>Other than that, I don't see why people are in here bragging about their awesome 15-20 year old cars

Presumably because all those things you mentioned are difficult to find in new cars? I don’t think anyone is really of the opinion that newer cars have been degrading in mechanical quality; rather they’ve become much more unpleasant to use and own. Where you could trivially open up the car, theres specialized parts with manufacturer-specific tooling required (Even my car’s tire rim has a fucking key). Where the dashboard was mostly simple and operatable without looking, now you cant use any of it while in motion. And of course it’ll be slow, unreliable and somehow decide you need voice assistance and want to make a call.

And my own pet peeve: the incessant fucking beeping. Everything fucking beeps at you. I drove a prius recently: it beeps if you’re parked near the curb, beeps because you’re in reverse, beeps because of your seatbelt, beeps with the gps; stop by the gas station for a cacaphony: beeping and tvs and music just quiet enough that you can’t really make it out but youre aware its there. Expect the 2020 prius to beep while accelerating

Oh, and of course, now you can enjoy ads too, which’ll probably beep for your attention as well.

Obviously you can rip these things out, and obviously you can find cars without these things (especially if you’re paying the premium to customize), but these UX “improvements” are the norm, and you can reliably run from all of this horrible hell by turning back to 1996.

And if that car runs well, it’s probably much more pleasant to use than the same model in 2018. Mechanically worse, but far fewer “features” that enter the human areas.