Yep a good watch.
Spoiler alert - Jeremy argues that peak car was around 2015 and Harry eventually mostly agrees with him.
Modern cars now have too much useless tech and nanny "safety" devices just for the sake of useless tech and to keep pettifogging bureaucrats happy, so I'm very happy with my MY2015 F-Type which has a bit of tech but nothing over the top and minimal "driver aids". As with Jeremy it will possibly be my last ever car.
PS - Jeremy's F-Type is not an S it's most definitely a base model, someone has stuck a fake S badge on the rear end.

 

I think they're right too.
My Range Rover has so much tech it's ridiculous. It has 2 types of speed limiter as well as both active and non active cruise. I've read the manual twice, am a techie by nature and profession and I still couldn't tell you how to switch between them. The only thing it has that I really appreciate is the on-dash speed limit read-out, .. and maybe the bong when you're near a speed camera. Everything else I either already had on my 2012 Jag or else I don't use. I'm also very glad it's slightly too old to enforce all the nanny aids on me. It has them but they're turned off.
Even Apple Car Play - something I was quite excited about, I've used twice. My car has screens for virtually everything now, and I've found myself getting distracted and drifting over the line (guess I should turn the lane assist on) whilst adjusting the heating.

My Daughter is in the process of buying the new Smart #1 - IMO, it's the best, small, electric car on the market. Very well built, well equipped and a fair price. But the tech is just crazy. You even have a cute little 'fox avatar' that talks to you - great but I thought you're supposed to be looking at the road?

 

Watched it this morning and completely agree. Peak car age for me is 2013 - 2018 ish. Enough tech to keep you happy, proper buttons and minimal touch screens.

 

Strange that petrolheads think that they are the only people with an opinion on what a car should be. OK, maybe not so strange, but still "peak car" is a malleable concept that depends on what you want from a car.

Some people consider peak car to be a Model T, others an E-Type; some an F40, others a DB6. Etcetera. For me it is (so far) 2018, for the average soccer mom it is probably 2025's latest loser-cruiser.

 

Strange that petrolheads think that they are the only people with an opinion on what a car should be. OK, maybe not so strange, but still "peak car" is a malleable concept that depends on what you want from a car.

Everyone has an opinion, but petrol heads are simply the only ones who care!
I've said for a long time that many cars are excellent but ultimately stir the emotions as much as your washing machine.
I did discuss with the Mrs at one point that she'd have the range rover and I'd get a tesla. For motorway commutes etc, it's hard to argue with. Has all the tech, pennies to run, no maintenance to speak of and it'll get me there and back so range isn't a concern. Neither of us like them and I very much doubt I'd be out at the weekend washing it. It'd just be a tool. She said no, so that was that.
I still drool over pics of older (80's) Mercs and Jags - lines of switches and buttons that hinted at so much.

 

You dont have to be a petrolhead to prefer buttons to touchscreens or hate nanny technology.

 

True.

But you aren't necessarily to be ignored if you prefer touch screens and understand that electronic safety aids are safer for most drivers.

I am old enough to remember the backlash against breathalysers and compulsory seatbelts, both of which were roundly derided as less safe than the (then) status quo.

 

Yes, my age dictates I have to agree with these two.
However, we live in a world where several generations of children have been unknowingly training themselves for war, paid for by the parents that bought them huge selling tactical computer war games such as "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)," for Birthdays or Christmas. Today, "Minecraft" is the most popular but still includes battling against violent mobs. (perhaps more to do with politics than warfare).
Computer games have taught the younger generation high speed thinking and actions and the speed at which these new generation kids run is quite obvious when you watch them texting on their mobile phones. That is of course if their not speaking to their phone which will not only put their speech into writing before texting it, it will do it in almost any language they want to use.
Even I use a real time translator on my mobile if I get a call from any of the countries where we do business. I hear them in English and they hear me in their own language. It really is a new world!
Whereas, it has been said, many of us oldies can look like we are defusing a bomb when using our mobiles. Yes, we can work them but nothing even resembling the speeds that younger fingers reach.
The modern cars with all the electronic wizardry built into the screens certainly appear to pose a problem for Jeremy and Harry....but I doubt it will pose much of a problem for the new younger generations of vehicle buyers.

 

The video was a good watch with plenty of discussion on Jaguars. Interested in JC's insights into Jaguar's decission to go EV - personally have my doubts about it given the market resistance to EV's.

I too am not a fan of the touchscreen for most controls approach. Brought a MY20 XE last year which probably has less tech than the most up to date cars but there are still some apps and menus I've not got my head around - I have concluded that if I haven't needed them after 10 months then I probably don't need them at all!

 

The video was a good watch with plenty of discussion on Jaguars. Interested in JC's insights into Jaguar's decission to go EV - personally have my doubts about it given the market resistance to EV's.

He said what many of us thought from the outset. They were upsetting the existing customers but there weren't enough of us to keep the company going anyway.
I knew of a large business a few years back that reviewed their customer base and fired 75% of them. Sure they meant they were a big business but they didn't contribute a penny to profitability. The firm was better off without them.
So it is with us. We may be customers, and enthusiastic ones at that, but we don't make Jaguar profitable. We don't buy enough cars and we don't pay enough for them.
So Jaguar were effectively dead. They couldn't pivot to SUVs as Porsche, Merc, Audi and the rest have, as they already have the brand leader - LandRover. They couldn't meaningfully undercut them as VW did with Skoda, so they're in the same market. Jaguar had nowhere to go.
If not EVs then what. As JC says, there's millions of Americans potentially ready to buy a gaudy, left wing, EV Jag.

For longer term EVs. I've been out test driving them recently. Not for me but my Daughter who's just ordered one - a Smart #1. And I have to say, sure it doesn't have the driving personality of any of my recent diesels but they're injecting a personality in other ways. Quirky characters on the screen. Interesting interiors etc, trim etc.
Not what we oldies look for but the younger generation never knew the joy of blasting a 90hp car with questionable road holding along a B road in the sunshine, engine screaming, tyres squealing, and they certainly don't look for the growl of a big engine and a car that can corner. Not much use when your roads are congested anyway.

 

Can't abide some of the tech in modern cars.

Lane keep assist pulling at the steering being one pet hate, not that I have it or want it

Jim

 

PS - my preference is for all mod cons, but selectable nanny-isms. I love ABS and ACC, but can't abide lane monitoring, I don't know if I prefer automatic parking, as I have never been brave enough to try it. I love my automatic and don't want a manual or even flappy paddles. Offered a Spires exhaust for the Newnicorn, I turned it down. I guess I fail the "petrol-head" entrance exam, even though I have, by preference, a 5 litre supercharged petrol engine (in my car). I dislike touch screens for anything other than things that you can do while parked, but love the flexibility afforded by an electronic instrument panel (so I can have a map where the speedo/ tacho normally are), and I would probably like a head-up display. Apparently unlike the majority here, I cannot use my buttons while not looking, and have never been able to in any car that I have ever owned (steering wheel buttons & stalks excepted).

I understand that some people prefer that "connection" that they get from a 1960s Escort Mexico, or an F40 or an E-Type, but I certainly wouldn't want to drive one (or an XK150, Blower Bentley or even a DB5), let alone own one. The jury as still out on a VH Vantage, mind.

 

I hear you and now fully understand your points Chris. Points taken and my apologies for misinterpreting your original message. However, in every negative there is a positive to be found.
I finally got you writing longer posts and I think several of us here will be smiling. But, please don't give up your short satirical wit posts that I, and I believe, many others enjoy so much.
I stand guilty as charged