Automotive tech that took a wrong turn
IT’S not only cars that have failed to ride the automotive zeitgeist to sales success; there have been plenty of technological developments that have come and gone, too. Some have been killed off by the progress of technology or legislation, while others have tried to revive old ideas to tackle new problems. Here we list some of the tech that was once at the cutting edge, but which has now been mostly consigned to history.
LPG
AROUND 20 years ago the government offered a grant to encourage LPG usage in cars, because it’s cleaner-burning than petrol. Ford, Vauxhall, Rover, Volvo and even Proton offered gas cars. Then the funding disappeared, and LPG cars fell off the price lists.
Two-strokes
FORD experimented with a clean two-stroke engine in the early nineties. Prototype Fiestas were built and showed promise, but they simply couldn’t be made to pass the latest emission tests, and the project was canned.
Procon-ten
AUDI spent millions developing a clever safety aid for the 1986 Audi 80, which used cables and pulleys to pull the steering wheel away from the driver in a crash. It was brilliant, but then airbags arrived, which were more cost-effective. Sliding doors
HAVING doors that slide open makes a lot of sense as cars get wider and car park spaces seemingly shrink. But it also restricts the shape you can make the body, so odd lookers like the Peugeot 1007 city car flopped.
Xenon headlights
XENONS were essential kit for any posh car from the late nineties. The whiter light they produced was brighter and looked good, too. But now LEDs can do a better job for less money and energy, while also taking up a smaller space.
Folding hard-tops
THE Mercedes SLK caused a flurry of other makers to introduce folding metal roofs, which were supposed to bring the benefits of a coupé to convertible motoring. What they brought instead were awkward looks and warranty claims for electrical faults, so they were hastily dropped.
Flywheel hybrids
RATHER than use a battery to store the energy created when you brake (like in a Toyota Prius), several makers tried using a mechanical flywheel. These systems had some success in motorsport and buses, but no-one seemed keen to mass-produce them for cars.
CD changers
CDs in cars could only play a dozen tracks before the driver needed to change the disc; multichangers in
the boot allowed you to load six discs into your own minijukebox. But these became instantly obsolete when MP3 players and then smartphones arrived.
Keypad immobilisers
FACED with a car crimewave in the nineties, makers came up with various ways to make their products harder to steal. Peugeot and Citroen’s answer was an immobiliser that required you to enter a fourdigit number. Drivers hated it.
Swappable battery packs
WHEN Tesla launched the Model S, Elon Musk showed off how quickly a battery pack could be swapped. The idea was that you would just change, rather than charge, a battery when on a long journey. It was too complicated in reality.
CVT
THIS type of automatic transmission uses belts and pulleys instead of fixed gears, and was adopted by a number of makers in the eighties and nineties including Volvo, Fiat, Ford, Nissan and even Audi. Customers hated it, though, but it remains fitted to the Toyota Prius, the world’s biggest-selling hybrid.