The first one I bought was a bag phone for my wife's car when she was pregnant with our daughter, who will be 22 in April. No battery. It had to be plugged into the cigarette lighter.
As my father got older I encouraged him to get a cell phone since he was off by himself so often in tractors and checking cows, so he could call if he got in a bind. When his phone would go bad me, or my sister, or somebody, would have an old one that he'd take and have his number transferred to instead of getting a new one and signing a new contract. When he died in 2007 he was still on the original plan, paying $15.00 per month for 15 minutes.