There are some things about new cars that are appealing; the problem – for the manufacturers of new vehicles – is that most of these things can be retrofitted to cars that aren’t new and so don’t have the things that make new vehicles increasingly unappealing to many people.
Let’s start with great audio systems.
Every new vehicle has a pretty good audio system. Note the terminology, because it’s revelatory. There was a time when many new cars came with radios and some weren’t even stereos. Maybe you got a tape deck or a CD slot. Every new car today comes with a pretty good audio system – meaning it’s a stereo and has at least four speakers and is capable of playing music that’s not on the radio via the miracle of Bluetooth. Every new vehicle – just about every new vehicle – is available with a much-better audio system that has more speakers, a more powerful amplifier, etc. There are some exceptional audio systems that have 10 (or more) speakers and can make it sound as if you’re attending a concert rather than driving to work.
But you don’t have to buy the new car to enjoy a really good audio system. All you have to buy is the sound system and install it – or have it installed – and that’s just a matter of a few hundred rather than tens-of-thousands of dollars.
Interestingly, the newest cars are built such that adding a better audio system is harder, even impossible – because the factory system is physically and electronically enmeshed with the car’s LCD displays. Vehicles made until about ten years ago had audio “head units” that were separate things that could be separately removed (and replaced) and weren’t integrated with the rest of the car’s electronica. Today, what you buy is not only what you get, it is what you are stuck with. This means that ten years from now, the new car you buy today will have a dated audio system. On the other hand, a car made ten years ago will still be easily updatable ten years from now.
What else?
How about heated seats. These are a very welcome feature that have become commonly available in almost every new vehicle. It is one of the attractions of owning a new vehicle. It is wonderful to be able to warm your backside on a cold morning – or after a long day at work. But you don’t have to buy the new vehicle to get the heated seats, either. All you have to do is buy the parts necessary to add heated seats to whatever you’re driving already. Some kist are available that don’t even require that. They are – as people say – plug and play. As in you plug the power cord into your cigarette lighter (the “power point” in today’s politically correct lingo) and now you’ve got heated seats, for a couple hundred bucks.
One thing that’s especially appealing about these seat heaters is that they do not require a subscription to heat your backside. Once you buy the heater, it’s yours to use for as long as the heater works. Unlike the seat heaters in some new cars that only work as long as you keep on paying to use them.
There is something else that’s related to this. If you don’t like the seats that are in your older vehicle, it’s a matter of four bolts to remove them and replace them with seats more to your liking. It is much harder to do that with a new vehicle because the seats have wires – as in wiring harnesses – and in many cases, air bags, which are integrated components of the vehicle’s “safety” systems. Professional shops maybe able to help but the says of just easily undoing four bolts and swapping in different seats are gone.
There are some other things about new cars that are appealing that are also retrofittable to older cars that did not come with them when new, such as better (brighter) headlights and ambient (LED) interior lighting. There are also many things about old cars that are appealing because they are so easy to remedy or just alter, because you want to. For instance, swapping out the wheels the vehicle came with for larger-diameter (and taller) wheels. With older vehicles that are not computers on wheels, it is chiefly a matter of physical fit. If they do, you’re good to go.
With a new or late-model vehicle, changing the size of the wheels can upset the electronics (e.g., the vehicle’s systems that rely on wheel speed sensors, which may be affected by changing wheel size).
It is also much easier to add mechanical parts – as for improved engine performance – once again because they are not also electronic parts. If they fit, they will probably work. With a new car, the part may fit – but if it is not recognized (by the electronics) it may not work.
Maybe that’s why so many people aren’t buying new cars anymore.
. . .
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What I love about modern cars. The back up camera, , the power, and the touch screen display and side radar. The downside, probably couldn’t aford to fix it in a timely manner should anything bad happen to it.
I have two cars, one an 05 Impreza Sport wagon which I love, and am not afraid to do major work on myself and a 24 Toyota GR 86 which I inherited and love. The 05 I’m not afraid to throw it around a little, and I love the sound of the motor with a custom Cat back exhaust and cherry bomb muffler. I’m sure my neighbors love me too at 11:30 at night when I return home with it. The GR 86, I absolutely love, and am more careful with. It’s special. It was my father’s last car, and it’s also a real sports car with 228 hp, which is more than I’m accustomed to as most our vehicles are practical cars. So I only drive the 86 once or twice a week late in the evening when all I need worry about are animals, and mostly highway driving at that. So with all the problems with new cars, they are cool when they’re working properly.
Hi Gabe,
You are literally the first person I’ve heard say the like the touchscreen! Most of us here hate them, on ergonomic and aesthetic grounds. I’m curious – what makes you like them?
I have an older diesel pickup. I will never buy a newer one. The newer engines are unreliable. When they fail the repair cost is in the thousands, some tens of thousands.
All the electronic controls make the engine run cleaner and get better mileage but depend on miles of wires and many sensors. When a sensor fails, some will keep the engine from running, others cause poor running, hard starting, or keep the transmission from shifting correctly.
From long experience with marine diesels, I put in a Detroit Diesel and Allison transmission for about the cost of a bad engine failure. Now I have more power, no sensors, and easy starts.
As I’m at the point of a failing touchscreen in the Jeep (lucky I found the $200 aftermarket panel) I wish I knew computer electronics. It would be a great day to see that *&$#@ touchscreen replaced with a nice engine turned metal panel (Firebird style) with switches, knobs, gauges and then a basic computer for engine control only. Use the existing trigger sensor for timing and fuel injection interfaced with the replacement engine only computer. No CANBUS, no opera lighting, no traction control etc.
It would be nice to be able to upgrade an older truck’s suspension to ride as nice and quiet as a new F150
Not as easy as a stereo install but a nice air ride swap with matching shocks is not a problem. Though I personally would rather do it on a beam axle than a twin I beam or twin traction beam setup of recent memory.
I do like having more gears to take full advantage of the engine’s power, or being just above idle at 70mph on a new car and being able to cruise all day at 90+mph without overheating. Those were classic racing speeds. My old 3 speed diesel is probably somewhere near red line which is at 3600rpm at less than modern normal highway speeds…if I had a tachometer to tell me that information. But it sounds like its screaming versus a comfortable 80Mph cruise in a 2013 grand Cherokee.
The 8 speed transmission is one thing I’d keep, makes the V6 Jeep a zippy thing plus it actually tows a modest trailer really well.
One reason I’m not interested in a new vehicle period is all the Nanny State tech they’re equipped with under guise of Saaaaaaaaaaafety. Another reason is all the spying technology they’re equipped with that can and likely will be used (if it’s not already) by the government, the vehicle manufacturer, law enforcement, or the insurance mafia to monitor your driving habits and whereabouts.
As for all these automated license plate readers that seem to be everywhere in the country, including where I live, how can we push back against them, because I’ve read stories of people who’ve committed NO crimes (such as stealing an automobile) being “tagged” by police via those ALPRs.
It’s a little late now.
Around here they quietly rolled them out years ago. Every cop car has one, major intersections have them, and Lowe’s and Home Depot have Flock ones.
They knew people would freak out so they were quiet about it; by the time everyone knew it was a fair accompli.
I suggest raising hell anyway, but it’s likely to be too little, too late.
I would also suggest challenging it in court, but I don’t have millions of dollars and 20 years to burn.
Basically there is little or nothing to protect your image out in public (which is mostly a good thing), and you are forced to display a license plate in order to drive legally. There is no way walked legal distinction between citizens and government, or between a human and an automated camera, in this regard. Closest we’ve got is one SCOTUS case involving tracking someone’s location data without a warrant. Now add in facial recognition/biometrics (if you have a drivers license your mug is in the database already) and data sharing between agencies. Technology moves WAY faster than the law & the courts do. We’re fucked. The only way out is to tear down the system and completely rebuild it, or. Go through and radically reform it.
About the only bits of standard new cars I’d hate to live without are: adjustable steering wheel, power mirrors, and rear defrost. And here in the Heart of Dixie (that used to be on our license plate for all to see), gotta have AC.
For people with a bad back, seat heaters are excellent, even on a warm day. 40 bucks on Amazon and just plugs in. I always add those when I get a new (old) car. A 90 dollar touch screen stereo that connects to my sail fawn is handy too.
‘so many people aren’t buying new cars anymore’ — eric
Maybe they’re just flat busted. Subprime borrowers more than 60 days late have doubled since the heady days of covid stimmies in 2021. In fact, they are near a record high, as this sobering chart shows:
https://tinyurl.com/bdhx8r8z
What happens if you don’t pay? Why, the repo man pays you a visit. Last year there were 1.7 million such visits, again approaching a record high as shown in another funky chart:
https://tinyurl.com/mpn2wbrr
In this dismal situation for the precariat, one would think (as Eric so often counsels) that auto makers would focus on simple, spartan vehicles, such as bare-bones compact pickups. But no-o-o-o-o — that’s either impossible or illegal.
So the average vehicle continues to cost $50,000, and the loan runs for seven years, and a big chunk of owners have negative equity, and some of the precariat fall off the merry-go-round and just have to get on their bikes and ride. If you think this is unsustainable — IT IS! Time for a shakeout, bitchez.
There’s a fool born every minute babe
But this time it ain’t me
It don’t take 20/20
To see what I can see
I don’t want to see your late notices
I know the truth and you’re lying
It’s all over, all over, over but the crying
— Georgia Satellites, All Over But the Cryin’
Morning, Jim!
I think there’s much to that. It’s not just the cost of the vehicle. What is not being talked about much – in the general press – is the cost of insurance and property taxes in states that have that. It probably means at least $3k annually to “cover” something such as the EV4 or another new vehicle that is bought for say $35k or so. That assumes a “clean” DMV record and excellent credit. If you have a couple of “speeding” tickets….
Then, in states like VA, you will have to come up with prolly $1,000 for the annual property tax on top of that.
Point being, if you are among the toiling masses who does not take home more than about $70k annually, a new vehicle is an extravagant purchase. Better to keep what you have and keep a roof over your head…
‘In states like VA, you will have to come up with prolly $1,000 for the annual property tax.’ — eric
Getting taxed on a depreciating asset is truly loathsome, a dastardly assault on mankind, motherhood, and all that is holy.
My only experience with property tax on a vehicle was as a college student in Arkansas. All I owned other than clothes and school books was a 7-year-old Chevy G10 van. The crowning indignity was getting taxed not only on the spartan old vehicle, but also on a battered portable record player. (Maybe they disapproved of rock ‘n roll.)
Property tax on cars is an absolute deal breaker for me — a crime against human rights. Derechos humanos, bitchez!
Hi Jim.
I agree with you that a property tax on cars is criminal. Of course being as GovCo is broke just wait until they extend it to all cars, including antiques. Lots of tax money on a 1971 Hemi Cuda or how about a tax on horse power? Apparently that’s a thing in Russia (mentioned on a Camaro build that was being shipped to Russia).
Either way there’s not much a new car would do for me that my antiques do now.
If I recall, Italy taxed cars by engine displacement, hence Ferraris with V12s of only three liters displacement and FIAT 500s with 500cc engines.