I remember that my dad's Austin Maxi had a sliding bonnet stay a bit like an automatic umbrella: with one hand it was a breeze to push the bonnet up until it clicked and stayed open. Never seen this on a car since then, although a select few have hydraulic struts.

Ah yes, I recall the Maxi bonnet prop system. Since those days, every Pug 205 has has a similar arrangement, but hinged instead of sliding.

And (in answer to the following post) I always assumed the bonnet safety catch was in case it was not fully latched and could lift while driving, covering the windscreen. Clios and some other cars had front-hinged bonnets to prevent that, but it made access more awkward.

My Dad had a MK2 Granada estate, i remember the first time i lifted the enormous bonnet on that, man it was heavy!. Wouldn't want that to fall down on you while working on it!.

On the other end of the scale, working at a VW dealer while the (brilliant) Lupo GTI was current, i was amused that despite the bonnet being both very small, and made of aluminium, it had a gas strut to lift it up!.

I liked the way the bonnets of the Saab 99's and 900's opened, there was a bit of theatre about it. After releasing the catch, you lifted the front up and forward to a certain point, then it would pivot down so the front of the bonnet ended up below the front bumper (I seem to remember BMW's of that age having a similar arrangement). But you did have to be careful, when closing it, that you got the rearmost corners of the bonnet sitting in their runners otherwise the rear edge would be sticking out too far. This was not a problem by itself, but if you then opened the front door at that side there would be a coming together ending with a trip to the bodyshop!.

We have been on a plateau of automotive competence for decades. A lot happened between 1908 and 1958, but my uberwagen 2005 Audi A8 W12 (poor man's Bentley) offers relatively little more than my father's Rover 105S (poor man's Bentley) which was considerably more competent than a 1908 Austin 15hp. It would cruise at 90mph (sadly few UK roads available for this apart from the Northwich bypass) in leather armchair luxury listening to the BBC Light Programme. It even had adjustable armrests on the front doors. Admittedly there was no air conditioning, but quarterlights were useful for airflow - and extracting cigarette smoke! Another useful feature lacking on today's cars was a starting handle, which I would have liked on more than one occasion in the past ten years with our automatic cars. We now have bells and whistles aplenty, affording the garage trade with much work, but today I think a hundred mile journey can often be done no more quickly and comfortably as it could sixty years ago - when my ancestors would drive from Birmingham to Bradford and back to visit relatives on a Sunday.

Rover, right up to the horrid hatchback they were cars made for a more pleasant country, and embodied a gentler pace of life.

Interesting about covering ground though, you cannot match the journey times of even 20 years ago now, unless prepared to travel in the really small hours and then its pot luck whether you find a several mile tailback and several sections of our now regular night time road closures.

The roads hold almost no driving pleasure now, though i still strangely enjoy my work driving lorries (work that out if you can), the aggressive tailgating and must be in front but can't go anywhere when i get there mentality of the borg has made car driving an unpleasant experience, especially on heavily trafficked commuter routes at peak times.

Almost no one takes any pride in their driving now, they are likely to react in violent ways should anyone make the slightest error in their eyes, rude gestures for no reason whatsoever are common.

What follows is typical, this weekend mid morning i'm travelling up the M6 near Rugby, at my steady 53mph, following about 300 yds behind another lorry, when passing in the outside lane was a Discovery with a Civic approximately 12" (inches) from his back bumper as close to the armco as possible to force the Disco over, Civic swerves to left to undertake, Disco moves half into middle lane, Civic now really very close alongside disco, arm comes out of civic drivers window and grabs the disco door mirror presumably trying to rip it off, suddenly Civic swerves violently left now in front of lorry in front of me disappearing from view.

I fully expected to see the civic next on its roof or going through the nearside barrier, but next thing he's undertook fully and speeds off...never saw either car again as far as i'm aware but fully expected as all to come to a standstill in the perma unsmart roadworks at Coventry...i have no idea what caused this childish episode but this is where we are, one idiot is bad enough but two idiots and you have a real problem, pity the old bill hadn't been hiding travelling between the other lorry and me (they used to do this regularly) cos both these twerps needed looking at.

I see idiots like this regularly now, at one time they were very rare, so does it really matter if cars evolve when what loosely passes for upright walking homo sapiens are returning to a neanderthal stage rapidly.

Quite agree, Dogfuzz. The trouble with manuals is that they cover all models in the range, so that if you've bought the bog-standard model half of it doesn't apply.

BBD - if that was a 2.5 litre Riley, 85 mph is quite possible. Pre-BMC Rileys were long, low cars with a sporty reputation. Rovers were stately buses even when new, beloved of old-fashioned bank managers.

I can imagine Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army in a 1939 Rover P2 (' I worked damned hard to get this car'....Frazer - 'It's only a Rover 10 - wouldnae pull the skin off a rrrrice pudden.').