[stormdRider]

The good old Cassette player, something that I miss when I plug in the pen drive or connect the phone for music. It's not that I don't enjoy the music in today's media players but the cassette players were definitely one of my best memories about cars when I was younger. Really miss those days when one of the primary functions of the glove box was safekeeping of the cassettes. A friend's uncle had an Omni in which he would pick us from school and I still remember that he had a cassette in his car for every mood.



These are some that I remember from his collection and every time I hear one of these albums, the first thing that comes to my mind is that white Omni. I am sure that many members on our forum can easily relate to similar scenarios.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by GipsyDanger

A 2006 Maruti Suzuki Baleno LXI. 13 years on, it's still our choice for a comfortable highway tour. It hails from a different era of motoring, when many things were different

The Baleno is simply more agile around the corners.

Originally Posted by itsashishsharma

All these cars were FTD, were cheap to buy and cheaper to maintain. Now you must spend 15 big ones to get a proper 1.5/1.6, that too is nowhere as free revving as those from the past.

Well said, that is exactly the reason and those are the same words I say to people who asks me why I am still not letting go my 16 year old Baleno 1.6

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Well said, that is exactly the reason and those are the same words I say to people who asks me why I am still not letting go my 16 year old Baleno 1.6

My father owned a Baleno from 2007to 2018. Of the lot I mentioned in my previous post, I would anyday get the Baleno, yes, over the OHC and Ikon 1.6 for one simple reason, it never broke. We had it for 11 years and 1,20,000 KMs, driven on UP's non-existent roads, still on the stock clutch and suspension. It would cruise at illegal speeds all day and not break a sweat.
People argued that it's parts were costlier and yes, they were. But who cares if those parts last that long. It was cheaper to maintain than a Swift/Wagon-R as we just got the general service done and things like battery, tyres or wipers changed.
They don't make cars like that anymore. I still remember the feeling of driving it. Please keep it in the best shape. GTO has said multiple times how keeping a good car for long time can prove to be cheaper than buying cheap cars that you don't keep up for that long. So please take good care of it, no car today can match the magic.

[King_pin09]

Frankly speaking, I miss every thing of the yesteryear cars,

a. Given the thin origami sheets covering our cars today, I strongly miss the thickness of sheet metal used in yesteryear cars.

2. The heavy metal/ chrome ring surrounding the head lamps and a screw-in type outer reflector / visor (or whatever it was called). Link to image

3. Horn ring link to image

[Superleggera]

I miss the yesteryear's cars that had individual identity on their own - A Jetta looked much more than a baby Passat and a City was never a baby Civic.

[discoverwild]

Happened to watch "Gods must be Crazy" for the millionth time yesterday morning. The Land Rover in the movie is a character in itself and the dialogues surrounding it and the idiosyncrasies are hilarious to this day.

But what's fascinating about it was, the car ran despite a 101 issues and was never really stranded except the time it climbed a tree. No door, starting trouble, shot brakes, distributor, driveshaft problems, leaking oil, overtight pistons and yet it ran. The way, the scientist drops a rock on the fender to carry it to the next stop, how he gets out of the car when it gets stuck in the slush and pushes it out and scrambles to stop it by getting in from the back door.

It reminded me of the simple times and simple machines that we have lost in the race to modernity. For India, I think the Sumo came the closest to that and maybe the Bolero (cramped though). Imagine, throwing a rock onto your bonnet today!

Now, your car stops and you don't have a frigging clue why!

[rajushank84]

I liked the dark gray bumpers the 90s cars used to have. Similarly I liked the black door-handles and mirrors. Everything "body colored" takes away that nice contrast.

I've whined enough about how much I hate electric power steering. I miss old school steering feel (not too old school though- 90s is just right).

The steering-mounted gearshift looked cool in Ambassadors. The press and pull door levers had a nice metallic solid feel, and the "ring" horn on older Ambassador's steering wheel was cool.

[KL01toKA03]

I like hidden fuel caps like that on a 1956 Chevy, which are integrated with the tail lamps.

[plato_]

1. Clean, straight body lines oozing charecter.
2. Those this body pillars, hate those thick ones that blocks my view these days.
3. Hydaulic power steering.
4. Pop-up headlights.
5. Low slung seating positions.
6. Big petrol engines, NA.
7. Body on frame actual SUV's.

[armaan_singh]

Interesting thread !

I would have to say :

1. Easy Repairibility : In earlier versions of cars, whenever you broke down irrespective of where you were in the country, you could almost always find a neighborhood mechanic who could fix you up, but now days cars have just so many electronics functioning together, that one is just scared to get it touched by anyone other than the company.

2. Physical Buttons : I'm all for modernity in cars, but things like climate control etc should always have physical buttons just so that the driver doesnt need to constantly take his eye of the road to see if he presses the screen enough or whether the screen recieved the input or not.
Even if we are going the capacitive screen way for all controls, they should atleast make responsive enough screens, the response on the screens currently feel like cheap tablets from the mid 2000s, it can be extremely annoying.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by plato_

2. Those this body pillars, hate those thick ones that blocks my view these days.

Don't hate the thick pillars too much though. Thin pillars = more chance of dead bodies in the car after an accident.

[FyreMasq]

The biggest trend I miss is the ‘CAR’ itself. From SUVs being built for custom purposes, we have now taken the excuse of bad roads and speed bumps to lap up motor vehicles which are jacked up, I specifically didn’t want to use the term SUV since most of the self proclaimed mini-, urban- micro- SUVs are neither sporty nor utilitarian.

3 out of 5 vehicles seen on road are SUVs and I wish the trend takes a turn towards low slung handling-like-on-rails CARS

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

I like hidden fuel caps like that on a 1956 Chevy, which are integrated with the tail lamps.

Ah, Was this there on any cars that our generation know of. It looks very weird though.

[KL01toKA03]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Ah, Was this there on any cars that our generation know of. It looks very weird though.

I don't think any recent car had this feature. This would made cars look better, since there would be no separate clot required on the side of the body. I can imagine placing the fuel nozzle near the tail lights being a potential fire hazard, and that could be why the trend did not become popular.