What decade did we experience the biggest technological leaps in Automotive history?


OOPS!!- 1930 is missing in the poll so add it if you want.

Other then the decade in which the car was invented what decade do you think the biggest leaps occured and why.

Do you think that great leaps in automobiles have excelerated over the decades?

Great leaps have declined over the decades?

Great leaps peaked out a few decades ago and now is declining and we are only experiencing minor refinements and improvements?

 

I feel like in the 90s technologies finally matured to the point of being useful and relevant. Such as on-board diagnostics and fuel injection systems.

 

1910's.

Interchangeable parts - 1911.
Self Starter - 1912
V8 - 1915

All by Cadillac. Most important car maunfacturer ever.

 

I was going to pick the 30's too

There was more change in the early years than later years. Just look at a 1990 Astro Van and a 1999 Astro van and tell me the 90's saw the most progress.

1990 Lumina to a 1999 Lumina wasn't any crazy change either.

 

Correct. It goes back to the law of diminishing returns. And as somebody said in a thread here recently it will cost more and more for smaller and smaller incremental advances.

Innovation occurs at the edge of knowledge in any field.

 

diminishing returns? 80's saw v8's with 170 to 220 hp. The 90's saw exremely clean burning v8's with 350hp. Thats not really incremental in my book.

 

I think the biggest modern era leap would be the 80's... the dawn of the computer / electronic fuel injection...

 

There's exceptions to every generalization. That we found ways to make more clean HP doesn't disprove the law.

Things that have changed very little since their invention:

Internal combustion engine. The process and cycles are still the same. Refinements have come in manufacturing processes, efficiency, etc. But the principles have varied very little in over 100 years.

Tires...they are still round and made of rubber and filled with air. We never did get those hover cars.

Transmissions...with the exception of CVT, nothing has really changed. Lock up converters and electronic controls are INCREMENTAL improvements.

That's the key, we have only really been introducing incremental improvements vs. 100 yrs ago there were entire new technologies being introduced practically every other year.

Since the first windshield wiper was introduced we have added only incremental changes. The basic wiper is still the same.

 

early to mid-90's. AWD was picking up. Turbochargers where picking up steam. Vtec was fairly new in production cars (honda only) and was considered the **** back then. Fuel injection was the norm come early 90's, and as were airbags. ABS and such were becoming common and optional or standard on many vehicles. Compared to the 80's and 70's, the early to mid 90's were a big leap forward in terms of efficiency, safety, and performance. And tecnology made that all possible.

 

There's an easier way to answer this. Which era of cars is more different than the other eras. Are '00's cars that much different than 90s?

Are 90's that much different than 80s? Are 80's that much different than 70s cars? Are 70s much diff. from 60's cars.

IMO clearly the greatest LEAPS forward came from 1930-1960 in terms of design and engineering, functionality, safety, etc.

 

I still stick with the 80's in terms of some of the greatest "leaps" from one decade to the next....

The computer-era basically ended the days of the "backyard mechanic"... a significant milestone in the evolution of the automobile, IMHO.

 

Windshield wipers used to operate off of engine vacume, now they use electric motors. I'd say that qualifies as a pretty substantial change.

In the modern era, I'd definetly say the 1980's changed the automotive landscape. Port fuel injection, airbags, electronic on-board dianogsitcs, OD electronically controlled auto trannys, the 6 speed manual, the mini-van, the return of horsepower and performence at the end of the decade. Definetly the biggest breakthrough of the 1980's was when we started making smaller FWD cars with transversly mounted engines. Almost all cars sold today are eerily similar to the orginal FWD cars that debuted in the 80's in terms of overall size and packaging.

Basically everything that went on in the 90's and today is the further refining all those breakthrough ideas that came about in the 80's.

 

The law of diminishing return is a very real problem in to auto industry. Since invention and innovation usually justifies a higher retail and more profits which goes straight to the bottom line but things become more of the same and improvements become less noticable people wont be will to pay extra for them.

The problem is that while "enthusiasts" might be thrilled about certain performance improvement it comes down to if the "masses" are willing to pay a premium for an incremental improvement that they can't see a real benefit from. The Law of diminshing return reveals that it starts to cost more money to see less improvement and this is why it often more expensive and difficult to get that last 25hp of reliable HP out of your modern engine.

 

I KNOW, BUT THEY ARE STILL WINDSHIELD WIPERS. Electric power is an incremental improvement. Coming up with something TOTALLY different like laser rain removal would be major technological leap, and improving an existing item isn't the same thing.

I'm not sure why this is such a hard concept...

IMO Hybrids are the only major innovation of the last few years...that is introducing a whole new technology IMO.

 

On-board navigation is a whole new technology that has been around for a few years now.