The average Australian is, according to statistics, 37 years old.
OK, let's go back 37 years which brings us to 1984.
In 1984 in the context of new cars being sold at that time:
Almost all ran on leaded petrol, the exceptions being the odd random Diesel from Europe of which there were very few sold and anyone who converted to LPG which was mostly taxis. For the rest, it was a case of filling it up with either Standard (89 RON) or Super (96 RON) both of which were leaded.
There were no emissions controls of any note. Every car spewed out carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons, both of which are human health hazards, along with the lead which is a neurotoxin.
Apply the brakes and the driver behind gets to inhale a nice cloud of asbestos dust. Yep, every car on the road emitted asbestos in normal use and its presence was readily detectable in the air (some tests were done once in Hobart and the level found was alarming - no prizes for guessing what it was like in Sydney).
Did not have air-conditioning. It existed but in practice was for rich people. For most cars it was an optional extra which added significantly to the price or was not available at all. It also seriously sapped the engine power.
Did not have power steering. Yes you young ones - turning the wheel used to require quite a bit more physical effort. Modern cars are dead easy to drive in comparison.
Had no safety features of any kind other than seat belts and head rests. No airbags, no crumple zones, no warning systems, nothing.
Definitely did not have ABS brakes indeed at that point drum brakes were still around on many cars especially for the rear.
Might have had an early electronic fuel injection system but fair chance it was still a carb.
In car electronics consisted of an AM/FM radio and, depending on the car, a cassette player.
Window winders - remember those? In every car back then. Crank the handle manually yes.
Central locking? Nope.
Theft? Dead easy given that pretty much no car came standard with any sort of security system. At least you couldn't lose the key fob. Couldn't lose it because there wasn't one.
Cost far more relative to average wages than a comparable car does today.
Used roughly twice as much fuel as a comparable car does today meaning that petrol prices were a common lament of the average person struggling to afford the cost.
Required routine replacement of parts. Exhausts in particular were a big enough problem that even regional cities had multiple businesses which did nothing other than exhausts. It was all that sulfur in the fuel you see, forms sulfuric acid and rusts the absolute crap out of everything.
Was gutless in terms of engine power to the point that trying to drive at the speed limit up a hill was a valid performance test. A current model V6 Toyota Camry, not exactly what most would see as a high performance car, is in fact more powerful than actual purpose built race cars were a generation ago.
And so on.
Cars have improved dramatically in half a human lifetime and looking back, what was state of the art back then was an uncomfortable, unreliable, toxic and expensive death trap compared to even the most basic modern vehicle.
Now the thing is, I can actually recall people making arguments against most of those improvements when they were first introduced.
Good drivers don't need safety systems they said. Never mind that crashes do occur in practice.
There's no need for air-conditioning anywhere other than a long way north of Brisbane they said.
Real men don't need power steering they said, that's only for ladies' cars and even they could do without it.
Outright denial over the health effects of CO, HC and Pb emissions even though the air in Australian cities was visibly filthy compared to today and overwhelming evidence existed that the entire planet was being contaminated as a consequence of adding tetraethyllead to petrol.
And now we're at he point of further progress, this time with a switch from petrol to electricity as the power source. As with all the other progress, someone will look back at a future time and shake their head in amazement at the suggestion anyone would have opposed it.