Assuming the speaker is not in the kid-demo themselves, “Kids today …” is almost never followed by “… really have it tough,” even though kids today do have it pretty doggone tough when it comes to housing affordability, the job market, and other adulty-stuff. Where kids do have it pretty easy is the relative luxuriousness of their cars, even if all they can afford is a bottom-rung model like a Corolla or Civic or Versa in the most affordable trim level.
But as obscure YouTuber Doug DeMuro points out below in his look at the 1986 Civic, “basic” transportation today means you get cloth seats instead of leather, a not-huge infotainment screen instead of what appears to be an iPad Pro perched on the dash, and perhaps a mere six speakers instead of – I dunno, twelve?
But power windows? Air conditioning? Bluetooth connectivity? That’s just expected stuff.
I’m sure many of my fellow oldsters have driven (or were transported in as kids) very basic machines like Doug’s 1986 Civic above. I’ve had cars with even fewer features than that – zero heating and windows that are fixed in place come to mind – but that’s because the “features” were broken, not omitted.
What’s the most basic car you’ve owned or otherwise had in your life? The Autopian is asking!
This is not a fair question, I still own cars that lack things like doors and roofs and electricity, probably the Chenard-Walker, it is a zeppelin engine,a chassis, two seats and a barrel full of petrol with some rods and stuff. The only wires go from the magneto to the spark plugs, As far as semi sensible cars go, possibly the most basic was a 1948 Citroen2CV, a genuine minimalist masterpiece. Best beloved has just looked over my shoulder and says that the Caterham 170 should be on the list ‘cos it is her favorite silly car. I have also used a 1925 Austin Seven as a daily driver for a year. As I said, not a fair question, all these comments make me feel old and eccentric.
You make a couple of fair points with the Chenard-Walker and the Seven but if it helps with your calibration of eccentricity, rest assured some of us can look at a 2CV and see an oversized, overbuilt, and over-optioned land yacht:
https://live.staticflickr.com/5302/5600648065_1cce953440_c.jpg
I feel I should know what that is, Paul Arzens is the only name thats prings to mind;
https://hagerty.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/rg-arzens-egg-2.jpeg
But it probably isn’t.
It’s my KV, a voiture sans permis located towards the crude end of the aesthetic and mechanical range for such things:
https://clunkbucket.com/victoire-de-citrons/
Thank you, I think. I am not an automotive masochist ( my normal car is really quite swishy) but now I would like to find one of these as it is really quite clever. If I were to buy a new car (heaven fore fend, the universe would crash about us all) I fancy a new Citroen Ami but I suspect it might be a gateway drug into the 21st century which is a place I assiduously avoid as far as I can.
Well the beige unicorn has crank windows, non power mirrors, manual transmission, the radio it came with was just a radio, and the sun visors didn’t have vanity mirrors in them. It does have ac and cruise control from the factory though.
My 1980 KV Mini 1 is titled, licensed, and insured for use on public roads. The fact that I need to state these points explicitly is one indication of how basic it is. This photo is another:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52763070823_2cfb092975_c.jpg
It has one thing neither my current nor previous cars had; a cabrio top!
The rear window, rear quarter windows, and top framework are all fixed in place, so it’s really more of a targa top.
1983 Dodge Aires, most basic car I’ve owned or ever been in. Very government issue kind of vibe. I think it had a tape deck? Can’t remember, probably just radio. It also had a cool ashtray, which was great because I smoked at the time.
1990 F-150 Custom – for years, Custom was Fordspeak for “no features unless you Customise it.” It wasn’t vinyl seats, at least, but had rubber floors, roll-up windows, no A/C, and most cheaply, an AM-only radio. Most of that was fine, but I had a spare Ford AM/FM radio, and swapped that in immediately since it was like a minute job.
In those years the Custom didn’t even get a chrome trim ring around the headlights like the higher trims got.
My first car was a 1986 Chevy Celebrity. It had the 90 HP 2.5L Iron Duke and I think the only options it came with were auto trans, A/C, and a passenger side mirror.
To this day it’s still the only car where I’ve completely locked up an engine.
Probably my ’77 BMW 530i. Crank windows, no AC, in fact there was only one light to let you know the turn signal was blinking, no matter which direction you were using. It did have fog lights, sunroof, and a fairly decent radio. It was also a (3 speed) automatic, which was terrible. But it had comfortable vinyl seats and was a very enjoyable car to drive, with a comfortable ride and excellent handling. It was also, contrary to popular wisdom about old BMW’s, dead reliable.
E12 was a fantastic car! I had a 1979 528i with 4-speed manual. I really really loved driving that car!
Had a 2006 Chevrolet Regular Cab Long Bed Work Truck. Rubber floor mats, hand crank windows, AM/FM radio, V6 with Auto and 4×4. Very useful farm truck until it rusted. Everywhere. Not just the bed and fenders, but the cab doors, hood and roof rusted to the point we called it “The Swiss Cheese Chevy”. Until the day my mechanic pointed out the holes in the frame that he could put his arm through. Really.
You would think it would be the ’79 Mini I drove to work today, but the ’58 VW Beetle I used to have didn’t have a fuel gauge or synchronized first gear, two luxuries that the Mini does have. No radio in either.
1988 Ford Tempo was my family’s first car in the US, and naturally ended up my first whip 3 years later at the end of highschool. I’m pretty sure it had more spacers on the dash than functioning buttons. The only luxury on it was the 4 speed slushbox. It had a speedometer constantly stuck at zero, a completely decorative handbrake, and if you tried to reverse it up a modest hill, it just went forward anyway, despite the engine trying to do the opposite.
oh and I drove it into a brick planter outside the principal’s office, like a tank from the Red Alert intro. Perfect first car.
The first car I purchased with my own money! A 1986 Ford Escort.
I didn’t have a lot of money.
There were 4 doors, and a lot of blue fuzz inside. It did not have fuel injection, AC, power steering or FM radio. It was absolutely terrifying to drive on the freeway.
1985 Chevy Cavalier Station Wagon, parked in weeds in rural Ohio, rusty doors, sills, roof, bombed out navy blue paint, am/fm radio, 1.5 speakers, iron duke 4 cyl w/ 3 speed auto, bought for $250. Chick magnet.
My most basic was the 1985 Ford Ranger S. It had a 5 speed manual transmission, a rubber floor, a vinyl bench seat and a radio. The heater worked and I think it had power brakes but no power steering. My 78 Scirocco was luxurious in comparison with cloth fake Recaro seats, carpet and a remote control for the driver’s side mirror.
I’ve been in more basic cars but didn’t own them
Fiat 126 600. It hardly got more basic even in the olden days. Loved that little thing to bits, too.
Started my automotive journey in air-cooled VWs, so the bar was quite low.
lowest-spec car I ever bought was a 85 (I think) Subaru DL hatchback. It did have a radio but certainly not AC or PS. Round headlights and the EA81 OHV motor, 4-speed transmission, no 4wd
Plan was to swap in the fuel-injected motor from my junked 87 XT, but a buddy needed cheap transportation badly, so I let it go
My first car was a 1989 Mercedes 300E, which had air-conditioning, an incredible Blaupunkt sound system, power seats, windows, mirrors, locks, and sunroof.
Of course by the time I got the car in 2021, none of those worked.
70 Triumph GT6:
No power windows
No power brakes
No radio
No A/C, even the “cold” air blows hot
Mechanical fuel pump
Carburetors
Manual choke
No emissions stuff (anymore)
Distributor with points
No catalytic converter
Crash Bendix starter
Rear drum brakes
Fuel filler “seals” with a magnet
Washer fluid dispenser is a manual pump
Came from the factory with no side view mirrors
Sometimes doesn’t have lights
The thing about a car like that is that you really don’t have to worry about nodding off behind the wheel because you’re way too engaged just piloting it
Fact. It requires constant attention. Especially when the lights go out at night.
I should also add: no power steering
I kept, exercised, and basically rewired over the course of a year a 59 Morris Minor 1000 for a friend who had gotten knee surgery, so I can relate.
I was never bored. Terrified, oh yeah, but also entertained
My ’64 Spitfire was the same, but also had a top you had to stop and “erect” when it started to rain.
Every time I encounter rain, I’m thankful I have one of the few Triumphs made with a fixed roof!
1964 Pontiac Tempest. 215 straight six, power glide trans, one speed wipers with no washer feature, rubber covered floors, no A/C, window cranks, AM radio. My first car handed down to me with 80,000 miles on it. Back then that was a used up car. But, from the front it looked like a GTO, and it was all mine.
My first car, ‘67 Impala SS. Half of very few features it had were broken when I had it too, or at least broken half the time.
My first car was a hand-me-down ’85 Chevy Celebrity wagon from the cheap end of the spectrum thanks to the miser-like automotive tastes of my parents.
Vinyl bench seats, minimum-allowed-by-law gauges (2), drivers side mirror only, crank windows all around, and an AM-GM analog radio with the physical linkage preset buttons. And b/c GM ’80s manufacturing, rust holes along the undersides of the doors.
Coolest thing about it was the color – black – though given this place, I’ll add yes, it did feature “wayback” tailgunner seating.
A 1990 Honda Accord EX. And even it had a power sunroof, power windows, central locking, alloy wheels, and a weird eggplant vinyl upholstery (not cloth; not leather) that I’ve never seen on any Accord before or since. It also had a J-VIN.
It met its demise because the timing belt snapped and, at 22-odd years old, it was uneconomical to replace the engine.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1990-honda-accord-ex-my-first-car/
My dad had a ’75 Civic CVCC that was pretty basic since it wasn’t the fancy-pants 5-speed. Later my parents had a ’96 Sable G that included no options, so manual locks, no cassette or CD player, or map pockets.
Most basic vehicle I ever owned was a ’97 Ranger XL regular cab 4×2. No power steering, no A/C, no carpet, no tach, no radio, dog dish steel wheels, and a vinyl bench (real bench, not split bench). The only option was the “handling package.”
Wow – I had no idea power steering could still be an option by the late ’90s. What was it like driving it?
1997 was the last year power steering wasn’t standard on the Ranger. It drove pretty good at speed, but since the steering wheel was small, slower speeds – especially parking lots – were a pain.
They’ve all been pretty basic as I prefer it, but since content goes up by generation, I’ll go with my oldest car: ’70 Datsun 240Z, though the FWD ’83/4 Subaru GLs were barely more equipped. The 260Z had AC, so that puts it ahead of the GLs as I’d list that as higher in the equipment hierarchy than the GLs’ automatic choke.
Only 2 come to mind,
One was a 99 civic hatchback cx, cause rear wipers were for the rich, only option it had was ac and a radio. Damn good lil car.
And my current daily, a 08 accent, which also, only options were auto, ac, and fancy xm radio.
Who needs abs anyway?! Or power windows and locks.. or cruise…
Great lil car that’s seen copious ammounts of beatdowns from the previous owner, just like the civic.
Those Civic hatchbacks were honest, well made cars.
Ohh yeah, bought it with the ac ripped out and ragged to hell, put ac back in it and fixed alot of the crap wring with it and was probably the best lil car I’ve ever had next to the hyundai.
I want another so damn back
I’m just here for the top shot …