Unlike many other industries, the automotive industry upgrades its products every year. In such a competitive industry, even the omission of minor features of creature comfort makes all the difference in sales. Luxury features of yesterday have become common place today. And even budget segments have smart cars with new tech upgrades being made every year to attract buyers and ensure comfort and convenience in ownership. In the process of this upgradation, some features get replaced or discontinued to either give way to new ones or simply because they are no longer useful. Here are some of the car features which got discontinued and we are not complaining:
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Almost seven years ago, the Indian government banned smoking in a car to ensure the passengers' safety and to comply with the new regulations established. To make sure that the no-smoking rule gets followed effectively, car manufacturers from all around stopped providing ashtrays as well as cigarette lighters in cars. One could get fined if they get these accessories installed.
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There was a time back in the early 2000s when almost every car featured a long antenna on its roof. With a button's press, it popped out of the hood. Some vehicles even featured manually-operable antennas which needed to be set at the right position to make the radio operational. Even though modern-day cars also feature antennas, they do not need to be pulled out manually.
Manual window adjusters were common in almost every car back in the day. One had to rotate them clockwise and anti-clockwise to open and close them. However, with the advancement in automotive technology, these adjusters were replaced by smart buttons. With the press of a button, windows roll down and go up easily.
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Popularly known as truck steering, manual steering was a common part of vehicles until assisted steering came in later. It took comparatively more effort and time to operate manual steering. Once assisted steering was introduced, the very first variant was the hydraulic wheel, which got followed by the electronically-assisted steering.
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Remember the time when cassette players used to be “cool”? Instead of the now-generic Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, the entertainment USP of cars back in the day was the cassette players. Some car manufacturers even included provisions for both a disk as well as a cassette. Nowadays, cars feature infotainment panels that act as a control centre for functionalities like media playback, navigation, calling, etc.
Most of the modern-day features present in a car enhance the safety as well as the comfort of both the passenger as well as the driver. Since things never stay stagnant, we may witness the replacement of the current features with better ones in the future.
