30 Throwback Car Features Gen Z May Never Know

Velour seats, CB radios, chokes... for the generation after Millennials, car features like these might seem foreign or strange.

Confused couple looking at car engine
Chris RyanGetty Images

Old guys may be flummoxed by Snapchat, and they probably don't know how to check a story on Instagram, but many post-millennials have never experienced the automotive joy of a cassette player, manual windows, or a choke. We're willing to bet that a majority of young car enthusiasts have only ever ridden in modern vehicles, so if you've been alive on this planet for less than 20 years, then you've probably missed out on these 30 old-school car features.

So, click through and catch up on them, youths, because we'll tell you this: There is nothing quite like cruising the boulevard with your T-tops stowed in the trunk and your best White Snake CD cranked to 11. You'll understand the reference, hopefully, by the end of this piece. Google can be your backstop.

Interior panel of car door
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Manual / Crank Windows

Also known as crank windows, these nonpowered window lifts can be difficult to use. One must execute the required grip, arm movement, and dexterity—imagine doing that while driving, and also holding a smartphone. Remember, lefty loosey, righty tighty. They were common up until the late 1980s, although you can still find crank windows in some (cheap) new cars.

1973 Honda Civic
Larry WillettCar and Driver
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Manual Door Locks

Long before keyless entry came along, you would actually have to unlock the driver's door with a physical key, climb in, reach over, and unlock the car's other doors with your hand. The struggle was real. Watch the movie A Bronx Tale to learn how these could (key word being "could") positively affect your love life.

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Manual Door Mirrors

You haven't lived until you've asked your passenger to adjust the door mirror on their side of the car. A little up. Nope, too much. Down a bit. Good. Now out a little. More. More. Oops, too much. In just a bit. Too much. Out a little. Perfect. Why miss out on such interaction by using, ugh, a convenient electronic joystick?

1968 dodge charger
Car and Driver
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Manual Steering

Steering by Armstrong is the old manual-steering joke. Without power assist, steering systems often require school-bus-sized steering wheels for leverage, particularly if there's a big, heavy V-8 mounted up front. It's not really a big deal on the highway, but you have to put your back into it to park. On lighter cars, it's less bad, as evidenced by the feature still being found on the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider.

Man's shoe pushing down on car brake pedal (blurred motion, B&W)
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Manual Brakes

Power-assisted brakes started showing up in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the early to mid 1970s that they became ubiquitous. To save weight and complexity at the drag strip, as well as cost at the dealership, many 1960s American muscle cars were ordered with manual steering and brakes. Many Corvettes were as well.

1990 Honda Civic interior
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Cassette Player

After the eight-track tapes of the 1970s, smaller cassette tapes were heaven sent, and their durability was impressive. Yes, they were easily eaten by hungry tape decks, but they were impervious to filth, and more than a dozen could be stored under the driver's seat of your IROC Camaro.

2002 Toyota Corolla
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CD Player

The world's last gasp of physical music delivery before the digital revolution, compact discs followed hot on cassette tapes' heels. You could select a specific track and skip from song to song at will. It was amazing. And when flung from a moving car with just the right wrist action, a CD could put a decent-sized ding in the hood of your buddy's Chevy Beretta. Don't ask us how we know.

Motor vehicle, Vehicle, Engine, Auto part, Car, Automotive engine part,
Car and Driver
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Holley. Carter. Stromberg. Thermoquad. Quadrajet. Dual quads. Tri-Power. One barrel. Two barrel. Three barrel. Four barrel. Yeah, no matter which carburetor you chose, they all pretty much sucked and required occasional adjustment. Even old guys don't miss these archaic fuel-delivery setups.

CB Radio
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CB Radio

Breaker one nine! CBs, or citizens-band radios, became a cultural phenomenon in the late 1970s, influencing movies, television, and music. Thank God it only lasted a few minutes, but not before CB radios actually became factory options on some models. It's been theorized that CBs were an early form of social media. Well, they said it couldn't be done. Well, that's the reason, son. That's good with Fred. We're clear. Ten-four, as the Bandit would say.

Red, Leather, Fashion accessory,
Mark BramleyCar and Driver
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This widget (which took the form of a button pulled from the dashboard) restricts a carburetor's airflow, therefore enriching its air/fuel mixture for a better hope of starting a cold, carbureted internal-combustion engine on a cold morning. Early examples were manually operated, while later carburetors worked this little bit of air-starvation magic on their own.

JUN 7 1974, JUN 9 1974; The rain stayed and the Autos sprayed; This driver found a mini lake at W. 4
David CuppGetty Images
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Non-Intermittent Windshield Wipers

On or off. Fast or slow. Nothing in between—that's preintermittent windshield wipers in a nutshell. We all hate driving in a drizzle. Now imagine doing so without delayed wipers, which only became common in the 1970s and 1980s, after Ford, Chrysler, and GM stole the invention from Robert Kearns and infringed on the inventor's patents. Kearns sued, and in the 1990s, he was awarded nearly $30 million in damages.

Tire, Motor vehicle, Alloy wheel, Automotive tire, Wheel, Vehicle, Rim, Car, Auto part, Synthetic rubber,
Car and Driver
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Bias-Ply Tires

Long before radial tires appeared in the early 1970s we rolled on bias-ply tires, which provided very little traction and poor directional stability. At least they also had an inability to provide any lateral grip. They were, in fact, round and made of rubber, however, thus fitting the basic definition of a tire. Also, they're the reason many big-horsepower American muscle cars ended up in ditches.

1968 Chevrolet Corvette T-Top
The Enthusiast NetworkGetty Images
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Invented by General Motors, these removable roof panels were standard on every Corvette coupe from 1968 to 1982. They were copied by Ford and Chrysler, popularized by Smokey and the Bandit, beloved by guys named Tony cruising the Jersey Shore in the 1980s, and ultimately died with the fourth-generation Camaro and Firebird in 2002.

Land vehicle, Vehicle, Car, Classic car, Coupé, Vintage car, Steering wheel, Classic, Antique car, Sedan,
Car and Driver
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Floor-Mounted High Beam Switch

In the olden days, we controlled our high-beam headlamps with a button on the floor between the kick panel and the pedals (seen here as the round silver button visible through the bottom half of the steering wheel). You would step on it to turn your high-beams on or off. The switch was vulnerable to dirt and moisture from wet shoes, of course, and didn't last long in snowy climates. By the 1980s they were gone, and high-beam controls moved to the stalk, where they live today.

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang front quarter window
FordCar and Driver
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Vent Windows

This popular in-car ventilation system lasted until the late 1960s, and even into the 1980s (at least on some pickups). Here's how it worked: The front quarter-windows spun on a vertical axis, the angled glass directing air into the cockpit while the car was moving. Skilled smokers could flick the butt of their cigarette out an open vent window without even looking.

Using a key to unlock car door
Education ImagesGetty Images
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Physical Key

Think of this as similar to your house key, but for your car. You had to use it to unlock a car's trunk, lock and unlock the doors, and even start the engine(!). Most ignition switches were located on the dashboard, but (mostly) moved to the steering column in 1969 and 1970 to meet new crash-test standards.

Ferrari 246 F1 Front drum brake detail.
GP LibraryGetty Images
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Drum Brakes

You can still find a few new cars with drum brakes (pictured here as the finned element inboard of the wheel) on their rear axle, but four-wheel drum brakes faded from the norm in the late 1960s, when front discs became optional on most cars. By the early 1970s, nearly everything had discs up front. Drums are fine unless you expect to stop repeatedly or in wet weather. Discs have much better resistance to fade—the erosion of braking power due to heat after repeated hard stops without adequate time left for cooling.

1983 Pontiac 6000STE
Aaron KileyCar and Driver
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Velour Seats

Common in everything from big Cadillacs to Honda Preludes, velour upholstery was the seating material of the 1970s (and '80s). Sitting on the stuff was like sitting on thick bath towels. Back sweat would set in after just a few miles, pretty much regardless of the ambient temperature.

1985 Ford Mustang
Dick KelleyCar and Driver
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Sealed-Beam Headlights

Humans must have had better night vision a few decades ago. We were all basically driving around in the dark, thanks to sealed-beam headlamps. Today's basic halogen lamps are far brighter, while buyers can easily find projector-beam, LED, xenon, and even laser headlamps from a variety of manufacturers.

1961 Chevrolet Corvette C1 Convertible
Heritage ImagesGetty Images
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AM Radio

Radios began creeping into cars in the 1930s, but there was no FM band until the late 1960s. Back then, everyone listened to Alan Freed, Wolfman Jack, and The Beatles on AM, baby. With static, and usually through a single speaker. Now you know why we were so excited by cassette tapes.

A man in a car pulling the emergency brake
lzfGetty Images
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Handbrakes (The Not-Electronic Kind)

Sadly, most kids today will never know the pleasure of a well-executed handbrake slide, during which the driver yanks the handbrake to exaggerate a slide. They'll never lock the rear tires like rally driver Colin McRae, spin the car in an elegant 180-degree arc, drop the brake, and tear off in the other direction. That's because most modern vehicles are equipped with electronic parking brakes, which you can pull while the car is moving but that won't really do anything catastrophic.

Anti-lock brakes vs. normal brakes
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Non-Anti-Lock Brakes

Kids today also never lock the brakes in the rain (or the dry) and slide uncontrollably into a telephone pole while sawing at the wheel to no avail. That's because anti-lock brakes are mandated (along with stability control); the system prevents wheel lockup during hard braking, which enables drivers to maintain steering control while turning. It is possibly the single most important driver aid ever invented.

TDI diesel engine cover
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Any Diesel Engine

The reality is this: Unless their parent or grandparent drives a big diesel-powered pickup truck, most of today's youth will never experience a diesel engine firsthand. A shame? Maybe. But they also missed the train wreck that was General Motors' 5.7-liter diesel V-8, which polluted Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, and Chevrolet cars (and probably the atmosphere) in 1981. Volkswagen's diesel-emissions cheating scandal pretty much put the kibosh on passenger-car diesels in the United States.

1987 Toyota Supra Turbo
Dick KelleyCar and Driver
24 of 31
Power Antenna

These antennas, which would motor out of a retracted state when you turned on the car or radio, lasted about a month. (Okay, so they lasted a few years longer than that.) Anyway, if you forgot to turn off the radio before entering an automated carwash, the brushes would bend the antenna, and it would then be stuck in whatever position it was in at the time until the rest of the car rusted away.

Land vehicle, Vehicle, Car, Steering wheel, Center console, Vehicle door, Sedan, Car seat cover, Car seat, Family car,
Mark PrestonCar and Driver
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Track Seat Belts

In the early 1990s, new seatbelt regulations brought us these three-point beauties, where a manually buckled lap belt was paired with a motorized shoulder belt that, upon closing the door, motored up a track along the door opening and against your torso. The whole idea was scrapped after no one buckled the lap belt manually, but not before these irritating belts marred some otherwise good cars, including the Mitsubishi Starion Turbo and the Ferrari Testarossa.

1984 Toyota Tercel
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Door Rub Strips

Why have unsightly door dings when you can have unsightly moldings that run the full length of your car's doors? Very popular in the 1970s and 1980s, these door protectors were just as stupid and pointless as mud flaps and curb feelers. They can be found today buried in some carmakers' accessory catalogs, if you can believe it.

1956 VW Kamper Bus
The Enthusiast NetworkGetty Images
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Fixed Steering Columns

Steering columns used to be fixed in a single position and didn't gain adjustability until the middle of the 20th century. Telescoping adjustment came first (where the steering wheel can be extended toward or away from you) and was offered on the Jaguar XK120 in 1949 and Ford's two-seat Thunderbirds in the mid-1950s. The tilt feature (where the vertical position of the wheel can be raised or lowered) arrived in the early 1960s, but it was a luxury item and really didn't become ubiquitous until the 1970s.

AUG 26 1978; 1978 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham Coupe; It is comfortable, roomy and attractive with it
Bud WellsGetty Images
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Landau/Vinyl Roofs

Covering cars' roofs in fabric was extremely popular from the mid-1960s all the way until the late 1980s, during which time it represented luxury (or at least the American version of it). After that, it was only occasionally spotted on new Cadillacs and Buicks customized by desperate car dealers afraid of losing blue-hair clients like Mildred, who had come in and bought a new sedan every two years since 1968. Too bad the padded landau look was very over by the 2000s and looked horrible on contemporary Cadillacs.

Christopher Atkins
ExpressGetty Images
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Car Phone

If your Porsche 930 Slantnose or Mercedes 560SEL didn't have a hard-wired mobile phone sitting proudly beside its shifter or hidden in its center armrest, you were a nobody in 1987. No, these in-car phones didn't work, but they were an important part of the rich-yuppie-scum uniform.

2018 Hyundai Accent SE
Michael SimariCar and Driver
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Manual Transmission

Yes, you can work three pedals at the same time. We're aware you only have two feet. Trust us, you can do it. It's fun. Did we mention you'll have to drive with both hands as well? You'll steer with your left and shift gears with your right. Yes, you'll have to put your phone down to operate a manual transmission, but remember this: Not every car comes with an automatic transmission (you know, the kind with only two pedals). Learn up.

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