There Are Definitely Debates On This Topic
A gear head out of a garage may well tell you that the answer to this writing’s topic depends on the definition. How do you define “style”, and how do you define “functionality”? As the English say, that is indeed a “sticky wicket”! For example, consider “suicide doors”. These are still around, as it turns out—full-cab pickups usually feature them.

But it’s not the same sort of suicide door as became well-known in the forties. In old days, these doors opened out and to the rear of a vehicle. Basically, the opposite direction of traditional doors on a car. They were called “suicide” doors because you could open one while driving accidentally and just incidentally tumble out onto the road. This happened to many children; now you know what happened to Baby Boomers.

Okay, that’s a joke, but you get the idea. The dangers evident in these doors slowly impacted the engineering of vehicles going forward, and now, full-cab pickup doors of the “suicide” variety can’t be opened, usually, unless the front doors of the vehicle are opened first, preventing the associated danger. The thing is, suicide doors were stylish.

They weren’t quite as stylish as 80’s DeLorean doors were; but they were definitely more functional, and the sort of vehicles featuring them tended to be “upper crust” at the time, meaning their functionality and style were combined into a singular reality. It was the safety that changed things. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Here, we’ll explore more changes briefly.

1. Body Type
   Cars today aren’t built using the same materials as older vehicles. Weighty, full-metal vehicular bodies impact fuel viability. The heavier and larger the car, the more fuel is required to impel it.

The downside is, heavier vehicles tended to be more resistant to impact. If you really want to see this contrast, look at Russian-made cars today, as opposed to American vehicles out of the sixties and seventies. Some sort of legal requirement made it so more Russian vehicles have dash-cams than American vehicles. So there are a lot of wrecks to watch online.

Russian vehicles fall apart like they’re made of paper, part of that has to do with cheap design owing to incompetence from their stint under Marxist horror, part of it has to do with economic realities in later years. While such cheap design facilitates minimal fuel economy and is functional from one perspective, it’s less functional from a viewpoint that puts safety first.

There’s a functionality tradeoff. Also, many feel that larger vehicles, lengthy twenty-foot Cadillacs and the like, were more stylish. So this comes down to your opinion. Do you prefer large, heavy gas-guzzling vehicles that have that “vintage” style, or do you like a light, compact little car that goes fast and long on less fuel? So you see why the debate rages on.

2. Onboard Computers
   In 1968, Volkswagen decided to bring computers to vehicles so we’d all be utterly helpless if an EMP backhanded reality from the stratosphere. Of course, that’s a joke, but you get the idea. In 1968, the first computer-controlled fuel injection hit the market. And it did such a good job that today, vehicles have more computer hardware in them than most peoples’ offices.

That’s a big change from 1971, fifty years ago, and today. In the seventies, most vehicles had no computer control. The trend became big in the eighties, in the nineties, it was standardized gradually, and today it’s almost impossible to find a new vehicle without some sort of computer-controlled components in the engine.

This has allowed for greater functionality in terms of engine operational efficiency, and reduced functionality in terms of home repairs—some cars can’t be fixed without a professional who has a specific mechanical certification from the company that made the car. In terms of style, though, there’s no comparison.

Computer-control has facilitated cameras, Bluetooth, better climate control, and the list goes on. Your smartphone can communicate with your car and vice versa. Heads-up displays are in some models now (this started in the nineties with cars like the 1998 Pontiac Bonneville), and more innovations keep coming as miniaturized technology continues to expand.

3. Prior “Safety” Glass, People In Accidents Were Mangled
   Safety glass is a big deal, and this is one that’s hard to debate against. Before safety glass, traditional glass was used in vehicles. If you got in a collision, you’d rocket through the windshield and bleed to death as the glass pinned you like a finger in the straw h*** of a soft drink from McDonald’s—only much worse. People died all the time in this way.

Now, safety glass has been introduced, and that makes it so that collisions aren’t as lethal even if the driver or passenger rockets through the windshield. Of course, it’s still not good for you if you’re in that situation; the impact alone could cause concussive cranial damage that is fatal. Even so, safety glass reduces how fatal such accidents can be.

Also, such glass has a greater level of repairability in modernity. Since the automotive industry has expanded continually even since the 70s, service, and repair is more feasible than it was fifty years ago.

Today, you can just go to a convenient website offering glass repair or replacement services. As an example, at glass.net homepage, you can save money and conveniently have your windshield replaced. So collateral to vehicular innovation, mechanical options have expanded. Though the new tech is harder for car owners to work on, more service options exist.

4. Owner Maintenance: It’s Harder Now
   Owing to expanded engineering efficiency and computer-controlled components, fixing or replacing components in modern cars is next to impossible. If you’ve got a GMC full-size pickup and a headlight goes out, they’ve got to half uninstall the radiator just to get at it.

Even Volkswagen made it easier to get to headlights in the world of yesteryear, and that car is insane to work on for American mechanics. This has increased style, efficiency, and safety, but reduced functionality through cost and convenience reduction.

It’s inconvenient to need a mechanic when you understand all that’s necessary to replace a component is disconnecting the old one and putting in the new one. Older vehicles made this much easier.
What’s Your Opinion?
Owner maintenance today is harder than fifty years ago, but cars can do more. Safety glass is hard to argue against; that’s definitely an improvement. Onboard computers are a mixed blessing—there are a lot more style and potential, but good luck troubleshooting your own car in your own garage even if you’re good with vehicles.

Vehicle bodies are smaller and more compact now as well, which, again, is its own mixed blessing. So each of these changes increases and decreases style, as well as functionality; but which way that pendulum swings will depend on your personal preferences. There seems to have been a trade-off either way.