Driving a car that old puts yourself and others on the road at greater risk due to lack of safety features compared to a modern car. One could argue being able to afford a new car and not buying one to extoll other virtues is neglecting your own and communal good.
If you’re afraid to carefully drive a high quality and well maintained older car that was designed from the ground up with safety and quality at the absolute forefront- say an 80s Mercedes or Volvo, you would benefit from relaxing a bit and being willing to take slightly more risk in life.
Besides, I am not wholly convinced that improved safety tech is a replacement for the type of safety first engineering used in every tiny detail of those old cars, that mitigate certain types of accidents and injury that won’t be addressed in crash testing.
Back-up cameras are really important for kids who can't be seen in a rearview mirror. Those can be retrofit into an older car, but after having a kid I can see why these became mandatory.
A well designed car and proper driving technique make a backup camera unnecessary.
Many old cars have excellent rewards visibility without needing any camera- no camera will compare to a first generation Porsche Boxster with the top down for example, where you can directly see behind you by looking back. Volvo wagons are great like that also.
I also, as a rule never back anywhere that I haven’t seen directly just a few seconds before. I always back into parking places so I can see them facing forwards and not back up when starting out, and if I do need to back up when starting out I walk behind the car and look around first and then immediately get in and back up.
How is a toddler going to get behind my car before I can get in it that I did not notice was nearby and start visually tracking from standing there? How is a backup camera going to help when I backed into the spot and am now pulling out forwards? That’s just not a realistic concern. Also, backup cameras cannot see much closer to the wheel than those cars I mentioned with good visibility.
Tech really won’t help you here- safe driving requires looking where your vehicle is going with your own eyes. The field of view of a backup camera is insufficient- even if you have one, it’s usually better to be looking directly behind you and not use it. I see cars with backup cameras and sonar hit each other in parking lots all the time, because they thought the camera was a replacement for looking and situational awareness.
No backup camera will let you observe the nail the wind blew close to your tire to puncture it soon as you move the car. Perhaps it is best if I just stay home.
I have not yet flattened a kid with my car, but I suppose there's still time. Also backup cameras are very important for today's vehicles which are gigantic monsters compared with cars of the 90s. My car is quite low to the ground.
Also, show me the stats on how many toddlers are pancaked by lack of backup cameras each year per capita. That will inform me about how truly "important" this problem supposedly is.
Safety features like tracking where you are, and requiring a subscription for seat heating ?
I just think the everything connected to cloud approach sucks, but Im communal danger now.
I was driving a 30 year old car for a while (Miata). I'd say I was pretty low risk as you tend to go slowly in classic ones so things don't blow up. Also the small size reduces the risk to other road users compared to driving a massive suv or some such.
