In this episode I provide my top 10 picks for automotive gadgets that were popular in the 1980's but are relics today, replaced by better tech that we take for granted today.
The issue isn't the touchscreen but the removal of physical buttons. I have a car that has both so it works OK. The issue is when everything has to be done via the touchscreen on newer cars.
@@SebastianX1.9Allot of stuff was cool. The aspect of every year things improving allot etc, but I would argue allot of stuff is better and more convenient today. Even new retro synth music is better than the ting they emulate. Oh and then you have medical advances.
Knew a guy in high school in the late 90’s that had an 80’s Chrysler van and it would repeat “DOOR AJAR” every 3 seconds, because of some sort of short/malfunction (with all doors closed fully). He couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so he just lived with it- but it drove passengers crazy. He somehow just tuned it out over time. 😅
One you forgot, OBD1! Remember shorting the conmector pins and reading check engine light blink codes? It was like the cars computer was talking to you! Amazing at the time.
In the mid '80s, a Radio Shack car phone could be bought for around $1200. Just a couple years later, the price dropped all the way down to $400. That's when I bought one.
@@j_rainsgoat3929 early in dash CD players were terrible. They finally started putting out damped & buffer tech but from late 80s but people who had them early will know. Which was probably why they had the tape deck plus CD for over a decade
I almost forgot. Natural casings are made from animal casings were the lining of the intestines which were the tube that carried poo from the stomach to the sphincter.
I enjoy power windows. Show a kid today a roll up window knob and they won't know what it is. I was dads power window motor, climbing through the car to roll up all windows. Term is still used today that baffle the kids, roll up/down the windows, means push the button.
To this day cylinder deactivation still causes problems. The problem with cylinder deactivation is when you start deactivating cylinders it causes the different cylinders to run at different temperatures and very time it causes metal to warp which causes problems such as oil burning. They even sell muzzlers so that you can deactivate the cylinder deactivation.
I had 3 Nissan 280 ZX's in the 80's and I loved them. Awesome cars with the best new car smell ever. My last one had jade gray paint and a green lighted digital tach as well as silver leather bucket seats. Awesome color combination and I could switch from MPH to KMH with my date being none the wiser. She would look over and the speedometer would read 120 but she didn't notice it was KMH instead of MPH so she would start screaming for me to slow down when we were actually only doing around 85. Priceless!!!
Got out of the Marines in 84 , got a job as a Mercedes/ Nissan tech at a dealer. I installed " car phones", and working on these systems, was just part of the day.
The biggest reason the GM v864 failed is that running a v8 vs. a v4 wasn't the problem. The problem was that the cars weighed over 5000lbs. On the other end of the spectrum, a 70s vw beetle kit car with a v8 engine swap could get 30 mpg.
The V8-6-4 was just ahead of its time, a lot of Cars or Truck for that matter have Cylinder Deactivation though it's only at a steady cruising speed it does it.
Other than the obsurd things he could do (like Turbo Boost, Ski Mode, and was invincible) KITT from Knight Rider actually predicted a lot of tech that we have in cars today.
I installed car stereos and worked on every 80s car in here plus others. We used to get calls from the local Ford dealership because the 10 pack CD changer in the cars would skip. Made by Sony, in the industry we called it "The 10 Pack Skip Changer". We fixed a lot of broken power antennas and installed cellular phones (and CBs too!) Some premium cars used to have octane switches in them for if you couldn't get premium fuel (Ford Thunderbird Turbocoupe and Ford Mustang SVO). Cylinder deactivation is used by Audi for at least the last 11 years. Dual intake cars have died due to variable runner intakes and cam phasing. The Taurus SHO and the ZR1 had dual intakes. Almost all American 80s cars are stylish deathraps with cardboard interior door panels horrible fit and finish and flimsy unitized bodies. How many cars used to drive around with one headlight stuck up... This is how the Japanese took over the car market.
The 1970 Imperial had wipers on the lights. Some early Chrysler vehicles from that period had this feature and I think Chevy Caprice offered it in 1969.
When the bag phones came out, I wanted one so badly but you needed a credit score of 1500 haha. I was certain that a bag phone would get me all the girls!😂😂
I remember when I was a kid, we had those brick phones, but they were turned into cheap walky-talky's. I guess they had to make use of all those in car phones.
A couple years ago I was at the local scrapyard and came across an Oldsmobile Toronada Trofeo exactly like the one shown in this video. It must have sat in a barn for nearly half a century as it was in mint condition minus the barn and mouse "stuff" (smell/stains/houses). Obviously the owner died and everything including the car got tossed. It was a real bummer.
I used to have a car with a manual retractable antenna attached to the outside of the A pillar. When it was raining and getting poor FM reception, I had to roll down the window by hand and try to pull the rusty antenna up while one hand holding the steering wheel. Those were the days.
I have a cassette and CD player and a Monsoon stereo in my 1999 Buick Regal. It has dual climate zones, an antenna in the window, traction control, anti lock brakes, a ton of torque and a power sliding sunroof. those were big then. I still have the car as a second car it gets about a thousand miles on it a year and has never left me stranded. The 80's were great but the 90's were the bomb.
I had a 1985 Chrysler Laser XT Turbo with every option available. Being a software developer and architect, I *liked* the electronic dashboard and trip computer (I also has a 1989 Olds Toronado Trofeo with that touch screen and even the cell phone but that’s a different, more nightmarish story). The voice alerts weren’t that great once the novelty wore off. The real obnoxiousness that I remember is that, even working perfectly, there was one flaw that would drive you to insanity. When the fuel tank got to something under 1/8th full, you got the “Low Fuel” warning. But…. Since fuel sloshes around while you’re driving, the sensor would detect fuel above and below the threshold and you could end up driving 10-20 miles with the damn thing CONSTANTLY warning you about low fuel, then resetting itself only to warn you again 100 years later! That was why I turned off the voice. At least the in-dash message wasn’t nearly so obnoxious.
The C7 Corvette cylinder deactivation was so poorly done that there are afm devices you can add to bypass it. It was an option that never worked well regardless of the make/model vehicle that had it.
I remember quite a few of these. I was born in 1980, but my parents had cars with some of these features. My dad had a Buick Riverra which had the touch screen and I thought it was the coolest thing. My mom had a Datsun 300 ZX which had the popup headlights and it would talk. I remember giggling as a kid when it would say "your door is ajar" to which I would say "it's a door, not a jar". My parents also had car phones which I remember my dad would have technical issues with it and without warning, take the receiver in hand and slam it against the center console multiple times to make it work better. I feel bad for the sorry soul on the other end. The retractable antenna was something I saw quite regularly as well. I cannot remember if my first car had one, but I remember a few cars later, I had this antenna that was extended permanently and was really flexible. I do know that my first car had AM/FM/Cassette for the radio. I had a CD player that I could use a Cassette adapter to plug into the headphone jack of the CD player to play CDs... the only problem is the things skipping like crazy as they didn't have the few second memory buffer which it would play from.
I had a pioneer premier stereo system put in my truck, it had a 6 disc CD changer under the back seat 4 speakers, some tweeters, and some other mid ring speakers as well. And it had a wireless remote control and the head could change colors from green to orange if you wanted the display a different color. After they installed it in my truck the stereo shop that did the work asked if they could keep my truck for a couple days so people could see it installed at the time that was the best stereo system that shop sold, and it stayed in the truck until the day I sold it and it never failed it worked perfect for 15 years until I traded the truck in 2004.
84 Corvette here with a bunch of this tech along with a modern stereo that connects to my cell phone via BT for additional functionality. One step closer to Knight Rider status, lol. My grandson actually asked me why my car looks like Knight Rider inside. 🤣🤣🤣
I drive a 2008 highlander with a 6 disc changer in dash! I find it is one of the best features of the car. CDs are INSANELY loud compared you Apple Music on Bluetooth.
I had a Fiat Tempra 2.0L 1992 model with the digital instrumentcluster back in the days, felt like being in a X-wing from starwars driving it in snowy weather (Norway) :D
These named techs were more fashon items than some Tops....and that's why most of them got lost...at least until tech development improved them into properly efficient assitant.... Top techs are those which set benchmark in further development that still lasts like... ...ABS, ASR, active AWD and RWD differential, central locking, automatic wipers and headlights, navigation, AC, independent heating, fuel injection, carbon filters, pre-colision automatics, exhaust catalisator, tire pressure monitoring....
I've never seen an in dash cd player but i have seen in dash cassette player in the 80s. It wasn't till the late 90s early 00's i started to see in dash cd players in vehicle's.
Why do so many mess up this timeline? 70's = 8 track 80's = cassettes 90's = CD's Nobody in the 80s used CDs. Few in the 70s used cassettes. 8 tracks were increasingly absent past 1982 or so. Millions still used CDs today 😂
In 1970, I had a '67 Camaro, RS, with covered headlights. It looked really cool, having an all black grill, with the white nose stripe and pearl blue paint. The car was used, and previous maintenance was iffy. The headlight covers would retract horizontally, into the grill, when the lights were turned on. A vacuum motor operated them. It worked great for a few months, but then the vacuum moters quit, with the covers in the closed position. I had to shove the covers in, to have headlights. It was a nice car, but was starting to fail, so I sold it. Could be worth something today.
I had 2 Buick Century's, a 1990 and a 1994, both had the power antenna option. I always thought it was kind of neat, but it would always get stuck on a cold winter morning.
I worked at a Lincoln-Mercury car dealer and we had a share of cars that came for service or body work, where the PW antennas had quit working. A lot of the people just had them put in the upright position. @@100percentSNAFU
Greatest pop-up headlights goes to the Acura NSX. The pop-up headlights on the 1990-1993 Celica were odd-shaped! I still love the All-trac Celica. Very Underrated car.
@@andydhillon1977 The plastic leading edge of the ‘eyelids’ that blended so well with the upper grille slit is what makes them so great to me. Besides, I’ve never owned an NSX. Bias confirmed! ✅
You can still get them if you want them. cd/dvd is standard in mid range head units. For most people, their entire cd collection fits just fine on their phone and is a lot easier to use that way. A $10 usb stick will also do the job just fine.
I have over 300 Grateful Dead live shows on Tape and CD ahaha. I listen to this old tech very often. Luckily the cars weve recently had and still have, theres a Cassette player and CD. ;-)
Ahh i got to the auto seat belt part. My brother got lucky, he was in a car with these and the car flipped. He did NOT have his lap part of the seat belt on. So when the car rolled over the seat belt went around his neck. But he luckily held his arm down during the crash to hold the seat belt away from his neck. He survived but his arm had a CRAZY burn from holding onto the seatbelt as the car flipped etc. Those are dangerous. If you have a car with these, always where your lap part as well. You can decapitate your self if the lap belt is NOT on. Scary this was pushed as a safety feature. DOH!!!
