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!
I didn’t technically own it, as I was 16 but it was my DD.
1976 Mazda 808, 4 speed manual. It had A/C and a 3rd party FM/AM-Cassette radio with 4 whole speakers. That was kind of the end of the ‘luxury’ features. It had manual roll-down windows, manual door locks, manual parking brake.
It did not have power steering or a tachometer. In a manual transmission car.
It did have one feature I have to explain to a lot of younger drivers: a manual choke. How about that for basic.
1991 Rover Metro 1.1L 4-speed manual 3dr. Mind you, I did avoid the more-basic 1.1C, gaining a split-fold rear seat, a rear wash/wipe and full-width wheel trims for the 13″ steel wheels. The audio system wasn’t standard, the door locks, windows and steering were manual, the glass didn’t have any tint, and adjusting the mirrors required opening the window and grabbing the mirror housing.
Mind you, I’ve never driven anything since that handled so well.
In the late ’90s I had a 1962 Chevy II, 194 straight six, column-shifted 3-speed, no power steering, no power brakes, no A/C, no radio, manual windows, rubber floor mat. Currently have a 1965 Triumph Herald that’s not quite as basic…this one has carpet!
Many old bugs, but they were all US spec with, like, carpeting and stuff. The real strippers were a ’68 Bronco single cab with AM radio and an Autobianci 500 Transfomabile, bought together in a package deal, and a ’72 Pinto 1600 with carpeting and AM radio.
I once bought a base model (not even Sport trim) 2wd XJ as a beater that I was gonna convert to 4wd and make a toy, but decided it needed too much work and sold it.
It was a 5 speed, didn’t have a tachometer, had the “idiot light” cluster instead of full gauges. No rear wiper, but had rear defrost. Had A/C thankfully but that was about it.
1978 Volvo 240 with a 4 speed manual, wind down windows, no A/C, and a rustoleum paint job.
1972 Citroen 2CV4 (435ccm with brutal 23HP), that was my first and the most basic. With 3 people inside and 2 surfboards on the roof it made around 60km/h -> 37.5mph
1971 Ford Pinto stationwagon 4 speed, am radio, vinyl bucket seats, blue. I miss that car.
1981 Datsun 210, two door, beige exterior, beige vinyl interior, manual transmission, no ac, rear wheel drive, rear drums, gutless.
I had a 1980 210 same but hatchback. No AC. In South Georgia. Rattle can electric blue paint job. My students called it ‘The Smurf’.
Lost a windshield wiper going through Atlanta, stopped under an overpass and did a wiper transplant from the back window.
Solid, basic transportation!
I pretended it was sporty because of the manual transmission. Downshift to go up any hill. Learned to use a clutch driving it in Morgantown WV. We called it the vinyl cruiser. Good times in the early 80’s. I was also a teacher. Traded this beauty on an Isuzu I-Mark because it had AC and power windows!
A 1993 Ford Festiva L, hands down. It’s only “amenity” was an AM radio. No power assists of any kind. (Ok, maybe a power brake booster but that’s about it.)
A brake booster! Pure decadence!
’77 Celica Fastback. Crank windows, no AC or power steering. One of I believe two cars I’ve ever owned that didn’t have air bags.
My most basic vehicle was the 2003 Toyota Tacoma base model, regular cab with a 5 speed and bench-ish seat. That is the one I miss the most.
My first car was like Doug’s Civic, same color, but Civic DX. That meant 1500cc’s, a three speed auto (horrid), and AC and a rear defroster.
A 2019 Nissan Frontier S. Manual locks, manual windows, manual transmission behind a woefully underpowered four-banger. It did have cruise control and a rather fancy double-DIN radio to comply with the backup camera mandate (no CarPlay or Android Auto, though). All for the low, low price of $16,999.
(Also, anyone waxing nostalgic about crank windows is a fool)
Citroen Visa. The 2 cylinder one.
My first car was a two year old 1980 Ford Fiesta. Base model. No power steering, no power brakes. Didn’t have a glove box door–that was an option. And the washer fluid was controlled by a rubber pedal on the floor. Again, the electric washer pump was an option. It was a blast to drive.
I still remember my poverty spec Ford Fiesta fondly. Instead of a tacho, it had a plan view of a car – similar to the ones where a light would come on if a door was open, except there were no lights. It was a picture of a Ford Escort, to remind you of what you could have bought if you weren’t quite so poor.
I enjoy the punitive thinking at play – “we’re not even going to make one that depicts this car, you’ll get a different one and like it.”
Meanwhile nowadays, Ford actually went to the trouble of putting a stylized FOCUS on my tach b/c fake race car and all.
1976 Datsun B210
No power steering or brakes
No A/C
No cruise
No armrests… not even on the doors!
1971 Volvo 144S
4 speed manual.
no AC
AM Radio with one speaker in the dash.
no power steering – much less power anything else.
Oh – I forgot about the manual choke!
My parents owned a Nissan Sentra B13, the mexican one, Tsuru. It was the GS1 model, 4 speed manual transmission, manual everything, no factory radio, AC was added on the dealership, no rear defroster. My dad added a radio right away. Pretty much like the Honda on the review from Doug.
Even my Super Beetle has rear defroster and Fasten your Seatbelt indicator, what I discovered the other day, having a passenger or a bag on the passenger seat, it will trigger the indicator on, it has some type of sensor! fancy beetle
’80s Volvo 240 sedan.
We owned a barebones 2002 Tacoma Regular Cab, 2wd, 5spd. It came with no tachometer (on a manual), no A/C, no power anything like mirrors, windows, had a cloth bench seat, so no center console either. No cruise control, no intermittent wipers,
Also: No screens, no infotainment, no major issues for 279,000 miles. I swapped out the coils and plugs for a tune up and checked compression. It was perfect across all 4 cylinders and didn’t leak or burn oil. We sold it to a friend who still drives it today.
That Civic is decadently luxurious compared to what I got as my first car!
It is easy to find barebone cars if we go back to the 50s, 60s, 70s… But I got my driving license in the year 2000 by which time even the most basic car trims had moved past the Carthusian monk’s cell era of austerity. Most of my friends were driving around in small European and Japanese hatchbacks (I live in Europe) with power windows at the front, a radio with four speakers, AC, power steering and even front airbags, but not me! I got to enjoy the most basic of all basic versions of a basic car thanks to the unique confluence of two factors: my father’s stinginess and the French idea of how basic a basic trim should be.
Having bought a brand new car to replace his 20-year old Simca, my father wanted a cheap second-hand commuter car to use daily, so he got Renault Super 5 Five.
“Wait, 5 Five? Surely that’s a typo” you might be thinking.
Nope, it is not.
The 5 was pronounced as a number, so the car was the Supercinq in France, and in Spain it was known as the Supercinco, while “Five” was the trim level, spelled out as a word.
And what equipment came standard in that trim level, you ask?
NOTHING
The car was so basic that it did not even have the same dashboard assembly as the other trims, using instead the one from the Renault Expres, the panel van based on the Super 5.
Here is a list of the things the car did not have:
Rear headrests
Rear seatbelts
A trip odometer
A passanger side rearview mirror
Speakers
A radio
Vents on the sides of the dashboard, only one in the center (Yes. One.)
A rear fog lamp (mandatory in Europe)
A reverse light
Obviously, things like electric windows or AC were S-Class level kind of luxuries for a French hatchback of that vintage.
The dashboard only had a speedo and a fuel gauge. No rev counter, no coolant temperature gauge, not even a clock (anywhere in the car).
The back windows were fixed and could not be opened in any way.
The doors did not have handles on the outside, you had to pull a little lever on the doorframe accessible via a recess on the rear body panel where it met the door.
The steering was unassisted
It only had 4 gears and a 1.1 engine making 47hp (when new)
Oh, and of course, it did have an ashtray (but no cigarette lighter!)
My first car was 2004 Hyundai Accent Base. In 2004 it was the cheapest new car sold, manual transmission, crank windows, no tach, no A/C, no ABS, hole in the dash where the clock would go, 13″ steel wheels, 2 speakers, but suprisingly a cassette player. When I got it in 2012 it was dirt cheap, but you couldn’t kill that car if you tried. on loose surfaces you could easily get it to rotate, and it would do hilarious 1 wheel burnouts with a clutch dump and the handbrake held.
.
Basic cars are my jam. My top 3 I’ve owned:
‘63 CJ5: manual everything, no seatbelts, no top, no heat, and the only things on the dash were the Speedo and the light switch.
‘69 C10: manual everything, bench seat, though it did have a radio and heat (sometimes)
‘99 K2500: this is my most recent vehicle acquisition and it’s very basic. It does have an a 350 and 4l80e, but I’m pretty sure the auto trans is the only option this truck has. Bench seat, no ac, though I did put in a radio.
That would be my ‘86 Golf with manual everything,no ac and a 1.6 carb engine and 4 speed manual.