Don’t.
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A6 C5 is a timeless design. Even Škodas used it somewhere early 2010s. Just an unbeatable form.
That is an A4
That audi is around 2008-2011 (15-18yrs), but one gen before that, yes 20 years old.
And cars don’t really age that terribly anymore (at least the 1.9 TDI era). My 2002 golf is (if we ignore the reliability and the swimming pools) way better than the newer 1.6 TDIs I’ve sat in, and it will probably outlast them.
I have seen Honda motors that will continue kicking well into 400,000 miles
I think car manufacturers are mildly screwed as the old cars are way overbuilt
The swimming pools…? Did I miss a scandal or something?
Water in my boot door. Great.
It actually leaks trough the adhesive between the glass and metal. Not really enjoyable. It sounds like a swimming pool on every road except the highways. Will have to add some silicone (or putty) to hopefully stop it (since glass reattachments are expensive.
Also: it’s the car of the Dieselgate era. Those are (in my opinion) the strongest and most reliable diesels ever made. Maybe VW was onto something when cheating the emission tests (well probably they could just add better filters, which would make them less money), but that doesn’t make the cars bad.
As an owner of a 20 year old car, I approve this message.
I love the styling cars had circa 2000. This whole “let’s make cars look like futuristic tanks” thing lately is not it
Back when they cared about aerodynamics.
I blame ford pickup trucks for that. Did you keep getting bigger and the front end keeps getting flatter. Eventually they’re going to be so high up you’ll be able to run over small trees without noticing.
you’ll be able to run over small
treeschildren without noticing.
Cars used to be made to get you somewhere. Now they cost 4 times as much and are full of government-mandated surveillance equipment and random gadgets that are expensive to fix when they break. And they’re twice as heavy.
The only thing that’s gotten better is safety.
I miss when cars were cars
Now they cost 4 times as much
Pricing on cars with similar features and performance have been going up slower than general inflation, but as you mention they keep increasing the features/performance of the base models.
When I was really getting into cars in the 90’s, it seemed like the base models of economy brands were pretty barebones. But over time what previously was optional became standard: air conditioning, automatic transmission, power locks/windows, floor mats, a decent car stereo, cruise control, etc.
And the things that used to differentiate luxury brands/models just became standard over time: traction control, good acceleration/handling, clear coat over the paint, rust resistance. In the 90’s, it was still possible to buy a vehicle that took more than 10 seconds to accelerate to 60mph (~100km/h).
And of course, a bunch of safety stuff became standard in large part because of regulation: airbags, anti-lock brakes, crumple zones, backup cameras. And fuel efficiency has gotten much better on the engineering side, for any given level of performance and vehicle weight. Emissions have similarly improved by regulation.
So cars have gotten so much better, while basically getting more expensive slightly slower than general inflation. So it’s hard to compare apples to apples between decades.
What government mandated surveillance equipment are you referring to?
From 7 July, all new cars and vans sold in the EU must pack a fresh batch of safety features, including infrared cameras that watch the driver’s face.
The government mandates all telecommunications to be intercepted and and monitored. Car manufacturers willingly installed celluar modems in their cars for OTA updates and their own data tracking reasons… therefore, the government has surveillance equipment in your car.
Also the EU mandated driver monitoring so you can’t even drive tired anymore (yay for repression), at least let me drive home from work.
Thats mandated in the US aswell, suppose to be implemented by 2030.
Maybe not govt mandated, but used by the governments. New cars have infotainment with GPS trackers, cameras etc. Toyota and Teslas were the worse from a year or two ago for selling your data to companies, especially insurance companies.
A week ago alstate data came out that they paid millions to many apps for your phone to track you like life360, gasbuddy and so on.
Don’t get me started on TVs. Watch gamers nexus on LG TVs. They store 4gb of data including audio, screenshots - even if it’s not connected to the internet. Doctor’s offices, companies or other places that rely on hipa or trade secrets have these TVs sitting around.
Your wifi routers uses beam forming to track you around your house and can be accurate enough to make out complex shapes like faces.
Anyways, I came here to say I have the same generation a4 avant with the 3.2l, I think b7. Just the right loudness exhaust from factory when you floor it and at right rpms it reverberates like a super car because of the vvt.
Honesty the best era for cars is around 2003-2016 depending on the manufacturer. The older ones from around 2008 or so are especially good.
It’s strange to live in a time where things change so much on the scale of a decade or two. Most of human existence was much more consistent. Multiple generations could come and go without much changing but the seasons.
Yeah, it’s wild. If you were going about your day around 1400ish, you were practically doing it the same way as your folks did it around 1100ish, or even 800ish.
The wild thing is to go on Google Street view, which feels like a relatively new feature but it was actually been around for a very long time, use the historical images function and go back and look at how old, and small, the cars seem.
Is it weird that I kind of appreciate the design language of the Volkswagen in that picture? Moreso than the Audi, at least.
Yeah, that form factor is definitely old people coded at this point, and has always been for as long as I can remember, but I find something quite charming about it. I can’t quite explain it. It’s not nostalgia, because I never owned a car like that before, but I do remember seeing them on the road 30+ years ago and thinking to myself “that’s an old car!”.
I wonder if design trends ever loop back around for cars the same way that it does for fashion? Perhaps not, as I’m sure the industry has purposefully moved away from cars that look like that due to improved safety features or enhanced auto regulations, but if I were interested in buying a car for it’s unique or appealing shape alone, then I would much rather be driving around an old boxy VW Golf than ever be caught dead in a Cybertruck.
They are but I don’t think it’s fully cyclical. Modern boxy Hyundai’s like the new Santa Fe and the ioniq 5 are kind of like that.
I owned an 81 VW Rabbit and I still regret selling it. Incredulity charming car.
Honestly, not weird at all imo. 2000s cars all look like weird bubbly fish to me.
In 20 more years old cars will look like the first picture, because of planned obsolescence.
In Hungary, Fidesz supporters used to claim that the cars on the bottom are all brand new, and thus people are now buying new cars and are rich. In reality, Golf Mk.IIIs are no longer new cars, and there are even newer ones.
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In Hungary, Fidesz supporters used to claim that the cars on the bottom are all brand new, and thus people are now buying new cars and are rich. In reality, Golf Mk.IIIs are no longer new cars, and there are even newer ones.
I drive the 20 year old car in your head. Love it.
It is crazy how recent some of the events are that we usually consider ancient. The power of time is that you don’t realize how fast it passes.
Boxy cars looked the best.
Lancia Delta
Citroën AX
Honda CRX
Ford Escort
Postman Pat’s Van
80s cavalier z24?
Third-gen Camaro while we’re at it. And the equivalent Firebird.
I learned to drive stick in an e30 BMW. I have a real soft spot for boxy 80s cars.
VW Golf gen 1-3
TBF that audi design also aged like milk…god damn that thing is ugly AF.
Dont agree. Its understated and styled well. I haaaate every car design of today. I’ll take a 90s escort over any car today.
Just fell into the early 2000s sameness that a lot of cars were
Luckily the first gen Audi TT managed to avoid it. I had one that I bought for cheap and all my coworkers though it was much newer and more expensive.
It’s fine? Just a bit nondescript.
At least it predates the design impulse to make the front grille big enough for the car to drive though with a company badge the size of a toddler’s head.
I prefer this by a mile over the SUV thing that everyone is doing nowadays… at worst, that 20yo Audi design is boring, older Audi models were way more distinctive.
Especially now that they’re turning them into sports cars, like everyone needs a 3 ton speeding death machine that they can’t see over the dashboard in.
An ugly design/aesthetic and a stupid type of car that doesn’t need to exist is something entirely different.
SUV is more than a type of car, it’s also an aesthetic that’s used even by compact, clearly non-SUV cars.
Ah yeah whatever. I was just trying to help you understand that comment you were clearly missing the point of.
Looks are unimportant. SUV’s, crossovers and minivans are practical and can adapt to a lot of situations. Sedans and trucks are better for specific tasks, but can’t really compete overall.
In what world are crossovers (what was likely meant by “the SUV thing”, since everyone’s making those) practical if wagons have more cargo space for the same amount of euros and feel better to drive?
Get an SUV or a wagon if you’re looking at crossovers. SUV if you actually need proper ground clearance, wagon if you need space but drive mostly on roads. Don’t get a crossover, they’re shit. Minivans obviously are the epitome of practicality IF you need 7+ seats or tons of cargo space, or the option to have either.
Audi in particular is known for making wagons of varying price and performance, including in the age pictured in OP. I’ll agree that minus the additional comfort of having an enclosed trunk (less noise) a sedan isn’t “better” than an SUV or a wagon though. But a crossover is the worst of both worlds between SUVs and wagons or hatchbacks.
I have one of these, also 20 years old, it’ll beat pretty much any bullshit crossover in both off-road performance and on-road comfort. While having cargo capacity up the wazoo and towing capacity of nearly 2 metric tons. Of course there are better ones if you only drive on roads, I like having the freedom to go where most SUV drivers don’t dare and most crossover drivers simply can’t. It’s also got more cargo space than the similarly priced Audi Q5 crossover. Loses to the Q7, but that’s a big behemoth with a much bigger price tag, it’s largely the extra width and length that give it more space, not just the extra height from being a crossover.
But you could also have this one, actually the same chassis, just won’t go as tall as my Allroad’s max setting. Has a biturbo V10:
Or if you’re shopping crossovers that don’t try to pretend they’re big SUVs, you could have the A4 Avant, smaller than the A6/RS6 chassis pictured above, but still more trunk space than many crossovers. Can be had with some pretty tiny engines, nearly as small and dinky as your average crossover, with pretty good fuel economy. Or go as big as a 4.2 V8 in older models in the RS4 spec. You’ve got options.
And of course many other manufacturers still offer wagons too. You don’t have to get an expensive (or formerly expensive) one.
And you can even get EV wagons nowadays, no longer are EV buyers stuck with ugly crossovers that have no reason to exist:
TBF crossovers basically replaced compact-ish cars like the later VW Golf generations or Ford Focus. The added SUV shit is obviously counterproductive, but the length is IMO a pretty good compromise between outside dimensions and cargo space/adults actually being able to sit somewhat comfortably in the back seats, especially when roadside parking is the standard in your area.
Other way around IMO, the additional possibilities don’t weigh as heavy as the impact on the environment and traffic infrastructure (worse road safety for other traffic participants, especially pedestrians, bicyclists and people in small cars, more spaced used on roads and for parking, higher weight, worse fuel efficiency) and some of those issues affect the SUV drivers, too (worse visibility = more accidents, harder to find parking, more money paid for fuel). Minivans are different IMO because they solve the “I need a big car for all the people and luggage I’m transporting”-issue with much better road safety and space efficiency.
You’re really claiming that a truck has better road safety and lesser environmental impact than a crossover?
I didn’t talk about trucks, but my opinion on them is pretty similar. No one picks an SUV over a lorry truck, and there aren’t that many people who genuinely need a pickup truck instead of a (often smaller) van or regular sedan/station wagon types of cars, especially if it’s not for their job. IMO, even if a pickup truck is sometimes useful, it rarely makes sense to use it as your day-to-day vehicle instead of buying a sedan and renting a bigger car when you actually need it.
