
That said, there is a certain amount of nostalgia surrounding them.
As a child, surely everyone was fascinated by them and they’d provide hours of entertainment popping them on to heat up and then burning your fingers when the coil was red hot.
Nowadays most cars have what appears to be a cigarette lighter a first glance but is really just a 12V power outlet, with a blank in it.
Chrysler was the first car manufacturer to stop putting ashtrays in their models in 1994 and soon other producers grouped together to stop smoking in cars.
Hyundai was the first to use the feature as a 12V power source and nowadays its included in almost all other cars, providing a safe and useful way to charge up any devices.