AT LARGE
It’s a bit too early to be writing off the generations of cars that predate the current (mainly electrified) crop, reckons our editor-at-large
July was yet another month of EV-related headlines as the Government set out details of the incoming Electric Car Grant, delivering a slightly opaque shot in the arm for the stagnant retail market. Yes, it’s good news, given that stretched household budgets are undoubtedly suppressing demand among those who don’t have employer-subsidised access to them. But I can’t help feeling they’ve got better options elsewhere – because there’s never been a better time to buy used.
New cars spoil us, and that’s been the case for some time now. This crossed my mind during a recent early-morning jaunt to a classic car event at Santa Pod, triggered (indirectly) by what I was driving at the time. Not because I’d describe my 34-year-old Polo as a technological milestone, but because its lack of useful cupholders forced a coffee stop rather than a drive-through. And that put me in earshot of something interesting.
Through my open window, I overheard a uniformed service station employee showing his colleague around his newly purchased 2019 Fiesta. The approval was muted. “It’s nice, but it’s 13 years newer than mine, and what do you get for the loan payments? A parking camera and a touchscreen?”
From a user perspective, he has a point. Marketing material can trumpet the engineering marvels within a modern car, but most of the UK’s 34.5 million licence holders have only a surface-level interest in what they drive. They’d have welcomed power steering, airbags and air conditioning becoming commonplace in the 13 years after mine left the factory – as well as convenience features such as smartphone integration, keyless entry and adaptive cruise control following by the mid-2010s. Are there many essentials left to give?
Indirectly, yes. We’ve had five years of rapid advances in electrification, delivering longer ranges, faster charging and more choice, so home top-ups, cabin preconditioning and smooth EV driving are today’s on-trend convenience features. The used EV market is flooding with great options for one-car families without the outdated, tax-burdened CO₂ figures or rising maintenance costs of an ageing combustion engine vehicle. And, as a side benefit, the greenest EV is the one that’s already on the road.
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Marketing material can trumpet the engineering marvels within a modern car, but most of the UK’s 34.5 million licence holders have only a surface-level interest in what they drive
The challenge, as used cars age better, is finding fresh ways to spoil drivers with innovative new features. I’m not sure I share the industry’s vision of the future here – including roof-mounted drones to capture vistas you should take in with your eyes, supercars capable of autonomous hot laps to suck the joy out of track days or the gut-wrenching concept of Microsoft Teams calls invading one of the few remaining environments where we’re forced to break with our digital lives.
I’ll pass, thanks. I’m wrestling automated lane changes that require button-bashing akin to Super Nintendo cheat codes, touchscreen games that defy the more logical caffeination and leg stretching while charging – and some backwards steps in the user experience. Essential features buried in layers of touchscreen menus, safety warnings that distract and then scold you to watch the road and a mix of buttons and retracting handles to open the doors all complicate the simplest interactions with a car. Did anyone ask for all this?
An older car is a great grounding experience, as it helps highlight the essentials fitted to modern ones, but I wonder if the tables are turning. There’s a lot to love with an EV, but they’re reaching the mainstream on a tidal wave of intrusive safety tech and fiddly, over-digital dashboards that under-sell the benefits. Cut the gimmicks, cap the price and focus on the useful stuff – 250 miles of motorway range, reliable smartphone connectivity and simple, intuitive controls. Otherwise, it might take a bigger financial bung to get consumers out of the older stuff.
