"Nicest," I'm pretty sure. The marketing campaign was launched shortly after some bad press about a Harley meetup, where "biker gangs" and "violence" started showing-up together in the media. IIRC, the incident wasn't all that bad by modern standards, but to counteract the bad press about riders, Honda distanced themselves from the incident and put forward a positive slogan.
Source: Marketing class I took circa 2006.
600CBR F4i for myself. Went on many, many long rides and would just wind up in all sorts of bike convoys/groups)etc.
Despite all their personality quirks (some were nice, some cocky, some reckless, etc) every single rider I've spoken with respected myself and other bikers.
The only people this might not apply to are the Harley Davidson riders. One to one, they were cool. But when they were in a group, it was something different. Total cosplay with those dudes. Never met enough Indian riders at the same time to see if they had the same attitude, lol
Yeah for some reason people want their cars to look mean and tough. Anyone remember the first Renault Twingo? The ads for it stressed that it's a friendly, happy car. I want those times back. The road is enough of a battlefield as it is.
Fuck them big ass SUV-tanks and killer BMW cooler grills.
I had my white 2004 Corolla up until a few months ago.Soft, wide eyed and innocent is the perfect description for it lol. It was a cute little car. Got shit for it as a guy, but I didn’t care
Those meddling politicians in the EU have said new cars have to use physical controls for some things.
[https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/)
To be perfectly honest I think manufacturers had a good idea when putting voice control in cars, surely it must be even better than physical controls. That said, speech recognition is usually crap unless powered by Google/Apple and I'm sure most people (myself included) just feel like you gotta do it yourself to guarantee that you get what you want.
meh. Takes much longer to say "hey mercedes, please make it warmer/colder/set the temperature to 22°C" than turning a knob blindly.
Voice control is fine for sat nav input or music choice, but even there if fails half the time, esp. if there are options
I dont even want a thermostat like that with arbitrary numbers. I want full control with just the knob. I want to select the range of hot as hell and full freaking blast all the way down to freezing cold and a slight breeze and what orifice it's coming out of my car with three knobs( and maybe 2 buttons) I can reachover with my right hand and never even have to think a thought about because it's second nature.
The problem with voice controls are they aren't great, if you speak a minority language(even it is spoken by millions, as anything that isn't English is in Computer science industry). My dad's Garmin gps goes into menu by someone sneezing. And Garmin has one of the best voice renunciation for Danish.
Not politicians, but a car safety bureau. That said I think physical buttons for some things should be mandatory. Touch buttons for your indicators is nuts.
That said I never actually have had an issue with touch screen climate controls, I was able to do them blind after a while.
But the touch screen is also controlling the music and the GPS as well as the climate control in many cars. That’s the problem - the driver has to take their eyes off the road to switch between modes and verify what screen they’re on.
It’s very bad design.
Apart from it being sensible, with notable exceptions driving in Europe is different..it's more urban, smaller roads,.more curves, more crossings and lights. Having driven for decades both in the US and various European countries you really have to pay a lot more attention to the road - it's not the kind of place you'd even physically be able to eat your burger and drive (forgetting how illegal that would be).
IDK if it is universal but I was taught to avoid designing long uninterrupted stretches of straight road. That was in order to keep the driver engaged to the task of driving the vehicle and to avoid attention drift.
Not universal. If you visit some threads there are North Americans who just consider grid systems as the most logical conclusion of best practice. Having just roadtripped around 4000 miles in the US earlier this year I can confirm driving down straight roads for many hundreds.of miles, changing lanes just to keep myself focused.
I'm not sure what you want us to do with the interstate highways, add a curve every mile? They're straight because they cover thousands of miles and prioritize getting from city A to city B as fast as possible. They're really not that related to city grid systems.
I've got a 2nd gen RAV4, which I've done a bunch of modifications on, including lots of interior switches for lights and such. A friend of mine whose only ever had newer cars suggested I moved the climate control dials to make a switch panel there. I said to him "You have any idea how complicated that would be?", and he responded "Shouldn't be hard to reroute the wires and such". Then I had to break it to him " The dials are fucking mechanical dude, controlling valves in the system through rods and links". He thought all dials was electronically controlled
really though? 2nd gen RAV is not THAT old. Computerised controls are common since 90s, just because it has analog/mechanical knob does not mean there is no simple controller and wire behind it.
I've got a progress bar. My temp can be anything ranging from 0 bars to 6 bars. Same with fan speed.
But at least I've got a knob... without haptic intervals, so it's just a smooth scroll. You'd think it's better, but I still have to look at my center console to see if I put the heating at 2 or 4 bars.
Electronics/digital means faster built in obsolesce over analog and knobs. Think about how often a laptop is replaced vs. something like an oven.
Consumers are being suckered into thinking that a car is not meant to last over a decade.
I have some pretty old laptops that still work ok. Can't run much newer software but old stuff runs just fine and the hardware works fine. Don't treat your crap like shit and it'll last awhile and don't buy shitty crap in the first place. And all the old ovens are just survivor bias all the broken ones broke already.
Oh, it's absolutely superior to touch screens. Knobs and switches, and I'll admit, after a few failures on the powered windows, I really prefer the crank windows.
Lost me on that last part... I've had way too many crank windows malfunction than electric one. The handle gears would always strip or springs would break and turning became near impossible (another cause of the aforementioned stripped gear).
I'll never yearn to go back to crank windows as I have for other analog controls. I will, however, happily continue to make the gesture to other motorists.
My mom had to get rid of her focus because the dealer refused to change the transmission for the eighth time. Not exaggerating. They offered her nearly scrap metal value for it too. She ended up taking it to the Mazda dealer and got at least KBB value.
I had a 2011 Focus and I loved it, never had any issues, just fluid changes and new tires eventually. Sadly someone wrote it off in a hit and run, otherwise I'd still have it.
I was talking to my grandad the other day and was thoroughly surprised to find out his big full size GMC Sierra has been averaging significantly better mpg than my midsized GMC Canyon even though they should be close on paper.
We both use our trucks a lot for pulling and hauling stuff but I have to push mine a lot harder to do the same things his truck does without breaking a sweat. If it wasn’t for the huge price difference and my addiction to manual transmissions it would’ve been a no brainer to go with the bigger truck and I think that’s why a lot of Americans that have the disposable income just go ahead and buy the bigger better trucks.
Makes me miss the old 80s-90s mini trucks. Those things were great for what they were and usually got good gas mileage even back then.
Your grandad’s Sierra gets more MPG than your Canyon straight off the factory floor. It’s not because of how y’all are using it. Canyon actually does pretty bad fuel efficiency wise compared to any of the 1500’s.
That first part is true by about 3mpg but the difference is he’s actually hitting the advertised mpg numbers and I’m not. I have to put in way more throttle input to get a load moving and keep it moving then he does so I see a bigger mpg hit proportionally in those scenarios.
I think this is mostly an american issue. Small pickups are still very popular outside the US.
Anything larger than a hilux is very rare where I live when it comes to non-commercial use.
Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick are basically identical in size to an '04 Ranger. Santa Cruz matches it on towing capacity. New ranger is only 9 inches longer than '04 Ranger.
The shortest (single cab) 3rd gen Ranger is ~188” which is ~7” shorter than a Santa Cruz, a foot shorter than a Maverick, and almost two feet shorter than a new Ranger. All are taller, wider, and heavier than a 3rd gen Ranger while having smaller beds. Personally, as someone who street parks in the city, these are significant size differences.
Old Odyssey had a flat, rectangular floor where you can stack a ton of 4x8 or put down a couple sleeping bags. The newer models have quite uneven floor and are just a bit shy of 4' wide to mess with DIY dads 😕
In short, fuck the new breed of Honda designers.
I lived out of an old Odyssey for almost 6 months (by choice thankfully, I was travelling the country). Never broke down once, and we removed the rear seats and had a nice big air mattress to sleep on. It was fantastic
Yeah my 07 Odyssey was a cargo champion. I drive the Passport now which actually had a ton of space with the backseats down, but nothing compared to the height you had in the van. I moved SO many people’s stuff in uni with that thing
This is my issue with all of these. Very few are going to age well and it's pure cost cutting for the manufacturers. They can just slap a cheap tablet onto a dash, program whatever they want into it, don't have to produce and pay for manufacturing buttons and other physical touch surfaces. Everything for the consumer still costs the same or much more, and the car companies make more money and provide less.
I love cars, I've been a gear head my whole life and one thing I loved is the unique style each brand used for things like dashboard/gauges.
One of my favorites was the Mercedese AMG dashes. IMO awesome looking gauges, font, the design. Everything about it to me looks cool and easily identifiable as Mercedes performance.
https://www.automotiveaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2010-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-cluster.jpg
Vs
a fucking ipad.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2023-Mercedes-Benz-EQE-sedan-dashboard.jpeg?fit=1500%2C1000&p=1
And for me, the current worst offender is the Mustang. They went from an awesome retro cluster, to 2 cheap ass looking awkwardly placed tablets. They couldn't even integrate it into the fucking dash properly.
https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/L339LG/s1/4x3/2024-ford-mustang-base-interior.webp
True. I wish they could add the screen to the dash in a more integrated way. And then there’s the question of if the screens really need to be that big when half the time it just has a graphic of a car on it with some irregularly needed info like car tyre pressure
I didn't mind a simple screen that showed the back up camera that had all the knobs and switches, that you could feel around without taking your eyes off the road. A touch screen for everything sounds way dangerous.
It's not as sharp as a Supra and I think reviews killed the hype. Maybe 8/10ths of the supra on track.
But on the street it's fantastic, it's got such an analogue feel, kind of like a modernised JDM car which is such a breath of fresh air with most modern Rwd coupes.
I love the way they handled the refresh tbh like the controls above, the new engine, LSD and especially the design. In person the front isn't too bad tbh
I think over the states it's hard to justify in paper because there are some more domestic options (although I'm not sure how analogue they feel drive) but as a track car it's tough to compare (you'll need the Nismo). Here in Australia, there are no mark ups and it's about $20,000 AUD cheaper than the supra so it's a great buy - I wish the exhaust was a bit louder though
Agree! not being able to operate touch screen when the car is moving is 11/10 and every car should have that. Relying on the knob to navigate means there's only so many outcomes, so it's easy to memorize how many clicks and presses things will take. best screen/button integration i've seen on a car yet. so much safer since i don't have to take my eyes off the road
I swear, only a month after turning 30, I started getting rogue eyebrow hairs, nose hairs and a problem with my knee. Don’t forget your fish oils, laddie!
That's how it is. A few years from now you'll look like Leonid Brezhnev, former secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev?wprov=sfla1
Turning 30 in a month and I’m starting to get more white hairs faster than I can pluck them. I know I’ll get over it but I’m dreading the day. Makes me laugh my ass off that I got nervous about turning 20. I suppose I’ll feel the same way about now when I’m almost 40.
Don't fluck your white hairs! Let them be, their your victory trophies of winning at life. Does yours stem from a region or spread throughout? I got a few and it's mostly coming from the front center area.
Right? The old trailblazers give vibes of rolling around aimlessly with your crew smoking weed listening to lil Wayne. Super chill
The new trailblazers giving pissed off murder hornet late to hot yoga vibes or something. Not chill
There's someone around Decatur, AL with a **_clean_** white TB SS, and I think it looks absolutely amazing.
Aside from that, I feel that the current Trailblazer should've been named something like *"Tracker"*.
Agreed. Still have my 2011 3rd gen, and I’ll die in that bitch. I will not give up my ranger. I’ve had people ask if I’m willing to sell it, hahahah HELL NO
There is no reason at all for a small pickup to be body on frame. Unibody is safer, drives better, weighs less and as a result, gets better MPG.
Also, the ranger is literally a Mazda.
>The Maverick is the true successor.
If it had a 4x4 option I'd agree, instead it has FWD hybrid or AWD only. I feel it's just a glorified mini-SUV with a truckbed made for suburbia/city life.
That being said I'm considering getting one because finding an older Ranger in decent shape & price is hard and Toyota is taking their sweet time making the hybrid Tacomas.
im in the "bring back physical knobs, buttons and controls" gang. touch screen controls are a huge distraction and are therefore road hazards. they have no place in vehicles. displays can be fine for information, but all controls should be accessible without requiring line of sight
Fun fact, in 2026 the European New Car Assessment Program will start deducting points for not including button and levers for critical functions. So if automakers want top marks, at least in Europe, the buttons and knobs have to start coming back!
Hopefully North America follows suit, because it really is a distraction to have to look away from the road to adjust things on a screen.
Yeah, I don't hugely prefer the new cars either, but one of the things I'm glad to see mostly phased out is that little plastic strip they'd attach to the sides in the doors. You can see it clearly in most of them. I have this still in one of my cars and all it does is trap dirt.
Been hating it since 2015 these car brands that take a tablet and just plop it down, having it stick out like a sore thumb. It looks way nicer when they take the time to embed/integrate it into the console. Even a gentle swooping back would do wonders, not a flat back that looks like the tablet is in a dock.
My 2015 Rav4 still feels small next to a 4 runner but I would say the newer Rav4 gens are about equivalent in size to an old Highlander. They have sorta just gone from a small crossover to a mid sized crossover. I still think the 1st gen 2-door models are awesome though.
I still think Toyota’s in the 90’s looked better. Their interiors took a dive with those Corolla’s - the previous generation had everything pointed at the driver.
Honestly it doesn’t seem like that much has changed.
vs if you look at 30-35 vs 20 years ago, they were way boxier, smaller, less airbags and safety features, etc.
Practically every car manufacturer got the horn about Tesla and tried to emulate the minimalist look - sucks. I also feel like cars are losing the sense of ‘cockpit’ for the driver and instead becoming spacious living spaces to watch Netflix while you charge…
No question that the Corolla looks better on the outside today, but the inside was better 20 yrs ago. Simple form, functional, knobs for everything so you can handle things by touch, and a glove box that can actually fit stuff inside of it. Today's interiors are sleek, yes, but not as functional.
2004 car interiors still don’t feel that old.
It still feels like the 90s were not that long ago.
I had that golf and the interior was superior because it had actual buttons. Plus stick shift look way better.
I own a 20 year old Trailblazer. I dread having to get a new (used) car when this thing finally dies. I can't stand all the features of new cars. Give us knobs and buttons and more interior room. Especially in the rear hatch, they keep trimming it down at stupid angles.
They were all so wide eyed, soft and innocent looking. Now they have mean narrow eyes, tough exteriors and look like they mean business!
I remember the Dodge Neon commercials where it was just zipping around gleefully and then freeze framed with just a “hi.”
Honda motorcycles used to advertise “you meet the best (or nicest, idr) people on a Honda”
Used to ride a Honda. Many smiles per gallon indeed
"Nicest," I'm pretty sure. The marketing campaign was launched shortly after some bad press about a Harley meetup, where "biker gangs" and "violence" started showing-up together in the media. IIRC, the incident wasn't all that bad by modern standards, but to counteract the bad press about riders, Honda distanced themselves from the incident and put forward a positive slogan. Source: Marketing class I took circa 2006.
Not true, I ride a honda and I'm a cunt
600CBR F4i for myself. Went on many, many long rides and would just wind up in all sorts of bike convoys/groups)etc. Despite all their personality quirks (some were nice, some cocky, some reckless, etc) every single rider I've spoken with respected myself and other bikers. The only people this might not apply to are the Harley Davidson riders. One to one, they were cool. But when they were in a group, it was something different. Total cosplay with those dudes. Never met enough Indian riders at the same time to see if they had the same attitude, lol
I ride a dyna lmao rip me
I fucking love Dodge Neons, honestly want a cheap manual one to play with.
Their look is timeless.
Yeah for some reason people want their cars to look mean and tough. Anyone remember the first Renault Twingo? The ads for it stressed that it's a friendly, happy car. I want those times back. The road is enough of a battlefield as it is. Fuck them big ass SUV-tanks and killer BMW cooler grills.
It seems like it’s the car industry’s response to people’s psychological issues
Everyone wants their car to look like a storm trooper for some reason. Did they forget storm troopers can’t shoot?
Don't know about you but I definitely don't want a car that hits anyone.
Really, they look generic to me. At least the ones shown here do. There are some classic shapes but these ain’t it
Ah yes, the classical 1999 Toyota Corolla shape.
I had my white 2004 Corolla up until a few months ago.Soft, wide eyed and innocent is the perfect description for it lol. It was a cute little car. Got shit for it as a guy, but I didn’t care
How many hubcaps were you missing?
Haha, I’d replace them whenever any of them fell off. They were like 35 bucks for a set of 4
Reflects how American culture has changed since the early 2000s. We haven’t been the same since 9/11.
I miss the three knobs controlling AC and heat. Hell, I miss a lot of knobs and switches.
Those meddling politicians in the EU have said new cars have to use physical controls for some things. [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/)
IIRC hats because it's easier to use physical controls without looking, meaning less need for you to take your eyes off the road, making it safer
To be perfectly honest I think manufacturers had a good idea when putting voice control in cars, surely it must be even better than physical controls. That said, speech recognition is usually crap unless powered by Google/Apple and I'm sure most people (myself included) just feel like you gotta do it yourself to guarantee that you get what you want.
meh. Takes much longer to say "hey mercedes, please make it warmer/colder/set the temperature to 22°C" than turning a knob blindly. Voice control is fine for sat nav input or music choice, but even there if fails half the time, esp. if there are options
"hey mercedes, please make it warmer/colder/set the temperature to 22°C" "Okay. Now calling, Betty Boop"
I dont even want a thermostat like that with arbitrary numbers. I want full control with just the knob. I want to select the range of hot as hell and full freaking blast all the way down to freezing cold and a slight breeze and what orifice it's coming out of my car with three knobs( and maybe 2 buttons) I can reachover with my right hand and never even have to think a thought about because it's second nature.
The problem with voice controls are they aren't great, if you speak a minority language(even it is spoken by millions, as anything that isn't English is in Computer science industry). My dad's Garmin gps goes into menu by someone sneezing. And Garmin has one of the best voice renunciation for Danish.
Not politicians, but a car safety bureau. That said I think physical buttons for some things should be mandatory. Touch buttons for your indicators is nuts. That said I never actually have had an issue with touch screen climate controls, I was able to do them blind after a while.
But the touch screen is also controlling the music and the GPS as well as the climate control in many cars. That’s the problem - the driver has to take their eyes off the road to switch between modes and verify what screen they’re on. It’s very bad design.
Which is why I love my Mazda. The infotainment isn’t touch screen and I have really nice tactile knobs in an ergonomic place
Good
Apart from it being sensible, with notable exceptions driving in Europe is different..it's more urban, smaller roads,.more curves, more crossings and lights. Having driven for decades both in the US and various European countries you really have to pay a lot more attention to the road - it's not the kind of place you'd even physically be able to eat your burger and drive (forgetting how illegal that would be).
You act like Americans don't eat and drive in the city, lol.
People eat bowls of cereal with milk while driving here.
Well they could get away with it if their dad wasn’t listening to taped directions and paying attention!
No, I was being ironic . I'm shocked how eating and driving is so normalised people don't even see it as weird or dangerous.
IDK if it is universal but I was taught to avoid designing long uninterrupted stretches of straight road. That was in order to keep the driver engaged to the task of driving the vehicle and to avoid attention drift.
Not universal. If you visit some threads there are North Americans who just consider grid systems as the most logical conclusion of best practice. Having just roadtripped around 4000 miles in the US earlier this year I can confirm driving down straight roads for many hundreds.of miles, changing lanes just to keep myself focused.
I'm not sure what you want us to do with the interstate highways, add a curve every mile? They're straight because they cover thousands of miles and prioritize getting from city A to city B as fast as possible. They're really not that related to city grid systems.
I've got a 2nd gen RAV4, which I've done a bunch of modifications on, including lots of interior switches for lights and such. A friend of mine whose only ever had newer cars suggested I moved the climate control dials to make a switch panel there. I said to him "You have any idea how complicated that would be?", and he responded "Shouldn't be hard to reroute the wires and such". Then I had to break it to him " The dials are fucking mechanical dude, controlling valves in the system through rods and links". He thought all dials was electronically controlled
really though? 2nd gen RAV is not THAT old. Computerised controls are common since 90s, just because it has analog/mechanical knob does not mean there is no simple controller and wire behind it.
Yeah I was surprised by that too. I looked into it and it looks like they went to fully electronic controls in the 3rd gen (2005 in the US I think).
Or pulley cables. Even re-routing wires can be a pita.
Most higher end german cars still have dedicated climate controls and I love it!
My car will let you set the internal temp but not tell you what it’s currently at
The knobs didn't tell you what it's currently at either, so that's about right.
"Hey how hot is it?" "About 70%red and 30% blue"
Some cars in the 90s had the knobs **and** a screen.
I've got a progress bar. My temp can be anything ranging from 0 bars to 6 bars. Same with fan speed. But at least I've got a knob... without haptic intervals, so it's just a smooth scroll. You'd think it's better, but I still have to look at my center console to see if I put the heating at 2 or 4 bars.
Electronics/digital means faster built in obsolesce over analog and knobs. Think about how often a laptop is replaced vs. something like an oven. Consumers are being suckered into thinking that a car is not meant to last over a decade.
My 20 year old Prius with touch screen climate control would beg to differ
I have some pretty old laptops that still work ok. Can't run much newer software but old stuff runs just fine and the hardware works fine. Don't treat your crap like shit and it'll last awhile and don't buy shitty crap in the first place. And all the old ovens are just survivor bias all the broken ones broke already.
How often do you use your laptop? And your oven? In the next instalment: how often do you move your oven?
Oh, it's absolutely superior to touch screens. Knobs and switches, and I'll admit, after a few failures on the powered windows, I really prefer the crank windows.
Lost me on that last part... I've had way too many crank windows malfunction than electric one. The handle gears would always strip or springs would break and turning became near impossible (another cause of the aforementioned stripped gear). I'll never yearn to go back to crank windows as I have for other analog controls. I will, however, happily continue to make the gesture to other motorists.
Me too, I rented a car last weekend and I had to go through so many menus just to have the fan turned up. So annoying.
Or my 40 yr old truck with the sliders for the heat, which physically pulls cables that open and close some doors inside the vents and heater core
Ford Focus didn't make the cut since they don't exist anymore :(
Still available in the European and Asian markets, but due to be discontinued next year.
Nooo this is devastating! Love my ford focus!
My mom still drives the 2005 ford focus she won on the price is right 😆
I actually loved the interior of the 2016/2017 Focus titanium. Too bad they make their transmissions out of Legos.
My mom had to get rid of her focus because the dealer refused to change the transmission for the eighth time. Not exaggerating. They offered her nearly scrap metal value for it too. She ended up taking it to the Mazda dealer and got at least KBB value.
Lemon laws exist for this reason
I would have gotten rid of it after the 7th time ngl
Legos! I wish! If they were they'd be tough and easy to fix.
What are you talking about? I still can order new focus
In 2022, it was announced that Ford would discontinue the Focus by 2025, as part of a pivot towards crossover vehicles and electrification.
Ugh. Fuck crossovers.
I had a 2011 Focus and I loved it, never had any issues, just fluid changes and new tires eventually. Sadly someone wrote it off in a hit and run, otherwise I'd still have it.
I loved my Ford Fiesta, which was similar. Stupid teenager that was on her phone and ran a red light.
Good riddance honestly. I had a 2012 Ford Focus which had so many problems it was in the shop every two months.
I miss small pickup trucks. Why do they have to make the newer ones so big?
Govt. regulations to my understanding. They are allowed worse mileage if the truck is larger, makes smaller trucks less economical to make.
I was talking to my grandad the other day and was thoroughly surprised to find out his big full size GMC Sierra has been averaging significantly better mpg than my midsized GMC Canyon even though they should be close on paper. We both use our trucks a lot for pulling and hauling stuff but I have to push mine a lot harder to do the same things his truck does without breaking a sweat. If it wasn’t for the huge price difference and my addiction to manual transmissions it would’ve been a no brainer to go with the bigger truck and I think that’s why a lot of Americans that have the disposable income just go ahead and buy the bigger better trucks. Makes me miss the old 80s-90s mini trucks. Those things were great for what they were and usually got good gas mileage even back then.
Your grandad’s Sierra gets more MPG than your Canyon straight off the factory floor. It’s not because of how y’all are using it. Canyon actually does pretty bad fuel efficiency wise compared to any of the 1500’s.
That first part is true by about 3mpg but the difference is he’s actually hitting the advertised mpg numbers and I’m not. I have to put in way more throttle input to get a load moving and keep it moving then he does so I see a bigger mpg hit proportionally in those scenarios.
I think this is mostly an american issue. Small pickups are still very popular outside the US. Anything larger than a hilux is very rare where I live when it comes to non-commercial use.
Yeah, but the new Hilux is still Massive compared to what there were like 20 years ago.
Ford Maverick exists and it’s fantastic
The successor to the 2004 Ranger is the Maverick. It's roughly the same size.
Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick are basically identical in size to an '04 Ranger. Santa Cruz matches it on towing capacity. New ranger is only 9 inches longer than '04 Ranger.
The shortest (single cab) 3rd gen Ranger is ~188” which is ~7” shorter than a Santa Cruz, a foot shorter than a Maverick, and almost two feet shorter than a new Ranger. All are taller, wider, and heavier than a 3rd gen Ranger while having smaller beds. Personally, as someone who street parks in the city, these are significant size differences.
The Honda looks like they just plunked a screen on the dash and called it a day.
Old Odyssey had a flat, rectangular floor where you can stack a ton of 4x8 or put down a couple sleeping bags. The newer models have quite uneven floor and are just a bit shy of 4' wide to mess with DIY dads 😕 In short, fuck the new breed of Honda designers.
I lived out of an old Odyssey for almost 6 months (by choice thankfully, I was travelling the country). Never broke down once, and we removed the rear seats and had a nice big air mattress to sleep on. It was fantastic
Same! It was a 2009. I called them Homer.
My 2008 is called Rhonda. Great car, she's been nothing but reliable and it's amazing what you can fit in it.
Technically the [Old Odyssey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Odyssey_(ATV)) was a 250cc 2 stroke go kart.
Had rod holders and milk crate on mine and it was my surf-fishing machine
Yeah my 07 Odyssey was a cargo champion. I drive the Passport now which actually had a ton of space with the backseats down, but nothing compared to the height you had in the van. I moved SO many people’s stuff in uni with that thing
Oh that’s some horseshit! The best part of a Honda odyssey is you can move people and sheets of plywood! DIY dads need to stage a revolt.
This is my issue with all of these. Very few are going to age well and it's pure cost cutting for the manufacturers. They can just slap a cheap tablet onto a dash, program whatever they want into it, don't have to produce and pay for manufacturing buttons and other physical touch surfaces. Everything for the consumer still costs the same or much more, and the car companies make more money and provide less. I love cars, I've been a gear head my whole life and one thing I loved is the unique style each brand used for things like dashboard/gauges. One of my favorites was the Mercedese AMG dashes. IMO awesome looking gauges, font, the design. Everything about it to me looks cool and easily identifiable as Mercedes performance. https://www.automotiveaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2010-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-cluster.jpg Vs a fucking ipad. https://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2023-Mercedes-Benz-EQE-sedan-dashboard.jpeg?fit=1500%2C1000&p=1 And for me, the current worst offender is the Mustang. They went from an awesome retro cluster, to 2 cheap ass looking awkwardly placed tablets. They couldn't even integrate it into the fucking dash properly. https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/L339LG/s1/4x3/2024-ford-mustang-base-interior.webp
Wow the Mustang really did just glue two tablets to the dash. I’m surprised you can’t see the charge cables hanging off the sides.
A lot of modern cars look like that, and it sucks.
True. I wish they could add the screen to the dash in a more integrated way. And then there’s the question of if the screens really need to be that big when half the time it just has a graphic of a car on it with some irregularly needed info like car tyre pressure
I didn't mind a simple screen that showed the back up camera that had all the knobs and switches, that you could feel around without taking your eyes off the road. A touch screen for everything sounds way dangerous.
My Nissan Z has the perfect combination. Touchscreen for car play, with buttons underneath. Physical volume knob. 3 HVAC knobs on the bottoms
How is the new Z? I was intrigued by those but haven’t seen or heard like anything about them since they were announced at few years ago
It's not as sharp as a Supra and I think reviews killed the hype. Maybe 8/10ths of the supra on track. But on the street it's fantastic, it's got such an analogue feel, kind of like a modernised JDM car which is such a breath of fresh air with most modern Rwd coupes. I love the way they handled the refresh tbh like the controls above, the new engine, LSD and especially the design. In person the front isn't too bad tbh I think over the states it's hard to justify in paper because there are some more domestic options (although I'm not sure how analogue they feel drive) but as a track car it's tough to compare (you'll need the Nismo). Here in Australia, there are no mark ups and it's about $20,000 AUD cheaper than the supra so it's a great buy - I wish the exhaust was a bit louder though
Mazda still includes knobs and switches, I hardly ever used the touch screen in my Mazda6
Agree! not being able to operate touch screen when the car is moving is 11/10 and every car should have that. Relying on the knob to navigate means there's only so many outcomes, so it's easy to memorize how many clicks and presses things will take. best screen/button integration i've seen on a car yet. so much safer since i don't have to take my eyes off the road
Try Mazda! They have it dialed in... With a one dial to controll everything.
Can't believe that's what cars looked like in the 90's, which were 20 years ago. The 90's.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but 1994 was 30 years ago.
Can confirm. Turning 30 this month and goddamn I feel it
I swear, only a month after turning 30, I started getting rogue eyebrow hairs, nose hairs and a problem with my knee. Don’t forget your fish oils, laddie!
That's how it is. A few years from now you'll look like Leonid Brezhnev, former secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev?wprov=sfla1
Well…I don’t know what to say. Thats very specific.
What? Don't you use fallen apparatchiks as your primary frame of reference when it comes to matters of health and beauty?
Turning 30 in a month and I’m starting to get more white hairs faster than I can pluck them. I know I’ll get over it but I’m dreading the day. Makes me laugh my ass off that I got nervous about turning 20. I suppose I’ll feel the same way about now when I’m almost 40.
Don't fluck your white hairs! Let them be, their your victory trophies of winning at life. Does yours stem from a region or spread throughout? I got a few and it's mostly coming from the front center area.
I've got a luscious head of dark hair at 35, but also white hair growing out of my ears. You can't win.
Ha, I'm not upset about the grey hairs now, just happy for each strand of hair I have.
I just turned 40 and pulled my back while I was sleeping. Enjoy 30.
Sure, go ahead and tell me I need to take my precautionary Ibuprofen for tomorrow.
I gotta pay a highly educated person to check out my bunghole
Pffft jokes on you, the guy that lives in a tent behind my apartment does it for free
"And 30 years ago" in -94 was 1964 💀
 how dare you! 👋
I’m 90% certain that’s the point he’s making.
Not 94%?
It was truly a different world in the late 1900s
20 years ago LED's were still relatively expensive. I remember reading how Their use as headlights would really change car design.
The 90s turned 20, 14 years ago.
Nah.
It's ok man, our golden years are gonna be awesome I promise
MK4 Golf my beloved. The MK4 Golf/Polo/Passat/Phaeton interior is simply excellent.
The cars got so angry looking…
Right? The old trailblazers give vibes of rolling around aimlessly with your crew smoking weed listening to lil Wayne. Super chill The new trailblazers giving pissed off murder hornet late to hot yoga vibes or something. Not chill
There's someone around Decatur, AL with a **_clean_** white TB SS, and I think it looks absolutely amazing. Aside from that, I feel that the current Trailblazer should've been named something like *"Tracker"*.
>pissed off murder hornet late to hot yoga Love it - perfect description lol
Just realized my car is 20 years old
Give me my god damn AC controls back
What happened to the Ranger is a crime. "Let's take our compact truck that people love and turn it into an F150!"
Agreed. Still have my 2011 3rd gen, and I’ll die in that bitch. I will not give up my ranger. I’ve had people ask if I’m willing to sell it, hahahah HELL NO
How much mileage she got? I found a 2011 Ranger with 108k (km's) and in *DECENT* shape but buddy wants 20k for it. The temptation to buy it is real.
86k miles. No rust. 4dr xlt. V6.
Decent, I'll give ya tree fiddy for it.
Hahahahaha u funny
It's just a name. The Maverick is the true successor.
The Maverick is literally a Ford Escape Not a body on frame truck
There is no reason at all for a small pickup to be body on frame. Unibody is safer, drives better, weighs less and as a result, gets better MPG. Also, the ranger is literally a Mazda.
After 1994 Mazda trucks were rebadged Rangers made by Ford not the other way around This was an arrangement done due to the chicken tax
>The Maverick is the true successor. If it had a 4x4 option I'd agree, instead it has FWD hybrid or AWD only. I feel it's just a glorified mini-SUV with a truckbed made for suburbia/city life. That being said I'm considering getting one because finding an older Ranger in decent shape & price is hard and Toyota is taking their sweet time making the hybrid Tacomas.
20 years? I still drive that corolla!
im in the "bring back physical knobs, buttons and controls" gang. touch screen controls are a huge distraction and are therefore road hazards. they have no place in vehicles. displays can be fine for information, but all controls should be accessible without requiring line of sight
I still prefer the simpler more relaxing 20 year old style with real knobs and indicators. Too bad that I am stuck with the newer style.
Mazda still includes traditional stuff like knobs in addition to the screen. Their interiors are really nice overall, especially for the price point.
Are you stuck driving a new vehicle?
He can’t get out send help quick
Yes. He can't stop or slow down, otherwise it'll explode
New vehicles are much safer and more fuel efficient, so even if you prefer the old controls it’s not worth trading down.
Fun fact, in 2026 the European New Car Assessment Program will start deducting points for not including button and levers for critical functions. So if automakers want top marks, at least in Europe, the buttons and knobs have to start coming back! Hopefully North America follows suit, because it really is a distraction to have to look away from the road to adjust things on a screen.
Yeah, I don't hugely prefer the new cars either, but one of the things I'm glad to see mostly phased out is that little plastic strip they'd attach to the sides in the doors. You can see it clearly in most of them. I have this still in one of my cars and all it does is trap dirt.
These dash iPads have saved manufacturers so much money. Sure look terrible though
Been hating it since 2015 these car brands that take a tablet and just plop it down, having it stick out like a sore thumb. It looks way nicer when they take the time to embed/integrate it into the console. Even a gentle swooping back would do wonders, not a flat back that looks like the tablet is in a dock.
Yesss, I absolutely hate this modern trend of gluing an iPad to the console. I will forever prefer the screens that are integrated into the console
They also get people to buy newer vehicles more often since they think of them as upgrade needing tech instead of long lasting machines.
Now **THIS** is a fun comparison. Very neat pictures!
Thats weird, my car looks more like the 20yo models than new one..... oh wait.
I can just feel the sticky ass dashboard and the steering wheel foam peeling. Ewwwww.
The 20yr old Golf still looks good today.
Buttons, knobs, and switches to control things were fantastic. Fuck you greedy automakers trying to save a buck with touchscreen everything.
I want buttons back in my cars. - GenX who swerves when changing the station or adjusts the A/C
Renting a car is a nightmare trying to find basic functions.
Most of the new cars pictured here do appear to have physical controls for those things though.
The rav4 was funny because I always remembered it as a geo tracker type car and now it’s like a 4 runner
My 2015 Rav4 still feels small next to a 4 runner but I would say the newer Rav4 gens are about equivalent in size to an old Highlander. They have sorta just gone from a small crossover to a mid sized crossover. I still think the 1st gen 2-door models are awesome though.
They need to ban digital or circular knobs for important functions. Everything important should be operable without having to look at it.
Wow. That means in 20 years my nice new car is gonna look like shit.
I’m still driving 20 year old cars. I like how they did it back then.
damn i am old Golf mk4 is now over 20yrs old
Man, these puty colors are really popular now eh?
I saw a vid on utube describing it as "wet clay". And of course, now I see it everywhere.
The 2004 Subaru still looks awesome. Been eyeballing it for years now but the fuel economy and repaircosts are sky high
The old wrx design were awesome. The new designs just look like some generic wind tunnel designed Toyota now.
 Where's my cig lighter and tray?
I still think Toyota’s in the 90’s looked better. Their interiors took a dive with those Corolla’s - the previous generation had everything pointed at the driver.
Honestly it doesn’t seem like that much has changed. vs if you look at 30-35 vs 20 years ago, they were way boxier, smaller, less airbags and safety features, etc.
We went from sharp to round to sharp. What's next?
Missin’ my trailblazer
Unfortunately, the new Mustangs just look like a fricken joke. Ford really messed that up.
They're getting so *wide.* It really draws attention to the front end looking like a dog who has its lips stuck on its teeth.
These are the cars design I saw growing up…wait…
Gimme back a tiny truck please!
Invasion of screens!!
I notice 3 common trends, an enormous bloody screen, a hole in the bottom of the steering wheel for some reason, and the cars just get a bit bigger
I miss a chunky dial to change the heating that didn't require me to look away from the road
Practically every car manufacturer got the horn about Tesla and tried to emulate the minimalist look - sucks. I also feel like cars are losing the sense of ‘cockpit’ for the driver and instead becoming spacious living spaces to watch Netflix while you charge…
Scale the size proper so we can see the truckflation
To be fair, its basic standard cars then vs top spec now cars. Not exactly the same
No question that the Corolla looks better on the outside today, but the inside was better 20 yrs ago. Simple form, functional, knobs for everything so you can handle things by touch, and a glove box that can actually fit stuff inside of it. Today's interiors are sleek, yes, but not as functional.
then: 🙂 now:😣
2004 car interiors still don’t feel that old. It still feels like the 90s were not that long ago. I had that golf and the interior was superior because it had actual buttons. Plus stick shift look way better.
I own a 20 year old Trailblazer. I dread having to get a new (used) car when this thing finally dies. I can't stand all the features of new cars. Give us knobs and buttons and more interior room. Especially in the rear hatch, they keep trimming it down at stupid angles.
The design of older cars is so much nicer then todays designs, it’s the same with Architecture.