5 car features that are set to disappear from all new models

The lines between luxury automobiles and everyday economy cars are beginning to get really blurry in 2025. Standard features are typically shared throughout vehicle families, no matter which country they’re based in.

However, that hasn’t always been the case. In previous years, small features would give away just how much money you spent on your car. They were bragging points between friends’ “like or dislike” conversations around the bar, or simply something you could decide you had to have or couldn’t live without on your next purchase.

Now, we’re left to making our own modifications to feel good about our cars, which means that these five features will soon be completely extinct from all new models, no matter the nostalgia trip they might take us on.

1

Naturally aspirated engines

Manufacturers favor economy over displacement — shocker

VW Media

While this has been a trend in the sedan and compact-to-mid-size SUV segments for quite some time, this is now fully in effect for the full-size truck market, too, with most companies dropping their tried-and-true V-8s for smaller turbocharged six or even four-cylinder options.

Before long, naturally aspirated ICE engines will be even harder to come by, and some will disappear from manufacturer lineups entirely. So if it’s a classic V-8 sound you might be after or a throaty V-6 option for your next weekend toy, I’d be buying sooner rather than later, as there will come a day soon where a naturally aspirated car is considered a rarity.

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2

Analog gauges

Everything has to look like a video game now

BMW Reddit forum | r/BMW

I’ll be the first to admit that I love a good video game, especially when it has to do with cars. I grew up on Need For Speed, Forza, etc., so I get the appeal. However, I do not want to feel like I’m playing a video game each time I sit in my car. In fact, more times than not, I enjoy driving my fiancée’s car more than my own, as it has actual analog gauges on either side of the speedometer readout.

The gauge cluster used to be a stylistic opportunity for manufacturers, and it took real craft skills to design a good one. I think back to the 1973 F-100 that I learned to drive stick shift with often, and how those square gauges gave the dash the retro feel that was a big part of why I fell in love with that truck. Now, I get the same sensation from driving my car as I do when using my phone, which is quite mundane if I do say so myself.

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3

Handbrake levers

How will I ever impress people with my J-turns now

Performance Corvettes

One of the lesser acknowledged shifts to user-friendliness is the move away from mechanical parking brakes in favor of electrical ones. Personally, this is quite sad, as some of my favorite memories from shows like Top Gear revolved around how cool (or un-cool, if you don’t like to party) hand brake turns are.

The electronic handbrake made its debut in 2001, and was considered a premium option on most vehicles until well into the 2000s. Now, electronic handbrakes are standard across the range of just about every major production car in the world, and that’s a bit sad.

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4

Flip-Up headlights

There may be nothing more retro than a good pair of pop-ups

Bring A Trailer

Sports cars when I was growing up in the early 2000s come from a different era of driver safety. Namely, an era of driver safety that was pretty much nonexistent. However bad that might sound today, it did make for some more than memorable releases. The Mazda MX-5 and RX-7, earlier Chevrolet Corvettes, and my personal favorite, the 1980s Toyota MR2.

The rub against pop-up headlights is, of course, pedestrian safety-related. Somewhere along the way, manufacturers realized that having sharp, jagged edges jutting out of the part of the car that most often hits pedestrians was a bad idea. In truth, I have to agree with them, but that doesn’t mean that the older cars with pop-ups don’t look much cooler.

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5

Manual transmissions

You knew it was coming, and what a sad day it is

Advantage Nissan

There’s nothing quite like finding the perfect backroad in the perfect car, reaching your left foot over to the third pedal, dropping a gear and feeling the revs spike as you mat it to the floor right up to the speed limit (wink wink). Unfortunately, that experience will soon be a thing of the past, as less than 1% of new cars manufactured and sold in the United States today are equipped with manual transmissions.

So if I were you, I would hold on tight to those classics that might still be hanging around in your life. Whether it’s a three on the tree, a clunky four-speed, the traditional five-speed hooked to a spunky V-6 or a thunderous V-8, it came from a different era, where driver’s cars were still meant as just that – driver’s cars.

When all of these are gone from the modern market, it will be a sad day for enthusiasts everywhere, myself included. New technology is wonderful, and with it comes all sorts of fun technological advances, and that’s alright, too. The truth of the matter is that two things can be true — we can be sad that these features are disappearing. After all, they’re so connected to so many of our childhoods. In the same breath, though, we can also be excited about what’s to come.

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