Cars in the 80s and 90s were in constant battle to show innovations and cars were becoming more and more technologically advanced. Those advances also came with a lot of bad ideas that were not fulfilled. As an example, features such as pop-up headlights were phased out, they looked great, can't argue that, but they experienced constant breakdowns.
Car technology is constantly changing with new advances in design, let's take a look at some of the automotive industry's most notorious, and currently defunct, car features.
1. Wooden side panel.
The image of a family going on vacation in a minivan with wood side panels was perfect to encourage the average citizen to get one, minivans with this feature appeared in numerous movies. Many 1980s car models came with wood panels on the side. While this was not bad at the time, it was done cheaply. By today's standards, most of these wood panels have fallen off, disintegrated, or looks all weathered by the sun. Many different cars used wood panels during this period.
2. Automatic seat belts.
In an attempt perhaps to make the ultra-difficult task of putting on a seat belt more comfortable and less tedious, many compact cars manufactured in the 1980s had this feature. If you remember getting into an older Accord or Civic, you've probably gotten tangled in the automatic seat belts at one time or another, I had a Nissan Tsuru II that had this feature. The concept was that the driver and passenger would always wear seat belts. Although the intentions were good, these seat belts often broke down or got stuck.
3. Long-range radio kits.
Prior to the advent of cell phones, cars in the 1980s had the option of coming with a long-range radio kit. They were excellent for businessmen and transporters, they just had to find a free frequency and that's it, the problem was that the conversations were not always private.
4. T-tops.
While General Motors was responsible for creating the removable roof design, many other automakers adopted it. T-tops were an almost iconic part of the 80s, being lucky enough to have a sports car with a T-top was a nice trophy to show off. The problem was that there were a lot of security problems with them. The first and most important was the structural safety of the car, which was compromised by the T-Tops.
5. Velvet seats.
I never really saw the elegance in having a car with these types of seats, a spill of chocolate or soda was enough to ruin them forever. Also every summer these seats were a nightmare, even so, they were quite common, you could see them in Honda models up to Cadillacs.
6. Automatic antennas.
I did like this feature, you turned on the car and you could immediately see the antenna rising by itself, it looked luxurious, and it also made it practically impossible for the antenna to be stolen (a recurring problem in those years) the problem was that they used to break down frequently and their repair and/or replacement was not cheap.
7. Headlight wipers.
Notable on Swedish and German luxury cars between the 80s and 90s, the small wipers on the headlights were an odd feature we've all seen at least once. Without arguing much about whether they were really useful or not, what is true is that once they broke down, their repair was quite expensive.
8. Side button to release the seat belt.
Nowadays, this button is almost always found where the seat belt enters. Many cars from the 80s and 90s had the aforementioned belt release system on the side, you had to press it (like really press it) to free you.
9. Button seats.
Remember car seats that had buttons just like a living room chair? Those were pretty comfortable seats and offered a bit of luxury as well. GM was known for doing this with their interior parts. Chrysler was one of the last automakers to offer this feature within their interiors.
10. Mobile phones
Before this life we currently live in which everyone has a cell phone at all times, only the elite could afford to chat on the go. This was done by installing a hardwired car phone in your vehicle. The service was connected through satellites and only the cream of the crop could afford it. The Porsche 930 Slantnose and Mercedes 560SEL were two of the first cars to have this feature.
11. Beaded seat covers.
Horrible feature! Actually, it was more like an accessory, but their function was (supposedly) to make the trip more comfortable in addition to providing a visual decoration to the interior. No, thank you.
12. Talking dashboards
As computer synthesizer technology advanced in the 1980s, so did car interiors. Nissan was the first to offer a talking car with the 1981 Datsun Maxima. The car would alert you if it was time for an oil change, if the door was ajar, or if you had forgotten to put on your seat belt, among other things.
13. Technicolor dashboards.
Just like the DeLorean looked in Back To The Future, this is how many car dashboards looked back then, full of little lights of different colors in a clear attempt to make them look more futuristic. Unfortunately, what happened was that it carried expensive dashboard replacements. The Camaro Berlinetta was one of those vehicles that tried to take advantage of digital design. Consumers did not adapt to this at all, and in the late 90s, many dashboards returned to analog.
And so we conclude the list of features that we no longer see in current cars, which others do you remember?
