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!
My VW Cabriolet at one point stopped having a roof, the air conditioner never worked because it had had an engine swap, no power steering because the pump failed, and the only heat setting that it had was “defrost” because the blend door broke. Does that count, even though it was a later one with leather on everything and power windows?
I learned to drive in and drove a Vauxhall Nova 1.2 Merit on a D-plate (1986) many years after it was a new car. Headrests were an optional extra, fortunately mine had them. Although it didn’t have a nearside wing mirror, just a blanking plate. Oh, and no radio, just a tray where it should have been, not even any pre-wiring for one.
And Merit written in bold on the boot lid to prove you were cheap.
(but at least it wasn’t the 1.0)
Ooh boy, being from mid-Europe I’ve gone through the evolution of car basicness through my life and it’s kinda interesting. Down here stuff started from Fiat 126p’s so being basic meant just this, car has stuff to operate and drive, some air might blow from a hole and a radio is optional.
Then radio was kinda mandatory, but windows were still manual and you got 2 front speakers only. 2 in the back meant you’re not basic anymore.
Then rear windows were still manual, but you could roll them down with a button in front. No AC. My dad’s Skoda Felicia, to which he upgraded from a 126p, comes to mind.
Afterwards we’re in solid 4 speaker and AC territory.
When it comes to my my cars, like I bought them myself and drove them, two are worth mentioning. I briefly had a mk2 Golf bought from a friend for around $50. It drove, had a radio and that’s it. No AC, manual windows, that sort of stuff. Injection, not a carb, though, so modern-ish.
THE most basic car I had was without a doubt my Trabant 601 which I had in high school. No radio (though you could get a Trabant with one), manual windows, of course, no heated rear window. That was an option. Those cars didn’t even have a fuel pump, you just had your gas tank above the engine and turned a faucet(?) which allowed gas to drip to the carb. Engine block swap took 30-40 minutes. There was a lot of clever thinking put into this car, materials and execution were pure communism, unfortunately.
Like most people, it was my first car; a 1986 VW Polo, with a whopping 1047cc engine, four gears, and a tape deck. It was probably quite economical, when it wasn’t being driven by a 17yo. I did once get it up to an indicated 100mph (downhill).
Been reading through some of the others, and some of you people were swanning around in luxury! AC? Power steering? Engines bigger than one litre? An automatic gearbox?
Actually, scratch that last one, never wanted an auto.
TBF in the US its actually pretty damn hard to find cars with < 1L engines.
Was it the Formel-E with the insanely long gearing?
No 🙁
There was a section for that model in the manual for mine, and I thought it sounded so cool. It even had shift light!
These days the one I’d really like to try would be the G40. A tiny economy car, with a supercharger strapped to the engine. I’m not even sure if they upgraded the brakes.
1979 VW Passat Variant. Cloth seats, no cargo cover, manual transmission of course, no radio, no speakers, no air conditioning, no infotainment, not even a right wing mirror. No light or rain sensors, nothing of the sort. 1.6 litre petrol engine, 55 kW. It did have a working heater though.
The times when cars didn’t even have a mirror on the passenger side. Also, back in the day you were lucky to have headrests in your seats.
My Passat did have headrests on the front seats, I think. Windows were cranked, of course. No central locking.
The most basic and cheapest car I’ve ever owned was an 83 Mazda GLC 4-door. Bought it for $400 and drove it for about a year. Previous owner’s dog (or wolverine?) completely destroyed the interior. I attempted to re-upholster the doors and parcel shelf with DIY vinyl from Home Depot.
Going through puddles and I could feel the carpet move from splashing water. The floor was completely rusted out.
My most basic is my 1962 Valiant, which only came in one trim level. The only fanciness it had was an automatic transmission.
Unboosted drum brakes all round without self-adjuster mechanisms (those only came along in Valiants a few years later), no factory heater/demister (mine had a Smiths aftermarket heater added later), no outside mirrors or seatbelts from factory, basically power nothing. Factory plastic blanking panel where the optional AM radio could have been but wasn’t.
My first car was a 1985 Pontiac Sunbird Hatchback that didn’t have much. I think outside of powered brakes, it had power steering, an automatic transmission, alloy wheels, and very broken A/C.
Then, after a couple of years with a top of the range 1995 Honda Civic EX Coupe, I got my 1996 Honda Civic CX Hatchback (both manuals). No power windows, no power mirrors, no power steering, no rear wiper and broken A/C yet again (later fully deleted). It left the factory with no radio and no rear speakers either, but it had them by the time I got it. It did have two features my 95 EX didn’t though. A chime (more like screech) for when you opened the door with the headlights still on and a dome light that dimmed slowly until off when you shut the door. One caveat though. Check my username. It has a B16A2 engine swap from a 99 Civic Si. With somewhere around 400lbs less than an Si to drag around, that engine makes that CX scoot. I still have it but retired it from front line duty back in 2017 with a 2007 Honda Fit Sport then in 2020, I got my current daily, a totally loaded 2016 Honda HR-V EX-L AWD so no more slummin’ it for me.
I could write a few more paragraphs on the basic crap my parents have had in my lifetime. All I’ll say is, my dad’s daily is still the 1998 Toyota Tacoma 2WD single cab manual they bought new. It has one option package that adds power steering, A/C, some chrome trim, and a tape deck (it now has a modern CD player with BT). No power windows or mirrors, no tachometer, no tilt wheel, no cruise control, and no intermittent wipers. Mom at least dailys a decently equipped 2014 Subaru Forester. They have been thinking about looking at Ford Mavericks soon though. Dad loves the Tacoma, but they and the Tacoma are getting old.
1953 Kaiser Manhattan.
No radio
No heater
No oil filter
Crank windows (of course)
It did have the old 4 speed Hydramatic though.
I added a Frantz toilet paper filter and cobbled together a working heater from junkyard parts.
It did have carpet but it may have been aftermarket.
It was owned by an old jeweler who bought it new, commuted from San Jose to the peninsula, about 150,000 miles before he rear ended a stakebed truck.
He drove it with his left wrist draped over the top of the steering wheel, so much that his metal watchband wore away the plastic right down to the steel core.
I found fenders and a hood and was on the way to restoring it, but new fatherhood dictated I had to grow up and sell it.
Love the former owner details like the watch and wearing away the plastic steering wheel.
Bought an early 80s Subaru wagon from the son of the original owner, who was, as we say down here, a Big Boy. BB was a traveling salesman, and left his mark. The car was noticeably lower on the driver’s side, the driver’s seat was completely flattened at the base—but the back seat was pristine as he always kept it folded down to keep his stuff in the back. Best were the markings on the rear door behind the driver; he must have kept a satchel with metal clasps there as there was a hole worn in the back of the driver’s seat, and two areas on the door card where the clasps abraded divots.
It gets better. I have the original bill of sale. He traded a 1940 Hudson, $700 in trade.
Purchase price was $3521, amount financed was paid in 30 installments of $70.50.
The deal went down on July 11 1955, I was exactly two months old .
The dealer was Lofano and Ross on Alum Rock Ave in San Jose, a tractor dealer.
Love the peek into the past.
My first $500 Mercedes 300SD came with the original window sticker from I think 1982: $38k. (Bought my house for 40k in 96) And a stack of receipts literally an inch thick from the doctor who bought it. Still had the parking sticker from the hospital—which I was doing work at Friday. It’s a small world.
I always enjoy looking thru that kind of paperwork.
I got to thinking about that Kaiser. Sold in 1955, it had been sitting on the lot almost two years. The 1954s were in production with a styling change that mimicked the Buicks of that year, with a teardrop shaped headlight treatment and a new grille. By that time it was a dead brand.
US production had probably ceased, and the tooling was going to be packed up and shipped to South America where it would be sold as the Kaiser Carabela for a few more years.
Adjusted for inflation, Mr. Zerbato was on the hook for a financed amount of $41,424 and a monthly payment of $829.43! On a car that was considered lot poison by today’s standards.
Back in the old school junkyard days, I bet I spent a quarter of my time riffling through cars for left tools/getting a mental picture of the last owner’s life.
-anecdotally, many,many white 90s Jettas around here were owned by single mothers who wore bright red nail polish & had trouble getting the father to pay his share. Lots of Jewel CDs, too.
-the red nail polish was always a score for marking parts how they’re clocked.
Well since you asked: Triumph TR3
“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.”
Pish! All 100% Bohemian luxury!
My Triumph had no heater from the factory. I had to make do with the heat coming off the transmission tunnel. The optional factory heater it COULD have come with needed to be tuned on manually with a water valve under the hood, no fancy cabin controlled valves here.
No radio either, not even AM. Nada. The windows not only did not roll up the plastic sliding windows had to be bolted on via side curtains like an old Jeep. The top had to be snapped into place, no fancy power soft top or even a 20 second lift and clamp top here! And yes that top and those side curtains leaked. They also let in a lot of cold air.
The 100% manually adjusted mirrors were fender mounted and it was annoying AF to have to adjust them every. single. time!
Other things it lacked from the factory? Power anything, seat belts, any rollover protection whatsoever, a collapsible steering column, dash padding, really any safety equipment at all. Nor any emissions, the crank case vented right out to the bottom of the car. It stunk, as did all cars of the era.
Maintenance was..a lot. Oil needed to be checked every 300 miles and for good reason, the engine lacked a proper crankshaft seal. Instead the bearing had a scroll designed to pull the oil back in and what did escape was allowed to drip out the bell housing by a hole in the bottom for that purpose, That’s right kids, it was designed by the factory to leak. So I had to carry a sheet of cardboard in the trunk and put it down when parking on a driveway.
The twin SU carbs had paper and cork gaskets so they rotted out and needed to be replaced periodically. The air filters were a wire mesh soaked in oil so they needed to be taken off and cleaned IIRC every thousand miles or so. The suspension and chassis had to be lubricated on about that same schedule. The oil filter was a cartridge type, very messy to change.
Compare that with the paper air filter, spin on oil filter and maintainance free bearings and bushings of your hard case 1986 Civic. Maybe you had fuel injection too; if not certainly your carb gaskets were a lot better. Your Civic also had electronic ignition so no need to clean the points.
The Triumph was pretty high tech in one way though. It had FRONT DISC BRAKES! It was the first mass produced car to be so equipped.
Oh and it had one other feature: A hand crank for when (not if) the Lucas electric starter system crapped out.
So tell me again how hard it was with your base 1986 Civic with its broken heater and always up windows.
One of mine currently is a VW T2 Dormobile camper, It is very basic with only rudamentary heating, 4 gears, 1600 aircooled engine with no oil filter etc etc.
It was designed and built before microchips where even a thing and has only the most basic of electricals on it, Doesn’t even have an electric fan for the heater.
My T3 isn’t much more sophiticated, But being watercooled it does at least get warm and has a heater fan, It also has intermittent wipers. I am in the process of adding central locking to the front doors, electric windows and parking sensors (Rear visibility isn’t great for low barriers and posts)
The T2 is about as basic as you can get while still having what people would recognise as a modern car, IE it drives and operates as any modern car does. The Beetle and 2CV among others are quite similar in this regard.
My college and first job car was an ’88 Hyundai Excel. Five speed manual, roll up windows, air conditioning. Totally powerless, I think I had to downshift to third to drive up a freeway grade. A really good car minus the head gasket that went bad.
’88 K2500 Cheyenne. Single cab long bed with the 5.7. No AC, heat barely worked, crank windows, manual locks, AM/FM stereo, vinyl bench seat, rear drum brakes, column-shift automatic four-speed overdrive with four on the floor. No carpet, no airbags, no ABS if the truck was in 4WD. It was my first vehicle and I miss it dearly. Very little to break and that engine would never die.
1963 Plymouth Savoy was my first and most basic car. 225 slant six with a 3spd manual (column shift). Manual drum brakes, Manual steering. It had the optional heater and AM radio with a single speaker in the dash. No widow washers, no reverse lamps, no passenger side mirror.
Forever imprinted in my mind is the fact that a “loaded” car is one with power steering, brakes, windows, locks and mirrors.
I just learned about the Savoy like a year ago, and have to say, I dig the styling at least – sorta a bridge between the design ethoses of the ’50s and the ’60s.
Does it count if the car had a feature but it didn’t work?
My first car (in 1978), 1965 Volvo 122S. 4-speed Manual trans, steering, brakes, locks, seats, windows, AM radio, rubber floor mats, 1.8L 4cyl engine. Paid $400.00 for it. Now, as my fun car, I have a 67 Volvo 122s but this one has AM AND FM, and a transmission with overdrive so I’m moving up!
1984 Ford Escort L. Gray with a gray interior, a four-speed manual transmission, and a crappy aftermarket tape deck I think a previous owner bought from Kmart. No aircon, no passenger-side mirror … I don’t even think it had a rear defroster. It was economical, the hatch made it ideal for dorm runs to Meijer, and the tape deck even sounded good (once I dropped good speakers into it). There’s precious little love for Escorts around here, but I had a good one.
A Honda Civic LX was the first car I ever bought with power windows and locks and I felt like a Rockefeller.
1971 Mazda 1300 – paid $300 (Kangaroo Dollars) for it when I was 16. A family friend, who worked at the local Toyota dealer, had just traded it from a little old lady who apparently drove by touch… didn’t have a straight panel on it!
2001 Saturn SL1.
SOHC 4 cylinder engine, Manual trans, manual windows, manual mirrors, manual locks, AM/FM radio, cloth, did have AC. Black unpainted bumpers.
I did about 245k miles with that car, including across the country 4 times! (with no cruise control)
1965 Corvair 500. Crank windows, no carpet (rubber floor covering), vinyl bench seats, no A/C, 2-speed Powerglide automatic (with no “Park” position), no remote anything. The only three options were an AM radio (no FM), a fold-down back seat, and, yes, backup lights . . .
2007 Kia Spectra. Brand new. I was lucky the thing had AC…crank windows, row your own gears, but it DID have an aux port! Woot!
Probably my Tracker. As far as I can tell, it has ONE option box ticked, four wheel drive. Manual windows, manual locks, manual transmission. Acres of gray plastic and cloth. My brother in law has the fancy version, the GRAND Vitara. With such crippling luxuries like electrically actuated climate control, swanky keyless entry, seats with patterns on them, and actually quite a bit more cabin insulation. Also a V6 vs my 2.0 4 banger. Pretty remarkable how different they feel with just that stuff.
2009 Toyota Yaris. 3 door hatch, manual everything. The A/C worked though! Not bad for the most basic car I’ve ever owned. Good on gas too! Of course, it would have been better had it had a Xtronic CVT, but we can’t ask for such a sophisticated machine in the most basic car one has ever owned.
For me, it’s the 1990 Festiva L I had (my first car). And the 1987 Honda Civic Wagovan I had was a close 2nd place
Both cars had manual windows, manual steering, no A/C, 5 speed manual transmissions, manual mirrors, unpainted plastic bumpers, no airbags, no ABS and rear drum brakes
But the Festiva only had 2 doors, didn’t even come with a passenger door mirror or a tach or intermitent wipers
And it came with 12″ steel wheels and only had a 1.3L 2V SOHC 4 cyl good for 63HP.
The only thing the Festiva had that the Civic didn’t have was fuel injection as the 1987 Civic still had a carb.
Hey, I came here to post about my ’91 Festiva L and you beat me to it!
I had a lot of fun with mine after swapping in a Mazda BP 1.8. It had pretty much exactly double the HP but the driveability was like stock.
Yeah the Festiva was based on the Mazda 121 chassis and the engine was part of the Mazda B family that Kia licenced from Mazda. And thus, fitting any of the FWD Mazda B-series engines is/was relatively easy.
And I bet the 1.8L BP would have made it feel like a rocket given it was so light.
The BP was longer than the B3 and B6, so the frame rail and firewall had to be pocketed, as well as the blower motor housing as it was right up against the firewall. Then we just had to build the right side engine mount.
The stock axles were hilariously thin and uneven in length, and were said to be a weak point. Somehow, the car exhibited no torque steer and the stock drivetrain stood up to all kinds of abuse.
It really turned heads at the autocross. People were shocked to see it running with Miatas and M3s.
I’d love to make another one but I sure as hell wouldn’t let my kids ride in it.
“The stock axles were hilariously thin and uneven in length, and were said to be a weak point. “
Hell, those axles were a weak point even with the stock engine. When I had my Festiva, I had to replace both of them.
91 Honda Civic DX I bought new with NO options except AC.
5sp, crank windows, no radio, etc……
Had a 94. No power steering! I remember at the time that AC was a $1500!!!! option. One of the best cars I have ever owned. One of the best examples of slow car fast.
Yes, slow fast car described it perfectly
And youre right, I forgot the no power steering!
The thing handled like a roller skate…..
I owned mine for about 7 years, and never had ANY problem with it.
Never should have traded it off for a Dodge Pickup…….:-(