I’m getting to that age when for some reason or another, the mind starts to focus on the negative versus the positive – I’d call it “curmudgeon-itis.” I’ve tried to fight it off – when I was younger I always thought those senior gents that did nothing but complain were just “grumpy old dudes.” The only curmudgeon I could stand was Andy Rooney – because he was funny. But I’m losing the battle, so indulge me for a few paragraphs so I can vent on some of the newer auto technology that really bugs me – and maybe balance things off with a few of those I like.
The Bad.
Haptic Controls. I hate them. You’re hot, cold, or your windshield is fogged up, and all you want is some immediate HVAC intervention – and you don’t get it. They’re especially egregious since simple knobs work so well. It’s a good example of the old adage that “tech for tech’s sake” is usually a bad idea.
Auto-Start/Stop. We had auto-start/stop during my early driving years – except it wasn’t “auto” – and it was called “stalling.” It was an anomaly that routinely plagued the first three beaters I owned. Roll up to a stop light, hope and pray the engine keeps running, and let out a string of four-letter expletives when it doesn’t. I get it’s a fuel and emissions saver, but it’s so ingrained in me that to this day, if I forget to disable the stop/start before pulling off and it engages, I’ll startle the wife by blurting out “@#$%!”.
CVT Transmissions. I don’t hate CVTs, I just don’t like driving a car with one. Again, I get they save fuel and are more efficient, but the old guy in me expects an engine to increase in RPMs when I press down on the accelerator – not jump up to a certain level and stay there. To me they sap the fun out of driving. I hear the newer ones are more tuned to function like a planetary transmission, so maybe I need to try one – though I am still a manual guy at heart.
The Good.
Fuel Injection. I started driving in 1972 when carburetors were still pretty simple. Adjust the idle and mixture screws and you were all set. Then emission-controls happened – and suddenly you needed a PhD to tune one. It got even worse as regulations increased to the point that even a factory-tuned carb still stumbled and stalled. My 1978 Nissan Fairlady Z was my first car with fuel injection and it was a revelation. No more stabbing the accelerator and cranking three times before it coughs and starts, and no more stumbling or surging. Just smooth, linear power.
Modern Cooling Systems. I can’t remember the last time I saw a car pulled off to the side, with the hood up and the radiator boiling over. That used to be a pretty frequent sight in the 1960s and 70s – and in my section of Ohio most of them seemed to be Sixties Ford’s with FE-series V8s. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But thank goodness for modern cooling systems, which are flawless, as long as you maintain them.
Seats and Seat Adjustments. All of my early cars had one seat adjustment – forward or back. Some of the military vehicles I drove didn’t even have that. Modern seats, with their ergonomic design and multitude of adjustments are so much more comfortable. As I’ve said in several posts, the seats in my Volvo are more comfortable than the Lazy-Boy I have in the front room.
OK, I think that’s satiated my curmudgeon attack. Hopefully that will last a while – if not I’ll be back soon with a rant on smart phones and Netflix.
Super Luddite here. About the only thing I want running off battery voltage is the starter and lighting system. Everything else can be mechanical. Points and carbs no problem, I started my 62 Dodge truck the other morning at 8f after sitting outside through several days of even colder temps. The carb is an Edelbrock Carter AFB clone, the manual choke is not connected as I haven’t bothered. With 15-40 it cranked a bit slowly but it started with little fuss and off we went. No computer nannies wanted or needed.
My semi-permanent auto-stop solution (toothpick & diag. cutter):
Things I hate: Auto stop/start. Like many others, I drove beater cars and like many others, they were subject to fits of stalling. Auto stop/start reminds me of those old beaters in a not good way. At least I have a much higher percentage that my new car will start again.
Touchscreens. When I’m driving, I want to drive, not run an iPad. Luckily, our new Chevy has knobs and buttons for the vital functions, but I routinely forget to adjust the brightness of the instrument panel (and along with it, the touchscreen) in the evenings and find myself being blinded by the touchscreen.
Lane Keep Assist. The first time I encountered it, I thought something bad had happened to the steering on the car I was driving. Once I remembered that it had LKA, I was immediately relieved. But then, I was annoyed; I don’t need my car to tell me how to (or not to) drive.
Reconfigurable instrument panels. These are great if you’re familiar with all of the variations, but if your significant other changes the IP from the time you drove the car last, it’s a bit disorienting. It’s easy to fix if you can…
Remembering what the hell all of these buttons do! Some have multiple functions, others are one function only. The graphics are small and difficult to decipher if you’re not intimately familiar with them.
I think I’ll stick to my 15 year old Town & Country for a while longer…
I know many of you hate on CVT transmissions, and so did I driving my wife’s 2009 Lancer, but the one in my 2016 Honda Civic EX-T Coupe has actually been a pleasant experience for the most part. I’m guessing these have improved. That said, I do like being back in a normal 6-speed auto like the one in my wife’s CX-5. And that is enough gears. Not a fan of 8 or 9 speeds in say, a Chrysler product, and 10 speeds should stay reserved for bicycles.
Automatic Stop-Start was a deal killer for me when I picked my Civic back in 2016. The Chevy Cruze I test drove had it, and I was not a fan. A question I would have to ask next time I buy a car and am forced to accept this ‘feature’, would be if it could be disabled by default. I would not want to do that every time as part of my pre-flight check-list, or worse… not be able to disable it at all!
Unlike most of you, I like a touch screen, but then I’ve had a iPad since they first came out. Not a problem for this old man. What I DON’T like is a touch screen that is disabled when the car is moving forcing you to use a wheel on the console to navigate it, like the one in my wife’s CX-5. Why the hell does Mazda think that this is less distracting than leaving access to the touch screen when moving? My Honda does not do this, and it is much easier to keep your eyes on the road when navigating AppleCarPlay with the touchscreen than with the wheel.
I did not think I’d like adaptive cruise control, but I love it. The CX-5 has it, but the Honda and my Mustang have normal cruise control. While sometimes, I’m not a fan of its overly aggressive automatic breaking, that’s easy enough to defeat with a tap on the gas.
The lane keep assist can be annoying, but as long as you signal your lane changes (as you should), it does not interfere.
I love automatic climate control. While on my 1988 T-Bird, it did not seem ready for prime-time, on my 2016 Civic, it is completely flawless like what you use in a house. The Mazda’s isn’t as good, but it’s much better than on older cars.
Love/Hate relationship with backup cameras. I love them. What I hate is having become dependent on them. The Mustang does not have one, and after years of using one in the other two cars, I’m not as good as I once was at backing the old girl into my driveway. 😂🤣
Most people hate Lane Assist because it loudly shows them that they’re not a perfect in keeping a car in its lane as they think they are. Any technology that shows you’re not as good a driver as you this is normally hated.
This geezer Journeyman Mechanic is with your alls .
I _love_ fuel injection, I have old mechanical typ in my Diesels and they’re trouble free as if my 2001 Ford Ranger’s ‘Duratec’ 2.5 liter’s 4 banger engine .
I also love the basic four dial HVAC that I *think* was perfected in the 1980’s ? . I don’t need to look at it to make any change whatsoever, this is a safety feature to me .
I *think* ABS is a good thing, it’s inoperative my my truck and I don’t live in wet/snow country so I’ve never needed it .
Backup cameras too are very nice, I don’t have any but I occasionally drive a vehicle so equipped and the wide view is really handy and I think safer .
Dash board lamps used to be wired with the tail lights, in the days of fuses when your dash went dark it meant the right rear taillight was out .
I don’t understand why the D.O.T. doesn’t simply mandate the dash lamps to only come on with the running or headlights, it wouldn’t co$t a penny and would save many lives .
BIG SCREENS on the dashboard should be illegal . they make you take your eyes off the road, always a bad and dangerous thing .
Keyless and / or start stop engines seem easy to hijack via computer .
Those worthless plastic headlights that turn yellow ! 100 % unsafe .
-Nate
So for me things like fuel injection, airbags ABS and the like have existed throughout my life driving cars so I’ll narrow it down to the things I love/hate that came around or I should say became common since I started driving in the mid 2000s.
Love:
Bluetooth audio
Blind spot monitors
… that’s about all I can come up with
Hate:
Tire pressure monitoring
Start/stop
Networked electronics
Over the air updates
LCD screens in place of analog gauges(especially when they display a drawing of an analog gauge)
Touchscreens
LED running lights
HID headlights
Throttle by wire
Plastic covers on top of or underneath engines
Wet belts(Ford)
Direct injection
TPMS systems sound great in principle, but they become a real nuisance with age. I’ve been dealing with a phantom TPMS “service required” warning in my car. All four sensors work “fine” according to three shops; they’ll hit the “reset” command on their tool, temporarily clearing the light, but in 10 minutes, it’ll come right back, flashing and displaying a message that blocks much of the instrument cluster and illuminating yet another blindingly bright “information” warning light. I wouldn’t mind it so much if not for that obnoxious message and TWO warning lights every time I start the car. The Canadian-market version of my car lets you disable the TPMS system, but not my US-market car. Apparently a keyless entry module that communicates with the sensors goes bad in this make/model, but you need the dealer diagnostic tool to actually diagnose it – replacing it involves removing the headliner.
I’m with the OP on a lot of these peeves (and all his praises). One makes me shout, “Au contraire!” though. I’m a fan of my car’s auto start/stop feature. This car’s a heavy gas drinker, and it needs all the help it can get. Maybe how you feel depends on how well the feature is implemented. My Mercedes spins the engine in less time than it takes to hear the noise, and with the windows up, you won’t hear the noise. Yes, I too had cars that wouldn’t start when hot, but that was long ago and I’m over it now. Auto Start/Stop (“ASS?”) also spares me the unpleasant duty of holding the car back against the idle creep at stoplights. So it’s all good with me.
Not a Luddite here. Having lived with EV’s (a pair of Chevrolet Bolts) for the past five years, under no condition will I consider going back to a gasoline car anymore. Any gas burned around this house is going to be one of my three motorcycles and the lawn mower.
My enthusiasm for EV’s, for the moment, does not extend to motorcycles. New, they’re too expensive and don’t have enough range to be anything more than a commuter and bar hopper. One of the Livewire S1’s that I’ve test ridden, while a wonderful ride, wouldn’t get me thru the round trip from my home in Ashland, VA to the Untamed M/C clubhouse in Varina, VA via I-295 keeping even with traffic, even if I started with a full charge.
I really do want to pick up a used Harley-Davidson Livewire (the original bike, the one that says “Harley-Davidson” on the tank, not their current wimp-outs) just for the grins with hitting events with the other local clubs.
As to the fascination with living in the past with a car where the electronics are limited to the battery and an AM radio, if I going to deal with one of those please give me back my original 1937 Buick Special . . . . and it’s running antique plates. I no longer wrench my own cars, I’m not terrified of Big Brother watching me on the highway (I’m hardly that interesting), and I can remember what unreliable pieces of shit they were back then. “Easy to repair” isn’t a plus in my book, because it always insinuates you’re going to have to repair it often.
The one rental car I had with auto start-stop, I found incredibly annoying. As it didn’t come with a manual, I had no idea how to switch it off. We had a Nissan Kicks with CVT. Wasn’t impressed, although I had no complaints about it during our ownership.
Pretty much any other current tech is just fine with me, and Apple CarPlay is just about mandatory. Its lack in their current models is really hurting my desire to return to Chevrolet for my next EV.
The bad; eye retina searing headlights on some cars, even on low. Throw in the aircraft landing bright lights (which almost everyone uses in the rain) and you’ve got the makings for potential trouble. The best part is when you flash your brights at them, many get irritated.
Great QOTD Jim. I’m with you on the haptic controls, but have to disagree on auto-start/stop! I find it great – kind of weird at first in a manual transmission car, but unnoticeable in our diesel hybrid. Mind you, I’ve always wondered whether it’s partly a false economy – in urban travel with lots of intersections the amount of engine restarting must surely create extra wear on components.
With many new technologies, I feel earlier iterations weren’t great, but they improved over time. I remember the awful CVT in a 2003 Nissan Maxima (NZ’s ’03 ‘Maxima’ was a rebadged J31 Nissan Teana), but the one in a 2024 Nissan Qashqai I rented in London last year was excellent. Likewise all the driver/safety assist features. A few years ago they seemed intrusive and annoying, but the afore-mentioned Qashqai was fantastic – even the lane-assist remained subtle but effective.
My favourite new technology was first experienced on the Qash’n’Qarry, and is adaptive-cruise control. I absolutely loved it, it was fabulous on the UK motorways, especially during stop-start crawling through construction zones/accident sites. I especially loved how easy it was (on the Qashcow at least) to use a steering wheel button to increase/decrease the gap to the car in front, depending on road/weather conditions.
Other likes: electric memory seats, rear view mirrors that are part of the seat memory system, climate control A/C, rearview cameras, ABS, airbags, Bluetooth audio, tyre pressure monitoring. Not really a technology thing, but I adore the huge panoramic glass roofs both our Peugeots have.
My main dislike is huge screens, because a) they uglify many interiors, and b) some of them have so much going on that it’s visual/sensory overload, which can’t be remotely good for safety. Touchscreens with multi-level menus are usually highly annoying, and especially if they aren’t haptic – although the QashQuorse’s system was bearable and surprisingly learnable without an instruction manual. The audio/nav screen in our Peugeot isn’t touchscreen, and although I’m probably well in the minority, I vastly prefer using the console buttons and controller for it.
As 20+ yrs old cars are what we prefer as cheap daily drivers I know the less gimmicks are aboard the less can go wrong! And all of the wonderful New World options will misfunction some day!
I have had the chance to test drive a VW Touareg proto with much maybe to come in future gimmicks and I must say I disliked almost everything. Yes, for the first 15 minutes the V10 twin turbo was fun, pointing with the steering somewhere made the car shooting in just that direction even at WOT, engaging single brakes as needed automatically, allowing fish-tailing without loosing control on narrow winding country roads at crazy speed. But: I found out I simply do not need that, it will just frighten your passengers and make the dog become sick within 10 minutes!
Joe
If you’re, say, 40 and under, you grew up with computers. You grew up with cell phones. Technology was a big part of your lives. Your car has a computer in it. One can argue it’s computerized. It’s normal. I’d venture to assume if an under 40 driver got into a vehicle with manual, crank windows, manual door locks, maybe manual transmission, and an actual am/fm broadcast band radio. What to do? Sounds good. Where to get a vehicle like this.
Not making fun of this age group. I was there, once myself. Cars and technology are almost generational.
I’m not sure what you mean by “what to do”. Apparently you think I’m supposed to find those things surprising? I’m in my mid-30s and have ridden in and driven a number of vehicles with crank windows and manual door locks. There’s nothing odd at all about them to me. I have friends in their 20s who daily drive manual cars.
Regarding “What to do” I’m basically making a wisecrack but a slightly educated one. Guess it depends on who’s in your world.
Come to think of it, old farts like me rely on young farts like you to get us out of technological jams. I’ve called numerous times on my kids to help. Peace!
I appreciate electronic stability control the most. It has saved my bacon many times in foul weather.
I don’t appreciate the annoying party bus interior lights in some recent Mercedes products. Pure gimmickry.
Did not read all of the comments and wish I had replied earlier.
New tech I love.
Advancements in cylinder head technology. An engine is an air pump, more efficient=more power.
Ive had it both ways with stock engines, LS1 V8 in a 1999 Camaro Z28. Two big valves per cylinder, lots of torque but it pulled HARD up to 6000rpm, that motor LOVED to rev.
The 2GR V6 in my 2014 Lexus ES350 has 4 valves per cylinder, much less displacement, less power than the LS1 v8, yet I still LOVE that motor. Varible vavle timing, VTEC in Honda speak, VVTi in Toyota speak is straight vodoo magic. The v6 has good off the line torque, but floor it and the revs sweep past 4,000rpm and that motor pulls like crazy to its 6400 rpm redline. The switch in camshaft just gives that 3.5 v6 some serious legs, cruising at 110mph is so relaxed in that car lol.