1998 vs 2018 - progress report.....
Discussion
This makes me feel old...... Later this year its 20 years since the Ford Focus was launched.... as I watched two early models go past me yesterday I pondered what progress has been made since then..
Okay, so obviously passenger and pedestrian safety is massively better, plus in car tech seriously dates cars from the 90s, the fuel economy is no doubt better too..but on the other hand, I'm not sure the modern equivalent has greater interior room or a bigger boot, in the case of some crossovers in fact, there's arguably less space inside for an increased overall size...also, on a decent road, I'm not convinced the original Focus would be left far behind its grandchildren..would probably ride better on UK roads too on sensible sized wheels....
Put it this way, if you compared a bread and butter 1978 Escort mk2 to a 1998 Focus MK1, there would be no comparison..the Focus would be objectively better in every single way, but I'm not wholly convinced that you could say the same about the modern car.... a 1998 Focus could still make a perfectly acceptable daily driver, where as in 1998, a 20 year old Escort would have struggled.
Thoughts? I'm not saying with rose tinted spectacles that things haven't advanced, but anyone else wondering whether all the progress made on modern cars has been of the forward variety?
Development and advancements in technology are not linear, but every now and again things combine to produce a gamechanger.
In your Escort / Focus analogy, a 78 Mk2 Escort wasn't that different to a 68 Mk1 which was the same basic OHV, RWD, liveaxle recipe as the 1958 100E Popular that preceded the Anglia & Escort.
Then in 1980 came the Mk3 Escort: OHC, FWD, hatchback, and an even greater leap forward than Escort was to Focus. Coincidentally GM made exactly the same leap at exactly the same time and exactly the same recipe with the Kadett / Astra.
After that came 20 years of evolution rather than revolution until the first Focus in 1999. Again coincidentally the Golf IV arrived at the same time and was just as much an improvement over the Golf III as the Focus was over the Escort.
Any thoughts about what the next major step forward will be?
In your Escort / Focus analogy, a 78 Mk2 Escort wasn't that different to a 68 Mk1 which was the same basic OHV, RWD, liveaxle recipe as the 1958 100E Popular that preceded the Anglia & Escort.
Then in 1980 came the Mk3 Escort: OHC, FWD, hatchback, and an even greater leap forward than Escort was to Focus. Coincidentally GM made exactly the same leap at exactly the same time and exactly the same recipe with the Kadett / Astra.
After that came 20 years of evolution rather than revolution until the first Focus in 1999. Again coincidentally the Golf IV arrived at the same time and was just as much an improvement over the Golf III as the Focus was over the Escort.
Any thoughts about what the next major step forward will be?
Funnily enough a year or so back, I had the opportunity to drive my 2014 Focus ST-3 back to back with a friend's ST170. My main takeaway was how slow the ST170 felt, while achieving similar economy over the run, and how sparse the interior was (nowhere to plug in my iPhone and you have to use a key to start it 
) but I'd agree that despite all this, it was still very usable transport and not a bad steer but given the choice I'd be picking the "keys" to the newer car every time.
Chris
) but I'd agree that despite all this, it was still very usable transport and not a bad steer but given the choice I'd be picking the "keys" to the newer car every time.Chris
kambites said:
Max_Torque said:
It's also worth noting that in real terms, the car of 2018 is significantly cheaper to buy, needs less servicing, and is likely to be significantly more reliable.
And, like for like, is quite a lot faster. Having gone from ‘78 to ‘98 and then ‘07 in terms of cars, the jump from ‘78 to ‘98 was the most noticeable with power steering and disk brakes being the biggest change. From ‘98 to ‘07, there hasn’t been much change other than interior changes and cars becoming generally larger. I would happily have drove the ‘98 car for much longer as a daily driver as there wasn’t much difference to today and it felt perfectly comfortable on the motorway and with other modern traffic.
greenarrow said:
This makes me feel old...... Later this year its 20 years since the Ford Focus was launched.... as I watched two early models go past me yesterday I pondered what progress has been made since then..
Okay, so obviously passenger and pedestrian safety is massively better, plus in car tech seriously dates cars from the 90s, the fuel economy is no doubt better too..but on the other hand, I'm not sure the modern equivalent has greater interior room or a bigger boot, in the case of some crossovers in fact, there's arguably less space inside for an increased overall size...also, on a decent road, I'm not convinced the original Focus would be left far behind its grandchildren..would probably ride better on UK roads too on sensible sized wheels....
Put it this way, if you compared a bread and butter 1978 Escort mk2 to a 1998 Focus MK1, there would be no comparison..the Focus would be objectively better in every single way, but I'm not wholly convinced that you could say the same about the modern car.... a 1998 Focus could still make a perfectly acceptable daily driver, where as in 1998, a 20 year old Escort would have struggled.
Thoughts? I'm not saying with rose tinted spectacles that things haven't advanced, but anyone else wondering whether all the progress made on modern cars has been of the forward variety?
I thought you'd been reading Leg's photo thread after I'd read your post! Okay, so obviously passenger and pedestrian safety is massively better, plus in car tech seriously dates cars from the 90s, the fuel economy is no doubt better too..but on the other hand, I'm not sure the modern equivalent has greater interior room or a bigger boot, in the case of some crossovers in fact, there's arguably less space inside for an increased overall size...also, on a decent road, I'm not convinced the original Focus would be left far behind its grandchildren..would probably ride better on UK roads too on sensible sized wheels....
Put it this way, if you compared a bread and butter 1978 Escort mk2 to a 1998 Focus MK1, there would be no comparison..the Focus would be objectively better in every single way, but I'm not wholly convinced that you could say the same about the modern car.... a 1998 Focus could still make a perfectly acceptable daily driver, where as in 1998, a 20 year old Escort would have struggled.
Thoughts? I'm not saying with rose tinted spectacles that things haven't advanced, but anyone else wondering whether all the progress made on modern cars has been of the forward variety?
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Bit more than 20 years apart though but I'd have to choose the older car for my trip to work ...or the shops
Can understand people wanting the new car for the modcons though - I love the sheer 'mechanicalness' of the old stuff and luckily grew up having to learn enough mechanics to be able to keep it running.
Definitely nowhere to plug that iPhone in though!!
Toyoda said:
GroundEffect said:
NVH is a lot better.
But detaches the driver from the sense of driving.Comfort and gadgets > driving.
And the current car probably drives fine if not as surprisingly fun as a Mk.1.
It's a million times better inside a current Focus than a 1998 one and the current car isn't even particularly nice.
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