Key difference here - nobody was forced to buy a car. This was back in the good ol' days of 'free enterprise'.Pretty sure there would of been a similar argument about the car replacing the horse and electric lights replacing whale oil powered lamps....seriously.
The first cars were slow and cumbersome, noisy made strange smells and drove on roads designed and built for horses and cost alot of money, there would of been alot of opinion in favour of the good old trusty horse, probably would of made more short term financial sense to stick with horses too.
You Can't Stop Progress...its inevitable.
Regarding stopping progress, I shall quote:
"Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things."
Russell Baker