1998 vs 2018 - progress report.....

[greenarrow]

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?