# Top 10 things your kids will never experience in a new car.
**URL:** https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837
**Category:** Shift518 Automotive
**Created:** [August 2, 2009, 11:18am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837 "2009-08-02T11:18:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Vovchandr](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Vovchandr)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:18am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/1 "2009-08-02T11:18:01Z")
1.
**Vent Windows**
Air conditioning, to the city-dweller, is often the line separating a rugged existence from a civilized one. In the past, what you had instead was the vent window, a magnificent triangular piece of glass in the front door windows which rotated to funnel air into the cabin and cool the occupants. Crossing large expanses at high speeds means lots of fresh air, but as we transitioned to an urban population, those high speeds were replaced by sweltering traffic and air conditioning has completely replaced the vent window.
1.
**Crank Windows**
Nearly everyone reading this post probably grew up with a car featuring crank windows. They’re cheap, they’re reliable, they’re light weight and they make you exercise to get at that sweet, sweet fresh air. All reasons they’re being naturally selected out of the automotive gene pool. It doesn’t help that even on the most beautiful days, everyone stays bottled up with their air conditioning humming.
1.
**Keys**
The idea of a key to operate your car was first implemented by Cadillac, since their cars featured the Charles Kettering starter, making ignition so easy anyone could steal your car. As time progressed thieves upped the ante with master keys or bypassed the key entirely by hotwiring. Since computer technology and the commonization of keyless entry have advanced, the metal key finds itself succumbing to the digital one. These days its common to find cars with a short-range radio frequency transmitter in the key fob and a push-button starter. They still come with emergency metal keys, but its only a matter of time before those disappear.
1.
**Vinyl Seats**
If you’re old enough, the searing pain of hot vinyl bench seats turning your thigh into a roast is one of your earliest car memories. You learned quick to sit on your shorts and ease down on the bench, otherwise those vinyl covers, hot as the surface of the sun which baked them, would inevitably bake stitch marks into you. Unsurprisingly, as material costs dropped and buyers decided not to maim their children, vinyl seat options are becoming scarce. Believe it or not, they can still be had on the ultra-base Toyota Prius.
1.
**Manual Transfer Cases**
Driving off-road used to be a test of manliness. You had to know things; what a low range meant, how to roll a truck back and forth to get the manual lockers to engage, and most importantly, you had to be a master of the secret handshake of the non-synchro transfer case. Electronic, on the fly, fully synchronized and push-button transfer cases have made the second shifter next to the gear selector an anachronism. It will survive with the rock crawlers, but it’ll never see the light of production again.
1.
**Jump Seats**
When the man killed the folding jump seats in the Land Rover Discovery, a little piece of us all died. How many grew up facing the back of a Country Squire watching the world evaporate behind them at a Federally mandated double nickel? Oh sure, we’re all technically “safer” without the jump seat, but are we happier? Probably not.
1.
**Being Lost**
Used to be if you wanted to get anywhere, you had a Rand McNally road atlas and your sense of direction. It required spatial awareness, planning, paying attention to the road signs and at times a little luck. Now Navigation systems are becoming standard equipment on even the most basic models. In a few years, it’ll be hard to avoid finding a Navi in any decent used car you look at. Discounting preinstalled Nav, portable units are crossing the magical $100 barrier, making them accessible to the unwashed masses. There will always be hold-outs clinging to their old-timey maps, but your kids won’t be among them.
1.
**Cigarette Lighters**
As goes the smoker, so goes the cigarette lighter. We’re not fans of smoking in cars, it inevitably leads to burns in the upholstery, but having a readily available fire source in your car seems useful. If nothing else cigarette lighters provide hours of entertainment to danger loving pre-teen boys. And who will ever forget cleaning out the disgusting and too-small chewing gum repository they become for non-smoking families. On a wider note though, lighters, and they’re counterparts ash trays, are some of the last remaining automotive artifacts left over from the greatest generation. When lighters disappear completely, something elegant and confident will die out too.
1.
**Hanging Your Arm Out The Window**
Possibly the most insidious on the list, it’s one of the greatest pleasures in a car nut’s life; To hang your arm out the window on a cool summer night, cruising down the main drag, your significant other at your side, a mellow tune belting out on the radio and from under the hood. There’s no greater bliss for any automotive aficionado. Much like with window vents, this past time faces an end from the evils of air conditioning, but it also will die out as a result of government regulation in the form of ever-more-stringent side impact requirements forcing windows and beltlines higher and higher. As it stands there are few cars on the market today you can hang an arm out of without significant discomfort, and we’ll be very sad when there are none. In fact, in our recent Muscle Car Wars showdown, the only member of the threesome we could comfortable accomplish this in was the Mustang. Camaro? Challenger? Fail.
1.
**The Danger Of Death**
To date, we’ve seen cars with two front air bags, knee bags, thorax bags, side curtain airbags, rear thorax bags and a center rear airbag. Cars have adaptive cruise control, can brake to a stop automatically, detect blind spot danger, protect pedestrians from a frontal impact, pretension your seat belt, brace your neck in a rear collision, and automatically apply brake force to avoid a rollover. At some point, barring egregious stupidity, cars will become essentially death proof. So much for fear as a motivator for responsibility.
Source
[http://jalopnik.com/5320708/ten-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-](http://jalopnik.com/5320708/ten-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/gallery/)[in-a-new-car/gallery/](http://jalopnik.com/5320708/ten-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/gallery/)
Personally #9 bugs me the worst of all about most modern cars.
Enjoy!
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### Author:  [@Sully93vr4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Sully93vr4)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:20am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/2 "2009-08-02T11:20:42Z")
pretty BS of a list, I think…
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### Author:  [@big\_red](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/big_red)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/3 "2009-08-02T11:21:40Z")
yes some good points here, standard transmissions are becoming more and more scarce too. number 9 is where its at i love doing that
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### Author:  [@K20power](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/K20power)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:26am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/4 "2009-08-02T11:26:18Z")
> [@Power Steering Q](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/power-steering-q/21045/4):
>
> pretty BS of a list, I think…
Not really…Think about it, Seems like the list is made for in 10+ years. You don’t see vent windows now, you barely see crank windows, a lot of new cars don’t come with the classic key anymore they’re either that “switch blade” style or have some sort of fancy shit associated with them, there are no vinyl seats in new cars…leather or cloth, manual transfer cases…speaks for itself as do “jump seats”, there’s navigation options in almost every new car now, the cigarette lighter thing is kind of dumb as they all have those still, and airbags and many other safety devices make cars wayyyy more safe.
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### Author:  [@Sully93vr4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Sully93vr4)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:28am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/5 "2009-08-02T11:28:19Z")
> [@Car wax questions](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/car-wax-questions/21132/5):
>
> Seems like the list is made for in 10+ years.
Yea, thats a good point too.
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### Author:  [@tdi\_logik](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/tdi_logik)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:30am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/6 "2009-08-02T11:30:53Z")
alot of new cars do not have cigarette lighters.
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### Author:  [@Vovchandr](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Vovchandr)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:37am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/7 "2009-08-02T11:37:51Z")
> [@Power Steering Q](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/power-steering-q/21045/4):
>
> pretty BS of a list, I think…
I think the list is pretty spot on and sums up how I generally feel about “modern cars”.
There are also some other things missing, such as manual unassisted steering (soon to be fly by wire steering as the new BMW Z4), manual, manual transmission or anything that has “manual” in front of it.
Just one more reason to love the principle behind motorcycles in the modern day, they still manage to stay light, say a big FU to the government safety regulations such as airbags, seat belts etc and _you_ get to control them… shocking.
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### Author:  [@Mk4\_30R\_Ban](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Mk4_30R_Ban)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/8 "2009-08-02T11:54:27Z")
> [@Car wax questions](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/car-wax-questions/21132/5):
>
> the cigarette lighter thing is kind of dumb as they all have those still,
wrong, my GTI doesnt have one, its an 02, the GTO doesnt have one, my sisters TL doesnt have one, all have 12v ACC ports.
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### Author:  [@K20power](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/K20power)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/9 "2009-08-02T11:59:24Z")
> [@SOLD](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/sold/17966/14):
>
> wrong, my GTI doesnt have one, its an 02, the GTO doesnt have one, my sisters TL doesnt have one, all have 12v ACC ports.
Yeah, I misunderstood and associated the 12c ACC ports with cigarette lighters. So yeah, there aren’t cigarette lighters anymore.
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### Author:  [@PJB](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/PJB)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/10 "2009-08-02T12:17:35Z")
I used to hate the vinyl seats in my dad’s '81 Reliant when I was a kid. I remember having to put towels on the seats in the summer. Then he eventually got a seat cover.
I wont miss crank windows. I used to like them for the simplicity but now Ive grown too used to power to go back.
I rarely use my ac- Id rather have my arm out the window when its nice.
Vent windows were cool. I never owned anything with them but I drove/rode in a few trucks that had them.
It seems like around '00 or so alot of cars didnt have cigarette lighters but after that alot did again. I remember my mom’s '00 Caravan not having them. My '06 F150 has one though and it also has ashtrays.
The manual transmission does seem to be slowly disappearing. Its available in cheap cars and performance cars but not much else. You cant even get one in most trucks. Theres no longer a manual option on F150’s and before this year one was only available on the POS base model 2wd with a v6. I would love to have a 5 speed in my truck.
My brother’s '95 S10 had jump seats. They were pretty much useless.
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### Author:  [@kramerbuccs24](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/kramerbuccs24)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/11 "2009-08-02T15:06:20Z")
arm out window+tops off (or sunroof)+a good song+nice weather really can’t be beat.
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### Author:  [@NedZ32](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/NedZ32)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/12 "2009-08-02T17:56:06Z")
> [@car accident on 190 North bound](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/car-accident-on-190-north-bound/21089/26):
>
> arm out window+tops off (or sunroof)+a good song+nice weather really can’t be beat.
+1
T-Tops ftmfw
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### Author:  [@88slowmarro](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/88slowmarro)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/13 "2009-08-02T18:01:41Z")
to sum all of this up .WE ARE A BUNCH OF LAZY ,MATERIALISTIC,FUCKS …as ya can see i like my old shit lolololol
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### Author:  [@PJB](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/PJB)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/14 "2009-08-02T18:05:03Z")
Im somewhere in the middle. I like alot of the newer shit but still like alot of the old shit.
Some of it is convenience and some of it is laziness.
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### Author:  [@88slowmarro](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/88slowmarro)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/15 "2009-08-02T18:06:20Z")
my car has no options ,manual everything…shit i even gotta turn my own no2 bottle on w.t.f
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### Author:  [@PJB](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/PJB)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/16 "2009-08-02T18:06:44Z")
manual everything but tranny though
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### Author:  [@88slowmarro](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/88slowmarro)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/17 "2009-08-02T18:07:31Z")
not after this one shits the bed
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### Author:  [@PJB](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/PJB)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/18 "2009-08-02T18:09:13Z")
still gonna be automatic based tranny though.
Not like the tranny swap my POS got.
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### Author:  [@88slowmarro](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/88slowmarro)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/19 "2009-08-02T18:10:57Z")
i could ,just not gonna though. its more cosistant
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### Author:  [@JVG](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JVG)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/top-10-things-your-kids-will-never-experience-in-a-new-car/245837/20 "2009-08-02T18:11:50Z")
> [@SOLD](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/sold/17966/14):
>
> wrong, my GTI doesnt have one, its an 02, the GTO doesnt have one, my sisters TL doesnt have one, all have 12v ACC ports.
Yeah my GLI didnt have one either. Instead of and ash tray there was a Coin Tray. You had to pay $150 for a smokers option to get a lighter and an ashtray on a vw
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