I will admit to being a bit cranky at times. I suppose that the condition has worsened just a tad since I crossed the threshold of 50 a few years ago. Now that I have dated myself, it will not surprise you that I miss vent windows, fresh-air cowl vents and HVAC controls operated by simple cables instead of vacuum and electric thingamajigs.
However, this is not to rant about what is NOT on newer cars, but to rant about what IS on newer cars that makes life unpleasant. The list is probably fairly long, but I have narrowed it to this: Why must General Motors cars and trucks turn on their backup lights when their owners lock and unlock their car doors?
You have all seen it. Herb and Betty walk out to their Envoy or Lacrosse and hit the lock or unlock button on the key fob. On every other car in the civilized world, the (you guessed it) doors lock or unlock. But not for Herb and Betty. A touch of the lock buttons results in the backup lights shining brightly.
Dammit, GM, don’t you know that there is a longstanding code at play here? When the white lights come on the back of someone’s car, it means that the car is about to start backing up. If you are behind it, you have to get the hell out of the way. Or, if you are looking for a parking place, those white lights are a beacon of success, pointing you to a parking place that is about to become your very own. Unless the lights are on because Herb and Betty have just locked their car and are heading into the store. They might as well just turn, point their fingers and laugh, while yelling “Suckerrrrrrr!”
In terms of car equipment, I sort of follow the creed of the libertarian – carmakers, feel free to make your car do whatever you want, just don’t mess with other people. If GM wants to make the interior lights flash and the seats twirl around three times at the click of the remote, more power to them. But when they start crying wolf with backup lights, they have gone too far.
So, consider this a memo to GM: It is not 1965 anymore, and you no longer get to decide what is normal. Back up lights are to come on when the car is backing up, and not for any other reason. You are so all alone here, and I wish you would just knock it off.
There. I feel so much better. So, who’s with me? Or, is there some other feature of modern cars that grinds your gears?
I generally like modern cars. They’re superior in just about every way to the old ways.
But the move to touchscreens has been too far, too fast. Burying basic controls under submenus really makes no sense in a driving environment, where controls need to be primarily tactile rather than visual and used with minimal effort.
I remember many years ago seeing a very rough prototype of BMW’s iDrive at the BMW Museum. My impression then was that it couldn’t possibly happen, because the setup was so distracting. Little did I know that the automakers would not only adopt the idea but they would jump in with both feet. It’s presumably cheaper and easier to install a screen than a bunch of buttons, but that’s where the advantages end.
My thing with centralized touchscreen control, is what will people do for beaters in the future? When that fails, you lose the climate and radio controls and I am sure the replacement part cost is staggering. You really wonder if it isn’t social engineering at work…if you don’t make enough money to buy a new or late model used car, too bad…why don’t you move into the city and try our new public transit system?
Been there – my Nissan’s climate control is part knob (temperature), part button (recirculation and a/c on/off) and part LCD touchscreen (fan and direction). The screen went pffffft last year. The touch part still worked, but I couldn’t see anything and I had to guess which menu screen I was on based on where the a/c air was blowing from… I replaced the whole control unit with a secondhand unit, and even that was expensive enough… At 15 years old the car’s effectively a beater. For me, I like it and it’s my only transport, so it was worth fixing, but I can see that the majority of folks would just not bother.
“You really wonder if it isn’t social engineering at work”
That’s just a wee bit paranoid, don’t ya think?
For the automaker, the touchscreen makes life easier. Instead of installing a bunch of buttons and levers and configuring all of the wiring that they need, now they can just drop in a screen with a wiring harness.
The automakers say that the customers wants high tech, which is true. But the best thing about the touchscreens is that they make vehicle assembly that much easier for the producers. With high volume production, it may even make it cheaper.
The customers are short sighted. What looks cool today is going to look absolutely jurassic in 8-10 years. Digital stuff never ages well.
I used to think I was paranoid, but seems lately every time you go online and read the news you hear things that are wilder than the extreme conspiracy theories used to be. 🙂
Planned obsolescence at work would be more accurate. Everyone likes to whine about old American cars with that built in, but really, most of the obsolescence in those came down to falling out of style. Big whoop. Their mechanical maladies always could be repaired, rebuilt, or restored 10-20-50 years down the road and be like new. Try sourcing a touchscreen unit for a 2012 _____ in 2063.
Agree completely. Bought a year end clearance ’12 F-150 Lariat recently, and apparently just eluded one of the damned My Ford Touch Screens.
Most here survived seat belt buzzers, door mounted seat belts, talking cars, and pointless digital dashboard functions that have died justified deaths.
I love the relatively simple buttons on my dash. It will be interesting to see if menu driven touch screens that are too complicated to be used while driving will also die out in time.
Ford recently announced that they’re going to go back to adding more buttons, in conjunction with the touchscreens. Ford has caught a lot of flak for the system, plus the problems that users have with the in-car technology reduce their JD Power initial quality ratings of their cars.
Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch.
IMHO, cars won’t be full of enough gadgets until we reach the cars of the “Jetsons”.
Looks like they eventually figured out a way around the too-thick-pillars syndrome, at least.
Gosh so much, some of it regulation driven, some cost cutting, some styling trend.
Regulation
* Hate not being able to use navigation while driving. Last time I checked only Honda and BMW allowed this. The passenger can do it while you drive. Better than having to stop to program in a new address.
* Thick pillars and headrests for everyone have killed visibility.
Styling trend / fuel economy
* Too fast windshields
Cost cutting
* More touch screens, fewer controller knobs. I prefer using a mouse/touch pad when it comes to computers. I’m same way in cars. The controller approach allows you to rest your arm on the console and have the controller fall to your hand. Sooooo much easier than holding your arm up to press touchscreen buttons and run the system.
* No more floor-hinged accelerator pedals except at certain German companies and Japanese luxury.
Pure styling
* Hate those chromed exhaust outlets faired into the rear bumper facias. Such a fad, and wasted cost. Plus they make everything look like an old Acura.
* Vinyl tops, opera windows, bodyside cladding have nothing on the silly LED running lights on the front of Audis and other cars.
* Plastic engine covers. Audi did it so now, for no other apparent reason, everyone feels they have to as if looking at a sheet of cheap black plastic is soooooo much nicer than seeing engine parts. Were valve covers, spark plugs, ignition wires and the intake runners really that ugly? Probably not to a car guy and if you aren’t a car guy (or gal) do you really care what it looks like under the hood?
Low profile tires on expensive, larger diameter rims
* Sure they look good and the steering response can be pretty amazing. But hit a pothole, even a small one, and you’re looking at needing a new tire and rim. Stupid.
Blinding blue LED headlights!
When they first came out, I sometimes mistook them for a cop’s blue lights. Now they’re just annoying and unsafe.
1. Modern lights, be it HID or standard. The reflectors blind on coming drivers at night. The plastic covers ALL yellow after years in the sun. Pricing out a replacement cover means buying the entire light housing. Have you looked at the cost for these things?
2. Overblown styling: There is no doubt in my mind that the INSECT has been the major design influence for automotive designers these days. Just terrible.
3. Govt mandated pedestrian safety front ends that have given the insect inspired monstrosities a certain, bulged, blunt and high look to the front end. Sporty cars now have the blunt appearance of a late 80’s F-150.
4. Starter Buttons: Really, how hard is it to put a key in a lock cylinder and turn it?
5. Check Engine Lights: Every time this little light goes off, 120 dollars immediately is deducted from your wallet for shop time.
6. Uninspired Names: EX, CL, ST. WTF?
7. Prices: Corvettes and Camaros are just a nice thought for me. Looking at the sticker prices makes me realize I will never own another new car again.
8. Overpriced markups at the dealerships: Especially behind the parts counter. For those who buy to own, sometimes OEM is the best. Ever price out a catalytic converter for anything from 1989 onward?
9. The old Cassette or CD stereo has been replaced by a sea of buttons that somehow get you to the Bass Adjust feature. And we have a problem with distracted drivers on the road?
I have rented a couple of Mazda 3s that automatically turn on the AC when you rotate the temp knob towards cool by a certain degree. In the middle of a prairie winter!
I would look down and see the AC light on, wasting all that gas for nothing.
I will add my comment about not liking the push to start feature on many new cars. You still need to have the fob nearby to start the car, how hard is it to insert and turn the key. Anyway, my dad’s 1950 Ford featured push button start; of course it was just a mechanical push button and not some electronic device. When I was about 6 years old I discovered that the starter button on the Ford was “live” at all times, even if the key was not turned on. I nearly punched a hole in the back of the garage one day by pushing the starter button while the Ford was in first gear.
1. The tiny windows and thick pillars, as discussed. I think it is truly frightening that there is less visibility–SIGNIFICANTLY less visibility–in new cars, with their backup cams, driver and passenger-side mirrors, sensors, etc, than there is in a ’77 base model Electra 225 with a driver’s only mirror that is 222 in long and thus a good 2 feet on anything produced in 2013. Add that to the many things people are carrying around to distract them in their cars today, and it is really disturbing.
2. Entertainment systems: both for the distractions from the road and for the sad commentary on our culture—kids can no longer look at the scenery or read or play with a map, nope, they have to watch some brain rotting crap. Still worse when the driver appears to be watching the show, too. That’s safe…
3. High replacement costs for every single part. If I want a second set of keys, I shouldn’t have to get a reprogrammed fob for several hundred dollars. I want to just to be able to go to the hardware store and have them do it for $3. Also, I once met a guy whose car died at the gas station and was calling his wife to bring a keyfob. He had forgotten his fob but its pull was apparently strong enough to allow him to get a few blocks from home. What? Also, someone I met recently was paying $50 for replacement headlights. I think the bulbs for the Electra are $11 each and can be screwed in from the front. I’m not saying I love taking apart my car; I leave complicated things to the professionals, but why complicate things that by their very nature should be simple and cheap such as headlight and key replacement.
4. Touch screens, generally. Hate them. I like reaching over and turning on the air conditioning without taking my eyes off the road.
5. Absence of VENT/ECONOMY/FRESH AIR option on climate control. Perhaps I don’t want the air heated or air conditioned to 72 degrees. Perhaps it is a nice day but I’m going 65 on the highway and I’d like some fresh air without major drag on my mileage and the wind whipping in my face. Since there are no vent windows, the least we can do is allow some vents.
6. The big consoles are super annoying, agree. I just want to stretch out. Even the biggest cars (I’m talking to you, Chrysler 300) feel like penalty boxes with huge consoles and the aforementioned high little windows.
7. Speaking of the Chrysler, the backlit speedometers in bright blue, bright red, etc. I liked old speedometers, with the digits printed, that the lights when turned on would then illuminate, not illuminated numbers themselves. They further “enhance” the cave experience in the Chrysler 300.
8. As above, lack of exterior and interior color choice except in ugly novelty applications (see lime green Camaro)
9. Lack of low end torque.
The genuine Strattec keys for my Fords are only about $15 and as long as you have two keys you can add more in about 15 sec. Sweet talk the people at the hardware store and you can get it cut for free or buy a key for $2 and have them cut yours instead.
Where do I start… there’s just far too many things I don’t like about modern motor vehicles. The more crap they ladle on them the more I like my ’78 Fairmont…
I was passed by a silver-haired guy in a rough looking Granada yesterday. I thought, “I bet he’s owned that since it was new. He probably hasn’t made a car payment since Jimmy Carter was in office.”
All these comments really, really make me appreciate my 2013 Versa. It’s dirt simple inside with NO touch screens! Manual transmission that let’s me hypermile occasionally. Crank windows. Non-power mirrors. Old style A/C & door locks. Manual lever activated seats. Non-complicated radio. It has enough visibility to make me un paranoid when backing up. Absolutely the closest thing to a stripper car that you can find in 2013.