With motorists being overwhelmed by the volume of gadgets and features in modern cars, a new report has revealed that plenty still prefer a more basic way of driving life.
In a new poll of 2,000 UK licence holders, one in six said they still rely on a trusty, old-fashioned road atlas or paper map as their primary to plot their route to destinations in a major shun to built-in sat navs and smartphone navigation apps that deliver constant digital guidance.
Warrantywise, which conducted the study, said the report highlights that Britain’s drivers are not ‘quite as digitally dependent as many assume’ in the latest example of research that shows motorists’ preference for simple features rather than the latest hi-tech gizmos.
But it isn’t just satellite navigation and route guidance apps that some motorists are ready to turn their back on.
The complexity and distraction of using infotainment screens on the move, concerns about penetrable security systems that put cars at greater risk of theft, and the cost implications of having electronic features replace analogue functions has seen a rumble of public calls for vehicles to ‘go back to basics’.
Here’s 11 classic motoring features and systems that need to make a comeback…
After one in six drivers told a study they use a paper map as their primary source of route guidance in a car, we’ve taken a look at the other basic classic car features that should make a return
1. Road atlas
Warrantywise’s study found that more than half (54 per cent) of drivers typically use a navigation app like Google and Apple Maps or Waze.
However, it said the biggest surprise from its findings is that paper maps ‘remain so widely trusted’.
According to research carried out by the AA in 2021, it found that two thirds of drivers still own a road atlas and carry one in the car.
Though with the increased availability of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – which allows people to use familiar smartphone map applications – this proportion of drivers with road maps will have ultimately declined dramatically in the prevailing four years.
A preference for traditional paper-based navigation is easy to understand, the warranty provider claims, when considering the complexity of many UK roads and the likelihood of being led astray by technology.
‘With historic towns, rural routes and varied signage, a paper map never loses signal, never runs out of battery and continues to work regardless of what is happening on the dashboard,’ it said.
Paper road atlases are still available today. The AA still publishes one annually
Driver overreliance on navigation systems and applications is also a huge cause for concern.
Only this week, an Amazon delivery driver became stranded on mudflats in Essex and his van caught in the sea’s tide having followed his GPS route guidance along The Broomway at Great Wakering on the east coast.
And the report found that it isn’t just older motorists – who grew up using a road atlas – who typically choose a paper mapbook over a sat-nav.
While the highest proportion of road atlas users are the over 65s (24 per cent), the second most common age group to rely on paper maps is those aged 18 to 24 (18 per cent).
Antony Diggins, managing director at Warrantywise, said: ‘Modern vehicles are more dependent than ever on digital screens and multimedia systems, and drivers now rely on these for navigation as well as communication and vehicle information.
‘But technology does still go wrong, and when these systems develop faults, drivers can suddenly lose access to all of it at once.’
The AA does still publish its annual Road Atlas for Great Britain on an annual basis.
Of all the classic features that need to make a comeback, physical buttons inside vehicles has to be top of the list. As car makers continue to put controls into touchscreen, safety groups are concerned this is making simple adjustments a dangerous distraction
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2. Dashboard buttons
It’s a rarity in 2026 to step inside a new car that doesn’t have a tablet-sized infotainment screen mounted into the dashboard.
These are now the standard fitment across vehicles of all sizes and prices, with motorists forced to prod their way around touchscreens to access applications and a host of features that were previously controlled using conventional hard buttons.
While designers love them because they de-clutter the dashboard to present a minimalist interior feel, and industry bean-counters prefer this setup because it cuts costs by removing switches and wiring, there have been mounting concerns about the dangers associated to moving away from traditional button controls.
For years, road safety experts have been warning that a reliance of touchscreen systems is become an increasingly dangerous distracting for motorists to use on the move.
The motor industry is now favouring tablet-sized infotainment screens to declutter their car cabins. But they can be difficult to operate on the move
Even simple climate and seating adjustment is part of a digital screen instead of physical buttons in many modern cars in showrooms today
The electric Tesla Model 3, for instance, doesn’t have a traditional instrument cluster behind the steering wheel to tell them their speed, forcing drivers to glance away to the 15.4-inch landscape display in the middle of the cabin to see this vital information.
Volkswagen’s ID.7 electric saloon does away with conventional air vents controls, instead requiring that a driver taps the screen to adjust the intensity and direction the flow of warm or cool air is distributed inside the car.
Even Volvo, a brand that’s been a byword for vehicle safety for decades, has been deleting buttons. Its EX30 EV requires the driver to press through a sub-menu on the car’s touchscreen simply to adjust the electric mirrors and the rear window de-mister.
Ferrari recently admitted it had made an error of judgement by deleting buttons in its prestige cars and has vowed to remove functionality from infotainment screens in a turn back to stalks and switches.
The Tesla Model 3 doesn’t have an instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. It means the driver needs to peer over to the large tablet-style screen to see the speed they’re travelling
Volkswagen’s electric ID.7 doesn’t have conventional air vents. Instead, how the air is distributed around the cabin is controlled by an elaborate setting in the touchscreen
Even Volvo, a brand that’s been a byword for vehicle safety for decades, has been accused of shifting too many controls to its touchscreens. The EX30 EV requires the driver to press through a sub-menu to adjust the electric mirrors and the rear window de-mister
A recent study by Auto Express found it can take up to 22 seconds to complete simple tasks using a touchscreen when on the move – time where a driver isn’t entirely concentrated on the road ahead.
A 2020 investigation by TRL also found that reactions times were significantly impaired when using the infotainment systems, more so than alcohol and cannabis use.
It comes as manufacturers from the beginning of this year are threatened with having safety ratings for their new vehicles downgraded if there is an over-reliance on drivers to use infotainment touchscreens.
Car makers told to ditch distracting touchscreens: Safety body will penalise models that don’t have simple button controls
The European vehicle safety body Euro NCAP demands that simple operations – including indicating directions, triggering hazard lights, sounding the horn, operating windscreen wipers and activating the eCall SOS function (which automatically calls the emergency services in the event of a serious collision) – should all be controlled by single buttons or stalks and not hidden in touchscreen submenus.
A car without these basic controls will not be able to score an industry-desired five-star Euro NCAP rating.
The crash test group’s decision was made after it saw a variety of car makers removing the hazard warning light button – traditionally a red triangle that’s easy to access on the dashboard so drivers can quickly alert other road users around them – and moving it into the infotainment system.
There was public outcry two years ago when This is Money revealed that the last model in showrooms to have an in-car CD player had been axed
3. CD players
Mercedes-Benz changed driving experience for motorists around the world in 1985 when it became the first car maker to install a CD player in a car.
Easier to operate and less distracting than trying to rewind a cassette tape to find your favourite music track, their boost to convenience made them a hugely popular feature in vehicles.
Which might explain the scale of the public outcry that ensued when in September 2024 This is Money – alongside Which? – revealed that the last new model with a CD player had been axed from showrooms.
Subaru’s update to its Forester SUV saw the Japanese car maker replace the CD player with music app streaming via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – the standard-fit system car makers install today.
It means buyers of new cars are now forced to sync their smartphones with their vehicle’s infotainment system if they want to choose from their library of music on the move.
Subaru was the last brand to have sold a model with in-car CD player. The Japanese car firm stripped its Forester SUV of its CD player as part of a model update earlier in 2024
The move away from the in-car CD player comes at a time when cassettes and compact discs are seeing something of a renaissance. As such, two in five Gen Z drivers want to see them back in motors
And because they will need to use the dashboard touchscreen, it raises yet more safety concerns around distraction at the wheel.
The call for a CD player comeback isn’t being voiced entirely by older motorists either.
The move away from the in-car CD player comes at a time when cassettes and compact discs are seeing something of a renaissance.
The British Phonographic Industry said in 2022 that cassette sales in the UK had reached 195,000 units – the highest level seen in two decades. As for CDs, some 9.7 million were purchased in Britain last year.
This is because an increasing number of artists are releasing music on older formats to increase their merchandise ranges and appeal to superfans who want to collect and listen to albums using various tech.
Taylor Swift’s 2025 The Life of a Showgirl album, for instance, was made available on CD, cassette and vinyl.
A recent poll of Gen Z drivers revealed that 43 per cent want to see CD and cassette players return to cars.
The traditional car part that’s almost wiped out: Just 8% of new models in showrooms have a manual handbrake
4. Manual handbrakes
The manual handbrake is rapidly disappearing from new cars.
A report by CarGurus in 2024 found that fewer than one in ten models in showrooms have one, despite the item formerly being a staple of every interior.
Its analysis found that just 49 out of the 587 different passenger cars on sale in dealers today are fitted with the ‘analogue option’ of a levered handbrake.
This means buyers who want one in their next motor can only choose from 8 per cent of the market.
This chart shows the rapid decline in availability of new cars with manual handbrakes over the last six year
Many drivers would prefer to have a button-controlled electronic parking brake for convenience and the fact it can combine with hill-hold assist so you don’t roll back when pulling away on an incline. However, if they suffer faults, they can be relative expensive to fix
Here’s a breakdown of the major car makers and which ones in 2024 sold models with manual handbrakes. Some 19 out of the 38 scrutinised offer vehicles only with electronic parking brakes
They are instead being replaced by electronic parking brakes, which can be applied at the press of a button and typically automatically disengage when a driver puts the car in gear and hits the throttle.
Many drivers prefer to have the more modern feature on convenience – and the fact it can combine with hill-hold assist so you don’t roll back when pulling away on an incline.
However, traditionalists will rue the demise of the manual system, especially as it is typically easier and far less expensive to repair if it goes wrong.
CarGurus said the average repair cost for an electronic parking brake can be as much as three times the cost of fixing an issue with a manual handbrake.
When we asked used car warranty provider MotorEasy for an average claim bill to fix both handbrake and electronic parking brake issues in 2024, it told us the old-hat feature usually cost around £250 while electronic parking brake repairs averaged £820.
Paper tax discs were abolished in October 2014 and replaced by the existing online system. But the move cost the Government around £300million in lost revenue in the proceeding 5 years and motors lost a daily visual reminder of when they needed to renew their car’s road tax
5. Paper tax discs
Motorists of a certain vintage will remember the days of paper tax discs.
You could either buy them from the Post Office or order one online to arrive in the post. They were then required to be displayed in the vehicle’s windscreen to prove that you had paid your annual road tax.
They too acted as a daily reminder to drivers for when they needed to cough up for vehicle excise duty the next year.
But paper tax discs were abolished in October 2014 and replaced with an electronic tax system, ending a 93-year circulation.
This initially caused headaches for drivers and wasn’t all that lucrative for the government either.
Why am I paying £710 a year in car tax while my neighbour only pays £190 for the same make of car?
By 2019 – just five years after the tax disc was scrapped – figures showed that the move had cost the Treasury nearly £300million as a result of increased fee dodging and drivers forgetting to pay online.
This was despite claims by ministers that shifting to an exclusively online system online would cut costs and reduce tax evasion.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said at the time: ‘Getting a piece of paper to stick in the windscreen might seem a quaint idea in the digital age, but what we’ve lost is the daily reminder it provided for all to see when the next payment was due.’
For motorists who are less tech savvy and computer literate, a return to the paper tax disc would be a welcome one.
A move back to conventional car keys would be a big step towards reducing vehicle thefts after a sharp rise in motor crime in recent years has been driven by keyless technology
6. Traditional ignition keys
A dramatic rise in motor crime in Britain has been triggered by manufacturers switching to keyless car technology.
While this has boosted convenience – because drivers can unlock their car’s doors and start its engine without needing to take the keyfob out of their pocket – it has made modern cars more vulnerable to criminal gangs.
Organised thieves, who can now use a number of different hi-tech tactics, have been able to breach these systems to steal vehicles quickly and without raising the alarm to owners.
Car key hacking is now behind the majority of motor thefts, with cases quadrupling in the last five years.
Three in five vehicles stolen are now broken into this way, analysis of Office of National Statistics data by RTA Law found last year.
The percentage of vehicle thefts caused by someone manipulating the signal from a remote locking device has rocketed from 13 per cent between April 2018 and March 2019 to 58 per cent between April 2023 and March 2024, the report said.
A dramatic rise in motor crime in Britain has been triggered by manufacturers switching to keyless car technology. As such, many drivers would welcome the return of traditional basic car keys
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Car key hacking is achieved by intercepting, copying, amplifying or replacing wireless signals sent between a vehicle’s remote key and its security system.
Usually, criminals will use devices designed to capture or boost the key’s transmitted, allowing them to unlock or even start the vehicle without physical access to the original key.
The most common form is the ‘Relay Attack’, which typically sees two thieves working together: one standing near the car with a receiver, and one near the house to boost the signal, allowing them to duplicate the car keyfob’s signal when inside the owner’s home to gain access and steal the motor in seconds.
While car makers have invested millions to upgrade their systems to better improve the security of their products, a move back to conventional car keys would eliminate the threat entirely.
Some 15% of the adults polled by Aviva said they miss manual wind-down window handles
7. Wind-down windows
Many older readers will remember the days of using a hand crank to lower and raise a car’s windows manually.
But for most from generation Z, they will have only ever known the convenience of a push-button power window.
That said, classic wind-down windows aren’t entirely extinct. In fact, some new cars in showrooms – namely budget-friendly Dacias – still have them as part of a cost-saving exercise that keeps their vehicle prices low. Some utilitarian off-roaders also have a hand crank window operation.
But while most will argue that the ease of dropping the window glass by pressing a button outweighs the effort of winding a handle manually, there is a repair cost implication of moving to the former.
According to car garage search engine Fixmycar, the average bill to fix a broken electric window is around £86.
However, if a regulator needs to be replaced, this can be up to £450, while replacing a malfunctioning switch fuse can be around £150 with labour. For premium models, the bill can be up to £500 for a simple electric window fix.
In contrast, solving a broken manual window mechanism or cable is typically less than £100.
A recent poll of 4,000 UK adults by insurer Aviva found that 15 per cent would like to see window-down windows make a return.
The traditional car door grab handle is being replaced by electronic pop-out devices. But a move by safety regulators in one country could see the latter disappear from new models soon
8. Door handles
China earlier this month became the first country in the world to outlaw hidden door handles – a feature popularised by Tesla – on safety grounds.
The US brand and some European rivals have been launching new models with concealed electronic door handles which sit flush against the side of the door when the vehicle is locked or being driven to improve the aesthetic and aerodynamics of their car designs.
But China has now demanded that all cars sold in the country have a mechanical release feature for both interior and exterior door handles.
There also has to be enough space for a hand to operate its mechanical release from any angle.
China this month announced a ban on new cars using concealed door handles, like those popularised by Tesla. Manufacturers have been moving to these hidden features to make their vehicle designs appeal minimalist, but they often fail in crashes
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In a statement released Monday 2 February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cited ‘the inconvenience with operating the exterior door handles and their inability to open after an accident’.
The new rules come into effect January 1, 2027.
Other countries are looking at introducing similar safety legislation after a number of tragic accidents saw people unable to be rescued from cars due to problems unlocking door handles.
Tesla’s door handles are already under investigation in the US by safety regulators. Authorities in Europe are considering their own rules.
It’s difficult to fathom why the car wing mirror would be replaced, but auto firms are launching models with camera-based alternatives that are infinitely more expensive to repair if damaged
9. Wing mirrors
Side mirrors have been on cars for over a century. But there’s an alternative that’s becoming increasingly available in new models.
Some manufacturers – especially luxury brands- have in recent years been replacing conventional wing mirrors with cameras.
Instead of a glass panel, the side mirrors are high-definition cameras linked to screens inside the car, commonly located above the door handles. The 2018 electric Audi e-tron was one of the first cars to use such a feature.
Like concealed door handles, camera side mirrors effectively help to make car design look minimalist while also improving aerodynamics to improve fuel economy of petrol cars and the battery range of EVs. Manufacturers too argue that the wider angles they provide reduce the blind spot and therefore improve road safety.
However, the positioning of the digital screen is often less desirable, sometimes located too low in a door panel.
Regular old side mirrors are being replaced with cameras in some high-end luxury cars. But is it a mistake?
Audi’s electric e-tron SUV launched in 2018 was the first mainstream model sold in the UK with cameras instead of wing mirrors
Digital wing mirrors also provide a reduced sense of depth compared to traditional mirrors and – on particularly bright days – the digital displays can fall foul of glare. The small lens when dirty can also seriously restrict the image being displayed.
Poor image quality, the risk of system failure resulting in drivers having no view of what’s around them, and issues for drivers with limited eyesight are other concerns that have been raised.
And so has the cost of repairing them. If clipped or knocked off by passing motorists, replacing a digital wing mirror can cost thousands – certainly a lot more than a new glass side mirror.
Driving the first car sold in Britain WITHOUT a rear window? We review the new Polestar 4 EV
A number of brands have also turned to digital rear-view mirrors, in some cases because their cars no longer have a back window – the Polestar 4 and forthcoming £120,000 electric Jaguar GT.
The beauty of them is that they remove the threat of drivers being dazzled by the headlights of following cars at night. However, the limitation is that – especially for parents – you can’t see what occupants in the back seats are up to.
Fortunately, most models fitted with this technology have the option to switch between a digital view and the conventional glass.
Car makers in recent years having been moving away from perfectly circular steering wheels in a bid to appear sportier
Many new models on the market now have steering wheel rims with a flat top and bottom, which can be more difficult to handle during three-point turns
10. Round steering wheels
It’s extremely rare to sit inside a new car in 2026 that has a perfectly round steering wheel.
Brands looking to play on the demand for sportier-feeling interiors are typically using wheels with flat rim bottoms, but there can be a little more difficult to operate than a traditional round wheel when trying to perform three-point or U-turns in the road.
From this year, motorists are also likely to see an increase in ‘yokes’. These are a non-circular steering control, often resembling a joystick or aircraft control wheel, with a U or T-shaped design.
A number of brands – including Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot – are due to debut their designs, which are all rectangular in shape, similar to an F1 car steering wheel.
But safety regulators in China want these banned too over concerns that they inflict greater injury on drivers in crashes.
Some brands are turning to aircraft-style ‘yoke’ wheels. Safety regulators in China intend to ban them in new cars from next year over concerns they inflict greater injury on drivers in crashes
Lexus is debuting its ‘Lexus Driving Signature’ yoke wheel in the new £50,000 RZ electric SUV this year
German car giant Mercedes has announced its upcoming electric car will come with this ‘yoke’ steering wheel, which is linked to an electronic steer-by-wire system
Peugeot’s Hypersquare is a rectangular, futuristic, and customisable steering wheel. It looks a bit like a video game controller, and plays into that sci-fi look and feel
A draft for approval has been submitted by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to outlaw irregular shaped steering wheels from 1 January 2027 – the same time it will ban hidden door handles.
Under revised safety guidelines, the regulator wants new cars sold in China to pass 10 impact stress tests at ten specific points of the steering wheel to measure the level of protection and potential for the rim to fracture.
Tests will be conducted on the ‘midpoint of the weakest area’ and ‘midpoint of the shortest unsupported area’ – sections which ultimately do not exist on a yoke-style steering wheel.
According to official Chinese road casualty figures, more than four in five (46 per cent) of driver injuries originate from the steering mechanism itself.
The draft regulation also cites a separate study stating that ‘traditional circular steering wheels provide a large area of cushioning when the driver leans forward, while the open structure of a half-spoke steering wheel makes it very easy for a person to bypass the steering wheel and directly impact the steering column or dashboard in a secondary collision, drastically increasing the risk [of injury]’.
Market analysis by the RAC recently found that just 3% of new cars sold in Britain come with a spare wheel as standard as manufacturers widely offer repair kits that are largely ineffective at fixing damaged rubber
11. Spare wheels
Britain’s motorists for years have been calling for car manufacturers to bring back spare wheels as many have little to no faith in tyre repair kits thar are provided with the majority of new models.
Over four in five drivers would prefer to have a spare wheel in their boot rather than a tyre inflation kit, a survey of 11,959 AA members revealed 2024.
This is because repair kits are largely ineffective at repairing a punctured tyre.
With Britain’s roads now ravaged by potholes, tyre damage is typically large slashes and cuts in the rubber, which are impossible for repair kits to fix.
However, only around 3 per cent of new vehicles sold in British showrooms today have a spare as standard, separate studies have found.
Many manufacturers have stopped including them as standard to reduce the weight of their cars by up to 20kg.
This makes the vehicles more fuel efficient but also helps car makers to meet tougher emissions legislation.
Tyre repair kits are also far cheaper to offer as standard equipment in cars, meaning manufacturers can save money on each model they sell by not offering it with a spare in the boot or under the chassis.
And the RAC recently said spare wheels are set to shift from an endangered species to the extinct list because of the arrival of electric vehicles.
In many cases, their large battery packs take up the space where a spare would traditionally be installed, meaning ergonomically there isn’t room to have one.
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