The last car with . . .

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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:04
The last car with . . . - tyro
In ifithelp's "That's something you rarely see these days" thread, pmh wrote "What would be interesting, is to take all the items listed in this thread and identify the last car to which they were fitted."

Which got me thinking. What (& when) was the last mainstream car marketed . . .



without power assisted steering as standard?

with an old school diesel engine (i.e. not common rail / pd / high pressure)?

without ABS?

And there must be dozens of others that could be added to this list.

The passing of these things is of historic interest, but no-one ever draws attention to it, because the manufacturers concerned would really rather not have the publicity. (Who wants to look like a dinosaur?) But someone must have bought the last mainstream new car in Britain without ABS! It would be fascinating to know what it was.



Edited by tyro on 19/06/2008 at 14:05

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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:09
The last car with . . . - Saltrampen
Try a mid to late 90's 1.8 D Fiesta.
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:21
The last car with . . . - Alby Back
Might be quite mistaken but I would have sworn that my wife's 04 plate Ka doesn't have ABS. Not sure when or indeed if it became a standard fit on this model. It has power steering but no central locking or AC and it has manual windows. The shame of it all can it be borne ? ;-)
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:51
The last car with . . . - tyro
Shoespy, our 53 plate Ka doesn't have ABS, and I suspect that the Ka was one of the last cars without it. I think that the manufacturers reached an agreement in 2004 that ABS would be fitted in all cars, and the Ka would have been one of the last to conform - but was it the last?

As for old school, non-high-pressure diesels, my guess is that the last of those was the Berlingo 1.9 diesel which went out in about 2006.

As for cars without PAS, I seem to recall that the basic Yaris didn't have PAS as standard in 2003. (That was the year that 'What Car?' stopped including PAS its features tables at the back of the magazine.)
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:52
The last car with . . . - Dynamic Dave
Shoespy,

ABS brakes were fitted as standard to all new cars sold in Europe from July 1st, 2004

www.autofinder.ie/asp1/afmain.asp?lnk=101&id=277

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Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:55
The last car with . . . - Alby Back
That would tie in Dave. Ours was registered in March 04 I think or April at the latest.
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 16:15
The last car with . . . - menu du jour
I had an 03 reg Suzuki Ignis that did not have abs. The mark2 came out only a short while after I bought mine [July 03 I think] and of course it had abs.
screwtape
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 16:52
The last car with . . . - George Porge
Tyro, 2 out of 3?

My 1998 Golf TDi estate has no ABS, but has a conventional diesel pump.

It does have PAS, aircon, electric windows X3 (it did have 4 but I replaced the drivers side with a manual winder)
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 18:38
The last car with . . . - PW
Not overly sure on this, but are the VAG SDI engines not common rails?

Tried looking it up, but didn't get much info, apart from it being called "ancient design", and not considered to be any good!
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Thu 19 Jun 2008 18:52
The last car with . . . - tyro
Not overly sure on this but are the VAG SDI engines not common rails?


I asked that question on this thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=40695

The response from Dr Rubber, you will see, is thay the 1.9 is not a PD engine, but the 2.0 is.

Edited by tyro on 19/06/2008 at 18:56

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Fri 20 Jun 2008 09:48
The last car with . . . - Cliff Pope
ABS is optional on the Land Rover Defender.
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Fri 20 Jun 2008 11:36
The last car with . . . - tyro
The Land Rover is indeed an honest vehicle. It's not just ABS. You can still get it with wind up windows.

But the fact that ABS is optional suggests that perhaps it is not to be thought of as a mainstream car. I've never seen a group test in a car mag which featured the Land Rover. It was and is, somehow, . . . different. In fact, when I was growing up, I'm sure that I thought that a Land Rover was not a car, it was a Land Rover - in a class of its own.

(Defender? Pah! It's a LAND ROVER!) :-)
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