Five car firsts we take for granted today

Tuesday, 14 May 2019

Even the cheapest new car on sale in New Zealand - the $15,990 Suzuki Celerio - has cup holders, Bluetooth connectivity and a CD player, while you don't have to spend much more to get an Ignis with keyless entry and steering wheel mounted audio controls.

But where did these features that we expect on new cars today first appear?

Cup holders

Back in the mid 1970s Henry Ford II rejected Lee Iaccoca's idea for a 'minivan' (or what we would consider a people mover), so when he went to Chrysler he promptly resurrected the idea in the form of the Dodge Caravan.

* Best new car features are new takes on old ideas

* Let them (the car industry, that is) entertain you**

But it wasn't only the modern form of the people mover that was revealed in 1984 (the same year as the segment-defining Renault Espace), it was also the first appearance of something we completely take for granted in modern cars - the built-in cup holder.

The Caravan (and the identical Plymouth Voyager) was the first production car to feature built-in dedicated cup holders. And, of course it was an American car that did it first…

Steering wheel-mounted controls

Steering wheel audio controls are more or less a standard feature on new cars today, but imagine how revolutionary the concept must have been in 1984 when Nissan introduced it in the 300ZX.

But steering wheel controls weren't the 300ZX's only high-tech feature - it also boasted Nissan's legendarily annoying Voice Warning System that used a small a small phonograph with a needle that dropped onto a plastic record and to warning messages through the car's audio system for things like doors being open or a key left in the ignition. Y'know, instead of those complicated dash warning lights…

CD player

While it is on its way out in new cars today, the CD player is still a ubiquitous thing. But much as MP3 and Bluetooth streaming are displacing it today, the CD player bumped the 8-track tape out of the Lincoln line up in 1985 when it was introduced as an option on the 1986 model year Town Car.

Lincoln dropped the 8-track option in 1984 (as well as the optional CB radio!) and the CD player was offered as part of the 12-speaker JBL premium audio system.

The Town Car was also offered with a number of other advanced options, including a digital display trip computer, power seats and a keyless entry system.

Keyless entry

But the Town Car wasn't the first Ford product to get keyless entry - it was first used on a production car in the 1980 model year on the Ford Thunderbird, which was also badged as the Mercury Cougar and Lincoln Continental.

But it wasn't the keyless entry we are used to today - this was a system that used a keypad on the door that the driver entered a five-digit code (either factory set or driver programmable) that would lock or unlock the doors and boot.

Ford persisted with the system and even still offers a version of it today.

Bluetooth

Pretty much every new car comes with the ability to pair your phone with it via Bluetooth. But the first use of Bluetooth in a car wasn't quite how we use it today.

The Saab 9-3 from 2003 was the first vehicle to use a Bluetooth connection, but it was to pair a wireless headset to the built-in phone, rather than a phone to the car.

If you were the super high-tech sort then you could also pair your PDA (remember those?) to the phone for internet access on the go. Although we shudder to think how slow that would have been…