I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop
Factoring in inflation the average new car in 1960 cost roughly $23k in today's money.
Problem is, in the US safety features like airbags, anti-lock brakes and now backup cameras are required by law, so there's no selling a new car without those added costs of the center screen, computers and sensors required to run them.
Then you have things like crank windows that went away because volume production eventually made it cheaper to build cars with electric windows over cranks.
But as someone who's old and drove shitboxes when he was young and also has a car built in 1968 sitting in his garage, I can tell you those old cars are sloppy as fuck to drive, the seats are uncomfortable as hell and driving a car without things like power steering gets old.
The centre screen costs less than the buttons would, it's why they all tried to put everything through the screen.
Modern safety (more than just things like airbags, the whole design of the vehicle is much different) and emissions standards make things a lot more expensive, and you can't really get around it.
I suspect that if you put the bare minimum legal requirements in it wouldn't save as much as you think.
Yes but the life expectancy of those buttons is generally closer to what the life expectancy of the car should be. Name me one mobile electronic device that still functions flawlessly after 5-10 years without any maintenance whatsoever, while simultaneously being exposed to large temperature swings amd constant vibrations.
I want tactile buttons for safety and functionality. I don’t talk to Siri and I don’t want to talk to my car through OnStar or Subaru Starlink that I have to pay $15.99/month for in order to turn on the heated seats without two touch screen submenus.
Whenever Jeep replaced the JK Wrangler with the JL Wrangler was the year that it became law. I think that was 18 or 19 maybe.
Was told that by the Jeep dealer on one of the many trips my wife's JK had to go in for warranty work.
The Wrangler was apparently the last American car to not have a backup camera as a factory option although the radio on most of them did support one because so many people added them (myself included).
The issue Jeep had was the government wanted a center location for the camera and a license plate camera on the JKs was off-center and the other possible location (inside the tire) would get covered up by a tire cover. So one of the easiest ways to tell a JK from a JL is the JL has a centered license plate (and lights in the front fenders).
Yeah, it's actually a really sad story. A man backed over his toddler who had run out behind the vehicle and killed him. The kid was small enough to not be visible looking out the back window or in the rear view mirror. That man campaigned successfully to make backup cameras required. I think the act that mandated them is named after his son.
That case was the catalyst, but it was not just one kid who was killed. There were several hundred fatalities a year while backing out in the US alone.
There were several hundred fatalities a year while backing out in the US alone.
Another reason why backing into parking spaces should be mandatory. I break the awful habit of pulling into parking spaces in all of my friends and family. It is bad for the vehicle (cold starting a car and putting it into reverse) and significantly more dangerous for everyone involved.
oh yes. I worked for a very risk-averse company, and even the white collar workers were expected to back into parking spaces in the corporate lot if there wasn't a pull-through spot. Smith System driver training - they made everyone take the training so there was no excuse. Been on onother job where that same training was required after our field crews dinged up the fleet trucks a few too many times.
back into parking spaces in the corporate lot if there wasn't a pull-through spot.
It is just better. Either way you are going to have to back up, might as well do it when your vehicle is already warmed up and it allows you to pull out into traffic which is much easier/safer.
I genuinely think less of people who don't do it. There isn't any logical reason to not back into a spot.
I believe Consumer Reports did a large expose and then helped advocate for mandatory backup cameras. They are important safety features for people outside the vehicle - not just “nice to haves.”
Cars have an insane amount of electronics and safety features in them that old cars just didn't have.
But all those "features" come at a cost.
Nobody is talking about the other major culprit here - logistics, fuel, fees. Cars are not made in one place. A car will literally have components from 1000s of suppliers in it. All of those parts have to be made and shipped. They also are made by companies that want to make a profit too. And they are made with materials that are often shipped. All shipping uses fuel. Import shipping incurs fees.
Logistics costs are basically zero, that's why we manufacture stuff all around the world. It's the simple amount of features costumers want today - not just safety, but also comfort.
And I don't know why you put features in scare marks, improved car safety literally saved millions of lives around the globe. Total fatalities from car accidents are down compared to 1975, even though the total numbers of cars and miles driven have exploded.
Not really sure of your point here. The old car needed raw materials also. So what are you saying? Using domestic parts couldn't have been cheaper; otherwise those parts wouldn't have been offshored.
Camera is cheap, but is it durable with the 20$ version?
t least within the EU the list of required features is very long (backup camera isn't on there. TCS, ABS, emergency call, tire pressure sensors, safety requirements for both passengers as well as people outside you might crash into / run over.
It's not gouging though, it's inflation. In 2006, a Honda Accord LX was $20k to start, which is $33,800 in 2026 dollars. A 2026 Accord LX starts at $28,400. On top of that, the features you get on a '26 Accord either didn't exist in 2006, or were only found on cars like the Mercedes S Class.
The real issue with car affordability is that salaries haven't kept up with inflation.
You don't need a fancy touch screen or a state of the art computer to run airbags, anti-lock brakes or even a backup camera. My 2001 Firebird came stock with 2 of those features and the third can be added for under a hundred dollars for a quality backup camera. I'm not buying the argument that required safety features have caused prices to rise to where they are now.
You're also about 75% more likely to die or be killed even in a relatively minor accident in cars made before the 90s, when man discovered the crumple zone.
The backup camera is a super cheap addon though, and frankly one of the easiest cases to make from a cost to benefit ratio. Probably increases the unit cost of a car by $100 tops.
The real issue is threefold:
Fuel efficiency standards. The drivetrains required now are so complex to eke out an extra few percent of mileage and they are aggressively shaving weight off everything to improve fuel economy. That sort of engineering gets expensive AF.
Safety standards. We all say we want to be able to buy that 1998 camry but it would get 0 stars on all modern safety tests and if a company actually made something like that legally the headlines would be 'RICH CEO SELLS DEATHTRAP!'. And unfortunately all that aggressive shaving of weight we did above comes right back in the form of safety systems and better cages/crumple zones.
Consumer demand driving a bunch of widgets like lane keeping assist and whatnot, as well as fancy styling. People say they want a simple car then skip past it on the lot to buy the model with all the fun features. A car using standard round bulbs instead of an LED strip isn't going to have that wow factor.
We just got our 68 Olds Cutlass rag top back on the road 2 years ago (have it almost 35 years, but it sat in the garage for a couple decades.) It's an ongoing project, but she's fun to drive. YES, they do feel sloppy to drive at any kind of speed, unless you're going in a straight line. Suspensions today are SOOOO much better. And today's cars STOP. I mean, apply brakes: Car stops. The old cars, well, there's a reason they stressed the safety of A Following Distance. (A Disc brake conversion is so worth it.)
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u/burge4150 9h ago edited 3h ago
I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop