Now when I were a lad…
Once I got used to it I do like the auto handbrake on my Skoda Karooq.
I don’t like keyless entry but that can be overridden by using the key and then touching the door handle when locking. Also don’t like auto stop start.
Emergency brake assist worked fantastically when someone tried a crash for cash trick by pulling in front of me and slamming their brakes on when on a deserted M11.
Really! And when your foot slip off the clutch and you rear-end the car in front? Had it done to me years ago when the car behind me leapt forward at the traffic lights, luckily I was in a P/u truck with a large towing hook, the car that ran into me came off much worse.
Knowing Nick, I guess he thought this was a funny attribute to older cars. What he didn’t realise, if you stay with this episode on Youtube, it turns into a tribute to even older cars in Jay Leno’s Garage!
Ah, life before that modern multi grade oil, when everything was better in the world.
Ah yes, the good old days. We used to enjoy things like bread and dripping for tea…
…scurvy, rickets… 
I really like the convenience of a number of modern features and reliability is now so good that it can, by and large, be taken for granted.
I feel little nostalgia for the agricultural BL offerings that I started out with such as the Allegro’s, Minis, Victors etc that rusted away before your eyes and could never be relied on.
However, I do struggle with the level of electronics fitted now some of which I struggle to get my head round. When I drove my daughters mew Fiesta the other week I felt like I was sitting in a giant mobile telephone. I hired a new Ford 4x4 (cant even recall the model!) last year and felt so remote from the world it was like being in a simulator.
My “other” car has no sidescreens or rear windows, no power steering, non servo disc brakes, no airbags, no boot, weighs just over half a ton and runs on 16" x 5" wide crossply tyres. But it does have a supercharger and a 12" ground clearance, which all makes for good fun off the road as well as on it - as long as you dress for the weather (it comes in to meet you) and you do need to keep your wits about you on the road.
But my wife doesn’t necessarily hold the same affection for it, which leads me onto why I was persuaded to buy “our” MX-5!
My biggest peeve about modern cars is that there a just too many of them on my bit of road!
He didnt say the car was in gear…
He said “…not to put the car in neutral” and if it’s not in neutral it’s in gear!
Exactly! In neutral with the clutch disengaged…
No, In gear with the clutch disengaged! There would be no need to disengage the clutch if the car was in neutral!!
I asked my kids which car they liked more, the old car or the new one. They all said the old one. When asked why they told me this new one makes too much noise (beeps)!
“Now get off my lawn!”
I know what you mean. Mine is like being in an aeroplane cockpit complete with Head Up Display. After 6 months still haven’t quite got to know all of the controls. The user manuals are 2 inches thick when stacked on top of each other. I added my wife as second driver to the Kia and in the 6 months she’s not driven it. I asked her why she doesn’t drive it she told me it has too many lights, switches, beeps and seems too complicated. In contrast, when I showed up with the MX-5 at home, after her initial reaction of ■■■, she said I want my name on the insurance!
They’re right! They can be very confusing.
My wife has been on the insurance for my other car since 2002. She’s driven it twice, only once on the road. She wasn’t keen the first time because I asked her to drive it across a river ford crossing so I could get a photo! The second time was when she drove up a grassy trials section on a Scottish hillside.
The MX-5 - she lets me drive while she nods off, sorry - navigates!
Radar controlled cruise control is simply dangerous.
However my next point is neither dangerous or confusing, it’s simply the most pointless thing I have ever seen on a car EVER.
My wife has a 64 plate mini roadster. It has a dial on the dash about 3 inches across with a scale on it similar to a clock face. It records how many hours the roof has been down!! What possible use can than be?