What is taken for granted in vehicles today was by no means the case in the past ...
Modern drivers are spoiled and expect a high degree of perfection from their vehicles. If you read test reports from the past, e.g. the long-distance test of the VW Beetle 1200 de Luxe from 1961 , you will be amazed at the "compromises" that car buyers of the time had to live with.
It reads like "... a few times after switching off the engine there was a kickback...
" or "... on very bad roads the gearshift vibrates, and when driving uphill the gearshift jumped out of second gear once or twice...". Imagine this happening to a modern test driver from Auto Motor und Sport. The question is always what the competitive benchmark is. Obviously, in 1961 it was possible to sell cars with gears that popped out in special situations. And the sales success of the VW Beetle proves that people were generally happy with the car. The car test at the time also concluded with the statement " ... anyone who wants maximum reliability and operational safety, as well as a car that is agile and adequately powerful in traffic, but accepts the inherent disadvantages of the VW, can still not make a better choice today ...".
