Concept cars are both extremely fascinating and frustrating because,
if and when they eventually go into production, they never look like
the shinny ultra cool cars spinning on display at your local auto show.
So
while it may be very difficult indeed to discern the future of
automotive style and substance from concept cars, it is not to hard to
predict the death of trends from current productions cars.
So here's part 2 of my Top Ten List of Endangered Automotive Trends, Forms, and Features (To first read part 1 please click HERE).
4) Full sized spare tire
The
full sized spare tire has been dying a slow death with the introduction
of run flat tires and temporary space saver spare tires. The only
reason that the full size spare can still be found in some cars is
because it is the most supreme useful thing you will need when you flat.
Have
you ever tried driving 50 MPH up a mountain pass on a highway with a 75
MPH speed limit—in the snow with a space saver spare? I can tell you
from personal experience that I have never used so many expletives in a
row as when I discovered (on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of
nowhere Idaho and on a much anticipated vacation) that my car had one
of those tiny little space saver spare tires, and I still had over 150
miles to go to get to my destination.
I wish the exact same
circumstance on any automotive engineer or bean counter type accountant
who thinks that run flat tires or tiny space saver spare tires are just
as good as full sized spares.
3) The cigarette lighter
Have
you ever noticed that when good friends stop smoking the first thing
they will tell you is that they never realized how bad their clothing
reeked of stale acrid smoke?
I always give them the stunned "well
I'll be…." look as if I had not noticed myself, because frankly
that's what good friends should do in my book. But I will never give a
car this same courtesy. Somehow people who smoke while driving also
firmly believe that by cracking the window all of the smoke gets sucked
out of the car.
Sorry, I hate to break it to you but the acrid
smoke still permeates every pore of the poor car. Thus I will
personally never purchase a car that has been used as a giant ashtray.
For
this simple reason I do not mourn the death of the cigarette lighter,
but instead assign it to my painful childhood memory file along with
that Lawrence Welk 8 track cassettes my mom played over and over and
over again, vinyl roofs, and power antennas that either jammed or
snapped in the first car wash when my dad forgot to turn off the car
radio.
BTW: Even Quadraphonic sound could not make the unique Welkansian combination of the tuba and accordion sound cool.
2) The internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is dead, we just refuse to admit it.
My
11-year-old son grew up riding electric scooters, electric go carts,
and driving electric RC model cars. To him the sound of a whirling
electric motor is just as pleasing as the roar of a big V8 is to me.
It
really is just a matter of flipping a switch in you mind and getting
your head around the notion that electric engines can be just as sexy,
fast, and as fun as gas engines.
So why are there no electric
dragsters to speak of? An electric engine, unlike a gas engine, has
100 percent of its torque at 1 rpm. And torque is what drag racing is
all about. Plus, you' don't need a lot of battery power to go quarter
mile.
Image how fast a dragster could go with two 500 horsepower engines strapped (one each) to the massive rear wheels.
If
you can image this, and you can image a world were volt heads instead
of gear heads design cars. What is really holding the electric car back
these days is not battery technology, or the cost of electricity, or
any technical issues. After all the electric car was invented before
the motor car.
What's really holding back the electric car flood gates is:
1)
A real and valid fear on the part of many drivers about what happens
when they run out of juice. You can buy gas on every corner, but what
happens when your snazzy new electric car dies like your cell phone?
2)
A serious commitment on the part of the manufactures to the technology.
Until recently the big leading car makers in Germany, Japan, and
America were not ready to go all in on electricity.
Rightfully so
they hedged their bets with hydrogen, natural gas, ethanol, diesel and
all sorts of other types of car technology. But this only created
confusion in the market place keeping car buyers betting on the old
standby: petroleum in the U.S and subsidized or perhaps less taxed
diesel in Europe.
But the time has come to go all in.
Will they?
Will you?
1) The unwired car
Do
you recall the not-so-distant days when you could get into your car,
crank up your favorite AC/DC or Stephen Wolf Album, and head out on the
highway, and really be away from it all.
Not anymore.
The
modern car is quickly becoming wired and connected to everything. It
could be through the Bluetooth in your cell phone, or the GPS in your
car, but now you have the ability to stay connect to everyone and
everything—at all times.
This means you can have "those long
serious" conversations with your boss on the way to or from work. You
can get those much loved billing inquiry emails from your favorite
"challenging" customers. You can chat with your mother or father for
hours about your kids lack of enthusiasm for math or science. Your kids
can watch their favorite cartoons, commercials, videos from the on
board satellite television or CD. This means you won't ever have to say
a word to each other.
Better yet, soon you'll even be able to
browse the internet on your cars in dash screen and/or tweet, text, pay
your bills online, check your bank account, efile your taxes, and in
general be completely connected to it all, all of the time, in all of
the many ways possible.
You know maybe that Lawrence Welk greatest hits album wasn't all that bad after all.
To read part 1 please click HERE.
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