Something as mundane as staplers. I’ve a who-knows-how-old ‘Rapid 8 Deluxe’ stapler, an all-metal machine that’s just as indestructible, solid and accurate (huh?) as it looks like. Loading the thing feels like arming a high-end pocket gun. Can’t stand the flimsy, plastic-y current stapler models at all.
To add: Having cars made out of metal again would be AWESOME.
I hate cars that weigh less than I do.
Oh yeah. I have belts from years ago that just kept shrinking little by little. Now I’ve run out of holes. This never used to happen. 
Old hand cranked pencil sharpeners.
Those things were built like tanks and the good ones would probably last thousands of years.
Women
Landline phones, specifically the receiver cradles. Phones used to be solid, clunky, virtually unkillable devices, and you just needed to drop the receiver in about the right place for it to be received into a generously sized receptacle and the circuit being reliably disconnected.
Nowadays the mating of receiver to telephone body seems to be something of an afterthought in designing a landline phone, so you have to take care and have good fine motor skills to really hang up the phone as opposed to slightly misplacing the receiver so the line remains occupied. My mother, in the last years of her life, often inadvertently left the phone off the hook. Curiously enough, even some phones for seniors (the ones with big buttons) have receivers/receptacles that need to be aligned just so in order to really hang up.
Sewing machines, at least the home-user ones. My ancient Singer could handle heavy-duty work without breaking a sweat. The three new machines I’ve bought since are made of evil plastic parts that break under any sort of tension whatsoever(and still cost $50 to fix every time).
Guitars - acoustic and electric - and amps. There’s a whole lotta caveats there - we are in a New Golden Age, where some makers are producing examples that are excellent, but there is no substitute for the equally-well-built original from decades ago that has also been played-in. I pull acoustic guitars off the rack all the time to check out, but was recently was at a small shop randomly trying Martins. I pulled one kinda-beat-up-but-not-abnormally-so guitar off the rack, hit a chord and just stopped. What the hell was that? The tone was “the Earth moved and Jesus wept” and the responsiveness of the guitar had at least 2 or 3 extra gears I have never experienced in a guitar, and I have played ones priced at thousands and thousands of dollars. I asked the shop owner what I was playing and he just smiled and said “pre-War Martin - 1940.” I was humbled. They have a magic rep, but I had never experienced one. It was instant and obvious.
Yeah, phones. My mom is elderly and needs a regular cordless phone, attached to an answering machine. She goes through two a year, they just don’t work very well.
There are lots of other things too long to list, but I find it’s true, you get what you pay for. Older items are so often more well made.
I test-drove a 2005 (? I think) Honda Accord once, and it was obviously a cheaply made, tin can piece of crap compared to our 1988 Honda Accord.
When I posted, I misread the asterisks around ‘older’ as double-quotes; so I thought that the OP didn’t necessarily mean things that aren’t made anymore, but just older technology.
Strongly disagree with the new car hate. It’s survivor bias at work.
Much love for the IBM Model M keyboard (I’ve got a cache that should last the rest of my life, and beyond, as well as an unusual AT&T buckling spring keyboard), and Western Electric telephones (I’m not a collector, but I’ve got a bunch that can be passed on to my great grandchildren and beyond).
Older computer printers (the early HP Laserjets) were built like tanks, quite reliable, and designed to last for years. Replacement toner is also inexpensive.
Scottish-made Harris tweed jackets-I have a few from the 1970’s-and they will last forever. Older Craftsman tools-the new ones are crap (made in China).
Also-American-made furniture-I still have a dining set made ca. 1930-it is better than anything made today (solid mahogany)-the new stuff is crap veneer.
Tangent:
I shoot 45 LC in my Thompson Contender and .410 of course. How hot can I go in that weapon? I love that thing, knock a truck over with it.
Agreed to all of these. This is the kind of stuff I look for at garage sales - old tools and old kitchen equipment (I rarely see old pencil sharpeners, but I’d pick one up if I did).
Yeah, newer machines have way too many components that are made of plastic. While these are cheaper to make, and the machines are much lighter in weight, I think that the increased fragility far outweighs the savings in money and weight. By the time one has had the cheaper machine repaired and repaired and repaired, it would have been cheaper to just buy a machine that’s well made from mostly metal components. And the more expensive machine will generally be easier to operate and clean and fix at home, too.
I was talking to my husband about tools and what he wanted for his birthday, and he DOES NOT want Craftsman any more, unless I find some older tools at a garage sale or something. I’ve used screwdrivers made of cheap, soft metal, so I know what he’s talking about. It’s very aggravating to attempt to replace the screw in your eyeglasses when the damn screwdriver blade keeps distorting!
No question that any new car is VASTLY safer than any older car. Cleaner, and likely more durable/reliable, requires less on-going maintenance, and probably more comfortable as well.
But it regularly surprises me at the satisfaction I regularly get from performing any needed maintenance on my old car. And if something goes wrong, there is at least a chance I can diagnose and fix it, instead of having to hook it up to a computer. Damned better looking too (tho I can imagine some folk claiming that is a matter of opinion!) 
Kitchen appliances.
Washers & dryers.
Cars.
Lawnmowers.
Clocks.
Electric mixers (not KitchenAid)
- I can’t think of any Craftsman hand tools that are made in China. Sears has a couple of low-end house brands of Chinese-made tools (Companion and Evolv), but they’re aimed at female buyers. Companion and Evolv tools are NOT Craftsman tools. Almost all the Craftsman hand tools are made in the US, I believe. I’ve seen Canadian-made Craftsman tools at Sears stores across the border.
One of my best friends works in the trades. His only problem with Craftsman is that markings are now laser-etched, making them more difficult to see. He uses mostly Snap-On and Mac, but says Craftsman isn’t terrible; their market has always been the prosumer.
- Again, survivor bias at work. Not every dining room set from the 1930s made it to the present; a lot was crap. Not everything in the 1930s was made of mahogany. I have an art deco bedside table made by a local manufacturer in the 1930s; it has a veneer top. Also, only the cheapest dining room sets available today have veneer surfaces.
Corningware. The old stuff you could put on the stovetop, oven, and microwave. The new stuff can’t be used stovetop.