Five in-car trends you probably forgot

Among the technological advancements that automobile manufacturers have been striving to perfect over the years, there have been many changes to the everyday car. From fuel-injected systems to automatic climate control, automobile technology has progressed a lot over the last few years. But looking back, there are some amenities that are obsolete now but were cutting-edge in that day and age.

Reverse music

One of the most iconic modifications, users could add their personalized reverse music to their car back in the day. Though it was not a particularly welcome concept, especially late at night, it was extremely popular, and most cars could be heard chirping away as their owners reversed into parking spots.

Cassette rack

In today’s time of online music and touchscreen infotainment systems, cars no longer need an external music player. But in the days of CDs and cassettes, it was sacrosanct to have a cassette or a CD rack in the car, typically stuffed below the driver’s seat, which would hold all your precious song collections. Talk about storage space!

Manual windows

Car manufacturers have standardized power windows for a while now, but until recently, it was common for cars to have manual windows, at least for the rear two. This meant a lot of rolling and not a lot of conveniences.

Analogue instrument cluster

Forget multi-function display, old cars had analogue instrument clusters, which only showed only the essential information and nothing else. This meant there was no gear position indicator, door-open warning sign and so on. Pretty much everything was absent from the instrument cluster, keeping it simple to read and easy to repair.

Clunky knobs

If you feel that feather-touch controls are passé, you have probably never used the good old air-conditioning knobs. Before the day of digital temperature indicators and automatic climate controls, there were big, clunky knobs which we would merrily rotate to an estimated temperature, while adjusting the desired air-flow manually.