I believe one of problems with today’s cars is that they are too reliable. I know it sounds strange, but stick with me for a bit.

When I was 16 years old, my father bought a 1976 Triumph Spitfire that I was allowed to use. He didn’t really buy it “for” me, he bought it for himself. If you’re not aware, British sports cars at the time were notoriously unreliable and required constant maintenance.

To give the most prominent example of this, I could be driving down the road and my engine would simply stop running. My only choice at this point was to coast safely to the side of the road and wait until it would start again. This usually took about 20 to 30 minutes. Fortunately for me, because this typically only occured after an hour or so total driving, so it rarely impacted my ability to get to school or work on time, but it also created some great opportunities for conversations with my stranded passengers. I know what some of you are thinking, that sounds dangerous. Well, it wasn’t really because so many cars were unreliable at the time, every driver understood that there was a constant risk that the car in front of you might break down, so drivers were forced to actually pay attention to the road and the cars around them.