Austere Luxury. Something We Don't Get To Have Anymore

I recently came from a test drive of the all-new Hyundai Sonata sometime ago and I was quite impressed with what the car had and what it had to offer its driver and passengers. It had all the bells and whistles. It had Navigation from a Papago based system as well as Waze installed into its ANDROID based infotainment unit. Being an ANDROID based system with cellular data hooked onto it meant that it had normal radio as well as internet based entertainment and software like Spotify for your to listen to your favourite songs. Aside from music, navigation and a whole lot more entertainment, the Sonata came equipped with lots of creature comforts like power windows, electrically adjustable seats, rain sensing wipers, auto lights and a whole lot more. The only thing left for us to do is drive them to where we want to go and when you did that, you would be entertained. And all of this in a mid-priced full sized sedan. Not top of the line luxury brand mind you, just something mid-sized family 

It occured to me that we have come to expect so much from our cars these days and it was actually a good thirty five years or so ago, cars were still sold without a radio here in Malaysia. In the early 1980s when you walked into a showroom and bought a car you'd find that your car had an engine (usually underpowered), four wheels and some doors. Your hands were called into play when changing gears and for winding down windows. The winding down window part we have now taken for granted with the advent of power windows was a manual hand wound affair those days. Only some large Japanese cars  and some European models offered this on option.  In fact, air-condition was an option too.

See those things on the doors in front of the armrests? Those, my dear chap, are window winders. Note the velour seat trim too!!!!

I think the best way for me to put the point through is for me to talk about something as prestigious as a Mercedes Benz W123 which sold from the 1970s to the mid 1980s. Even then the Mercedes Benz name was synonymous with prestige, luxury and success. But buy a W123 200 sedan and you get a paltry 2.0liter engine with 93hp, four speed manual transmission, a large clock in place of a rev counter and no power windows. A radio was optional. It costed more than a Japanese Datsun 260c of the time which had a more powerful 2.6liter engine and had power windows too. Of course, no one wanted a big Datsun in those days unless it was a company car. Those that had money, bought the Benz. Plain and underpowered as it was. 

And it was plain. It had a boxy exterior that lasted until 1985. By the early 1980s, cars were already starting to go wedge shaped or slightly rounded. It was still upright and stodgy even when its BMW competitor, the 5 series was all shark nosed and pointy. Somehow, that exterior is now more classical and styling than the shark nosed E21/E28 BMW 5 series these days.

Its interior was spartan. It had a steering wheel (in plastic, not even in leather for most specs) and a long gear stick. There was minimal wood or decorative stripping too. It came stock in MBTEX vinyl or velour cloth interior. Leather was an expensive option that was seldom taken. With MBTEX, plastic steering wheel and without option wood, the car, aside from maybe the optional Becker radio (seldom installed in a Malaysian sold car) was totally spare on the inside. 

In fact, if you bought the larger w123 230 model, you'd get the same thing, with maybe a rev counter in place of the large clock and a larger 2.3liter engine. You'd still need to wind up your own windows in the higher priced car. But what a car it still was, the W123. You felt like you were sitting in a bank vault. Its doors closed with a satisfying thunk. It rode with poise. It took its time to reach 100km/h though with only 93hp from its carburetted 2.0liter engine but the engine was understressed and once at speed took about a leisurely gait on either the motorway or the small B-roads. The suspension was supple and mechanical refinement was better than average for its time. It partly was so comfortable as the car only had so little horsepower to handle. 

It's no wonder that the car that senior government servants and local businessmen wanted to own or be seen in. So it was plain, inside and out and had adequate power only. Somehow, luxury those days did not mean lots of gadgets and gizmos or even a glitzy interior. Or a 0-100kmh time of under 9 seconds (minimum). Those days the 200 petrol might have done 100kmh in around 16 seconds. But no one cared. They bought the car for what it stood for and how actually refined it was. You wanted to waft leisurely in one, in relative comfort rather than being pinned to the seats or sliding around under acceleration or cornering. Drive one today and it would still feel like a tank. It was very well built.

Maybe if you compare that old girl to the latest W212 Mercedes Benz E-Class, a similarly classed car from today that you find that everything has changed. You get IPOD/IPHONE Connectivity, RDS radio, reverse/park sensors, collision sensors, dual climate control, cruise control, auto lights and wipers, a lot of wood or aluminium trimming and a whole lot of perceived luxury. There are tons of switches and buttons compared to the spartan W123 interior (pictured below). And the entry level E200 now has 184hp  instead of 93hp. So the ride is firmer to help compensate for the added power. You can waft in the new car, but it isnt as supple as the old girl which has only ninety over horses to deal with. Of course it corners better, it quieter and has all the electronic gadgetery that you ever want or need. And things you never thought you'd need too.

In fact, gone are the days where even luxury cars were austere, or spartan. I sometimes long for a luxury car where you only get the basics. An adequately powered unstressed 2.0liter engine that allows for a comfort tuned suspension like from the days gone by, a basic radio player (with maybe a USB input), stalks to operate lights and wipers but nothing else electric -  windows and seats all mechanically operated. This means wipers and lights that you have to operate yourselves, a manual gear shifter or if that isn't possible, a conventional 5 speed automatic gearbox that is essentially maintenance free (unlike say a 6,7,8,9 speed gearbox or a cvt or a dual clutch thingy) and nothing else. Four wheels and some doors but with superb materials used for all major components and fabulous build quality. That's about it. Maintenance for this car would be cheap too as nothing electronic is there to go wrong.

This is about stripping down luxury driving to its essentials. It is about getting its occupants from A to B in comfort and nothing else. Maybe for entertainment the radio and its stations would suffice. GPS is handled by roadsigns and a map. The hands operate everything required instead of everything dependent on systems. Austere luxury is what we don't get these days. I doubt this can happen anytime soon as most of us are spoilt by all the comforts that electrics give us. Even sports cars these days have tons of electrics and controls. Could it be one day be possible again? Luxury without electronics?