Have you seen the Honda Accord commercial starring all the inattentive drivers? You know, the ones who have to rely on Honda’s “stop alarm” because they weren’t watching the truck they were tailgating? Or the woman who must use the motion tracker to see if there’s an opening in the exit lane she is about to miss because she’s blabbing to her friend about politics? Or the guy who hears the lane drift buzzer because he’s trying to get that last, precious drop of Starbucks to slip into his stanky maw?

If you have seen that commercial (and you basically have now), you were likely as upset as I was. Why is Honda trying to encourage people to drive poorly? Simple: to sell their technology. You and I hate this idea, sure, but most of the licensed community probably love being able submit themselves over to the care of their cars.  Just look at how well robot cars are being received. The technology will only progress.

Though many enthusiasts love a homestyle, low-tech driving experience, the nanny-state computer assistance will likely bleed over into the enthusiast market, as well. This, of course, has been happening already for years.  (Try to find a brand new, mid-engine supercar from a major manufacturer with a stick).

Therefore, I’ve resolved to brand myself a luddite and never own a car built after 2005 or so. I just love the simplicity of older cars, both in engineering and design. My daily driver, a 2002 Subaru WRX, is more advanced than a base Impreza, but it’s still a snap to take apart, fix, and put back together, and driving it is a pleasantly obvious experience. To activate the fan, I turn a knob. Add in A/C? I push an actual button. It lights up to let me know it’s on. There’s no touch screen, so everything I need to do I can do by feel, keeping my eyes on the road, eliminating the need for a lane drift alarm.

So the question is: how difficult will that be in 10 years? How about 20, 30, or 40, if I’m still kicking?

The first approach to an answer is to slide the age bracket back a few decades and think about the guy you know who still daily drives his ’69 VW Beetle. There are plenty of cars on the road built way back in the day.  But some other factors crop up, and since I’m an optimist, I’ll start with the roadblocks to my plan:

Fuel costs – This one’s pretty obvious. There are ups and downs in the fuel market, but ten years ago you might buy a gallon of gas for under a dollar. I could spend my allowance on a trip to the big city and back. But for years fuel scarcity, whether real or perceived, has steadily driven up the cost of dead dinosaurs. New cars, even non-hybrids, are becoming extremely efficient, and soon gassing up anything older could be a major tripwire for keeping it until your death and driving it 50 miles a day.

Environmental regulations – You’ll forgive my slippery-slope paranoia, but with CAFE standards the latest trend in insincere political vowing, it seems we’re a few stacks of legislation away from a total prohibition of older engines. Sure, there will still be classic car shows, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find a show-and-display style mileage regulation every year. Many states already do tailpipe emissions testing, and while that’s a hilarious euphemism for flatulence, it’s also an annoying hurdle to the modding community.

“Safety” regulations – When I moved to Missouri, after having lived in Indiana my whole driving life, I found that they mandate a vehicle “safety” inspection to make sure that little Andy’s car was in tip-top shape.  It’s really a giant opportunity for garages to take advantage of you, and a huge burr if you happen to have a flickering taillight, but for the most part, it’s fairly tame. Find a good, reputable shop, look things over, and it only costs you an hour or so. And $12.

That’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m bothered more by the federal manufacturers’ mandates. Every new car must have this many airbags, a center screen for piping the mandatory back-up camera, employ magic robots to take over if you fall asleep, you get the idea. Not that any of this tech is bad in itself, especially those airbags, but when the government mandates them, it creates a new ideology of what’s “safe” and what isn’t.  And since my car doesn’t have the “safety” features of all the new cars, it should be scooped off the road and into the scrap yard where it belongs.

But dystopian nightmares aside, owning an older car in the decades to come will be easier than ever.  Here’s why:

Parts availability – Hang on a second. Shouldn’t this one be classified above? The older a car gets, the harder it gets to find parts for it, right?  Isn’t that the universal rule?  It certainly was, but the internet has changed that.  Between Ebay, Craigslist, or online parts store catalogs, you can usually find just about anything you need for any car built within the last 20 years at least. Manufacturers are cataloging their parts better, as well.  It’s safe to say that most parts built within the last 10 years or so are in some database somewhere, and as the internet grows like some kind of world-consuming zombie virus, that database is more and more likely to find its way to the surface of Google.

And parts that aren’t made anymore? Do you need a carburetor for your 1989 Tercel, but they’re already all taken or tossed? Cottage industries have begun to spring up to provide parts for vintage cars.  With the power of the internet, small manufacturers can more cost effectively build these replicas and ship them to you.  It won’t be quick, but it will only get quicker, especially when 3D printing technology gets cheaper and you can just commission a computer to make you a dash panel or dome light cover.

Cheaper storage – This is a bit optimistic, as the housing market is bound to bounce back at some point (right?), but it’s looking like houses are going to stay cheap for a while, so older, rust-prone cars are more likely to have clean, dry winter homes at night. A garage-kept car is always easier and less expensive to maintain in the snowy states.

Staying off the grid – Though every car on the road still needs a pair of plates, license and VIN, to legally take to the asphalt, the NHTSA has recently mandated that data recorders be installed in every new car.  Nor are they the only culprits of car snooping.  Last year OnStar tried to slip into one of those privacy policy updates that no one reads a proposal to track OnStar-equipped vehicles and sell the information yielded.  If all the watching makes you feel like you’re in a bathroom without partitions between the urinals, there’s a simple solution: a car that only receives transmissions via the radio antenna.

Fix them yourself – Just working on my friend’s ’97 Civic has been a refreshing experience.  If there’s no spark, there are only so many issues that could cause it, and I can likely find them all with a screwdriver and a multimeter.

As cars become more computerized and specialized, the industry expects you to limp your ailing cars down to the dealership for everything from timing belts to oil changes. (Yes, several new cars come without oil caps or dipsticks.) Older cars can water your inner shadetree. They’re simple, less crowded, and don’t require as many special tools.

Even better, the vast wealth of self-repair and maintenance information currently online is more than enough to keep you rolling for years. Common issues are well-documented, and a simple search can often bring you exactly where you need to be.  In the old days, this meant subscribing to obscure magazines and joining clubs two states away. Now you can find a forum. Just bring pics.

Enjoy yourself – Newer cars with the aforementioned hand-holders encourage absent, thoughtless driving.  But driving doesn’t have to be an interval between home and work or a tiresome chore. It can be a fun activity in itself, even on the highway. Older cars, with their analog steering, stick shifters, and handbrakes you have to pull with your hand, are just more enjoyable to drive. And as we all have more fun, we all pay more attention, and keep the roads safer for the ones driving robots.

What do you think?  Is this rut a practical one to occupy?  Can I do it?  Would you?

Andy Sheehan is a staff writer for StreetsideAuto.com and just remembered there's an SCCA meeting tonight.