One of these days I'll update the site... someday.

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I wonder, in 30 years, after Anthropogenic Global Warming has been debunked, if Americans will be driving around in giant land yachts and laughing at the "Bailout Era" when everybody started freaking out and buying those environment-destroying battery-based hybrids and bidding sh*tty Geo Metros up to $9,000.

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Jalopnik circa 2031:

DOTS: Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles that still use the streets of the Island That Flight Forgot: Alameda, California.

Today, another poster child for the 2008 economic collapse -- a silver Honda Fit with an "Obama '08" bumper sticker. With the number of these you still see, it seems like it's the only car anyone bought that year.

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Cadillac Escalade.

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I don't think that we will ever get to that point again; I think that one way or another, we are very slowly starting to see the design and function of cars move in a much different direction than has been the case hitherto. It used to be that a car was a practical tool, but that was about it. Soon, it became a symbol of freedom from the vagaries of social compliance, and then it became a symbol of competitive insecurity. And yet, in each of these, the car was still nothing more than a car.

People didn't exactly live out of their cars unless they had to, and they certainly did not spend nearly as much time in them as we do these days. Nowadays, though, the car is starting to become much more than a mere tool of transportation used to make a social statement and attempt to be different than most of society. Ever so slowly, cars are starting to be an integral part of lives in that they have nicer interiors than our homes, we work out of them, we eat in them, and we spend what was once an unimaginable amount of time in our cars. Indeed, they are starting to be used as tools for integrating ourselves into society, rather than differentiating ourselves from it.

All that we have heard about in the past ten years, from iDrive all the way up to wifi connectivity in cars seems to indicate this. As time goes on, I think we will find ourselves entering a generation in which we place significantly less competitive emphasis on size and performance and significantly more emphasis on the cars gadgetry.

James Bond, your world has come of age.

Unfortunately, I, like most on this site, am a little more old school, and I don't think any of us enthusiasts will have it easy in the new era in automotive evolution that seems to be looming before us.

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I do wonder, however, as the car continues to be vilified (for both environmental and financial reasons) if the "feature creep" will do any sort of reversal.

As it is, most complex consumer products have far more features than their users ever need (I'm looking at my cell phone). Like you, the purist in me would love to see some decontenting in order to save weight, expense, and complexity.

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that is the SYMBOL of how we got to where we are today economically. it is THE image that will forever be associated with the current financial mess. suburban sprawl, no public transport, underused and oversized SUVs being driven by one guy 40 miles each way to and from work.

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I doubt it. Technology may advance and allow for smaller, lighter components with far greater degree of integration, but I have a feeling that my future children will look at me in frightened disbelief when I tell them of the days before dual-clutch transmissions, Bluetooth, iPod Connectivity, and in-car WiFi integrations.

Sweet jebus, I haven't hit 25 yet and I'm already feeling old.

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True.

Or, when the time comes, I suppose I could always quite my bitching, grow a mustache and a mullet, don the aviator glasses and the leather jacket, and pick up an old 3rd-gen Trans Am to fix up.

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Either way, the asshole will be on his/her phone.

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