I drive a car from the early 2000’s. When I got it I was stoked to finally have a car made in this century. It turns 20 in 2 years 😬
My truck just turned old enough to drink in the states, I feel like that must be some kind of country music initiation
Ha my truck just turned 40!
Lol so did I, decent vintage at least
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?
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.
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.
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.
I love the styling cars had circa 2000. This whole “let’s make cars look like futuristic tanks” thing lately is not it
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.
Back when they cared about aerodynamics.
That was my first car, the only difference was the condition of it, but still was a nice car.
Wanna feel old? The moon landing was in 1969, that’s 57 years ago from 2026, the halfway year is 1997…
Crap, the time between when the moon landing happened and when I was born (late 80s), is smaller than the gap between 9/11 and today.
And it always will be, by an ever-widening margin.
… I think I gotta lie down
For me anything with 19’ in it is a long time ago. It was the time I was a kid, still growing up, and that’s seems so long ago.
awhile back i saw a toyota prius hybrid with ‘collector’ plates that are used by classic and antique car owners (and cheapskates that want the cheaper plates in exchange for some use limits).
Boxy cars looked the best.
Lancia Delta
Citroën AX
Honda CRX
Ford Escort
Postman Pat’s Van
VW Golf gen 1-3
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.
TBF that audi design also aged like milk…god damn that thing is ugly AF.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I understand now, when my dad said, “I don’t know, they all look alike to me.”
Fact: every year of the 90s were exactly 10 years ago and always will be.
I’m not quite sure that’s how it works
I’m telling you, it is!
20 year old video game in my head:
20 year old video game in reality:
Though retro is so popular that lots of modern games still look like the 90s…
I expected to see Zelda Ocarina of Time in the second picture 💀
Been playing Twilight Princess on Dusklight android and it’s amazing. Can’t believe it’s 20 years old.
My nephew was telling me about how he dusted off his old console and laughed at how bad the games looked. He was of course talking about his PS3.
One of these days I need to sit him down and subject him to some early 3d games like Battle Arena Toshinden or FFVIII to give him some real pizza-face perspective.
The PS3 is of that era where there was huge hype at the time about how realistic the graphics were (deservedly, to be fair) but when you look at it historically the shortcomings are all too clear, and it’s almost comical.
Games on older consoles couldn’t gun for realism the same way, and so they ironically look better now in retrospect because they just come across as having a particular style of their own.
Some of them did go for realism.
Persian Gulf Inferno was almost banned for being too realistic…
This shit was on the index in Germany for “inciting violence in players” 😅
Even on consoles like the ps1 the games that chased “cutting edge” graphics look so much worse than games that had distinct art styles.
True. There’s always that subset and it kinda looks good, but only for a moment in time.
early 3d
Show him Jumping Flash! and see if he can even make sense of it.
The first 3D game I ever played looked like this:
3d monster maze calling in.
Such a good game and in 16k of RAM
I will say that with a handful of exceptions the PS3 generally looks worse than the 360, for example Infamous and MGS4 still hold up well enough but Red Dead Redemption does look a good bit rougher on the PS3.
I vote you include sonic 3-d. That game makes me throw up with how they made the 3d effect.
I submit as the most wince-worthy example of 20 year old console game graphics:
Mass effect is 19 years old.
No it isn’t. Can’t be more than 5 years old.
Ha exactly! Also the ps3 sure is a spankin new system huh? So cutting edge. I don’t think they can top it.
In 20 more years old cars will look like the first picture, because of planned obsolescence.
I want that 40 year old car so bad
Keep in mind it is a death trap due to the weak frame
I daily drive one. I love it to bits but it’s been through three engines and gearboxes, four coils, two carburettors, and two distributors in the last 70,000kms and I still have a niggling ignition fault and can’t get the mixture quite perfect.
As I’ve been through all these faults I’ve slowly been doing more and more of the work myself as I don’t trust “specialist” shops to put the time and care into my job to do it right, and as a result the car is a lot better now than when I bought it. But its a lot of work.
In short, buy a 40 year old Japanese car, not a British one!
Same, I just recently had someone offer me a Buick Lasabre for cheap. I was very excited until they said it was a 2003 😑
Reliable sure, but man did the '00 models look gross. Go back 10-20 years from that ugly thing to these beauties and it would have been a deal.
I secretly like the fugly biodesign cars from the 1990s and 2000s. Not that many in Europe.
My experience with such old cars, where their age is starting to make full restoration advisable:
- mechanically reliable and simple to fix (and critical parts are usually available, quality varies)
- everything electrical is shit (and old), you need to go through everything to check the connections, completely rotten through ground wires aren’t necessarily visible and will cause endless pain until you find them
- the rust-proofing wasn’t great but it was there so usually if they’re still alive by now they just need the usual spots where those models rust checked before purchase and/or crash damage thoroughly checked
- crash safety is nonexistent, ABS and ESP aren’t that useful if you learned how to drive without, if you rely on ESP, better learn not to
- the fastest affordable cars from the 1980s are slower than family cars from the 2020s, still feels like you’re going way faster
- if you buy something predating catalytic converters in your country, be prepared for it to smell atrocious
- carburettors that haven’t been tampered with and aren’t leaking don’t need to be touched unless they malfunction, if they malfunction they usually only need a good scrubbing with diesel then a wash in petrol, replacement of extremely dead gaskets, and the jets usually need a clean, the tiny drill bits for carburettor jets can be used for cleaning if you use the size just below the marked size. Ultrasonic cleaners aren’t necessary, replacing all gaskets usually means it’s going to leak more than before.
- EFI was shit until the 1990s, avoid it if you can
I can’t imagine how awful the electronics / digital stuff on modern cars will be in 20ish years. It’s a lot more finicky to begin with and electronics even under the best conditions age poorly; on a vehicle exposed to the elements it’s going to be a nightmare.
Luxury cars from 2006 can be a nightmare (Mercedes brake-by-wire systems) or just fine (Lexus).
Get one while you still can, they haven’t been going down in price for a long time and may in fact already be going up in price. They’re pretty iconic, but not as many on the roads these days.
As an owner of a 20 year old car, I approve this message.
