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While new cars offer a much more comfortable and enjoyable driving experience, there are a few things that those older cars simply did better.

The motor car has changed a lot over the past hundred or so years and has adapted to the various global economic situations, with relative success. However, over the last 20 years, the automobile saw many drastic changes, going from an over-engineered machine to one engineered for profit.

With this ‘as cheap as possible’ ethos, the interior quality changed and most of the various panels don’t quite fit as well as they should. While this change is most evident in lower-cost manufacturers’ products, the premium and higher-end automakers have also resorted to this strategy – specifically with interior trim pieces. While it looks great, the 'Piano Black' trim is a negative point in a car’s interior, with many customers opting for another trim style. While not all aspects of new cars are bad – the safety and entertainment systems are exemplary – it is the smaller and more in-your-face aspects of new cars which annoy most motorists. Where something as simple as changing the climate was a twist of a dial in an older car, one almost needs a Ph.D. in electronic engineering to turn the heated seats on.

So, while new cars offer a much more comfortable and enjoyable driving experience than older cars do, there are a few things that those older cars simply did better. With that, here are 10 things we hate about modern cars.

Modern cars have many technical aspects which make them brilliant. The voice recognition systems do not fall within this category. Automakers are adamant to keep producing these systems as a convenient way to control the car’s infotainment without taking one’s eyes off the road.

While voice recognition is a great idea, many carmakers’ systems work fine, but they still struggle to understand the person using it due to the various accents across the world, and often do the wrong thing, ending up frustrating the driver and passengers.

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With the onset of cheaper cars, many automakers have had to find less expensive materials to use in the interiors of their cars. One of these materials is plastic. Where older cars had a blend of cloth, leather, vinyl, and metal, most modern cars’ interiors consist almost exclusively of plastic.

From the soft plastic used on the steering wheel and door inserts to the hard plastic used on the lower-down parts of the interior. Everything feels cheaper – even in premium to luxury vehicles. Many of the colored trim pieces to spice up the interior’s look are made of plastic – many times designed to resemble carbon fiber.

One of the trim pieces which gets used too much is 'Piano Black'. It is an inexpensive material that is usually used on the dashboard to make the interior look premium. While this is fine, the main issue is that higher-end and luxury automakers have also decided to use it on vehicles that easily cost well past $80,000.

Audi is one of the biggest perpetrators of this, putting 'Piano Black' alongside their touchscreens to help them blend in with the rest of the dashboard when the car is switched off. 'Piano Black' is easily scratchable and fingerprints stay on the surface, resulting in a dirty look, not indicative of the price of the vehicle. Luckily, some automakers are moving away from it, rather offering a satin silver replacement.

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Mobile phones have taken over the lives of many people and so carmakers have added special cubbies to aid in holding said devices. While some cars simply have a tray, others have a dedicated slot just wide enough to keep the phone from sliding and making noise. The issue is that many of these dedicated places do not account for a cover or even completely ignore the fact that there are folding smartphones.

Many cars do now offer integrated charging pads into the dashboard, which mostly solves the problem, however, some of them still insist that the smartphone be removed from the cover to work properly. There should really be a better way to do it.

Cars are getting bigger and better, but not always in the places where it counts. Take the current generation BMW 3-Series G30, it is almost the same length as the BMW E34 5-Series was, yet the rear legroom still leaves much to be desired.

The main issue was always that rear-wheel-drive cars took up much of the legroom to fit the rear axle and differential, but this has now even migrated to electric cars, which use the floor and sometimes the area underneath the rear seats as battery storage places – impeding with legroom and creating an uncomfortable sitting situation.

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In the past, cars were usually sold with the choice of either cloth seats or optional leather ones. Today, customers want the feeling of luxury, so they opt for the ‘leather’ seat option in lower-priced vehicles. This ‘leather’ option is nothing more than textured vinyl or faux leather, which feels exactly as one would expect – cheap.

It is the same with cloth and other seat covering materials. While seat support may improve, the quality of the textile used to wrap the seat declines. It is only on premium automobiles that textiles are quality products that actually feel like they should.

Automatic transmissions in the past used to be the more comfortable option, especially in big, heavy cars. They were better at changing gears than the average person was and even though most of them were pretty dimwitted, they worked relatively well.

Modern automatic transmissions are tuned for fuel efficiency, which is why something like the Ford Mustang has a 10-speed - to better blend the gears and to quickly change up to save fuel. This economic tuning is great for what it was built to do, but if the driver wants to have some fun, the transmission simply doesn't allow enthusiastic driving. It usually upshifts way before the redline - even in its sportiest mode - and can sometimes take a while to choose the gear the driver wanted.

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Modern infotainment systems are excellent. Most modern infotainment allows the integration of a smartphone either via Android Auto or Apple Carplay, seamlessly making the phone work on the screen. It's, quite frankly, brilliant!

Unfortunately, many automakers have resorted to the minimalist approach to the interior, cramming all the usual dashboard buttons into the various menus and sub-menus within the infotainment system, making it difficult to reach and use. The biggest issue with this is that not only is it sometimes difficult to find but is dangerous to do, as the driver has to take their eyes off the road for longer than is necessary to do something as simple as changing the radio station or operating the climate control. It's ridiculous!

With the rising cost of fuel, the stricter emissions regulations, and the amount of money that goes into research and development of new engines, many automakers have resorted to downsizing their powerplants to comply.

While small engines can be fun in something like a lightweight hot hatch or traditional sports car, the downsizing of big car engines is something we motoring enthusiasts dislike massively. V12s are being replaced with V8s, V8s are becoming inline-4s and inline-4s are turning into noisy 3-cylinders which have about as much power as a lawnmower.

While the downsizing of engines is already well underway and there is nothing anyone can do about it, one aspect of the modern car which all motoring enthusiasts hate is the fact that most new cars have soft limiters. These devices/software limits the ability to rev the engine when standing still.

The automaker which most easily uses soft limiters is Audi, which has one on every car it currently sells. This means that even the RS versions with throaty V8s and the R8 with the glorious V10 sound like a vacuum cleaner when revving at a standstill. BMW also employs soft limiters, but luckily when the car is in Sport+ mode, it disappears, leaving the driver to rev to the redline. The soft limiter is one of the things we hate most in modern cars.

Michael De Kock is passionate about cars and everything from avocados to particle accelerators. He has studied psychology and knows a little bit about fixing cars (old Land Rovers mostly). He also blogs and has a book, 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads, available on Amazon. His philosophy in life: Stop the hate - Adopt a V8.