10 car features Gen Alphas will never know

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Close-up black and white image of a car's engine start stop button with the text 'START STOP ENGINE', symbolising modern car technology common in used cars and new cars.
Close-up black and white image of a car's engine start stop button with the text 'START STOP ENGINE', symbolising modern car technology common in used cars and new cars.

Generation Z and Generation Alpha, the umbrella terms for those born between 1995 and 2025, have landed right in the middle of the digital age.

Tech that was once only imagined in sci-fi series and big-screen blockbusters is now commonplace - be it touchscreens, digital watches or mobile phones that do a boatload more than they did when they first popped up in the 80s.

Motoring in particular is changing all the time and moving with the latest trends. Bristol Street Motors has pulled together research on bygone car features and what they've been replaced with.

Which of these features have you ever seen in or on a car?

Bar chart titled 'Car Features That 18-24s Recognise' showing percentages of recognition among young adults. Features and recognition percentages are: Manually winding windows 41.1%, Radio antenna 37.6%, Ashtray 36.2%, Built-in tape player 35.5%, Indicator arms (not lights) 18.3%, Wing mirrors on the bonnet 17.2%, None of the above 40.7%. Data based on 1,003 respondents. The image relates to used cars and new cars.

To get an idea on just how quickly car tech is changing, we surveyed 1,003 Gen Zers - those between 18 and 24 - on how many of the features they've seen.

It's perhaps unsurprising that winding windows, one of the more recent features on our survey, is the most recognised, with over 40% of respondents claiming they had come across them.

The second-most popular item, however, was None of the above' - a staggering 40.7% of those surveyed said they'd never seen any of these items before. Not even an ashtray, baffling.

Eight-track tape players

The cassette player perhaps would've been more obvious here, but before even that, in-car playlists were handled by eight-track cartridges.

Compact cassettes, which were roughly a third of the size, unsurprisingly replaced those in the 70s, until CD players took over in the late 80s and early 90s.

Younger readers, however, won't know much about those. They're more accustomed to Bluetooth or aux cables, the old fashioned alternative.

Ashtrays

Comparison image showing ashtrays in cars then and now. The top image labelled 'Then' shows a car ashtray filled with multiple cigarette butts and one cigarette resting on the edge. The bottom image labelled 'Now' shows a close-up of a modern car's gear shift knob with no ashtray visible. The header text reads 'ASH TRAYS' and a note at the bottom states '64% of young people haven’t ever seen an ashtray in the car.' The image highlights the change in car interiors relevant to used cars and new cars.

This one's as much a reflection of changing attitudes on smoking as it on motoring. The UK's ban on smoking in public places in 2007, and the 2015 ruling that made it illegal to smoke in a vehicle with anyone under 18, led to a rethink for car manufacturers.

The cigarette lighters remain - presumably as dashcams and the like require the port - but ashtrays have taken the fall.

The storage space it leaves behind is probably ample enough for a vape machine, though.

Winding windows

Agatha Christie once said that invention arises directly from idleness , and maybe even laziness . Never a truer word spoken, in the case of winding windows.

Before electric windows, dropping the glass for a bit of breeze was little short of a light workout. In much the same way as the first motorists would wind up their carriage-like automobiles (also mentioned below) before getting underway, winding windows were operated with a spinning lever.

Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find a brand-new motor that didn't come with electric windows as standard. Younger drivers and passengers might never know the struggle.

Radio antennas

Comparison of car radio antennas then and now: the top image shows a traditional original black stick radio antenna on a red car roof, labelled 'Then', while the bottom image features a modern shark fin style radio antenna on a wet red car roof, labelled 'Now'. Text states that 62% of Gen Zs surveyed have never seen the original radio antenna, now replaced by the shark fin design, highlighting changes relevant to used cars and new cars.

This is another feature that's been replaced relatively recently. Originally, the only method of in-car radio was to use an antenna long enough to make your motor look like a dodgem.

At one point, they were so long they needed retracting at the end of a journey. Fast forward (quite) a few years, however, and the necessary components are instead hidden inside a shark fin'.

Usually found at back of the roof panel, the fin-shaped housings are much subtler.

Beaded seat covers

Peer at the front seats of parked cars and wagons and you might still spot the odd beaded seat cover.

Perhaps most useful for those who do a lot of driving, like taxi and lorry drivers, the beads allow for greater air circulation while at the wheel.

But, unless you're driving a Bentley or Rolls-Royce, wooden interiors aren't a frequent find anymore, and the beads have made way for more modern alternatives.

Wind-up starters

Comparison of old and modern car starters highlighting used cars and new cars. Top image labelled 'THEN' shows a close-up of a red Citroen 2CV with a silver wind-up starter handle from the period 1948 to 1990. Bottom image labelled 'NOW' shows a close-up of a modern car key inserted into an ignition switch. Text below explains that the Citroen 2CV was built with a wind-up starter for the entirety of its production from 1948 to 1990.

Gen Alphas and Zers aren't alone on this one; even Millennials are probably just as unaware that starting a car once involved manual labour.

Before the starter motor, which provides the initial crank to get an engine going, the action was performed manually by the driver. But despite being seen as a long-forgotten car component, starting handles were found on some models, like the Citroen 2CV, as late as the 90s.

Today's convenience of simply switching the key or pressing the start button is worlds away from the original method. That Agatha Christie quote comes to mind.

Wing mirrors

Before they made the switch to the doors, a car's wing mirrors were often found exactly there, on the panels above the front wheels.

Also called side or side-view mirrors, they're more commonly known as wing mirrors, despite very few, if any, current examples that sit anywhere other than on the doors or A-pillars.

Some cars, such as the Audi e-tron and Honda e, have even made the switch to digital mirrors, with rear-facing cameras that relay the image to small screens just inside the doors.

Indicator arms

Comparison of indicator arms on used cars and new cars. Top image labeled 'Then' shows a vintage blue car with an orange indicator arm extended from its side. Bottom image labeled 'Now' shows the rear indicator light of a modern white car illuminated. Text below states that 82% of young people have never seen indicator arms, a feature phased out in the 1950s.

As a feature that began being phased out in the 50s, these might also be a revelation to one or two generations before Zers.

Indicator arms - formally trafficators - were signals that dropped from a car's side to indicate which direction it would be turning.

As a much simpler alternative, it's easy to see how modern indicators, as flashing amber lights, caught on. Manufacturers such as Audi have even tried to modernise these, replacing the blinking lights with a pulsing LED line that moves left or right.

Maps

Although not a feature as such, it's a more than valid example of motoring's modernisation.

Where the co-pilot was once an irritated front-seat passenger holding an A-Z upside down, it's now a calm and collected voice coming from a small box on the dashboard.

We still recommend keeping an old-fashioned map in the boot, just in case, but the invention of satnavs is one that we can't oppose. Increasingly, manufacturers are throwing them in as standard with infotainment systems, and they're now even a part of UK driving tests.

Car keys

Comparison of car keys then and now showing evolution from traditional car key inserted in door lock to modern keyless start/stop engine button. The image highlights the transition in car key technology with the text explaining that the first 'smart key', Mercedes-Benz’s Keyless Entry/Go system, was introduced in the S-Class series in 1998. This visual is relevant for used cars and new cars showing advancements in car entry and ignition.

The switch from key to keyless marked a space-age step towards effortless motoring.

Gone are the gripes of manually unlocking the doors and sticking the key in the ignition; drivers can now jump in the car and start it up without even taking the fob from their pocket.

Despite only becoming a common fixture in recent years, the smart key' first appeared over two decades ago. Known then as Keyless Entry/Go, it was introduced in 1998 on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class series.

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