I suspect that it’s more of a space issue; a lot of modern cars are designed to have bucket seats in the front- the bottom of your ass is actually lower than the top of the transmission hump in a lot of cars. Bench seats flat-out wouldn’t work, and in the sorts of cars that can have bench seats, I suspect center consoles are more popular, because you can put CDs, drinks, etc… in them. I HATED my old Suburban’s old bench seat for this very reason; there wasn’t anywhere to put anything except for some gimpy aftermarket floor console thing that I put in there on the transmission hump.
The Suburban in the LS trim has a 40/20/40 front bench , so you can still get 3 in the front. Ok it is really a truck not a car.
My 2011 Jeep Wrangler has crank windows.
Sends a Jeep wave to kayaker…
Presuming we’re not talking about neo-classical cars like a Zimmer or the like…how about rumble seats? Wonder if they’d be allowed in new designs nowadays (kinda like riding in a pickup truck bed…only kinda).
I’m afraid ignition keyholes will be the next thing to go. Every time we get a loaner or rental car, it comes with a keyfob and no place to put it. Okay, I guess technically there is a little divot near the cupholder where you can put the fob, but it’s annoying to me after a lifetime of using keys and keyholes. It doesn’t come naturally and I don’t see what the advantage is.
Well, if we are going to bring up carbide lamps, then (again excluding neo-classic or custom cars) what about headlights mounted on stalks?
I think (therefore I’m wrong) that the 1963 Chrysler Imperial was the last US domestically manufactured automobile to sport them (in sort of a retro/retro look), and that was that - even the retro Plymouth Prowler had the lights faired into its hood.
I specified auto as the Dodge Power Wagon was offered for domestic sales up to 1968, and the Peterbilt Model 389 is still catalogued (so heavy trucks don’t count).
Does anybody make a first-world convertible where the top is NOT powered? I fondly (sorta) recall wrestling with several late 60s / early 70s unpowered convertible tops in various states of disrepair and non-lubrication.
How about cars where you can open the hood, look inside, and see almost as much pavement as there is engine? I recall engine compartments spacious enough to easily drop a can (another anachronism) of oil between the engine and the wheelwell and have it hit nothing on the way down.
Psst. You were ninja’d by post #1. 
The advantage is you never have to fish the keys out of your pocket or pocketbook or whatever. Just walk up to the car, push the button on the door handle to unlock, get in the car and push the button to start. Extremely convenient if you’re carrying stuff and don’t want to put anything down to fish out your keys. My keys never leave my pocket from the time I leave the house until the time I get home.
How common on new cars is it to have an input on the audio system for your iPod/iPhone/MP3 player?
You don’t have to spend too much.
Pretty common now. My 2010 Suby has it, and it was a pretty basic model.
cd players. Give it a few more years and they will no longer be an option unless you go aftermarket. I suspect aux jacks will disappear in a few years as everything goes bluetooth or usb.
I don’t know… considering how long cassette decks held on in some cars I’m guessing the final disappearance of CD players is a long way off.
because it’s not all that common to need to be able to have a third front-row passenger.
I expect CD players to be mostly gone within the next five years. the transition from cassette to CD was slow mostly because while CD’s advantages- quality and convenience (not needing to fast forward or rewind to get to another song)- were clear, a CD still only holds about an album’s worth of music, just like a tape.
Nowadays, it’s cheap to incorporate USB, SD, or Bluetooth and let the owner bring their smartphone or 64GB+ SD card/thumb drive which can hold almost all of their music.
CD will die fast because its replacement(s) are far, far more convenient.
Once again, Jeep Wrangler.
Right back at you!
Maybe cars like the Buick Electra and Pontiac Grandville and other shared platforms (or badge engineered) cars did, but these days there’s a lot of variation. While a Focus and C-Max might have the same bolt pattern (saves on costs), it’s unlike that an F-150 and a Focus share the same pattern. The body construction and sets are just too different. There’s no advantage for manufacturers to keep the same pattern except in cases where we can literally use the same seats across multiple product lines.
“Designer” Radiator caps
Manual Choke
Column-mounted throttle
Rear fold-down rack (on which one would strap one’s “Trunk”)
Rumble seat
Snap-on canvas “windows” for Roadsters and Phaetons, which had no glass in the doors. The Cabriolet was a ‘Roadster’ with roll-up windows in the doors.
The old Au-ooo-gah horns were so popular that Model A restorers actually created a market for a real, authentic duplicate of the one (well one of the two) models used on them - if the rest of the car was still there, somebody had re-purposed the horn.
If yout engine compartment has room, go for it.
And, for the VW bug - it is the answer for:
“Last car sold in the US with running boards”.
Look again - they even had ribbed rubber mat.