SpaceCadet

Exactly why I had four 1-series since 2008 (E82, E81, F20 pre-facelift, F20 facelift). Switched to a G20 3-series when the 1-series went FWD, and soon it will be all electrical and qualities like “fun”, “light” and “simple” will be a thing of the past. We adapt and move on.

Perhaps even a bit later. My 2014 F20 BMW 1-series was still pretty great. The facelift model of the same car I had after that (2017 or so) is the first one that started to include things that annoyed me.

There was really no golden period of car controls

I’m going to say there was and it was around 2010. Like maybe 2005 until 2015.

The BMWs of the E90/E87 generation that I drove in those years are still the pinnacle of automotive achievement for me. They had all the things I needed and nothing that annoyed me. Anything after that started to include more and more annoying stuff.

“Protecting the children from harmful content and predators”, “protecting people from terrorists and criminals”, “protecting users from hackers” are all forms of security, and are all used as arguments to erode freedoms.

It all boils down to: just give up this bit of freedom so we can keep everyone safe.

That’s also security.

They’re too busy forcing chat control and age gates through our collective throats.