I’m a bit retro, but I belive some worthwhile
design features that older cars had, should be
revived:let’s hear what you liked about cars of the
past! I like: SPLIT WINDSHIELDS: better
visibility, wifers wipe better on flat surface,
cheaper to replace one side;WING WINDOWS: I don’t
like airconditioning, but with wing windows, you
got good airflow through the car-comething you
don’t get today-your car stays hot because the air
doesn’t circulate;RUNNING BOARDS: I like the look
of them!; FENDER SKIRTS: even on the front wheels!
Suicide Doors: One of my neighbors has a mid '60s Lincoln with them. Damn, are they ever cool.
I’ll second the vote for running boards. How can you carry your crew (packin’ tommy-guns, of course) without them.
Hood Ornaments: I don’t mean just a small car maker’s logo. I’m talking about the old sculptures that used to appear on Jaguars or Rolls-Royces, for example.
Pushbutton automatic transmission, only this time put the buttons on the steering wheel.
I’m a big fan of wing windows also and was really irritated when they removed them. I recall that there was some problems with the push button tranny, though, because of the linkages.
I’d like the styles to become individualistic again. With the new cars, no matter who makes them, they all look virtually the same. It used to be that you could tell a Ford from a Chevy at a glance, but, for me anyhow, a Ford and a Toyota look a lot alike. I never liked it when they came out with the current streamline look because all of the cars seem slightly melted.
Rear wheel drive. I don’t like front wheel drive.
Cars look pretty much alike because there is probably only one optimum aerodynamic design.
Another vote for “wind wings” (wing windows). My '99 Cherokee has one-piece side windows. I see older ones that have little triangular pieces where the wind wings should be, but I don’t see hinges. (Maybe they’re there, but I just see them in passing, on the freeway.) Older models do definitely have wind wings. They’re just the thing for getting a nice ventilation going.
I also like metal dashboards. No chance of those coming back though, because of safety concerns.
TAILFINS!
Man, I love tailfins and I’d love to see a new car with 'em.
As it is, I’ll just have to save up to buy myself a '59 Bonneville.
My Corvair had an automatic tranny with a small lever on the dashboard that was pretty keen. The only problem was there was no ‘Park’. It looked like this
R
N
D
L
You had to put in Neutral and yank the parking brake for parking. It was a weird, cool, car.
Push button tranys could make a come back. Use electric switches and servos. An emergency cable to put it in Park would be a consesion to saftey.
I recently acquired a 1984 Jeep J-10 pickup and discovered the joys of wing windows. Those things rock! I would definitely like to see them in new cars!
I also agree that more “individual car design” would be nice. Perhaps that’s starting to happen, because some of the more innovative recent models (Beetle, PT Cruiser) have also been the most popular.
I’d also like to see chrome make a comeback. Shiny, pretty, chrome.
I miss bench seating in the front seat–sitting next to your honey, wondering if you dare put your hand on his knee, watching the B-movie at the drive-in, balancing the sodas on the open flap of the glove compartment (I don’t want that back–cupholders are a keeper)–even just sitting between the parents or with family, you at least got to sit next to a human!
I’m hopin’ you missed the 
at the end. Ford tried the push button tranny on the Edsel. Way concept, till you hit the horn when some jerk cut you off and then heard a terrible (and expensive) grinding noise. Dodge tried it later in the early Dart (among other cars) but put the buttons on the dash. It was a bit too much for the “indoctrinated” to handle.
Personally, I’d like to see a car with accessory options on the steering wheel. You know, saw blades that come out of the front, a plexiglass bubble over the top to go under water, skis from the bottom, jump pads to bounce over stuff. Does the retro have to come from actual old cars or can it come from old car-toons?
Actually, pushbutton trannys have made a comeback, to some extent: some of the newer “manumatic” transmissions have shift up/down buttons or paddles mounted on or near the steering wheel, Formula-one style. I can’t think of any cars off the top of my head that have this feature except some Ferraris (but there are some more down-to-earth cars that have them as well).
I remember the old Chrysler “push button” transmission-my uncle had a Chrysler wagon with it, and never had a bit of trouble with it-jhe drove that car for 12 years! Actually, there is no need to have a big shift lever sticking out of the floor anymore-I don’t see why an automatic transmission car cannot have selection buttons anywhere now (the old Chrysler pushbutton was pneumatically actuated). Having a shift lever is just a waste of space, and particularly bad if the car is front wheel drive.
For that matter-how about rplacing the steering wheel with a joystick-this was tried by FORD in the 1960’s!
On an actual production car, not a show car or prototype? Which one?
Well, my '79 superbeetle convertable had many classic features mentioned in the OP - wing windows, a running board, a flat plane windshield (albeit in one piece - not two) as well as honest to gosh fenders with rubber gaskets (the mark of a good paint job on a beetle: the detached & hang the fenders to paint them - no paint on the gaskets afterwards). The eatlier beetles actually had bud vases, I’m told. Another optional feature that harkened back to old-time autos was the visors - either green transparent over the windhield or chrome over the windows and headlights.
All these goodies made the old beetle seem like a quintessential car. BTW - I once read that the test of anything’s “quintesentiality” is if it resembles a child’s drawing of the same item.
Big V8s, rear wheel drive, wing windows, easy to work on, no power-robbing emissions crap… That’s why I’m driving a '71 Nova and an '84 Jeep Grand Wagoneer (currently wrecked and awaiting restoration :()
Aaaahh, the pushbutton TF727…I’ve seen a 1964 Dodge with one of the very first 426 Street Hemis. (In its first year, the “street” version of the Hemi was exactly the same as the full-boogie race version.) Anyway, this thing was stripped down–aluminum hood, doors, and bumpers; magnesium wheels; plastic side windows; no heat, A/C or radio; lightweight bucket seats from a Dodge van; and the huge 426 Hemi backed by a 727 automatic with pushbuttons on the dash…at full acceleration, you couldn’t reach the shifter buttons, you were pushed back into the seat so hard :D. I want one…
I really have to second Suicide Doors. That and running boards. it would be easy to incorporate the doors in newer cars, also. Maybe they could put it on the new vintage-looking Mustangs.