Our family has a 2012 VW Golf and a 2017 VW Golf. Compared to the former, the latter has a number of worthwhile upgrades. CarPlay makes both navigation and music enormously better. Automatic parallel parking comes in handy for getting into tight spaces, especially when there's pressure from cars waiting behind you. Automated emergency warning/braking has probably saved our 16-year-old from at least one minor accident so far. Radar cruise control definitely lessens fatigue during road trips.
None of this is essential, but to me the difference in user experience is notable when going from one car to the other.
A year or two ago I had access to a Tesla Model X for a period of time. I remember when the Netflix and YouTube watching features came out; I thought it was the dumbest thing. But then I realized I was spending probably a couple of hours a week sitting in parking lots waiting for my kids to get out of extracurricular activities (pre-covid), or waiting at the cell phone lot at the airport, etc. And having a huge screen and high quality audio to pass the time was pretty nice.
Fantastic points. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I will say that CarPlay is a pretty big difference for me (when I had a loaner that had it I seriously was considering if I should sell my car)…
I wouldn’t buy a modern vehicle without CarPlay. It’s simply that good, and I’m pretty Apple critical these days.
I still like vintage junkers that are easy to work on, but there’s about two decades of nope for me now.
You can get an aftermarket head unit with CarPlay and keep your car! I have no idea why this wasn’t better publicized.
CarPlay (don't know about Google's system) is a huge upgrade over car manufacturers' systems. Still wouldn't cause me to sell my 10 yo vehicle with <70K miles though.
Good lane keeping and collision avoidance could be a lifesaver in some situations. Same for having other driver assistance features like good adaptive cruise control and auto-steering - long trips can be less fatiguing when the car is driving itself most of the time.
not OP, but I think the 'smart' features are what feel dated. Perhaps not quite the same, but in late 90s, I first saw 'high end' cars with GPS/maps built in to dash. not even a few years later, you could buy much fancier ones, that would update, and were faster, and had more features. The 1998 'luxury' in-built GPS felt way out of date by 2002 (UI, responsiveness/speed, display, etc). The rest of the car didn't feel as dated, just the "high tech" bits.
My vehicle's primary purpose is to get me from Point A to Point B. Anything else that gets crammed in there is just more gravy on my meat and potatoes.
Help me to understand why the "feeling dated" part of a vehicle is important to you? Or rather, what does a car from 2015 lack, that a car from 2020 has, that you find differentiates them enormously?