What's disappearing from our cars and roads?

7 July, 2023  By: Byron Mathioudakis

Cars, like many things in modern life, live and die at the fickle altar of fashion. As consumer preferences change, cars often do, too.

Of course, the relentless march of technology is also a driving force, along with the legislation that makes today’s cars better, safer and greener than ever before.

So, what’s on the chopping block nowadays?

The once popular family sedan is a dying breed

For more than 50 years, from the first Holden of 1948, the family car formula was four doors, five or more seats, six cylinders or a V8, and a boot big enough for extended family holidays.

However, by the 1990s, consumer behaviour was changing - and so were our cars. By then, it had become apparent that we had the technology to build four-wheel drive-like vehicles that were far better to drive and more affordable than traditional old off-roaders and used much less fuel.

The compromise that came with owning and driving a four-wheel drive had become much smaller, and now people could have a vehicle with some offroad ability without having to get a LandCruiser, Land Rover or tiny Suzuki Jimny.

The choices included the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Subaru Forester – cool alternatives to a small hatchback or mid-sizers like the Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna.

Later, the markets for Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon would be eroded further with increasing SUV choices. This would be a key reason for the eventual demise of these two big Australian-built cars.

In 1960, sedans overall accounted for more than 70 per cent of sales. Even in 2003, that figure still neared 45 per cent. Yet by 2013 it shrank to under 12 per cent and last year to just 1.6 per cent – or 5 per cent if you add premium-branded sedans.

However, the inexorable rise of electric vehicles (EV) like the Tesla Model 3 may yet save the sedan from total extinction. Sedans may be down, but they’re not out yet.

Small cars are slowly being replaced by small SUVs

In 2013, Australians could buy 78 different light and small car models. Today, that number has plummeted to 35 and falling. Stalwarts like the Ford Focus will not be replaced, ending 90 years of a continuous line populated with icons like Anglia, Escort and Laser.

Meanwhile, light and small SUV numbers have multiplied in 10 years, from 20 to 46 today, and growing.

Honda stopped selling the Jazz supermini here in 2020 because the latest version would end up costing almost as much as the closely-related but far more popular HR-V small SUV. And there is more profit margin in SUVs.

Australians equate small with cheap so can’t abide price rises but will happily pay more for a small SUV. For those who can’t afford to pay more, their choices are dwindling.

Car-based utes have been replaced by large 4x4 utes

Ford Australia invented the car-based ute back in 1934. From then, Ford and Holden promoted the ute as a weekday workhorse and weekend leisure vehicle.

There were also widespread incentives for governments and fleets to buy Australian, while government supported them more directly as well, such as with generous grants. Then the last two remaining brands building cars in Australia ceased their manufacturing operations in 2016 (Ford) and 2017 (Holden).

The writing was on the wall back in the early 1980s, as cheaper, tougher and more versatile alternatives like the small truck-based Toyota HiLux started selling in large numbers. By the mid-1990s, there were scores of imitators, and Ford made the crucial decision to develop the 2011 Ranger, creating a global success story that no Falcon ute could ever emulate.

But car-based utes are returning, though in a different form. The Focus small-car-based Ford Maverick has been a sales phenomenon in North America since launching in 2021, and competitors are taking notice. Hyundai has a larger Tucson SUV-based Santa Cruz available, and Honda has the even-larger SUV-derived Ridgeline fronting Ford’s F-Series truck.

Holden did it all first though, as the 2003 Crewman dua cab ute proves. Go Aussie ingenuity!

Station wagons are now smaller and lower

When SUVs came on stream in the late 1990s, Australians increasingly moved away from family station wagons and looked to SUVs. Yes, fleets kept supporting the then highflying Commodore wagon, but as the 2000s generation arrived, the Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi Magna and Ford Falcon wagons vanished.

It could be technically argued that the more popular Subaru Outback style of crossover wagon is a likely successor to the traditional wagon, as they adopt SUV themes like all-wheel drive, extra ground clearance and more rugged body trim.

Meanwhile, even the smaller wagons have largely disappeared in Australia. The ageing Mazda6, VW Passat and Golf wagons, and Skoda Octavia are the exceptions, but for how long? They only seem to work in Europe, where their lower fuel consumption compared to SUVs makes them usefully cheaper to run.

Full-size spare tyres are becoming far less common

Carmakers argue that most people won’t or don’t know how to change a flat tyre anyway, but that seems more like a city-centric perspective.

The manufacturers also say spare wheels eat into cargo areas, add weight that subsequently increases fuel use, and that they are also too heavy to handle with sizes now regularly exceeding 19 inches. So increasingly full-size spare tyres are being replaced with space saver tyres and tyre inflation kits, neither of which can get you very far or allow you to drive at higher speeds.

Spare wheels should be an option in Australian cars, regardless of size and purpose. Please, carmakers, give us the choice.

Unfortunately, EVs are making the future of full-size spare tyres even bleaker with the battery taking up valuable space that would otherwise be inhabited by that fifth wheel.

Autos are overtaking manual transmissions

The manual transmission option is disappearing so fast, that some pundits believe only the most niche of models will offer a gear stick and clutch pedal by 2030.

This is mostly due to consumer preferences. And carmakers seem happy enough, as it means less model complexity when there is no manual model to bring into Australia.

People are also less likely to learn how to drive a manual now. Often, it’s because they’re only exposed to automatic vehicles. But mostly it’s because mastering the manual can be difficult. And the increase in stop/start traffic does not help the cause.

Additionally, unlike before, modern autos are at least as good as manuals in some important areas. For instance, computer tech means they operate more efficiently more often than manuals, using less fuel. And they are quieter, smoother and more versatile nowadays, with a paddle shift-style function available for when you want to feel in control.

Plus, autos work better with adaptive cruise control systems and other driver assist tech, as the car can change down and stop by itself without driver intervention.

The tipping point happened back in the 1980s, as automatic transmissions started adopting electronics and more gears to make them far nicer to drive. Then the dual-clutch auto came on stream in the early-2000s, offering a level of interaction hitherto missing from previous autos.

The range of car colours has changed

Sure, many consumers do indeed lament the increasing numbers of grey, silver, white and black cars on our roads, which appear to have replaced those more colourful tones of cars from years gone by.

But the truth is, when it comes down to cars that people buy with their own money, the most common preferences are for those more conservative colours.

For many popular models affected by limited availability and production delays, often a choice of colour will be limited and consumers will have to take whatever hue they can get. That will probably mean one of the more popular but sensible colours.

If you really want a specific and/or unusual colour, it will usually mean a lengthy wait for the vehicle to be built to order.

Traditional key-operated ignitions are disappearing

Cars are becoming more like computers, with remote access, over-the-air updates and complex driver-assist electronics taking a lot of the manual labour out of operating a vehicle.

Which is why sensors are replacing keys. Not only have we moved to start buttons instead of keys in the ignition, now some EVs just sense your key is there and switch on by themselves.

Less hardware and easier integration with devices that often use near-field communication tech, results in less fiddly work opening and starting a car. It’s designed to save you time and it does, but time will tell as to how reliable this tech will be in the long run.

What's already gone?

Ashtrays/cigarette lighters

It’s surprising that as late as the 2010s cars still had lighters and ashtrays. Nowadays, rather than cigarettes providing a distraction, drivers can harm and kill while being distracted by their mobile phones instead.

Power antennas, aux-in, and obsolete audio

Radio reception technology no longer needs an extendable antenna for reception. Receivers can be integrated within small roof masts, a shark fin antenna or in windscreens, among other areas. And the move to phone-based multimedia killed off the aux outlet, as well as the CD player in the latter 2000s, which in turn killed off cassette players in the 1990s, after a 20-year reign.

Pop-up headlights

These were all the rage in the 1970s and 80s. Then proposed American pedestrian-impact legislation required minimum snag points on car bonnets and car designers got scared. They could also sometimes block vision and create wind drag, which annoyed engineers. Plus, they became a bit passé by then. But today they’re incredibly cool.

Rear fog lights

For more than a decade from the mid-1990s, no Australian street was complete without one Hyundai X3 Excel and its infernal retina-searing rear fog light left on. Happily, as these automotive cockroaches eventually thinned out, high-vis LED taillights made such items redundant.

Wind-up windows

Once a standard fitment on most everyday cars, wind-up windows were eventually phased out as it became much cheaper to produce electric window mechanisms for the mass market. Improvements in the reliability of electric windows also helped, ending the reign of arm-powered windows.