What was the first "modern" car?

"TeenageCarNut" (1995lexusls400) 07/30/2015 at 21:18 • Filed to: None

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I’ll leave the definition of “modern” open ended.

My vote goes to either the Miata, the LS400 or the NSX

XJDano > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:25

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Dual airbags, traction control, ABS, stability control, possibly more air bags as it was cutting edge then, all these as options.

So mid 90’s luxury??

TheHondaBro > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:25

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Suzuki Every Joy Pop Turbo.

ranwhenparked > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:27

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I think it’s been determined that a Model A is probably just about the oldest car that you could theoretically still drive daily, if you really wanted to. So, I guess that.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:27

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As the first non-traditional brand to put the old guard on guard, I nominate the 1986 Acura Legend. The LS may have done it more comprehensively, but the Legend did it first.

jariten1781 > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:29

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2nd gen Prius.

Brian Silvestro > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:30

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Agrajag > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:30

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1988 Chrysler New Yorker.

For two reasons:

1. Montalban

2. Corinthian Leather

Birddog > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:36

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You need a bit more than “open ended” for this.

A 1940 Oldsmobile was the first modern car with an Automatic Transmission.

A 1940 Packard was the first modern car with factory Air Con.

Modern is relative to time not a specific car. Unless you specify the amenities.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:38

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Whatever the first car with electric fuel injection, disc brakes, and airbags is. Too lazy to research:(

El Rivinado > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:39

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I’m not sure how modern it was, but the first-gen Oldsmobile Toronado was certainly very unorthodox and forward thinking in design, concept, and function.

Come to think of it, most Oldsmobiles were like that in some way.

Urambo Tauro > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:46

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I’ve grown rather comfortable with calling carbureted cars “old”, and considering fuel injected cars as “modern”. So that seems to draw the line in the mid-1980s. However, Wikipedia is telling me that the first electronically fuel injected car was the 1957 AMC Rambler Rebel. 1957? I wasn’t expecting that.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 21:55

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Top Gear with the now-non-Top Gear Trio had investigated this in the past! :P

Rainbow > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 22:10

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1972 Renault 5. First car with plastic bumpers, and that (to me, anyway) is largely what separates modern cars from classics.

Urambo Tauro > Urambo Tauro 07/30/2015 at 22:14

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So, I’ve changed my mind. I need another definition for “modern”. As technology advances toward “autonomobiles”, I think I’ll look for the earliest example of a car that (partially) drives itself.

Automatic transmissions? No, it’s got to be something that controls actual driving, like acceleration, braking, or steering. How about cruise control? No, that’s still something the driver triggers. I’m looking for technology that intervenes in the action of driving, and does so without human initiation. I suspect it’s going to be something with adaptive cruise control, or automatic emergency braking.

The 1992 Mitsubishi Debonair had an early version of collision avoidance technology called “Distance Warning”, that used LiDAR to send a warning to the driver. But it took no action on the car itself; the driver had to do something about it.

Which brings us to the 1995 Mitsubishi Diamante , with its “Preview Distance Control”. The Diamante used this laser-based system to control speed not only via throttle, but could force the transmission to downshift. So there it is; that’s my choice. The Diamante: the first modern car.

Thanks, TeenageCarNut, for picking my brain like this. I wasn’t planning to do so much research, but I gotta admit it was fun.

StoneCold > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 22:48

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Boom. Cadillac Type 53.

First car that combined keyed ignition, three pedals on the floor, and gearing and handbrake in the middle into one package. The driver has control of the start, the continuation, and the cessation of the vehicle all from the driver’s seat, the throne of the automotive narrative.

The drive is, thus, not set-up with a crank in front of the radiator and a trudge back to the pilot chair, but with the turn of a key. There is no inconvenient introduction, the narrative is off to races like a hound after the mechanical hare at the tracks in Florida. The arcing burled wood in the hands of our driver patterns like neuron pathways of the mind: tumultuous, daedal, cabalistic almost. A journey seemingly, hopefully without an end; a day trip planned as well as earthquake preparations, assumptions are made but nothing truly known until the rumbling of the eight cylindered Gaia makes her intentions known.

A mating of foot to pedal, thrusting the chariot onward into that wilderness of Texaco stations and flop houses. The skyline of iron towers crowned by their respective magnates shrink until our driver is left nearly alone, a flippant squirrel chattering on a branch the only challenge to the Cadillac’s captain. The road slithers across the landscape, in one valley, out one dale, atop low hillocks, past deep hedge. Natural men and beast cannot surpass the General Motors’ chariot for speed; the driver dictates the direction, the pace, the position of things relatively.

the petroleum pours into my carburetor ever onward feeding the heat of my many hearts with the thrum thrum thrum thrum of a heaving leviathan the burning the rushing of air the hammer of pistons thrum thrum thrum thrum pattern after pattern the explosions so hot so livid it goes as long as the gas guzzles until the master the lord turns his thumb to halt my unending gladiatorial combustion no choices only violence or silence i give to caesar what is caesar’s my efforts turning liquid into newtons into saved time into gold I have this power I make this power but the god makes me so the heat burns the heat burns thrum thrum thrum

[Oh gosh, I’m James Joycing it, I need to stop to stay sane]

But that’s just history.

Let’s deconstruct it further.

The car, this new technology has been defined, the culture set. The car changes and gets new features and do-dads, but the role stays the same: it is freedom of movement, freedom of speed, the opening of options. Faster cars, more efficient cars, more communicative (ex: radio, music, texting, calls, basically the car facilitating communication of any kind and level ), it adds to what the car is at its basis: minimizing the time and resource costs to achieve objectives.

Easier objectives means more choices and more chances, more choices and chances correlate with our idea of ‘freedom’.

In my opinion, the more important question is what will be the first post- Modern car.

What car will cease being what we know of as the modern car? I think it’ll be the autonomous vehicle. Dial in a destination, then let the car do the rest. You are removed from the car’s function, from the choices pertaining to the car. The car will not be good; it will not be bad. It simply will be . The car that once made you a deity in the badlands, that enabled you to conquer your limitations becomes an extension of your legs, in not an exhilarating way, but instead, the way you don’t constantly feel the clothing on your skin.

I am Steve Austin and I am drunk and I approve this message

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > TheHondaBro 07/30/2015 at 22:50

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Mobile no longer lets me star comments. So consider this your star.

wafflesnfalafel > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/30/2015 at 22:51

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I like that - Acura Legend - I’ll go with that. My girlfriend’s 4 door was the first sort of fast (relatively speaking) car I ever drove. Loved that car. I was a dumbass at the time and she dumped me (fully deserved) - but we will always have 120 on I-90 at midnight. Both really liked going fast...

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > Urambo Tauro 07/30/2015 at 22:53

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Early detection system?

What about TC... Or ABS.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/30/2015 at 22:55

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I thought of that as well. But that was just about modern controls, I would not want to DD an Austin Seven, so it would still be an antique in my opinion.

I think others are on the right path with automatic transmissions and air conditioning being part of the criteria. You can drive a car with AC every day and not have to worry about the temperature outside.

Urambo Tauro > Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion 07/30/2015 at 22:55

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What about TC... Or ABS.

I almost went there. It’s worth consideration.

But in my opinion those systems really don’t do much except enhance the input that the driver initiates. You could say the same thing about power-assisted steering or brakes.

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > Birddog 07/30/2015 at 22:56

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I think his question is closer to what makes a car modern, then what was the first modern car.

Axial > Rainbow 07/30/2015 at 22:58

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That looks like it could’ve released in 1992.

Baeromez > TeenageCarNut 07/30/2015 at 23:05

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2002 Firehawk Trans Am. Why? Because fuck you, I’m drunk, and this car still looks like the future.

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > Urambo Tauro 07/30/2015 at 23:06

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I was going off of not controlled and/or inputed from the driver. (Oh sure you can turn it off, but pfft you can turn anything off)

To be fair, Im reading “Enhance the input the driver initiates” as “Keeps dumbasses outta trees... And your rear bumper”

And TC is like Automatic Emergency Braking. It’s triggered by the lack of input, in the case of AEB, it’s the lack of looking up from your damn phone to slow down.

In the case of TC, it's the lack of input to correct for wheel spin.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Axial 07/30/2015 at 23:18

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Aside from the headlights that look sealed-beam, I'd agree completely. It really looks far more modern than the date of manufacture.

Urambo Tauro > Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion 07/30/2015 at 23:30

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I was going off of not controlled and/or inputed from the driver. (Oh sure you can turn it off, but pfft you can turn anything off)

To be fair, Im reading “Enhance the input the driver initiates” as “Keeps dumbasses outta trees... And your rear bumper”

And TC is like Automatic Emergency Braking. It’s triggered by the lack of input, in the case of AEB, it’s the lack of looking up from your damn phone to slow down.

In the case of TC, it’s the lack of input to correct for wheel spin.

I see where you’re coming from. TC and ABS definitely do affect fundamental elements of driving (acceleration and braking). And they are regulated by the car itself. No doubt about it.

I didn’t pursue those because they are systems that don’t truly take over. TC responds to the driver’s input for acceleration, and ABS responds to the driver’s demand for braking. They assist the driver in carrying out the desired motion, but only with the driver’s permission. That’s were I decided to look at “Preview Distance Control”, which “ignores” the driver’s assumed desire to continue forward, and takes the initiative to slow the vehicle without permission. Instead of aiding driver input, it just takes over .

Your point is still a valid one, though, and I’m glad you brought it up. Would you mind digging up the first car to feature such tech? I’d rather give you a star than take credit for the idea.

Hot Takes Salesman > StoneCold 07/30/2015 at 23:38

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I am Steve Austin and I am drunk and I approve this message

Definitely the best part

Axial > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/30/2015 at 23:43

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Plenty of cars in the ‘90s with sealed beams. :D

StoneCold > Hot Takes Salesman 07/30/2015 at 23:49

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Full disclosure makes certain I can maintain transparency with all 66 cents of my Super PAC fund as I campaign for drunken psuedo literary intellectualism in late night Oppo,

my sponsor-but-not-sponsor being the Third Shift I have tragically run short of.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Axial 07/30/2015 at 23:55

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Most switched to headlight modules for anything that debuted after the late 80s. Examples?

I consider the headlight style a big indicator of the age of a car...