It’s been unusually cold here in Vancouver, where the averages for December and January are low 3 and high 7 °C (37/45 °F). Lately we’ve been getting as low as -14 °C (7 °F) and occasionally all the way “up” to -3 °C (27 °F). We also got 19 cm (7½”) of snow, which is quite a lot more than we usually don’t get. Don we now our heavy jackets, and utter “F”-words that aren’t fa-la-la-la-la! This necessitates shovelling, sweeping, and brushing snow; chipping ice; spreading sand; sitting in a cold car waiting for the inside frost to dissipate from the windows, and driving on roads unplowed by trucks Vancouver hasn’t got.
Years ago, Popular Science magazine had an “I’d like to see them make…” column. Readers sent in their product ideas, and PS paid $5 for each they used.
Why, I’d gladly pay a penny to be gassed with insecticide in a small, enclosed space!
Some of the car-related ideas show the kind of thrifty ingenuity that makes you go “Gee!” in grandpa’s garage…
…some of them demonstrate that the past is a foreign country…
…some of them were more or less prescient…
…some were mooted by technology evolving elsewise…
…some were clever, but never gained traction…
…some were less than completely thoughtful…
…and some of them were nutty:
With this cold weather lately, I could wish fast idle were still a thing. Carbureted engines have a fast-idle cam that props the throttle partway open while the choke is closed, creating enough flow through the intake tract that even though a lot of gasoline condenses on the cold manifold walls, a burnable amount still reaches the engine.
There are sturdy reasons why it’s a good job we don’t have them any more: starting a cold engine and immediately revving it caused tremendous wear, especially since most motor oils in the carburetor era had very poor cold-flow characteristics and it took awhile for them to reach all the friction points while the engine was revved up and grating itself. And it was none too friendly to automatic transmissions, universal joints, engine mounts, or final-drive gears to take the slam hit from engaging a gear with the engine running fast.
My 2007 Honda Accord, which I have extensively kvetched about, is like other fuel-injected cars in that it doesn’t need much of an elevated idle speed to cope with even the coldest of starts. There’s no fuel flowing through the manifold; it’s injected right behind the inlet valve, so there’s no condensation to speak of. But there are also sturdy reasons why I want a manual fast-idle control. The engine, coolant, and heater-defogger just don’t warm up very fast with the engine calmly ticking over at a 750 rpm curb idle, and I feel like an ape—a very cold ape—sitting there with my foot on the accelerator. Oil flow is no issue with synthetic 0W20; besides, I start the engine and give it a few moments at its low idle before raising the speed. I’d just really rather have a switch or knob or something to un-footcuff myself from the accelerator. That way I could warm the engine (etc) and clear the windows, lights, roof, hood, and decklid in parallel rather than serially.
Some of the school buses I rode had a throttle control on the dashboard: pull the knob to raise the engine speed, then it either stayed there by friction or you rotated the knob to lock it in place, like the one on this ’91-’97 FJ80 Toyota Land Cruiser:
I don’t need that level of adjustability; just a switch to raise the idle to 1,800 RPM or so. Ideally pressing the switch again would cancel it, as would touching the accelerator or brake or shifting out of Park or Neutral. It’d be useful in summer, too, for speeding up the A/C compressor enough to move significant heat while stuck in one place.
That said, this unpleasant weather has also added something to my very short list of things I like about this car: 2︎⃣ means second gear and none other, right from the start until something else is manually selected. Not first and then second as with all the Torqueflites, Turbo Hydramatics, and assorted other automatics I’ve driven over the years. This is terrific for reducing torque to the drive wheels for slip-free departures from stops and snowed-in roadside parking spaces. Yes, the car has traction control, and that’s a help, but it’s a frenetic, instant-by-instant reaction to wheel spin. By reducing the engine’s mechanical advantage over the wheels, skipping first gear helps stave off the wheelspin in the first place. This last week or ten days, I’ve made whole trips in 2︎⃣ for the traction assist when starting forward, and the engine speed boost while cruising along at 30 – 50 km/h (20 – 30 mph) on a short trip.
If we zoom out for a wider view, I could draw up a good list of features I miss from older cars: wing windows, pull/pull rather than push/pull stalk operation for high-low beam selection, and ignition keys inserted straight forward into dashboard-mounted locks like it says in Scripture, for starters. I could put together a pretty hefty list of stuff I’m happily rid of from the older models, too—wind leaks from those wing windows, for example, and carburetors entire. And as I’m peering overtop my glasses to see stuff at close range and elsewise galloping along towards membership in the get-the-hell-offa-my-lawn-goddamn-kids-today-got-no-respect brigade, the list of features I don’t want might be biggest of them all. I’d be tickled to never again hear of “infotainment”. I don’t want touchscreens or any other kind of permanently-illuminated dashboard, or pushbutton start/stop. I don’t want my car (…refrigerator, toothbrush, fly swatter…) on the internet to any degree, and I don’t want my car rifling through my phone to find music or anything else. I’ve lost all of those fights before they’ve even begun; sooner or later I will have to buy a car with some or all of these. The Accord already has a perma-lit dashboard, which I intensely dislike.
Okeh, now you: what do you miss or wish gone on your present car? What would you like to see them make for your next one? What do you wish they wouldn’t?
I am ready for a self-driving car or a ¨kinda/sorta¨ self-driver like Tesla. Adaptive cruise control has been wonderful for me. And with numerous terrible drivers on the road, as well as teenagers and the elderly, self-driving cars would be much safer for all of us.
Thanks for this article. Really fascinating to see the creativity of the Popular Science readers and the many innovations they spurred.
I’m behind the concept of the ‘limited self-driving car’. It works on Interstates and other limited access highways only. You put your destination on the GPS, drive the local roads to the Interstate on-ramp, switch on the self driving function and it takes over until your exit is reached. As you hit the exit ramp, you get a signal to retake control of the car, and it switches off.
I see very little use for self-driving on any other types of roads.
“…ignition keys inserted straight forward into dashboard-mounted locks like it says in Scripture, for starters”. Well, even the ones that aren’t inserted at all are still for starters, surely, Mr Stern? But I digress (and without having gressed first, a new record).
I don’t fancy the phone-booth gassing either, as there’s an Australianism of some accuracy that describes a person who will not take the hint to leave as one who is ‘hanging around like a fart in a phone-box’, and THOSE emissions not even (necessarily) poisonous. Otherwise, there’s some great stuff there – the roof-boot is far from silly on the more compact 7-seater type thing, as you just end up with klutzy roof racks on holidays anyway (or worse, a Thule whatsit, making you look as if you and your loved ones are in turn being closely loved by a gigantic slug).
Couldn’t agree more having only one screen in my eyesight, and that being the weather-protecting one, but also mourn with you that you have well-lost that one. Drove a 2019 Mitsubishi thingo just this week with one grafted by update into a 2013 design, and in bright sun, it gave me endlessly fascinating views of my own reflection whilst still denying me a volume knob. Dangerous crap, from the industry-leading mobility salespersons who never met an engineer they didn’t listen to.
As for me, I want foot dipswitches back, for autos only. With a few k’s familiarity as to placement, they are a better idea lost, most especially on winding roads. That said, I don’t want it re-combined with foot-pumped windscreen washer pedals above that, as, with clutch and clonky column change also, one did need three left feet on a slushy winding-road night, and I have walking accidents of co-ordination with the existing two as it is.
In all honesty, I got the main thing I always liked best in cars: an essentially-upright driving position, now the default way (as it was in the begining, as CC has duly taught me). It is better in all ways, and though diminished some by the Acropolis pillars one must also now peer around, it less fatiguing, less back-straining for entry, and all-round more inspiring of confidence. Oh, and even a smallish car can then allow to reconnect to your friends with legs, who will again fit in the back. If it’s a well-suspended car like the French pile of SUV I once had, and you can keep your nerve and your balance, you can still fling such a machine around corners nearly as well (y’know, that 2.5% of one’s actual motoring in a given year).
Sorry to hear about the weather. Not much snow here this year, as it was 103F on New Year’s Eve. None that was legal, anyway. I just wish my car had that short-lived idea of a sunroof that trickle-charges the battery to as to ventilate the car when it was parked, as to say that you could boil an egg in a car locked up in such weather is just speculation – anyone who has tried to live through the three minutes that would take has instead themself been cooked first.
103 deg? Where are you?
The Land from Down Under I think. Should be summer there.
Sure is. I’m about two hours west of him, 41C the past three days. Today we have the house open, barely 20C.
I don’t want kickswitches back for beam selection. With the column lever you can easily flash the lights to (try to) communicate with other drivers—not possible with a kickswitch.
Good point about upright driving posture, and I agree with you about overly-thick roof pillars. This has been a very bad trade; rollovers (improved by thick pillars) are very much less frequent than pedestrian-hits (greatly worsened by thick pillars).
And thank you for catching my for starters quip!
It’s been a long time but I believe that my ’65 SAAB 96 had both. The column switch allowed flashing only. Actual switching between beams was handled by a foot switch.
Having dredged up that vague memory, I much prefer a column switch. That was one of the reasons I bought a ’69 SAAB 96 so that the column switch controlled the high/low function. You’re right about pull/pull. Was that a DOT/ NHSTA requirement to change. I know that a regulation removed SAAB’s alligator seat belts and replaced them with a metal-to-metal fastener.
There is no regulation of turn signal switch operation—the push/pull type was first seen in Japanese cars, as far as I know; it was remarked on as an unusual novelty in American road tests of ’60s Japanese cars. The European and American convention leaned more toward pull/pull, but in the late ’90s-’00s American makes began using push/pull in large volume.
I don’t know about the alligator seat belts; how did they work?
On my SAAB 900s, a first-gen Turbo, the three-point belt was a continuous strip of ordinary seat belt material, but with no buckle. You fastened it by putting it on the buckle and closing a metal bar hinged to it. It was easy once you got used to it, but might have ben confusing to novices and passengers.
I’m with you on headlight dimmers, Justy.
I was very happy with the foot-operated ones, though, as you note, on curvy roads in a manual transmission car, they could keep your foot busy.
I’ve never gotten used to the ones on the steering column.
They all seem to be in slightly different places between models, and my hand is never anywhere near them when those two lights suddenly appear over the horizon, and then I’m changing my grip on the steering wheel as I search for the lever, and losing my focus on the road.
The foot switch is always RIGHT THERE, in exactly the same place where it was a minute, or a day, or a year ago. The column switch is always SOMEWHERE over to the left. This is not a problem when using the directional signals, because all you need to do is make a sweeping movement with fingers extended, and you hit it, but the high beam switch you have to find and pull directly toward you (I also can’t count the number of times I’ve inadvertently turned on the directional signals when trying to dim the headlights).
I’ve considered installing my own foot dimmer, but, well, I’m pretty lazy.
And there’s no reason why you can’t have a foot dimmer and a column flasher, thus putting all signaling on one stalk, and high beam operation elsewhere.
There’s also no reason why you can’t have both hand and foot dimmers (aside from cost, which, of course, would kill it).
As for direction of dimmer operation, pull to flash, push to turn on is the only way to go. It is very easy for my mind to remember push-on, pull-off, but the exact same movement for two opposite results annoys me. It is also bad for not inadvertently blinding other drivers, as I don’t look down at the dashboard every single time a car approaches me, so I don’t necessarily see whether the little blue light is on – if I pull the lever as a car approaches, and the high beams are off, then I turn them on instead of off, but if the lever is push-on, then the worst that can happen is that I flash them for a second.
Sorry, Dan, but I completely disagree with you on this one.
I don’t mind headlight hi-beam controls on the stalk, but I wish the automakers would standardize on the operation of the stalk-mounted control. Some cars it’s push-to-hold and pull-to-flash, while on other cars it’s the exact opposite, or worse, pull halfway to flash, while you pull until it clicks to hold, the worst possible option, IMHO. Learning which option your car has is a trivial exercise that takes about two seconds to complete, for those who can’t be bothered to Read The Freakin’ (RTF) Owner’s Manual.
Having learned to drive when floor-mounted high beam switches were the standard, I have no preference either way, but I learned to drive on a “slush box”, so I didn’t have the three-pedal dance to contend with.
One advantage to a stalk-mounted high-beam switch is that it keeps sand and road salt out of the switch. Floor-mounted switches get both sand and salt exposure from sand and salt tracked into the car from your shoes in the wintertime on the top side, plus more from exposure of the back of the switch to road salt and slush as it hits the floorboards. A harsh environment for any electrical device to be sure. The steering column is a much more benign environment for electrical components, for sure, the number of cycles over the life of the clockwork connector in the steering column notwithstanding.
Some lovely ideas, there, and some of them are fitted to cars, now.
I’d like heated windows, all round, please. It’s odd – not many cars seem to even have heated windscreens, even though the technology has been around for years; the same goes for heated steering wheels.
A genuine fully self-driving car would be nice, too – I know it’s being worked on.
I recall choke mechanisms for giving manual fast idle at cold – I wouldn’t want those back. I’d much prefer cars to have combustion heaters, to provide warmth from the start. Could all cars be charged with the same charge, like magnets, so that they could never hit each other?
Lastly, a megaphone to shout at other road users and tyres that don’t puncture – not just run-flats or similar.
Ford offered electrically heated windshields in the late ’80s/early ’90s. The giveaway was the coppery sheen off the front surface. I don’t know how well they worked (or didn’t), but I understand they were hideously expensive to replace. Still, yes, I’d like to have heated glass all around.
Combustion heaters have existed for a long time—Webasto, for example.
Lincoln had optional electrically heated windshields in the mid 70s. I believe they also block EZPass transponders.
Yes…they also cost a lot and I recall, do not hold up well to stone chips. (Though a number of non-heated coatings also block EZ Pass function.)
My ’89 Ford Sierra still has its factory heated screen. Doesn’t have a coppery sheen, but once you spot the grid of tiny wires it’s difficult to unspot them. Works extremely well on frosty mornings – clears the entire screen very, very quickly and very efficiently, not to mention silently (versus a fan demister on full blast). I gather they’re unobtainable from Ford now, but aftermarket replacements are £2-300ish in the UK. There’s even a company that makes them (and the associated wiring etc) for classic cars – including the ’67 Mustang! https://www.heatedwindscreen.com/
I remember it well. Ford called it an “InstaClear” windshield. It use the same technology that was used to defrost the cockpit windows in airliners. Here’s how it was supposed to work. The windshield had a metallic coating on both sides of the glass, which turned the entire windshield into a giant capacitor, which was connected to an inverter that produced a high-frequency AC current that heated the windshield. I remember it being a fairly expensive option on the 1973 T-Bird and Lincoln Mark IV, partly because you needed a second battery and alternator to run the system. A colleague I worked with years later worked at a local Ford Dealer while in college, and he told me that one of his jobs was to remove the windshields from cars so equipped, as the systems failed with annoying regularity and were removed under warranty due to customer complaints about failed units.
An annoying side effect of these systems was that the metallic coating on the windshield blocked radio signals, rendering all radar detectors useless. Many a driver with these systems got a nasty surprise from John Law when they got pulled over for speeding, with their “Fuzzbusters” sitting uselessly atop their dashboards!
Side windows are heated by a stream of defrost air directed from the side dash vents, if you point them outwards. Wiring the glass for a heat grid would be much more complex and costly, and useless most of the time. Distracting, too.
Heated steering wheel and heated seats are some of my “must haves”, and it sounds like they would be even more so in Vancouver. Many of today’s “nanny” features annoy me, but blind spot detection and cross path detection (such as when you are backing out of a parking space) are worth it in my book. I still use my eyes and look, but these two have saved me from an expensive mistake more than once.
I like the convenience of the touch & unlock (or lock) door handles, and pushbutton start….just leave the fob in your pocket/backpack/briefcase/purse for the day.
Dislikes: radar cruise control, where the car paces itself according to what is in front of you. Drives me nuts. In my Lexus ES350 and Suburban you could override it and have “regular” cruise. In BMW’s you cannot override it. My otherwise loaded 740e does NOT have it, and it was ordered by BMW, N.A. to be a company car at HQ in NJ. I think that omission is telling.
Also high on the dislikes is the automatic rear braking, or whatever they call it……this is when the car brakes itself, if it thinks you are about to back into something. It cannot be overridden in any way that I can find, and the manual makes no mention of being able to do so. The 740e does this with steep driveways, tall grasses, bushes, etc. I literally COULD NOT back out of someone’s steep driveway one time, the car thought the roadway was an “object”. After several tries I had to back diagonally out over the grass if that makes sense (there was nowhere to turn around in the driveway).
On the fast idle musings, I recalled my parents’ 1979 240D had a manual idle speed knob on the dash. I think it was to be used upon cold starts to make the car idle smoother, but we used it pretty much all the time, especially in the summer with the A/C on. Without the idle increase, the A/C was pretty useless around town with so much stopping.
Your automatic rear braking/steep driveway story is sad and illustrative. There’s only going to be more of that kind of crapola, because it turns out putting disruption-crazed techbros in charge of anything isn’t better than putting MBAs in charge of everything—just different.
As to the fast idle control the ’79 240D: well, I think it’s nice they made an effort for at least something on that car to be fast!
Cross-path protection is a great idea.
“Why, I’d gladly pay a penny to be gassed with insecticide in a small, enclosed space!” – All it needed was a catchy name, like “DDT-Me!” 🙂
OK Mr. Stern, I will help chase kids from your lawn if you will agree to do the same for me. I want a heater control valve to kill the hot water flowing through my car’s HVAC system until I ask for it. Radiant heat from the constant-on hot water renders “vent” air useless on about any car built after maybe 1970. The second ask is fresh air inlets that are not ducted through the blower system. I could make do with either, but both is best. And, of course, ventpanes in the front doors are required to exhaust those refreshing blasts of air from the passenger compartment.
The 2nd gear start – you were just driving the wrong cars for all those years. It was a constant in Ford automatics (and others using B-W designs) from almost the beginning. Even after moving to 1st gear starts with the Cruise-O-Matic (FMX) in 1958, a “pure 2nd” was ever at the ready.
Scripture does indeed confirm that on the 9th day, the ignition key was placed into the dashboard, and it was declared to be good. My 2012 Kia Sedona uses such an ignition setup and it is still a thrill to me each time I start it, due to the inherent rightness of the ergonomic action.
“The 2nd gear start – you were just driving the wrong cars for all those years. It was a constant in Ford automatics (and others using B-W designs) from almost the beginning. Even after moving to 1st gear starts with the Cruise-O-Matic (FMX) in 1958, a “pure 2nd” was ever at the ready.”
That is one of the reasons I like Fords over the GM and Chrysler offerings and have used it many times over the years. With our 5r55 equipped vehicle you can actually start in 3rd if 2nd is just too low.
On a 5R55, I think 3rd IS actually second. (Wasn’t that the A4LD that got a “5th” gear by engaging the OD in first?)
I considered driving a Ford to be much too steep a price to pay for second-gear starts.
I’m so with you on the header/ventilation. I have been into old cars all my life based on their styling, mechanicals, and history but while I can understand many of the things that are gone from old cars when I remove the rose tinted glasses, flow through ventilation is not one of them, I didn’t even know it was a thing until one day I got a ride in a car with it, and it was great! Outside of winter it seems you’re just expected to keep AC on all the time to varying degrees(controlled by an ACT system) OR you open the windows and get your eardrums ruptured by wind buffeting.
Fresh air vents – reminds me of the door vents under the dash on each side in my 74 Dart.
” I could draw up a good list of features I miss from older cars: wing windows, pull/pull rather than push/pull stalk operation for high-low beam selection,” Quote
I sometimes drive my daughters’ Mitsubishi, with pull/pull beam selector, and it drives me crazy. I like to be able to check the beams by the position of the lever. I also hate having the foglight switches on the lighting stalk – since I only need foglights once every two or three years I can never work out how to select the rear light without the front ones.
And of course I hate electric parking brakes, still haven’t worked out how to apply them softly ( to slow the car gently without letting the cop in your mirror seeing brake lights).
On the negative side of the ledger for push-pull: much too easy to bump the stalk into high beam position, turn signals unsettlingly just out of muscle memory’s grasp when using high beams.
All I want is a horn at the rear of the vehicle. It would have come in handy when I watched someone back into my parked car. Of course he didn’t hear the horn in front of the car.
I have often thought a rear horn would be good to have. The question, though, is how best to control it. If you tie it in with the existing horn button, you’re going to be honking at a lot of people unintentionally. If you put in a separate switch, you’re going to have to remember where it is and grab for it in a hurry with very little practise and therefore no muscle-memory. An issue like this sank the otherwise meritorious 3-beam headlighting idea in the ’70s.
You could have one horn button like today, but have the car sound the front/rear horn depending on its current state. For example:
In forward gear or driving forward – sound the front horn only.
In reverse gear or moving backwards – sound the rear horn only.
Car is parked or not moving – sound both horns.
Of course, there would be situations where this wouldn’t provide the desired outcome.
I think that having them sound at the same time, all of the time, would put everyone’s head on a swivel. Not necessarily a bad thing.
One thing I miss is flow-thru ventilation. My 95 Volvo 850 has it, the center vents can allow fresh air into the cabin. In the winter, I like to have fresh air while directly warm air to the floor to warm my feet.
I also miss the oscillating center vent of my 86 Mazda 626.
Another thing I miss is the fiber optic light sentinels popular on GM cars. That way you know your lights are working. Some cars, like my 95 Volvo, lets you know when a light isn’t working (when it is active).
I think all cars should now have mandatory auto-on with photocell control. I see too many people driving around without headlights on. Just the other day it was foggy and of course people aren’t using any lights, let along their fog lights. But they will have their fog lights on when it is clear because it looks cool.
I am also tired of piano-black interior surfaces that show fingerprints, dust and dirt, and generally look terrible minutes after purchase. I am convinced that car designers never use cars, or even own them. Designers should be made to use (and clean) the models they design, before they are released. Same goes for intricate details on the exterior that are difficult to clean and trap dirt.
Designers also killed door side mouldings as I am sure they feel they don’t look good, as opposed to be a design feature. I guess in the studio cars don’t get door dings, either!
Those oscillating dashboard ducts on the Mazdas were pure genius, and they remind me of another thing I miss: A/C temperature regulation by cutting the compressor in and out. I find the periodic waves of cold air amidst a steady flow of cool much more refreshing than anything produced by systems that pretend to maintain a set temperature like HVAC in a building.
Piano black surfaces are on the growing list of fashion-first/fcrew-function idiocy.
See below for my favourable-with-specifics comments on automatic light control.
My old Cortina TC/Mk 3 had strip vents on the dash above the instruments and glove box, fan boosted, and feeding outside air. Fantastic. Air to your face, not your hand. You could warm the car in winter (sort of) and still have cold air to your face to keep you alert.
I miss that too! But here’s a tip worthy of mid-Modern Pop Mech- I can simulate this beneficial climate in my ’17 Ford D-Max by dialing the auto temp control to, say, 75 degrees on my driver’s side and 62 on the passenger’s. With both the dash and floor vent fans enabled, I shut my left dash vent off or low and aim the cooler passenger side air across the car to my head. It’s not the same, but it’s helpful. Only possible, of course, when there’s no passenger involved.
Ha, sounds and looks like a normal Ottawa winter day. Feel for you Mr. Stern. The wet left coast doesn’t usually experience the best of Canada’s weather.
I recently had a 2021 service loaner for almost two months, with all the bells and whistles. Things that I formerly thought were unnecessary but now seem like must-haves after driving this, are a heated steering wheel, a heads-up display for speed and cruise-control setting (useful since the cruise control is adaptive – another must-have). Also, 360 parking cameras that show a view of the entire car from above – crazy voodoo; that.
The old Luxuries once sampled become necessities trap.
I can say I’ve fell for that many times and there are a lot of features that are now must haves for me, many of which I would have said I didn’t want let alone need.
I am a manual transmission rubber floor mat and vinyl seat kind of guy. I prefer to be connected to the vehicle, not the vehicle connected to the web. At the most my strippermobile would have basic air, cruise and a decent radio that sounds good on AM like the old tube sets. No nannies or other electronic trickery. I happily live now without fuel injection and can go either way on basic electronic ignition.
Dan, our IH built buses have a cool feature built in for fast idle. Engine on, park brake set turn the cruise on and hit the accelerate button. RPM increases and stays when the button is released. Touching the brake or putting it in drive deactivates it.
“I happily live now without fuel injection……”.
What the heck are you driving?
1970 Opel Kadett 1100cc with the dual carbs. Points ignition and even a mechanical voltage regulator for the generator. Drum brakes all around too. I also have 62 and 71 Dodge D200s in the fleet. Not on the road yet but the plan is to get our 27 Willys-Knight drivable and use itfor fun.
I too can live without EFI, but I will stick with my Duraspark ignition system. Points suck. I changed enough of them in my 28 years as a marine tech to last me a lifetime. Most marine engines (Mercruiser aside) didn’t get electronic ignition until WELL into the 1990’s.
I’m a bit surprised at your wanting a manual throttle control. Surely your Accord engine is revving at more than 750 rpm at startup and for some minutes afterwards, until it’s warm. My xB runs at about 1300-1400 at startup, and then it comes down gradually as it warms. Seems just about right to me. And it does create heat very quickly, but then it’s a physically smaller engine.
I love these PS features. Some are quite good, and others hopelessly foolish. Thanks for the breakfast chuckles.
We got hit by the cold and snow too, just not quite as cold as you. We had about 6+ inches at our house. It’s turning out to be an epic wet and cold winter so far on the West Coast: record snow for December in the Sierra Nevada.
My Honda experience mimics that of Daniel. If the car idles fast at startup, it’s not running right. I have always kind of marveled at how Honda keeps a cold engine running smoothly at a normal idle, even on the coldest mornings. My Kia, on the other hand, has an annoyingly high cold idle for the first 2 or 3 minutes.
It does have a very slightly elevated idle for a brief period on cold start, to get the exhaust catalysts up to temperature quickly. But it’s minimal—850 to 900 rpm—and it doesn’t last more than about three minutes.
I like snow just fine…wayyyyy up there on the faraway mountains where it is pretty and promises well-replenished reservoirs, and I don’t have to dress for it, slog through it, drive in it, shovel it, sweep it, or slip on it.
I decided to go see what the TSX does on a cold start. It has the same basic 2.4 K24 engine as your Accord. It’s warmer here today (50 F). Here’s my observations, just letting it start and idle:
First 30 seconds: 1700 rpm
next 90 seconds: 1500 rpm
next six minutes: 1200 rpm
next two minutes: 1100 rpm
That’s ten minutes, after which I got bored. I did blip the throttle a couple of times to make sure it wasn’t hung up on some mechanical detent, but I know there’s no such thing anyway.
YMMV
My Accord’s got the J30A4-or-5 (3-litre V6), tho. I’d rather have the Four!
Aha. No wonder you get mediocre mileage. And why the handling may be less than ideal, due to the extra weight on front. I’ve never been a fan of the V6 in the Accord; the four is plenty fast.
Might also explain why there’s no onboard fuel economy readout—too embarrassing! (they provided one on the hybrid model)
Can anyone here comment on the concept of a high idle “rev” immediately after the engine starts? My 2002 Grand Marquis and 2002 Explorer both do this; I remember being told that this procedure is to “light off” the catalytic converter to reduce emissions. As my cars sometimes sit for a while this is concerning to me, as in effect it is revving a “dry” engine, and I cannot believe that the action does not cause accelerated wear. Is there any practical way to override the startup programming?
No, there is no practical way to override the startup program, and you shouldn’t want to. All you have to do is pick an appropriate engine oil, without getting crossed up by old husbands’ tales about higher-viscosity oil being good and lower-viscosity oil being bad. Cars and engines last a whole lot longer than they used to, and cars like yours routinely go hundreds of thousands of miles without an engine overhaul, so…don’t fret about it; there’s nothing to fret about.
I’ve read many of those “I’d like it if they made…” articles and so many of them did make it to market, like many of those in this article.
Regarding a fast idle I’m surprised that the Honda Programing is set up so that it goes down to base idle so quickly. Most cars use the coolant/cylinder head temp sensor as the primary input for determining the desired idle speed and won’t allow the base idle until the engine is up to 120-140 degrees.
The ability to pick a high idle does exist. Many MD and HD trucks have an idle increment switch so you can bump it up or down in steps. Ford Super Duty trucks at least those from 05 and newer and likely older ones too, are all set up with programing for a select-able fast idle. I’ve thought about enabling it on my truck but haven’t yet. The main reason I want it is for jump starting other vehicles. There are a couple of blunt cut and heat shrunk capped wires under the dash to activate that strategy. It is designed for use with a PTO and the selection of the jumper resistor sets the desired speed. Because it is for PTO use it will only be active if the vehicle has the parking brake set, AT in park and IIRC you keep your foot off the brake and accelerator.
As far as features I’d like back, from dealing with the same snow events over the last week or so is drip rails. I have to remember to bring the snow brush inside so that I can clean off the driver’s door before opening so a bunch of snow doesn’t fall or get sucked in and land on the driver’s seat.
Amen, hallelujah, preach on. I miss them each and every time I open the damn door in winter. Let me just tell you how much I love it when a bunch of snow and slush drops onto the seat when I open the car after it’s been sitting. Of course, if I were to brush the snow and slush off the roof/door junction area first, that wouldn’t happen, but I have this dumb thing where I tend to leave the snow brush in the car (I know, right?) so my only option is to use my coatsleeve—then the snow and slush doesn’t go from roof to seat, it goes from roof to coat to seat. No improvement.
I bitched here on CC about the deletion of drip rails in context of one or another fashion-first, function-lol-don’t-be-ridiculous-I-am-a-fabulous-Italian-car-designer car. My opinion was not popular.
The store will happily sell you guys a second snow brush 🙂 One to leave in the car for when the snow occurs while underways away from home and the other to stay in the house/garage/side of path nearest the car when it snows. The extra benefit being that it’s rare that the wet brush then needs to enter the car.
Public-street parking means no convenient place to leave the second snow brush.
There is one sitting just inside the door as we speak and it also doubles as a brush to get the snow off the boots too. The problem comes when I’m in more of a hurry and don’t take it back inside before leaving. Yes there is one inside the truck too.
I never understood why they got rid of drip rails.
The main reason is aerodynamics.
Nobody goes car shopping on a rainy day.
Drip rails are hopeless for aero, especially at the top front corners of the screen pillars, where they’ll break the flow of air clinging to the car at a very high-pressure point. They also, quite logically, make a big racket. Good riddance to them, as I love the aero quietness of even the lowliest modern. Wind noise is a drag, and an enervating one. Anyway, moderns have sort-of drip rails built into the rubbers. Being sort-of, they kind-of work, too, a bit.
Btw, surely “drip rails” belong in some hydroponics catalogue – “roof gutters”, we call them, for their function in life. When they became drip rails, they were rusted out.
Number one on my nice list are height adjustable seats! At 59.5 inches tall (4’11.5″), that’s a must have item. I’m old enough to remember when the only way to get height-adjustable seats from the factory was to buy a car with power seats. I sat on pillows while learning how to drive, at least until my Dad had brackets made to raise the seat and move it forward in Mom’s car. One side benefit of the pillows was that I had to put on my seatbelt to keep the pillows from sliding out from underneath my butt, so it got me into the seatbelt habit early, LOL! The new Miata has ditched the height adjustment in favor of a seat that rises at a fixed rate as you move it forward, not an improvement, IMHO! I like manual adjustments better if the car has them, power seats take too long to adjust, add weight and cost, and are just another thing that costs a fortune to fix when it breaks.
I also love remote keyless entry (at least until the door switch you use to unlock the car breaks, forcing you to replace the entire door handle to fix it). The switch on my Miata’s driver’s side door failed, and a new door handle set me back $165.00!
Number one on my naughty list are touchscreen controls for anything! I want real knobs and buttons, dammit, especially for critical functions like HVAC controls and lights. Don’t even get me started on the ugly “tombstone” display panels that stick up from the dash like a slice of toast in a toaster! If you have to have to use these damn things, put them into the dash, framed like a picture, instead of sticking them up on top of the dash, where they block your view of the road!
My father in law used to drive GM diesel pick ups and he routinely installed electric solinoids on his accelerator hidden by the dash. It gets cold here in Manitoba and fuel injected engines do not really warm up at low idle. He set his idle about 11-1200 rpm which did the trick nicely. Not sure how the new drive by wire systems would work.
Gasoline fuel injected engines warm up just fine at idle, it is the fact that they were diesels that they didn’t want to warm up at idle.
I’ve got a diesel that was once an ambulance. Diesels are traditionally specified in ambulance orders specifically because they refuse to overheat. Conversely, heater takes a long, long time to effect any meaningful change in the cab.
Would love to have regular knobs for the HVAC system that doesn’t require me to take my eyes off the road to access a touch activated electronic screen. A lower beltline with larger window area and less bulky C pillars for improved visibility. Better quality cloth upholstery in a variety of colors and additional exterior colors instead of white, silver, gray and black. Ever go up to the wrong car in a parking lot because they all look the same?
I second your entire list.
I third it. In fact, that’s the sum of my new-fandangles complaints (plus no real fresh ventilation): if done properly, nearly all the rest of the modern stuff is an improvement.
I had a Fiat 128 sport coupe that had a manual choke and a locking hand throttle. Used it as a primitive cruise control. I hate that the a/c comes on automatically whenever I just want to use the windshield defogger even after the car is warm. It turns off when the dial is moved to heat or vent but as soon as its moved to screen the a/c is activated and I get that is to help defog better but there should be an override. This is on a Toyota.
That’s a bit of a toughie, and I’ll be talking more about it in a future post about controls and displays. If you provide an override (or just let the operator use a blue-button compressor on/off switch), most people will get it wrong most of the time. The consequences will be safety-negative: significantly reduced defogger performance—in many cases degraded enough to flunk the regulated performance requirements. So compressor-on-with-defog-selected is really the right way to do it, even though it irritates a few people in a few circumstances. Not hard to add a cutout relay in the feed wire to the compressor and activate it with a dash switch, if your irritation rises to that level.
Many years ago, I was able to purchase a vacuum cut out switch to control the compressor. It was inserted into the compressor hot lead. Accelerate,the vacuum
drops and the switch opens to cut the power to the compressor. Off the accelerator, the switch closes and the compressor works again. The switch was sold as a way to increase acceleration while passing.
Of course, it would only work with a normally aspirated car. Turbo cars would be right out.
After blowing @ 2″ of semi-wet (!) snow out of my driveway early this morning with my mighty Honda snow blower, I’m ready to relax and do nothing for the remainder of today. Oh yes, it was a “TOASTY” 19F while I was out there. Winter…LOVE IT!!!! 🙂
Back to wishes: I’d much prefer olde switch, lever controls in lieu of @%*&*@@ touch screens; just my olde knuckle dragginnn pov. Also, I’d prefer a key into a ignition switch in lieu of key fobs and push button start/stop devices. My ’88 IROC-Z 350 Camaro holds more and more appeal!! 🙂
However, the 0s n 1s that control my Civic’s lil 1.5L turbo engine definitely do a GR8 job: excellent mpg, driveability and performance given the size of the car vs. the tiny engine. OTOH, that “rubber band” CVT transmission…………..meh. A DCT type transmission like Hyundai N-lines have would be far preferable for me.
I’ll pass on the bug spray equipped phone booth!! DFO
Our fleet now consists of 2015, 2016 and 2020 model year vehicles so have fairly modern features … though sometimes painfully inconsistent across American, German and Japanese implementations. Features I have come to love: keyless entry, pushbutton start, miles to empty, rear view camera and rear cross-traffic alert (not all our cars, not even the 2020 have all of these). Features I hate: the inability to turn off beeps and buzzers without dealer SW (only the Toyota allows this). Features I rarely use: Climate control, the auto windshield wiper setting on our 2020 Ford. Feature I have come to like and maybe use too much: the adaptive cruise control on the Ford. Older technologies I don’t miss: separate, one-sided keys for doors and ignition. And one like JPC, one that I do miss, at least in theory, a water valve shutoff for the heater core.
I have tried understanding the attraction of pushbutton start/stop, and I have repeatedly failed. It’s the wrong way to do it—it poses at least two significant safety hazards: no intuitive way to shut down the engine immediately, and too easy to leave the engine running after parking the car in the garage. Neither of these is a product of my imagination, as a quick bit of googling will demonstrate.
Keep the fob proximity sensor and replace the pushbutton by a rotary switch with Accessory-Off-On-Start positions, and you eliminate the first problem but the second one remains (and a rotary switch wouldn’t be all cool and nifty and video-gamey, so obvs it’s a nonstarter, as it were).
The ‘traditional” way with the key though can lead to people shutting off the engine in an emergency and shutting it off all the way instead of just one detent, thus locking the column, no?
I understand (well, no I don’t) leaving the engine running in the garage issue. People can just as simply not turn it off with the key either, nothing about a key inherently stops someone from leaving it on just because a key is involved.
More likely someone leaves the pushbutton in the ACC or ON position, especially if they haven’t put it in Park first. The worst that happens is a dead battery which the car (if designed correctly) can easily guard against as well by flashing a confirmation message and if no response shutting it down completely.
Theoretically, sure, that could happen. But go take a look at how often that happens versus the other.
Er…needing the keys to get into the house?
We don’t have to guess or surmise—the danger I described is real.
I have no idea how often it happens in either situation beyond a couple of sensationalized cases reported on a few years back. Figuring out how to turn the button off while panicking vs being panicked and turning the key only one detent? I haven’t seen any study comparing both involving “normal” drivers. I’d surmise many drivers don’t know why there is both an ON as well as an ACC function in addition to OFF and Engine.
Oh, I guess I’m thinking if there’s a garage it’s often attached to the house. Yes that could be, some are a separate building, I thought you were worried about Carbon Monoxide. Most people as far as I’m aware don’t lock the door between the house and garage if attached, so no key necessary.
What’s the “danger”? Especially in the detached garage you seemed to infer? Running out of gas? I haven’t googled it.
I don’t think I live in your same world. Most people in mine lock the door that goes from the (attached) garage into the main part of the house—the same kind of garage where an engine left running is a carbon monoxide hazard.
If your tack is to wave this away as some kind of sensationalised nothingburger, I guess there’s not much point carrying on the discussion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ah I just saw your link. 37 deaths in 17 years but incomplete as there is no data presented as to how often people forget to turn their cars off if they have a key, it’s unlikely to actually be zero. The fifth link had this though:
“We brought you the story last week about Toyota announcing new safety features for 2020, including an automatic engine shutoff system. At first glance, I thought Toyota was announcing start/stop on every vehicle, but that was not the case. This was a system to kill the engine if it was accidentally left on. Now we know why.”
That would seem to solve the “danger”. Or having a CO detector which is a good idea in general, irrespective of cars in the attached garage.
“The ‘traditional” way with the key though can lead to people shutting off the engine in an emergency and shutting it off all the way instead of just one detent, thus locking the column, no?”
Well locking steering wheels have largely gone away, in many cars since transponder system meet the anti-theft regulations. Back in the 70’s the typical set up was that you could not turn the ignition switch to the lock position unless the shifter was in park. That is why on GM cars with a floor shifter in that era the shifter collar and linkage is still on the steering column. That linkage connects to the trans and moves with the floor shifter. That was to move the blocker that prevents the ignition switch from moving to the lock position.
Manual trans vehicles typically include some sort of button or lever that must be pushed to turn the cylinder to the lock position. My 06 F250 has that.
I think for many people if not most if their daily driver is a push to start vehicle, pushing to stop becomes intuitive. When I go a few weeks where I only drive my PTS vehicle using the key on one of my others takes a whisker of a second to revert to. Slowly but surely we will see drivers that have never used a key in the ignition.
As far as parking the car in the garage, the problem initially was mainly with Hybrids, specifically Prius as the engine will almost always be off when you put it in park so their is no engine noise to alert you that the engine is running. The addition of stop start systems to many cars of course means they don’t have that indicator either.
However the mfgs have learned from that early Prius PTS implementation. On my car if you open and close a door with the engine in the ON position it will honk the horn and flash the lights. And it has to be IN the car not just near it. I can push the door closed with my hand that contains the fob and it will still honk. If you ignore that it will shut down after 30min if I remember right. It is a hybrid so it wouldn’t run the engine a lot in that time.
I’m pretty sure most new PTS systems have at least the horn warning if the fob leaves the vehicle.
As far as needing the key to get into the house many people do not lock the door between the garage and house when they leave, not saying that is a particularly great idea, but that is common. The lack of using a key on the car has helped fuel the rise of electronic locks for the home. I seriously had a client that wanted to list their home that could not find a key for their front door since it had a key pad, they never put the keys on their ring. They were able to find one key for the door between the garage and house. They never locked it so again, they never carried it.
In that vein, one of the better parts of the Tesla is not needing a key or a button to push at all. I never leave the house without my phone and if I did the keycard is in my wallet. I doubt many drivers under at least 40 do either. Yes I was dubious about it at first and am not the first to always embrace new tech, but it simply works.
It starts itself as you approach and shuts down and locks itself as you leave it. That is how the future should (and likely will) be, I think the Mach-E was similar except I think you still had to power it on via a button which it really doesn’t need, it too knows you are there. The less crap I need to schlep around the better, there’s nothing less useful than a key or fob in my pocket all day long when I’m not driving the car. And GM proved that an “old-skool cylinder lock” is not nearly fail-safe once and for all.
Yeah I never go further than taking out the garbage w/o my phone and wallet. I certainly wouldn’t mind ditching the fob for my phone I don’t know about getting rid of the “start” button though. There are times when I don’t really want the car waking up and turning itself on. Unloading from a trip to the store, cleaning it, or just sitting in the parking lot on a mild day with the windows down waiting for the wife who needs to run in for “just a minute”.
Personally I have a set of building keys that I carry, for my home and the one my daughter lives in as well as a couple for work. The car keys are all individual and I grab what I’m going to drive when I leave the house.
I wouldn’t want to rely on my phone as a car key. Do you have a physical key or fob as backup? Yes, you can lose your keys, too, but they’re easier for me to keep track of throughout the day. Once they go into my pocket, I don’t have to handle them until I use the adjacent key to unlock my door. Meanwhile during that day I might have handled my phone a dozen times, with each time an opportunity for dropping or misplacing it. A spare key in the form of a cell phone would be an expensive solution, especially if it needed to be internet connected.
Fascinating topic, Daniel!
Without turning this into a book, here’s what I LIKE from the present:
Stalk-mounted high-low beam control (I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to go back to the dimmer switch on the floor, especially with a manual transmission). And yes, I like the pull/pull variant like on my early Rabbits and on a rental Dynasty.
Radar cruise control
Smart keys with pushbutton ignition switch — never have to take keys or fob out of my pocket
Heated seats
The CORRECT type of lane-keeping: As on a rental 2020 Hyundai Elantra that gently nudges you into the center of the lane (unobtrusive and easily overridden).
Rear cross-traffic warning: a real boon when backing out of parking spaces blocked on either side by high-riding vehicles.
Rear-view cameras
3-knob rotary climate controls (the best ever invented, now only on the cheapest econocars). Maybe add a 4th knob for today’s dual-zone systems.
Tethers on gas caps.
Two blasts from the past: vent windows and kick panel fresh air vents.
DISLIKES:
Carpeting — why? It’s fine for houses where you can take off your shoes, but not for cars where you can track in all kinds of dirt, water, snow, salt, and worse. Why not padded rubberized flooring like the Honda Element tried to introduce?
Super complicated center displays — knobs and buttons are better.
Wheels with absurdly low profiles — too easy to curb those lovely alloy wheels. I don’t see why everyday sedans need wheels larger than 16 inches and tires below 60 series.
No delete option for factory navigation — Everyone’s cellphone can do the job just fine.
That’s a great one — a little improvement that has prevented hassles for a lot of people ever since it became commonplace.
And regarding your comment about carpet, I love the WeatherTech removable, custom-fitted plastic floormats that I have in both of my cars. They’re not cheap, but it’s awfully nice not to worry about tracking mud, dirt, sand, etc. into the car. Just hose them off, and they’re clean again.
Agreed. Literally the first thing I did when I brought my new car home was to hop on their site and order the custom mats.
I did the same for my mother and she managed to somehow dig a hole into the drivers side with her heel in front of the pedals. I sent pics to WT and they sent her an entire new front set for free.
I bought a full set of WeatherTech mats for my Accord. I grade them at about a B-/C+. There’s nothing the matter with the trunk mat or the seldom-touched rear floor mat, but the front mats—especially the passenger side—have buckled and gone wavy along the outboard edges. Also, there’s almost no ribbing and no dam to confine the entrapped water, which happily sloshes rearward to soak whatever I might have stashed under the front seats (hi-viz safety vests, in my case).
I have Weathertech mats for my Forester and my Fiat 500 and they are standing up well in both. As for the water sloshing, I solved it for the Subaru by putting an old set of L.L. Bean “waterhog” mats on top of the Weathertech. They soak up all the water and keep it from spilling over, but it seems like a lot of effort to have to add 2 layers to protect carpets that no one ever sees.
I did the same thing with my recently purchased Camry, except I bought Husky Liners. I had issues in the past with Weathertech mats buckling and not fitting as well as I thought they should. The Husky Liners have stood up well in other vehicles that I know of or have in my fleet that have them.
I don’t understand the modern impetuous to yank carpet out of homes for hard flooring but keep carpeting in cars. Anybody who cares about their car and tries to keep their interior in good condition covers the carpet with rubber mats and keeps them there through their entire ownership.
I’d trade radar cruise control, backup sensors and merging sensors for a sensor that detects if you’re about to rash your big wheels on a curb.
I’d accept your curb rash alert, but I’d prefer wheels and tires sized appropriately for roads and at speeds I actually drive. Why does my Accord need 17″ wheels and 50-series tires???
He needs a set of old-school curb feelers, an important and critical aftermarket feature seen on almost every Lincoln TownCar and Cadillac DeVille in 1980s SoCal driven by anyone nearing retirement age. And many lesser cars too, but curiously almost always American-branded.
Your Accord needs the large 17″ wheels to house those big disc brakes in case you figure out how to override the grade-logic you despise. 🙂
Actually Honda brakes generally seem to suck and warp quickly, the grade logic is probably better for most that regularly go down large and steep hills/mountains. That’s my experience only, so anecdata, of which we know what it’s worth…
Curb feelers: great idea! Wonder if they can still be had. Wonder if they could readily be attached to the Accord.
I easily, completely, and enduringly solved the brake-warp problem on my ’07.
In my rabidly pro-old-anti-new-car youth I used to preach superioerity of kickswitches for high/low beam, but the pull/pull turn signal stalk operation really is superior for a bunch of reasons.
See above for my reasons why pushbutton engine start/stop is not okeh.
Heated seats are YES. Cooled ones, too, I imagine (never had ’em).
I’m not dogmatically prescriptive on rotary knobs for climate control—my preferences allow for thoughtfully-designed sliders and pushbuttons—but the main thing is that they be reliably operable by feel.
Tethered fuel caps, absolutely.
Kickboard or under-dash fresh air vents: hellz yes! The ’63-’74 Mopar A-bodies had very good ones…until water leaked in, the door hinges rusted, the door gaskets dried up, and other such artifacts of driving a car long past its intended service life. Or you didn’t use them for a long time, then one fine day decided to open your vent and got a shower of leaves, pine needles, dust, and frass!
I’m onside for rubber floor mats and against ridiculously giant wheels and rubber-band tires.
And you’ve got an excellent point about nav systems. They go obsolete just as fast as a celphone, but a celphone is much more easily replaced with new!
I’ve never understood the point of heated seats. If it’s cold enough to want them, I’m dressed warmly enough not to care, and the car warms up enough to have heat in a few minutes.
I have a bit of a qualm arguing with you about this, given your apparent location, but I really like heated seats. True, in severe cold one’s layered clothing make them substantially irrelevant, but there’s a lot of real estate between balmy summer days and subfrozen depths of winter. Heated seats are really nice on the many chilly days not cold enough to warrant a full bundle-up.
Well, Jeff in MA really likes the heated seats…and it’s not typically as cold here as it is in NH 😉
I generally leave the cabin heat turned down to something in the low 60s, but when it’s truly cold out, I turn on the heated seat. That warms up right quick and is much more immediate than the heated air that comes from the heater. At least that’s what works for me.
I would like an audio system that I don’t have to take my eyes off the Road, to do on the fly adjustments.
I had a friend in high school who said to me “Cool-whip fenders!”
I said what?
He said ” fenders should be made out of the same stuff they make cool-whip containers with. They would flex but not dent.
This was 55 years ago.
Funny how the funnel for the ignition key showed up on ’67-72 GM trucks.
I wish someone would invent controls for basic functions, like HVAC or audio for instance, that didn’t rely on small, non-tactile buttons or touchscreens. Maybe something like… a knob?
I just got back from a road trip from Virginia to Alabama and back, and even though our minivan is far from complex by today’s standards, I found myself weaving out of my lane several times when trying to search for temperature controls, etc. Big knobs are easier for a driver to use, and safer too.
What I’d like back;
Not much really, other than interior colors other than black, but my car’s a base model made at the end of its’ design cycle so it has a lot of features like a volume knob and a traditional key start.
What I’d like;
Rear-view camera lens behind the rear window glass within the area swept by the rear wiper. Some means to turn it on other than engaging reverse is in the “nice but not necessary” pile.
I can yell at zoomers just as well as the next guy, but you’ll have to take my keyless entry and Apple CarPlay out of my cold dead hands. I’ve gotten into the habit over the last few years of plugging in the phone even when I know where I’m going and it’s saved me a few times from blindly going into a traffic jam/closure/accident on routes I’ve been driving for 20 years.
I also really like the cross-traffic backup sensors. No replacement for alert driving but a great belt and suspenders thing to have. Oh, and the heated steering wheel. That needs to be on more cars, especially by the time I’m in the market for a new car.
I remember the day my mother (whom you might remember from certain of my COAL posts) first saw an ’86 Mercedes W126 parked in our neighbourhood. “Wipers on the headlights? That’s ridiculous.” I had a similar reaction when I first heard of heated steering wheels. She and I were both wrong.
I’m totally with you re. keyless entry and CarPlay.
And so far as the heated steering wheel goes…Yes. I’ve thought about retrofitting it to my car (as it was available a few years after). Someday I might just.
Using E15 is required where I am and don’t drive much lately. Would appreciate a manual choke/throttle like the old days. Vent windows are missed as well.
Where are you located that E15 is required? E10, yes, lots of places, but E15? Nowhere in North America, that I’m aware of.
Tactile buttons, knobs and sliders. Am I the only person who thinks touchscreens look and feel cheap? Many cars now are even replacing the analog instruments with LCD screens with drawings of analog instruments, which is just perplexingly stupid looking, and completely counter to the reasons why analog prevailed in popularity over the digital gauges of 30+ years ago.
I think cars kinda peaked in still useful to this date features by the mid to late 90s, anything new since then seems grossly unnecessary, gimmicky or detrimental to the operation of a motor vehicle. But I do like some trivial things like dedicated USB slots for chargers, Bluetooth pairing and I don’t particularly dislike the keyless systems(though I don’t care much for it when the fob battery dies).
I don’t miss cassette or CD players, power antennas, ash trays and cigarette lighters (especially when there’s only one)
I’ll grant you that some of them are stupid (Mustang speedometers with “Land speed” callout, for example), but how do you reckon they’re counter to the reasons why analog gauges won back out over the flashing digits and bar graphs that were trendy for awhile?
One of the common complaints levied at old digital gauges with digits and bar graphs was how the sun would wash them out from legibility, it still happens with modern LCDs the same as it did then(though slightly mitigated by the poor glass area of modern cars compared to the 80s)
And for me it’s just the absurdity of it, I find a kitschy charm to an unapologetically digital dash with digits and bars, using technology to make what is nothing more than a drawing of real dial type analog gauges on a LCD answers a question absolutely nobody asked. I find them insulting to my senses.
Most modern versions have multiple display options, it usually isn’t only and exclusively a digital rendering of an analog gauge with nothing else. Often it’s possible to do away with the “gauges” entirely in favor of numerical displays or just one gauge and other more important to the current mission info being displayed (such as trans temps while towing along with other related stuff), or simply a different layout than having one fixed item. There are plenty of cases where this would be useful. In other words make it more usable for a variety of users and use cases rather than one fixed version that has to fit all.
In any case I’ve had multiple “normal” cars where the sun would reflect off the clear plastic in front of the real gauges rendering them invisible for what must have been whole seconds at at a time while the sun was at an unfortunate angle relative to my direction of travel, same as with the screens.
I understand the digital analog examples are part of multiple display options, but that is specifically why I think they look cheap. It very obviously costs less than to manufacture two separate clusters as options, and the ever prevailing one happens to have no separate and moving parts.
The key distinguishing trait of traditional analog dials is you become accustomed to the various needle placements as you drive, you don’t even need to see the text they’re pointing to in a car you’re familiar with and even when the sun reflects off the clear lens you can usually still see the position of needles through it.
The main thing I miss would be actual exterior colors that aren’t black, white, and grey.
The main thing I like about my 2019 Miata is controlling things via the knob (Eric703 nailed it). If we’re going to have screens for backup cameras and infotainment (and I’d argue we should), then they should be controlled sensibly and touch is not a sensible method for controls.
The biggest quality of life improvement I made is adding a wireless Android Auto module. Just getting in the car and having the electronics be modern without plugging anything in is pretty great.
My cars are a 2000 and a 2011, so I dont have touch screens and cameras and hooey-hoos and doo-dads to worry about.
I miss vent windows.
I don’t want a newer car with teensy windows.
I want all auto transmissions to provide engine braking. My ’05 Taurus instantly matched the revs and did none, and it was annoying.
Second-gear start was nice in snow. Had many old Fords that did that.
No auto-dimming rearview mirror. I want instant control over that function.
I miss glass-lensed headlamps. My ’89 Grand Prix (5 speed!) had those. 15 years old and still looked new. (I know, I know, optics/reflector degradation, etc. But they -looked- great!)
That’s about it. Mostly newer cars are pretty good.
Glass-lens headlamps are near the top of the shortest version of my short list of wannit-backs, for good reason.
Good, clear sightlines all the way around via ample glass area, appropriately low beltline, and thin pillars (and, er, absent rear head restraints)—also on my list.
I agreed with all you’ve listed, except I like big rear head restraints.
Please indulge me while I try to sell you on a used car choice. Older than you probably want but here me out…
That same ’03 Avalon I always mention was tops for me.
They’re quicker than you think, especially with high octane.
They handle better than you think. Not like a Camry of the same vintage.
The smoothness and linear feel.of the steering is unbelievable. And one finger steering at parking speeds.
They ride sublimely and with long travel. I honestly wouldn’t be afraid to go off road with one as even the brake lines are covered by a durable mesh.
Great ergonomics.
Great seats. I mean, REALLY great seats.
Headroom of a bus with little tumblehome.
Tall seating position.
Great visibility.
Overengineered everything, from switches to suspension to quality of the JBL audio.
Quiet A.F. too.
Oh, and the big rear head restraints don’t block visibility because of the tall boxy roof. (Of course, being tall helps)
Okay, end of commercial.
And happy new year BTW.
Mr. Dr. Sir Daniel Stern,
Am I having a Mandela-effect or false memory here because I could have sworn you had replied to this…
Sincerely and words like that,
TheConfusedOldMann
Good question. I remember this comment at the time you made it, but I can’t recall if or how I replied. All sounds good—probably I’d’ve done better with one of those rather than my Accord—but a quick used-car search suggests Avalons of that generation are pretty much all used up and gone, at least around here.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned heated mirrors. They should be a mandatory safety feature. High mounted turn signals and brake lights have been proven effective but Hyundai and Kia don’t seem interested lately. Three round knobs for the heater are the best set up ever. When your windshield is fogging the last thing you should have to do is play a video game to change the temperature and where the air is blowing. The roof trunk is interesting. With the height of today’s SUVs, all you would have to do to load it would be to back up to a second story window and pile your luggage in. No more running up and down the stairs carrying heavy bags.
I think the only vehicle I’ve owned with heated mirrors was my ’03 Avalon. They came on when defrost was selected. It was a nice feature to have the mirrors clear almost immediately and stay that way.
Heated mirrors are definitely a very good thing. I preferred their implementation on my many Chrysler AA-bodies (mirror heat on with backglass defogger) over the setup on my Accord (separate switch for mirror and backglass heaters).
Yes to heated mirrors switched with the rear window heater, but what about rear lights? Now that they are LED the snow does not melt on them and they get covered during heavy snow conditions.
The same is true of LED headlamps, in some conditions.
Most all ambulances here in the US have a high idle function that is activated by engaging the parking brake. It is canceled by either pushing the brake pedal or by releasing the parking brake. The real purpose of this high idle function on ambulances is to run the alternator at a higher rpm while the truck is parked on scene. We can use a lot of power while working on a patient on scene. You may have all the emergency lights on, scene spot lights, bright interior lights, heat or ac running full blast in both the cab and the box of the truck (2 separate systems) radios and communication equipment, cardiac monitors, IV pumps, and so on. Letting the truck stay at regular idle with all this running is a good way to drain your batteries. However with all that said, a lot of times when it’s cold outside crews will crank the truck and hit the high idle to get it to warm up faster. I always cringe at this as I worry about the 15w40 oil being to thick to flow freely!
I remember those articles when I was reading the Popular Science magazines in the 1970s and 1980s. I received the old issues from 1930s to 1960s in exchange for helping my neighbour.
I recently hired a car for moving the stuff from my home to my mum’s. The car was a 2021 Opel Insignia Sport Tourer (similar to Buick Regal TourX) with 2-litre four-inline diesel engine. What surprised me was how useful the features such as the speed sign recognition, navigation, lane departure warning with lane assist, hill start assist, side object warning lamps in the wing mirrors, etc.
I accidentally broke my prescription eyeglasses right before I left Munich. I have a nearsightedness with a mild case of nyctalopia (night blindness) without optical correction. I realised I could rely on the speed sign recognition on the instrument cluster to tell me the speed limit on the different stretches of Autobahn, the navigation to indicate whether the segment of Autobahn is straight or curving (slight or severe), the lane departure warning to correct bit of lane wandering, side object warning to let me know of vehicles on either sides, and so forth.
I felt so comfortable and so confident driving with those driver’s assist features that I ended up driving at 130–140 mph most of the way from Munich to Erlangen. That was the first time in my life and the fastest that I could drive at night without prescription eyeglasses.
Opel Insignia turned out to be the most competent and excellent car. The engine was the smoothest and quietest (not one iota of rumbling or shaking). And quite powerful, too. Despite travelling at 130–140 mph for 80% of the 120-mile drive, the car used a quarter tank of diesel fuel (about 4 gallons).
When I hired a Renault Trafic to move the furniture, one feature I absolutely HATED the most is the three-digit speedometer. It kept “twirling” around, distracting me from the road to look down to see any warning lights, but I ended up seeing the digital numbers changing all the time.
Well, I miss the plush velvet seats found on large American cars from the 1980s.
One big and one little item:
-the little thing: CD players. I have a flock of CDs, road trip mixes that I listen to. There doesn’t seem to be anyone that still offers a CD player in any car that I would consider.
-the big thing, make wagons and hatchbacks that fit in my dinky condo garage, so I can carry my stuff. The 2022 Civic hatch seems to have a couple issues: road noise and cheap, uncomfortable, seats. Sube is due for a new gen Impreza in a year or two. In the back of my mind is the thought Sube will do the same thing they did with the Legacy: offer a sedan, but only offer the wagon in jacked up, overpriced, “Outback” trim. If VW offered a mashup of the current Jetta with the EU market Skoda Scala, I would be all over it. But nope, can’t do that. They only want to sell tall, wide, expen$ive SUVs.
Lots of fantastic observations. I personally like the massively improved durability and
efficiency of drivetrain systems, but don’t have much use for excessive
electronic gingerbread.
In my ideal world I would be able to purchase a vehicle that is all analog other than
engine control.
Thing I like – fuel injection, 6-10 speed transmissions, remote start, power door locks and windows, turbochargers, catalytic converters, variable valve timing, overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder.
Things that I dislike – no fresh air vents, no coolant shut off valves, touch screens, touch controls, electronic diff locks that are really crap because it uses the BRAKES to stop spinning wheel, LOOKING at you, VW! Keyless ignition.
Another odd thing I hate is how the manufacturers make you buy crap you don’t want or need to get an option you want. Yes Ford, I would like to buy an F150 with LED or HID head lights without having to step up to fancy rig. Can’t I buy a work truck, an XL or XLT with decent headlights?????????????????????
One more – Ban Macpherson strut suspension!
Gaah! Pet peeve. It’s technically more feasible and costs less than ever before to build a vehicle with whatever equipment is specified, item-by-item. It’s just not allowed, is all. There’s no reason—not cost, not complexity, no reason at all other than pure, putrid greed—that the equipment of each and every vehicle coming down the line couldn’t and shouldn’t be specified in line-item detail by the buyer.
But instead, we have the American-market auto industry’s beloved options-bundling scam. Want the upgrade headlamps? You can’t just specify them and pay the $500 or so they’d cost as a standalone option with plenty of profit margin built in. No, to get them you’ll have to spend many thousands of dollars to buy a high-trim model which also comes with a whole bunch of extra stuff (and extra-large digits after the dollar sign) you probably don’t want. And that doesn’t get you the upgrade headlamps, it just makes your car eligible to be equipped with them, which can happen only if you buy the Preferred Technology Group, available only with Quartz Grey or Graphite Black paint ($9,400; includes smart ashtray, LED footwell lighting with 256 selectable colours, colour-keyed rain-sensing rear license plate frame, LED headlamps, power-operated driver and front passenger sunvisors, and crayon drop alert in the rearmost row of seats) or the Winter Prep Package II, available only with Frosty Beige or Sahara Sand paint ($9203; includes heated interior door handles, heated sideview mirror adjustment controls, smart spare-socks holder, heated seats for driver and rearmost middle passenger, LED headlamps, heated tailpipe, and coffee cup assist).
They all do it. When my mother went buying her second Subaru in 2016, they wouldn’t let her have HID headlamps on her new Outback unless she bought the uppermost premium model with the 6-cylinder engine. If she’d been in Canada, she could’ve specified them on her 4-cylinder car. These are cars built in the same plant to identical regulations, so we’re talking about an arbitrary decision some greedy dillweed made. And it was the other way round with VW not long ago: no HID headlamps on Golfs or Jettas in Canada, but you can have ’em all day long in the States (as part of a bloated option package); the bulk-wrap official explanation was that VW didn’t want “too many model variants”.
Grr, snarl, etc.
(Speaking of grr, snarl, etc: it is an error to conflate “LED headlamps” with “decent headlamps”, especially where Fords are concerned)
“smart ashtray”
LOL
Is is smart enough to put the cigarette out and give you a smack/lecture?
As a more or less house-bound cyclist in Vancouver for the past week, I’ll go for just about anything that will give us clear streets again. Perhaps some ’50’s atomic technology…is ‘Nuclear Summer’ a trademark yet?
Or just a handlebar-mounted laser that will vaporize ice, snow, and hopefully not too many neighbourhood cats.
Ah, so you want a bicycle-scale one of these. Me, I want two of them: one pointed downward to clear and dry the road; the other aimed upward at unsafe and discourteous drivers.
It’s melting now, thankfully.
Yes…now lettuce hope it doesn’t re-freeze midmelt, but I’m not optimistic!
My first thought was that I miss vent wings and in general, cars designed to be driven with the windows open. I don;t like a lot of noise and buffeting and I have noticed that my 2002 Ford F150 can be comfortably driven at 40 mph with the windows down and and our 2016 Mazda CX-5 gets unpleasant around 30 mph. I also miss direct vent like the under the steering wheel vent in a Volvo 164 or the signature vent flaps on a Series Land Rover.
Stuff I don’t miss includes ashtrays because I don;t smoke, 2 speed automatics, pseudo automatic like the old Hondamatic, carburetors in the winter.
I realized that the last time I owned a car or truck with a carb was 1993 and the last time I drove one regularly was 1994. I was reminded of this while checking out a 1978 Suburban that took several tries to start and several minutes to stabilize while our 2003 Buick started first crank and ran smoothly in seconds after sitting in the snow for weeks.
Regarding new stuff, I appreciate navigation and Bluetooth phone integration but can live without driver assist products. On the other hand after my last attempt at teaching our teen aged daughter to drive I see the value of both driver aids and good self driving cars since she drove a like “worst of Tesla FSD Beta” video.
I would also like to see the return of station wagons and small people movers in the US. I would have gladly bought a Mazda6 wagon with AWD instead of a CX-5 and indeed I would have happily bought another Mazda5 when ours was totaled. The Mazda5 really was “enough car” for a 4 person nuclear family and the separate rear seats cut down on bickering. Too bad everyone wanted either a “rugged” SUV or a big minivan.
I’ve had Mazda 5s on my mind lately as a possible replacement for the Accord. If I could find a well-optioned not-black one with low KMs and a stick shift—lolrofl, and a couple of winning lottery tickets along with?—I’d likely pounce on it.
Well optioned and manual may be a stretch since at least in the US the manual was only on the Sport trim and not the Touring. That may be sufficiently optioned since our 2014 Sport had power windows and locks, automatic climate ,a single disk CD player and all of the nifty storage options except the drawer under the front passenger seat. (boxes under the 2nd row seat cushions and the flip out tray with cup holders and a covered mesh pouch for the 2nd row which was originally Touring only)
FWIW Auto Tempest turned up a 2012 Mazda5 in at a dealer in Roy Washington but mileage is high. OTOH Carfax said California and Oregon owners so unlikely to be rusty.
I could cite a lengthy list of things I don’t like on today’s cars.
The big one for me is the rear view mirror. You used to be able to tilt them upwards to reduce headlight glare from the rear. Car companies seem to have gotten rid of those – both me ’10 and my ’14 don’t have them. I believe the reason is that they want the mirror stable, to prevent wear on the microphone wire coming out the top, which links to the voice response system, at least in my cars. So we have headlight glare instead.
On the positive side, Daniel you mentioned the perma-lit dashboard lights. I do like that both my cars have an automatic switch, that when selected, goes from DRLs to full illumination when darkness is imminent. That is a good feature, I never have to worry about my lights being on or not.
One feature I don’t like is that the VIN numbers are visible through the windshield. As has been written in the media, thieves use those VINs to create key fobs to steal cars. I have covered both of my VINs. I would use a club too, except they scratch the steering wheel cover.
As for the tablet looking touch screens standing up from the dash, I think a millennial invented that because it looked cool or something. Not.
Are there really modern vehicles that have no “dim” function lever or knob on the rearview mirror, not counting auto-dimming mirrors?
I can’t recall ever not having that be a thing, and I’ve owned some of the cheapest cars ever made. Escort, Tempo, Cavalier, Chevette, (base) Tercel; all had it.
I am now remembering driving some car, not my own, at some point a long time ago that lacked this function. Maybe my MIL’s Festiva?
I think the ’66 Falcon I test drove once didn’t have it. But it didn’t have much of anything.
I’m just surprised such a basic and useful thing would be omitted nowadays.
I have a hard time thinking the very slight angle change involved in operating a prismatic rearview mirror would be deleterious to an appropriately-specified wire. No glare reduction function on your rearview mirrors at all? Weird. Haven’t seen that since cars of the ’60s when prismatics were optional at extra cost. I dont’ like the automatic anti-glare mirrors—too slow and not enough glare reduction.
Automatic switching between daytime and nighttime lighting is the right way to do it, and is now required outside the North American regulatory island. I’ll have mine with nighttime lighting also switched on when windshield wipers are used for more than 30 seconds, please and thank you.
Agree with you on covering dashboard VINs.
It’s possible he actually has auto-dim mirrors but with the function turned off. Some have that as a button on the mirror or a command in a control submenu. I’m not aware of a vehicle that doesn’t either have that, the little lever, or the ability to twist it akin to Linda Blair’s head.
Doesn’t a duplicate FOB need to be programed to the vehicle before it will actually work?
Be aware that in some places (offhand, New York), obstructing a dashboard VIN is not legal.
To clarify, both of my cars have auto dimming rear view mirrors, however this function is nowhere near as effective as the old flip a lever on your mirror, in my view.
In my car, I sometimes use the rear window shade at night to reduce headlight glare from the rear.
In my mini truck, I have installed a dash cam rear view mirror over the factory mirror, which does not dim at night. At least that one is my own choice.
So called “Auto-Dimming” rear view mirrors, don’t, IMHO. They use a liquid crystal sandwiched between two (2) layers of glass that polarize the reflected light in hopes of reducing the glare. The old-fashioned manual day/night mirrors use a prismatic mirror that has both a full silvered coating and a half-silvered coating on two faces of the prism. The angle of the mirror with respect to the viewer determines which face is visible to the driver, so the selector lever is simply a cam that shifts the angle of the mirror to reveal the selected coating on the face of the prism. Simple and effective.
My present car, a 2013 Mazda MX-5 Miata, came with an auto-dimming mirror as standard equipment, combined with Home Link controls for garage door openers, so if I swap out the auto-dimming feature, I also lose the the garage door opener controls. I made the mistake of retrofitting the auto-dimming feature to my 2004 Miata using a dealer installed accessory mirror, and almost immediately regretted it, but once I had paid the money, I felt compelled to keep it, even though it didn’t work as well as the original mirror.
The liquid crystal is polarized when an electric current is applied to the crystal. The polarization is controlled by a photocell that senses light striking the mirror. When the light level is high enough, the current is switched off, de-polarizing the mirror. You can see the effect by covering the photocell with a finger. This fools the system into thinking it’s nighttime, and you can watch the mirror visibly darken as the liquid crystals align under the influence of the electric current.
I’ve never seen a mirror constructed that way. The ones I’m familiar with have a prism-shaped glass, all right, with only one of its rear faces silvered. When you put it in Night (anti-glare) mode, it swings that silvered face out of your line of sight and you’re just using the reflection off the front face of the glass.
Bring back; vent windows, knobs and push buttons for HVAC & radio, full size spares, front bench seats, ignition key, foot/hand operated e-brakes.
Eliminate the blinding fog/driving lights oncoming drivers feel they have a constitutional right to use.
Get rid of turn signals that are buried in the bumper and low to the ground.
While we’re at it, can we please separate the turn signals from the headlight assemblies? Many car’s turn signals get lost in the glare of the headlights at night, making them impossible to see when the headlights are on! Ford Explorers, E-Class Mercedes and Nissan Sentra’s are some of the worst offenders, but they are all pretty bad. I understand why the automakers do it, it saves money to put all of the front lights on the car (headlights, turn signals and side marker lights) in a single assembly. This trend started when European bayonet-style headlight bulbs replaced sealed beam headlamps starting in the 1990’s, but it hasn’t been fully thought through, IMHO.
The regs have a minimum intensity requirement 2.5× higher than baseline (500 candela rather than 200) for turn signals located within 10cm of the low beam, the front fog lamp, or the daytime running light*. That’s a good start, but it’s sometimes not adequate. The rapidly-accelerating proliferation of LED headlamps is helping out here by dint of the much bigger colour contrast between the headlamp and the turn signal.
(point of clarification: bayonet-type headlight bulbs went obsolete before 1955, and haven’t been in use anywhere in the world for many decades.)
O.K., Maybe I used the wrong term, but headlight reflectors that use a replaceable bulb have been a thing since the automakers got the sealed beam headlamp requirement repealed in the late 1980’s. Maybe it’s not a “bayonet” type bulb, but it is replaceable separately from the reflector assembly. I apologize for being imprecise about the terminology. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa!
Yes this. With light front damage, it takes the whole thing out. So at night, the whole side of the car is out. Especially if it’s the driver side, it’s dangerous when such a car is approaching.
I see this more and more as the older cars retire from the road. This wasn’t much of a thing when I started driving 30 years ago. There was a marker light in a different spot that would remain if the headlight was knocked out, or burned out. Unlike on the Ford Aspire, I first saw how the headlight doubled as the parking light, would just run at reduced intensity. Save some money, but less safe if the headlight burned out.
Reduced-intensity headlamps are used as a cheap and nasty way of implementing daytime running lights, but not (ever) as parking lights. What you saw on the Aspire was a type of parking light which has a small 5-watt bulb grommetted into the headlight reflector, separate from the actual headlight bulb. Euro-fanboys call these “city lights” and make up all kinds of stories about them.
Cornering lamps. I want cornering lamps back. We had them on our ’93 Sable, and they were a big help.
I want our next car to have adaptive cruise control. We experienced it once on my husband’s parents’ RAV-4, and loved it.
An automatic that would stay in second gear? Ford had it years ago with the Select-Shift Cruise-O-Matic, and they touted the ability to go through the gears automatically in Drive, or stay in either first or second. I would like something that acts similarly in our hybrid’s CVT-like transmission.
I don’t miss vent windows, or foot-operated dimmer switches, or cassette players. But I don’t want everything trapped in a touchscreen, and I don’t like the things that stick up from the dash, looking like afterthoughts. I want some things to be controlled by knobs and switches, not by touchscreen.
I still want a CD player; I haven’t ripped my entire collection of hundreds of CDs, only some of them, and they won’t all fit on my iPod in any case.
I’ve come to realize that some cars and trucks now use the fog lamps as cornering lamps (speed dependent). So at low speeds, say under 25mph, if you turn past a certain angle the correct side fog lamp comes on and sprays vastly more light toward the turn. It’s often/usually an unadvertised feature but seems a good use of the otherwise barely if ever used item.
Yep, this is a thing. It involves light beams that are asymmetrical from each lamp, but symmetrical pairwise: the left lamp produces a beam that extends far out to the left, while the right lamp produces a beam that extends far out to the right. This one-at-a-time use of the lamps is far more effective and useful than traditional fog lamps are for most drivers in most conditions.
What’s interesting is that there are plenty of people who think fog lights are useless or pointless yet completely unaware of this additional function that can be simply designed in (basically a “free” feature”). As with many of these here-discussed “features” there are often secondary use cases or additional aspects that are completely useful yet unknown or ignored. Sometimes (often?) there is more than meets the eye.
The corollary to David’s wish is steering/swiveling headlights. It used to be that some modern (and old, i.e. Citroen DS) cars had them moving in tandem, they newest ones seem to often only move the one that is inboard of the turn. Yes, these are generally not cheap but the Corolla of all things even has them on some of the trim levels. Fantastic when driving about at night on a non-straight road, especially when there is little ambient light.
People who
thinkknow frog lamps are useless and pointless are vastly outnumbered by those who mistakenly think they’re useful for things they don’t and can’t do (show deer or other critters waiting to bound into the road, improve overall visibility, etc) and those who don’t know or care one way or the other, but run ’em all the time anyhow—presumably because I donno what this switch is for, but I musta paid for it, so gyoldurnit, I’m gonna have it switched on! (or fog lights are kewl). Not just a guess, this; reliable research found significantly more American drivers use their frog lamps in clear weather than in the bad weather they’re (nominally) meant for.Swivelling headlamps are a thing of the past, completely outmoded by ADB.
Speaking of the uselessness of fog lights, I referred to the factory ones on my 2000 Chevy Malibu as “Decorative Fog Lights” (and kept them off as much as possible)
I’ve been known to refer to them as primary glare providers.
Yeah cornering lights are one of those things that I hope make a comeback in a big way. Haven’t experienced ones like you describe, but I do like my old school separate units.
It’s long past time to make it mandatory that headlights come on when the car is started.Most cars have dashboards that light up upon starting and that gives the driver the false impression that their headlights are on. I see them often driving in the dark with no lights on. Then there are the ones who refuse to turn on their headlights on their silver car in thick fog. Many states have laws that if your wipers are in use your headlights must be on. I think that the police are the biggest offenders of that law. Just wire them in direct.
Not enough states have lights-on-with-wipers laws, and of those that do, not enough of them specify that this means low beams with all ancillaries (tails, side markers, etc), not daytime running lights. I agree with you that this ought to be automatic. But headlamps-on-with-ignition is really not the optimal way to do it. Automatic switching between daytime running lights and full nighttime lights is.
Agree with HBE.
The dash gauges on my 07 Camry are so deep the instrument panel has to be illuminated when the car is on. A few times after buying the car I was guilty of thinking my headlights are on when they weren’t.
Missouri has a mandatory “headlights on when raining” law. Compliance by drivers is nil.
DRLs should be prohibited, and any car equipped with them should be legally required to have the function disables.
I don’t agree; they significantly reduce crash likelihood. Most arguments against DRLs, whether or not their exponents realise or admit it, are arguments against the problems caused by particular implementations, not against the concept itself. Bad implementation can spoil even the best concept, and American regs allow bad DRLS—too bright (glare, turn signal masking, false impression of having headlamps on at night), too close together (false impression of vehicle width/distance), inappropriately hooked up (turning the parking lights on should kill the DRLs, and there should be automatic switching between daytime and nighttime lights).
No, it’s their existence I object to. I don’t care how well they are implemented.
Okeh, why?
I ride a motorcycle. DRLs eliminate my only visibility advantage: the always-on headlight.
Fair point, though this hasn’t translated to significantly increased motorcycle crashes where and when DRLs have been broadly adopted across all vehicle types—and it has been closely studied in a lot of countries.
There’s been a lot of really good research over the last 10-15 years into motorcycle conspicuity, with some solutions that give much better results than headlamp-on-with-motorcycle-running ever did. And now we have the technology, technique, and market demand to give motorcyclists better lighting than the table scraps they’ve had to make do with for so long (half a car system at best).
Regulations don’t keep up with the science, though, especially in the USA. And because the world is run by those who show up and squawk, regulatory effort gets dragged through wrong turns and down blind alleys. Headlamp “modulators” that do a constant high beam/low beam blink, brake light flash/pulse/blink gadgets, and other “common sense” ideas with zero basis in fact, reality, or science, which at best don’t actually improve anything for anyone—the lighting equivalents of loud-pipes-save-lives fatuity. I don’t blame motorcyclists at all for demanding their proper share of attention in traffic safety regulations, the problem is filling that gap/deficit with guesses, assumptions, marketing BS, and “common sense” instead of reality-based solutions that actually work.
Very good stuff to read! I think for some of the proposed features the time had just not yet come! Take the 3rd brake light: Today nobody would say “Crap, what is that good for?”
I know a former engineer for a well reputed, major German manufacturer of car audio who told the story that a group of engineers had the idea of making a mobile navigation system. In 1980! They built a prototype, burnt much midnight oil, got it basically functional at last. Presented it to the top management and got bashed. “Who needs that? Nobody! Never there will be a market for such a toy! My wife has always maps on her lap! Waste of resources…” Statements by otherwise wise members of the board, aged 60-80.
A little later, some other company was first to sell that “toy”! I would not want to miss that any more!
Joe
There are still people blathering from willful ignorance that the CHMSL (3rd brake light) is a stupid, useless example of big nannystate government overreach and blahbitty blah blah. But yeah, interesting to see those high-mount stop lights proposed in the early-mid ’60s.
The story about the nav system is sadly not unique. A great deal of innovation has been snuffed out or gift-wrapped and handed to other companies (or other countries) that way.
Want:
Genuine LSD, not the fake “traction control” that brakes one wheel and reduces engine power. I’m planning to install one in my xB this year. I’d like one in the Promaster too, but that might get a bit more complicated.
Like Jim, I don’t like “heated” fresh air. I only use a/c when I really need it, which in our climate is not that often. I installed a valve on the heater hose in my xB; it makes a noticeable difference. The Promaster’s vents run quite cool, so presumably it works a bit differently.
Love the simple three-knob HVAC controls on the xB and Promaster; do not like the automatic climate control on the TSX.
Do not at all like the automatic grade retarder or whatever it’s called on the Promaster. You head down a grade and it ferociously downshifts to whatever gear is necessary to maintain the same speed as it was before reaching the crest, regardless of whether CC is on or not. Very annoying and almost impossible to defeat. I’ve just given up and ignore hearing the engine revving like mad.
I prefer to slow down some on upgrades and speed up some coming down. This makes that almost impossible. Yes, you can give it gas to go faster, but that makes it rev even higher initially, and the it still wants to maintain the speed that you sped up to. You can’t properly use gravity as your friend. Annoying.
Frankly, I’d probably really like the European version with the turbodiesel four and 6 speed stick.
My Accord has an early version of that obnoxious nanny-knows-best shift logic you describe; it downshifts on closed-throttle hill descent. Umm…why? It’s got big disc brakes at all four corners, not 9″ drums!
Our ’11 Escape has hill descent control.
It can be turned on or off with a simple button.
I’ve never needed to use it so I don’t know how exactly how it functions. We aren’t near anything remotely close to a large hill so I’ll probably never try it.
I prefer to slow down some on upgrades and speed up some coming down.
I do that, too, and wonder why more people don’t. I’m sure it gives me an extra 0.5 mpg.
Oh, yes, that bloody idiotic automatic downhill downshifting! It used only to be a quirk – in English, “fault” – of French autoboxes, presumably because not many Euro cars had autos so they assumed the driver to be a simpleton. But it has spread beyond the land of the long white Gauloises, it seems, and is a nasty variant with no cure, other than elimination.
You might want the Euro drivetrain, but by some alchemy that occurs as soon as they leave the Continental shores, they abandon all their local longevity, and by the time you’ve paid for a turbo, an EGR and a DPF by 100K miles, you might want it less.
Agreed, about the diesel. I was referring to the older (dirtier) EU version that lacked those. The had a good rep.
I (belatedly) see what you did there!
Descent control is a mixed bag, first experienced it in my 2005 Ford Freestyle CVT, it was maddening and I wondered if it adversely impacted fuel usage.
My ’12 F-150 V8 six speed seems to be free running, except when put in tow/haul mode. I rather like it with my 5,000 trailer, keeps things under control.
When driving many steep grades in the Rockies last year, without a trailer, I switched to tow/haul, and deeply appreciated not having to ride the brakes.
I’d use it too, if heavily loaded or pulling a trailer. Actually, I’d prefer to just use the manual shift function, and select my own gear. There’s many times when 5th gear with an occasional touch of the brakes would be preferable than roaring down in 4th at 4500 rpm.
I would welcome the ability to choose whether to have it or not.
WISH LIST:
– CD player (I’ve got 3 ft stack of CDs at home)
– Engine that idles at stop lights (rip out the start/stop circuit)
– Plain Jane V6 (no turbo, no hybrid; 4 cams are plenty)
– Plain Jane Automatic (no CVT; 4 or 6 speed is plenty)
– 4 Wheel independent suspension (no air shocks; coil springs are best)
– Power steering (not electric; hydraulic pump is preferable)
– Master switch to Turn Off the shaking steering wheel, lane change flashing lites on dash, and other distracations
– GPS built into dash board (finally can take the Garmin off the windshield)
– Blue Tooth that can be updated (mine won’t pair with my new iPhone)
– I do like the reversing camera!!
So many great ideas and comments here. And they’ve opened my eyes to climatic conditions in northern-hemisphere winters.
I’m confined to being a passenger nowadays. I need wide-opening doors for easy entry and exit, grab handles on the A-pillar and/or above the door, and room for a walking stick. But the one thing I miss most is decent-sized windows that enable you to actually see your surroundings; not so the passenger can panic, but so the driver can take appropriate evasive action. Okay, thick pillars for roof crush protection, I get that, but let’s apply some common sense here.
Basic probability. Probability of being in a rollover? Somewhere near zero. Never happened to me, and only to one person I know in my entire lifetime – and that involved worn semi-trailing arms, a gravel road, and being late for work. Okay, we can get all emotive about how horrible it is – and it is – but rather than scoring points, emotive language loses you marks in debating. Or it did in my schooldays. Fact is, rollover protection is great, yes, BUT most of us will never need it. Thank G-d for decent chassis design.
Probability of needing to see what’s around you? Much higher. Okay, you can throw in blind spot cameras and reversing cameras (which beep and burp if so much as a butterfly passes the sensor), but wouldn’t it be better not to have such big blind spots in the first place? I get the impressions today’s cars are designed for the illusion of strength rather than necessarily for actual strength. Thick pillars look safe; I get that. But there’s a better way: superior strength steels. A mate has an old Volvo 960 – fantastic visibility, and you can’t tell me that’s at the expense of roof strength.
So we’ve dealt with pillar thickness. Now about that waistline height…..
Well now, a letter to you about the Corinthians you mention: they’re not just about inadvertent parking on one’s roof.
Side impact forces have a miniscule timeframe to spread load and protect you, so those Corinthian pillars are all-but unavoidable. Notice too the entire flange-like structure of the door openings, all part of keeping that door from meeting you (and thus you, your maker). The forces have to go somewhere, you know.
I’m convinced that the tediously huge C-pillars on ALL moderns has a specific function too, namely this: in a crash, when all the front crumpling is done, there’s always still about 50% of crash forces to be absorbed – the cabin entire becomes a spring, which is why the crash-test cars bounce backwards/sideways after finishing and that spring is released – and I strongly suspect the C-pillar helps to sustain those ginormous loads without crumpling.
As for waistline height, this is not an advice Epistle, or indeed, appropriate site, but in kindness, I do suggest just learning to love the body you have.
Wow, so many comments already! So, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but I’d love to get back the old floor-mounted high beam/low beam switches of yore. Maybe it’s because what I learned to drive with, but I have always just found them preferable to the modern stalk-mounted switches.
Mr. Stern – God of automotive lighting – no doubt can provide the explanation as to why we no longer have those. 🙂
Yep, kickswitches have been mentioned several times…in the discussion thread. 🙂
I learned to drive with floor mounted dimmers and I never really liked them since I also learned to drive and mainly drove a manual trans vehicle. Very annoying when you are in the middle of a gear change or rolling up to a stop. But Auto High Beams are a must for me now, at least until the ADB starts showing up in the US.
Same here on the floor-mounted dimmers — the car I learned on had such a switch and a manual transmission. I found the stalk-mounted switch in European cars to be a revelation and was glad GM started to transition to this design with the ’77 B- and C-bodies.
Thanks for the pointer—Avalons have sort of been at the periphery of my awareness. I imagine it’s probably easy to find low-usage examples.
My distaste for rear head restraints is on account of my seldom carrying anyone in the back seat.
And happy new year to you, too!
Each of my successive four new cars have had better/more equipment than the previous one. #1: PS/PB, cassette; #2: PW/PL, sunroof, cruise, AC; #3: power & heated seats, CD; #4: leather and nav. I’ll be shopping in ‘23/‘24 for #5. On my “Is this going to be my ‘forever’ car?” list is heated wheel, ventilated seats, cushion extender, BS/CT detection, hybrid.
I’ve overall been very pleased with my Outback (some cheap components, but overall very competent and comfortable), so if they have a hybrid by then I’d take a close look. The Maverick also tickles my fancy, but maybe by then Toyota will be on the compact hybrid truck train.
Daniel – I had/have several fuel injected cars that have a significantly raised rpm cold idle:
1988 Honda prelude
1997 Honda prelude
2001 crown Vic.
My ‘94 525i and 560SEL give a quick burst of rpm when cold at start up.
What is the engineering reason for this? Do you or does anyone know?
Curious in Chicago.
Depending on the configuration of the system, it can be to ensure smooth running and adequate throttle response and/or to heat up the exhaust catalysts quickly.
The primary reason on modern cars is to get the engine and cat up to temp quickly.
If you monitor the coolant/cylinder head temp and desired idle speed you’ll see direct relationship between temp rising and idle speed decreasing. “Hot” idle speed usually won’t be reached until 120-130 degrees. On some of my vehicles it corresponds pretty closely to when the temp needle gets off the peg.
AC, one of my cars has it one doesnt and on my trip home after xmas the one that has it lost it 30c outside too and of course no quarter vents and unlike the older car theres no fresh air vent to open, I was considering just parkin my Citroen and driving the Hillman it is better with AC, but the system healed itself and now works as intended
Want:1) An external speaker so I can ask the driver in front of me why they insist on stopping a car length or more behind the car in front to them.
2) A programmable electronic sign in the windscreen, with a mirrored font option getting right lane bandits out of the right lane.
Don’t want: 1) Touch screens for HVAC. What’s wrong with sliders and knobs that I can find and adjust with out looking for them?
2) Connectivity. It’s a car. Not a phone or PC or my office.
End of rant. For the moment.
Wants:
Sunroof delete option
Automatic speed control that doesn’t freak out when it detects white semi’s or any largish other white object including cars, suvs, snowbanks, buildings and immediately panic slows the car -often in traffic.
Move the tablet device off the dash the only thing I use it for is adjusting car setup and navi. Could be done with an app.
Fully adjustable passenger seats with same range as driver.
Washer for backup camera lens.
Carpeted flooring.
Backup cam
Dislikes:
NAV system that has to verbally tell me when to turn, etc etc etc. Cannot turn it off or turn the volume down. The system turns itself back on and turns the volume back up.
19″ wheels and low profile rubber.
NAV system, phone works fine – but major profit center. So not gonna happen.
Black interiors as only option.
Tiny side mirrors.
Lane departure.
Like to have:
A billion power pop up rear facing light bar for the idiot brodozer tailgaters who plague my highway drives
I bought my floor mats at CT or $40 and they are much better than the stock ones.
What car doesn’t keep the Nav settings when you turn the car off and back on?
That’d be my 2018 honda accord. Drives me nuts! It’s a commonly reported problem/issue. The designer implementor should be punished for this. I like the car for the most part.
That is pretty lame. Settings like that should persist at least through a key cycle. I could understand going back to default if the battery is disconnected or goes dead.
No one’s mentioned column shift (or I missed it), which was considered a great advance in the late 30s, before power steering. I’d rather not have a console in the knee either, and their armrests never seem to be at the right height.
I’ve had radio buttons on the steering wheel for 33 years (’88 Bonneville) and can’t live without them.
My DTS has automatic cornering lights (with signal or wheel turn), but they’re not terribly bright and too low. I’ve used the trunk pass-through more than I expected. I can carry 8′ boards and still close the trunk.
I forgot one and see no one’s mentioned it in all of these comments. Why do so many speedometers today go all the way up to 140 or 160 mph, which means the speeds we actually drive are crammed into just half of the dial?
Here’s my ideal speedometer — round of course, goes up to *only* 110 mph, hash marks at every 5 mph increment, and numbers at each 10 mph increment.
(I realize the metric system would be a further improvement, but good luck on the US ever adopting it.)
The reason for the 140 marking on the speedometer is when it’s switched to Km/H mode. In my current vehicle, only the numbers are visible when the ignition is off. After the ignition is on, either MPH or KPH lights up.
Oops, forgot the photo. Here it is.
Want- (tried to not cover what others have)
The crotch cooler vent under the steering wheel for the AC
A real hand/emergency brake lever between the seats (yes I use this). I would prefer it to be up beside the steering wheel like in rally cars, but I can dream.
Heated seats and STEERING WHEEL (I made my own on my last car – fast and hot – excellent).
A proper parking location for the cell phone. This is now like R2D2 in the X-Wing. Integrate it, including charging. Car’s nav is inferior and becomes redundant.
A defeat button for the traction control and stability control systems. Because, winter. I could write an entire article about this.
Don’t want – pushbutton start/stop. Reasons above by others (DS). But I can tolerate this.
Automatic intermittent wipers. None of these I have had ever worked properly, always ending up at high speed.
Auto dim mirror – give me a prism. These things don’t dim enough.
Another one I’d vote for bringing back the crotch cooler.
Please tell more about the make-your-own heated steering wheel!
Take one fuzzy steering wheel cover, dip in lighter fluid….
Variety in design. Wider variety of colors. (I’m sick of silver four door transport pods) 2 door hatchback coupes . Color keyed interiors. Floor mounted hi beams. I drove semis 30 years . Ever go around a cloverleaf at 0330 and try to dim your headlights while steering a 40 ton truck around a ramp while flicking a highbeam stalk ? Bah humbug. Wing vents. Stop with these generic toothpaste tube pod cars . I’d take a 85 Thunderbird in a hot second or an 81 Dodge Mirada just to be different.
The admittedly 10-years-obsolete 2020 Grand Caravan was constantly criticized for not having all the modern driving assist features that the other minivans had by all the reviewers. To me having the basic ABS, stability control and airbags and not having the nagging yellow triangle constantly flashing in the periphery is all I really want that the Caravan has. I was actually relieved my Caravan didn’t come with the auto-start/stop as well — another example of a feature I could do without.
I’’d rather do the driving, thank you, and I fear that all the driving aids would make me complacent and lackadaisical when I drive cars without the driving-aid features. It’s bad enough the rear view driving camera on my van is conditioning me not to turn my head to look behind when backing up.
The only features I miss on the van are Apple’s CarPlay and radar guided cruise control.
Absolutely love the Caravan’s full stow-n-go also. Makes for a nice urban pickup truck when I convert the rear to a fully flat surface within a minute for hauling stuff.
Can I de-content a new car. The shot below shows everything I need except for maybe one minor annoyance. There is a key, knobs, a push-pull stalk, normal sized side windows, glass head lamps, electric side mirrors, multi-adjustable seat for me, analog gauges, a stick with clutch, and my tunes via an iPod plugged into my head set. Oh, and I have the swivel center vent. Damn, how lucky can one get!
There are many features of a modern car which I really like. The first is Android Auto. For a business person it is very convenient and when combined with Spotify, it makes the whole experience a lot nicer. I use the nav all the time as it can allow you to skirt the worst of Vancouver’s horrible traffic.
I could never go back to a car without heated seats but I don’t like keyless ignition. For example, if I am putting fuel in the car with the fob in my pocket, someone could jump in and drive away, at least for a while. Would this ever happen? Unlikely, but I always pocket the key if I am out of the car for any reason.
Another feature I like is how modern cars just run so well. They don’t require a lot of work to keep them running well,either.
The weather has been horrible but we seem to be returning to normal now.
I guess it depends on the MFG but on my PTS cars it won’t start if the fob is outside of the vehicle, even an inch or so. So if it is in your pocket and you are out of the car it won’t start.
I meant to say originally, Daniel, what an absolute ripper of a QUOTD! This will fly. And 160 comments on, and counting…
Having read all the comments so far, including mine, I’m convinced that if CC had a bunch of under-25 enthusiast commenters, they’d all be saying “What the beehive is wrong with these old farts? I mean, old cars are cool an’ all, but they just don’t get it, and pretty much don’t know how to use this stuff properly”. And when there are proper dumb faults in electro things, they’d have long found how to get round them.
In short, this is what cars now are, in just the same way that a 50 y.o. might’ve the semi-auto trans of a Model T so much better than the stupid and klutzy column shifts of a damn new 1940 model, not to mention the newer car’s plain foolish liquid hydraulic brakes and distracting radio, etc ad infinitum.
In even shorter short, the views here are vastly entertaining, but ain’t the future or worth a damn in it.
Agreed.
I would be quite happy to have all the controls be voice actuated, actually. That’s already a thing to various/considerable degree on some cars (Tesla, especially), because I’d like to totally skip the touch screen era.
I like the idea of telling my car what to do; it’s why I use cruise control constantly as soon as it’s possible. Having to monitor my speed and then use my foot to control that is frightfully archaic and tedious.
Repost when you have an AARP card in your wallet.
You give 25 year olds too much credit, as someone closer to 25 than 50 in age I still go primal when electronics don’t do what I demand.
I don’t believe there is a generational divide between things like touchscreens vs. tactile buttons. Both have their place, I’d never go back to a phone with buttons, that’s arcane, but I’m looking at my phone when I type on its keyboard. I’m not looking at the road when I change the temperature with a touchscreen HVAC system. I can use it just fine thank you, it just sucks to compared to a 90s car. For a world so ostensibly obsessed with form over function, I have a fundamentally difficult time accepting touchscreens aren’t being foisted into cars because they simply look tidier.
I always wanted a car radio that could record what was being broadcast, at will. How many times have you heard something—music, or something on talk radio—that you wanted to save ? Last time I checked, I was told there used to be an imported brand, perhaps Blaupunkt or Telefunken, that made such a radio.
S
You know, I never got why that wasn’t a thing either, especially if they could record AFTER the car is shut off for a set period of time. Before the days of podcasts I remember listening to talk radio shows on the drive and being so disappointed that I arrived to my destination just as it got interesting, or worse yet just then got out of the commercial break. Even the cheapest of cheap portable Walkman’s had record buttons on them, but I don’t think I ever saw a factory or aftermarket automotive cassette deck with one.
Once in 1990 I was driving to Michigan’s upper peninsula, and while going through the Milwaukee area, I heard a song I liked on the radio. I had my Aiwa “jam box” in the backseat, so I brought it to the front passenger seat, pulled the antenna up and recorded whatever station it was both ways of the trip. At the time, Chicagoland didn’t have much metal/”hard”rock played on the radio, and It was neat having a tape of different stuff recorded on the move.
I was more a “classic rock” guy but I discovered Dio for the first time on that tape and my horizons got expanded a bit. Recording on the move should always have been a thing.
It was a thing. Chrysler offered cassette decks with recording function (microphone on coily cord) in the early 1970s. They were made—at least some of them—by Philips. Info here and here. I think the intended use was very important executives dictating very important memos.
Wow, now I have definitely seen those in 71 B bodies but never knew they were anything beyond just a cassette player. Now I’m imaging the secretary dictating the memo for the executive who curiously chose a 71 Roadrunner:
“Earnings are down this quarter *meep-meep*. In order increase revenue we’ll need to cut labor costs *meep-meep”.
Have you ever used a streaming service like Spotify? You can store any song you like.
Nope, and shan’t. I want as little as possible to do with the cloud and _____-as-a-service.
One lone feature has created a possibly lifetime bond between me and my car. It was never advertised or listed in an options list, so it was a happy surprise after I took the car home. It’s the “DISP” button on the infotainment cluster. With one push, the damned distraction is switched off (and, rarely, on). When it comes to dashboard LCD screens, black is beautiful. If only I didn’t have to turn it on to see the time display!
Hallelujah!
Recently replaced the 1986 Jetta GL (high trim level) with a base model 2013 Mazda3. Both are 4 door sedans. Weight is 2230 for the Jetta, 2970 pounds for the Mazda, cars are of similar exterior dimensions. Safety improvements add weight to be sure. Engine HP is 90 for VW, 148 for Mazda. Both have 5 speed transmissions, the Mazda automatic, VW manual.
The added power, even with the extra weight, is nice to have, and MPG is about the same for both cars. The both coincidentally have 14.5 fuel tanks, which made this easy to compair. I have to admit for the around town traffic I don’t miss the manual trans much.
Mazda has independent rear suspension, VW twist beam, so doesn’t lift a rear wheel on sharp cornering, a nice upgrade, although the Jetta has always handled well even with the inferior rear design. Mazda handles better, Jetta has slightly smoother ride and less road noise, probably because of higher profile narrower tires on the VW. 185/60 R14 vs 205/55/R16. Mazda’s previous owner did upgrade to alloy wheels from steel, using stock size tires.
4 wheel ABS brakes vs disc/drum non ABS is a winner for sure, and traction/stability control on the Mazda is also a great upgrade. And 6 airbags, tensioner seatbelts, five 3 point seat belts (VW has 4 and center lap belt) and 0 bags, of course. You tube videos of both cars doing offset crash tests shows VW cage collapse and face full of steering wheel, while Mazda holds up well, no intrusion into passenger compartment. Safety has come a long way from ’86 to ’13.
VW has large windows and thin pillars, vision is great. No real blind spots, smaller outside rearview mirrors work fine and don’t annoyingly stick out as far as the Mazda’s large side mirrors do. First time I took the Mazda on the freeway, I watched the car next to me vanish from sight, huge B pillar blocking view and larger mirror seeing nothing. I bought spot mirrors and removed rear headrests which helps a lot, but rear/side vision is still inferior to the VW, takes more head turning, VW wins on the vision front.
Mazda has power windows and mirrors, VW manual winders and cable remote mirrors. Both have manual locks and key ignition, Jetta has sunroof which Mazda lacks, I haven’t opened sunroof in years anyways, so no big deal to me there. Upholstery and carpet quality on the VW is much higher then the Mazda, its still in fine shape after 35 years, I doubt the Mazda’s trim will hold up nearly as well over time. Back seat room is less in Mazda, and Mazda’s trunk in smaller as well, 11.8 vs 15 cubic ft. Jetta has rear seat fold down armrest with cupholders, Mazda does not. But Mazda has 60/40 folding rear seat backrests, Jetta is fixed. Mazda trunk lid has gas struts that don’t intrude into trunk, Jetta has hinges that intrude when lid is closed. Overall, Mazda has more useful space for cargo, but less rear legroom. I don’t often have rear seat passangers, I was able to carry a 6ft ladder to my rental in the Mazda, no way in the VW.
They both have amber rear turn signals, VW has glass headlamp lenses that are still clear, Mazda’s plastic headlamps were yellow and cloudy on the top portion, turtle wax polish, some old socks and a lot of elbow grease cleared them up well, I was happy not to have
to buy replacements. Mazda has 4 speaker radio with CD, VW cassette with 4 speakers, Mazda has USB inputs and power points for phones, I like the center console, armrest
and cupholders in the front which the VW lacks.
All in all, a nice up grade.
Daniel, the lack of engine cold high idle speeds is as you know a function of emissions and fuel economy. As a temporary measure, presuming your cold weather doesn’t persist forever, I’d suggest brake torqueing your car on the coldest of days for a minute or so say at about 1500 rpm. The trans fluid will heat up rather quickly, and if the cooler is part of the radiator, will transfer that heat to the antifreeze.
Back in my dealership days, when using a transmission fluid exchange machine (plumbed into the cooling lines) this was a quick way of heating the trans fluid enough to open the thermostatic bypass valve in the transmission and thus commence the fluid exchange.
Brake-torquing is one method I use for warming up the powertrain in a faster hurry (and those 2nd-gear starts also help on that front). I’ve also been known to hold the steering wheel against one stop or the other while holding the engine speed higher than curb idle to warm up other parts of the engine bay.
I would like to go back to the days of having full control. Here is what I miss.
Foot switch dimmer
Bat Wing windows
Rear view mirror without auto dimming
Analog gauges that are lit when I turn the lights on
4 Speed Auto – 17 Ford F150 10 speed is very tempermental
Ash tray
Engines you can actually work on without having a NASA degree. Some are still fairly simple, but I dislike having to “throw parts” in an attempt to resolve issue.
I miss GM being GM of the 60’s as opposed to today’s “gm”.
Likes –
Back up camera
Navigtion
Dislikes –
Radar Speed control
Auto Shutoff
All nanny driving utilities – Annoying. Lazy people – seem to be moving towards a vehicle that will drive people around while they sleep. This is my opinion.
The inability to turn such features off. Some manufactures do allow this.
Most pre-AOD Ford automatics WOULD start in second with the selector in 2. The C4, C6, and FMX (owned one, drove others) would. The A4LD would. (Owned one.) I THINK the E4OD/4R100 would. (Been a while, memory fuzzy.) I know the AOD would not…I don’t remember if the AOD-E/4R70W/4R75W will.
It looks like just about everything has already been touched on, but here are a few things that come to my mind in no particular order of importance:
I appreciate spare tires… even a pizza cutter spare will do in most situations where a can of frick-a-flat and a decal reminding you to call roadside assistance may not. Adequate ground clearance and tires with a sidewall are requirements, too. Though I usually shift into four wheel drive in low traction conditions, more control over an automatic transmission is nice for certain situations. Full instrumentation featuring gauges that don’t have their indication doped down by a computer for the average consumer, please… I can handle it! Vent windows are good for extracting the wayward fart and many other things. Kick panel vents too. I do like floor mounted dimmer switches for some reason (maybe because I’ve replaced a couple mounted on top of the steering column). The separate “city horn-highway horn” feature on my Peugeot 404 was pretty smart, as well. Cornering lights. Physical locks and keys- a rental Mustang with a dead battery hosed me pretty bad once, and it would’ve been a non-issue if I could’ve gotten into it to operate the hood release easily… and the stamped sheetmetal “key” hidden in the remote didn’t operate lock hidden under the pry-off cover on the door handle. Ugh. This may not be a popular opinion, but I would like to see ash trays and cigarette lighters return. I don’t smoke these days, but quite a few people still do, and it’s foolish to pretend they don’t. I know many of them will continue to flick their ashes and butts out the window, but at least this provides them with no excuse not to do the right thing. Would love to see a return to real colors being available inside and out, as well as ala carte options.
Please make the huge LCD screens go away! Even when they’re turned down low and displaying a black image, they still produce light and screw with my night vision. I’m well enough infotained for the road by a stereo that has knobs and buttons, and controls that are intuitive enough to operate by feel allow me to keep my eyes on the road. I also prefer to have full manual control over headlamps, HVAC/defrost functions, wipers, and not have the functions tied together. Having my deliberate effort to avoid spraying light into someone’s bedroom window while pulling into a driveway at night, thwarted by the electronics on a car that supposedly knew better than I… Nope!
I have a hard time with this one. On the one hand, yes, philosophically, I want a spare tire—preferably a real, full-sized one. But if I’m honest with myself, this is purely a reflexive, habitual, philosophical preference. I cannot remember the last time I had to change a tire (now please excuse me while I go knock on wood for half an hour). Moreover, spare tires can be very dangerous: tires age whether they’re rolling on the road or stowed in the trunk, and a tire over five or six years old is iffy as all hell even if it’s never touched pavement. This danger can be obviated with a full-sized spare and a 5-tire rotation pattern, but how many of us keep on top of rotating even four tires, let alone five? And for the matter of that, this makes those mini spares a whole lot more dangerous than they already are: the T135/90D15 one in my Accord is 15 years old. It would cost a fortune to replace—close to $500, that is if I could find a new one to actually buy—for an item I’m almost certain never to use. Or I could spend $160 on a 130/90-15 or 140/90-15 motorcycle tire instead. Which is safer, a new misapplied motorcycle tire, or an old mini spare? Whee!
I suppose my view on this is skewed by living and mostly driving where there are lots of tire shops within limping distance or at least a quick call to CAA will set things right. If I were driving further afield, that would probably put some sturdier ground under my preference for having a real, up-to-date spare tire.
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!” –Jack Nicholson
Yes, please. At least one!
Not in my car, they don’t! Most cars offer a “smoker’s package” as an accessory item, and that’s as it should be.
Because when you smoke, the world is your ashtray! (See also: dog owners. Yes, I know, not all, etc.)
and without bogus “Ohhhhhh…shyeahhhhh…so if you want the red, that’s a premium colour, so that’s going to cost you an extra $2193” crapola about it. (let alone BMW’s “Sure, we’ll paint your new car any colour you specify for an extra $5K, in case you’re uncomfortable with your neighbours forgetting their place and gaining on you”).
I think I ranted about this further up the thread.
I’ve had some amazingly bad luck with tires in my lifetime, and in fairly recent years (got my license in 1993). I’m not sure if this has to do with my usage patterns or failure to perform proper wood knocking, but I have learned to keep a fully inflated and serviceable tire and required tools to change said tire at the ready on any trip. I’m having a dry spell of late, not having to use a spare in the last four or five years, but don’t think complacency ever will catch me off guard. At present, most of my trips are on primary and secondary roads in somewhat populous areas, though I still venture off the beaten path a handful of times per year… occasionally getting far enough away from civilization to lose cellular service. This also brings to my mind, memories of venturing out in single digit temperatures with only tennis shoes and a light jacket… because all I had to do was make it from the house to the truck, then reverse that procedure once I got to my destination. No thought given to the notion that I’d be ill prepared to deal with -5 degrees (‘murican units) if everything didn’t go according to plan. This was in the days before I had a cell phone; the latter would make it a bit less risky, if not ideal.
Good point on the age of the spare. I too have considered that, and the price shock for a new temporary spare has led me to keep the old one in service. With all of my tire misadventures over the years, I have actually worn one out, and then had a tire shop somehow forget to put the spare back in the trunk… I of course only figured that out when I went to fetch the thing after my next flat, and found the trunk cavity empty. In both cases, I purchased unused replacements from cars in the wrecking yard. IIRC, my concern with a motorcycle tire was that its load capacity was significantly less than the tire it would be replacing. Having put more miles than I’d rather on pizza cutter spares, I’ve grown to accept them as an adequate stand-in for a real tire. Seems like the biggest issue is keeping them inflated to 60psi so that they’re ready to go when needed, since they only displace a couple of puffs of air.
One of the things I miss about ashtrays and lighters in cars, is that little bit of extra information they can give you when looking at a used car… I remember taking a lighter with the telltale white crust of having been used to light cigarettes out of a car and presenting it to a salesman who was crowing about how it “had NEVER been smoked in”… =)P
The only car I have ever had that didn’t have a spare tire was my 2015 Kia Rio.
Not surprisingly, it was with the Rio I had my first flat in like 30 years. That flat 30 years ago wasn’t much of a problem as I had a full sized spare. On the Rio, like a doofus I drove on it and ruined the tire.
My Golf has a full sized spare wheel. It is clad with a cheap-o temporary tire. When I eventually buy new tires, I will put the best to spare and have a completely functional spare wheel and tire.
I doubt I will ever use it.
I agree re spare tyres. Our Peugeot has a tyre inflation kit instead of a spare tyre. We thought that’d be fine, until the day we were on an isolated road in the middle of nowhere and the tyre blew. The bead unsealed which meant the inflation kit was pointless. There were no houses and no cell phone signal. Eventually a passing farmer gave me lift home to ring the breakdown truck. So for want of a spare tyre, we lost several hours and had to pay for the truck…
Remember looking a a “Dodge Challenger”, with a tire inflator” (no spare tire)
Immediately thought “bad idea”.
I forgot to mention one biggie I wish for: heater ducting that blows hot air forward on my accelerator foot, which tends to freeze because it’s up there in a dead-air zone, ahead of the downward-rearward airflow from the floor ducts.
My DTS has 4 heater openings in the driver’s footwell, which seems excessive. I know this because the blend actuator would switch to cold air after 15 minutes for the first 9 years I owned the car, so I taped the 4 holes closed for long trips and wore extra socks. This June, I found out I could replace the actuator without dismantling the dash, so I did. CarMax had sent the MI car to Florida to sell rather than fix it in 2013, the turds.
I realize I’m not the norm in terms of buyers of most anything, I don’t like to be “sold” anything, rather I want to buy what I want. I’m rarely the target market for anything these days, but what makes me sad is that I often don’t have the option to buy what I want even if I’m willing to pay more for it…spare tires, extra lock cylinders, etc. rate higher for me than navigation/entertainment systems, wood trim, plush carpet, etc. Utility should trump style or glitz in a car, even to the extent of paying for things that you might rarely use…spare tires, etc…because when you need it, you need it, especially far away from home. I know people have auto clubs, but what happens if you have a problem miles from nowhere with difficulty getting any help? It is kind of like insurance, nobody likes to pay for it, but when you need it you need it, and it should trump any kind of “nice to have” but something that doesn’t really affect the basic operation of a vehicle.
Actually went back a few weeks to look for this so I could comment with something that happened recently (to my Mother’s car, not mine, but I put it in category as if I owned the car rather than her, since I keep the car up for her).
She had her car battery go bad today. We have one of those “battery boosters” you can hook up to help start the car…but the problem is, it is kept in the trunk of the car. And if your battery is truly flat, …you guessed it, there’s no way to get into the trunk. She has a 2006 Impala which albeit isn’t a feature filled model, but to me, this is required feature…who wants to keep all their tools, battery boosters, etc in the passenger compartment (instead of the trunk)….for the case where they cannot open their trunk (i.e. if the battery goes flat on the road where you don’t otherwise have access to tools that might be available outside your car, for instance in your home shop. Her car lacks the fold down rear seat (blame my Dad, he didn’t think he needed it but to me it should be required in a car that doesn’t have mechanical access to the trunk should the battery go bad. If the trunk is full, it would be miserable to get to the kiddie escape latch to open the trunk from inside, but it can be done…but if you don’t have the tool to remove the back seat cushion in the passenger compartment, guess what…you are out of luck.
To me, this is akin to eating your meat and vegetables before you have desert…and to me points out an engineering lack on the car. Sure, batteries don’t go bad often, but they do, even on long trips, when you might not have access to tools (outside your trunk). I know some cars have ways around this, and I even found a youtube video from a guy in Manitoba that rigged up a cable release that ties into the kiddie escape latch (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XnlEpOT3LE). He rigged up a fishing line and remote access into the passenger compartment so he could pull the escape latch remotely. To me, GM should make this standard on models, especially those without a fold down rear seat, so if you have to get into trunk to get to tools or battery booster when you battery is dead…you can. If they save money leaving off the trunk lock cylinder, this should be available instead…it makes me feel like a chump if I buy a car that doesn’t have this kind of utility, especially if they put money saved leaving off the lock cylinder into something glitzy that I really can live without (even if I’m more likely to use it on a daily basis)…like insurance….pay for it even if you rarely use it.
Same for spares…even with better tires, what happens if you get puncture in a sidewall? Aren’t tires required for the operation of your vehicle? If so, think of a spare as insurance…yes, it costs money, takes space, decreases fuel economy due to weight, etc…but to me, even if you go years without using it..does that mean it is unnecessary? I don’t think so….but again, I’m not the target audience for lots of things, but it makes me sad that more people don’t think along these lines when they pick features they want included in their vehicles.
Flat white paint on the Honda Fit please! Here on the southern tip of Africa we are lucky to get hybrid and full petrol versions of the new Fit, but only with CVT transmission, and all paint options are metallic. Colours are a bit off in my opinion. Navy and red are a bit formal, a flat grey option, light or dark, would have been more on trend.
I had a good laugh at the squared-off oil cans suggestion, back in the early seventies my Dad used to bake bread in squared-off oil cans which he had cut the biggest side off. It always got a reaction from visitors.
What a difference a few days make. There is no longer any snow and we have a sunny day here in Vancouver.
That amt of snow went away in a few days?
Yup, pretty much in one night.
That’s because when it rains here, it really rains.
Actually, the pics you see up above are from roughly this time last year. This week, a considerably bigger amount of snow went away in a couple days’ time. Pic one:
…pic two:
…pic three:
…pic four:
…and pic five. We were supposed to get clobbered by a giant storm last Thursday: ice pellets, then a snow dump, then freezing rain. I guess the storm got sent UPS or elsewise lost or stolen or strayed; it never arrived. Instead temps jumped from -9°C (16°F) to 2 to 7°C (36-45°F) and the rain came and melted down all the ice; slush, and snow.
Wait, you still have those crocks that contain spreadable cheese in Canada!?? I really miss those things. We had a whole collection of those when I was a kid. Arrayed on the kitchen window as well.
As for features missing in modern cars, last year I went on record as liking the floor-mounted highbeams switch…which it seems like I’m the ONLY person who liked that. Oh well. This year, I’m going to complain about the lack of standardized windshield wiper controls.
Sometimes on a stalk on the left, sometimes on a stalk on the right. Likewise, the options for activating wipers vary from car to car. More than once I’ve sat in the rain trying to figure out how to properly activate/use the wipers on some unfamiliar rental car when something seemingly as simple as turning on the wipers (and having them wipe at a chosen speed) ought to be pretty much idiot-proof.
Ok, well maybe in my case it is idiot-proof and that’s why I can’t figure it out.
Those crocks are many decades old, from my grandparents’ house in Seattle. Spreadable cheese, you say? Interesting; didn’t know. My ergonomics article on standard-and-nonstandard controls is scheduled for rerun this Friday!
The crocks originally had a metal bail like old canning jars that fit in the groove of the lid’s knob to lock the lid down for a tight seal. There was also a gasket. My mother used to get yummy port wine spreadable cheese for our Triscuits, but in smaller, cheap plastic containers.
Metal bails still more or less present; gaskets long gone. There were some cool old jars, too—Mason and otherwise—under the basement stairs. We still use the serviceable ones.
That “dream” of the doors being transparent , to help find the curb really got me chuckling.
The cone shape protector around the door “keyholes” was , imo, a good idea.
It reminds me of Watson’s older brother’s scratched watch, which led Sherlock to deduce he was a drunk.
Ash Trays- some of us still smoke.
When I bought my Hyundai Veloster in 2014, I was mortified that it didn’t come with a spare tire. I *immediately* walked from the sales counter to the parts counter and bought the extra-cost spare tire, jack, and lug wrench kit on the spot.
Fast-forward to this year. I’m driving through a work zone in rural Wisconsin, and suddenly hear a loud bang. The low-pressure warning light comes on, and the car begins handling erratically. I pull over and discover a slashed sidewall, a separated bead, and a dented wheel. I carry an inflator for emergencies, but no amount of inflating could have saved this tire…and I was surrounded by wilderness, on a Sunday evening when all tire shops were closed. I nonchalantly switched to the temporary spare, and was on my way in 45 minutes. It held all 500 kilometres of the journey home.
Vent windows.
Plus many of the items mentioned above too numerous to list.
I love the adaptive cruise control on my Subaru. Most of my driving is on 2 lane country roads and I find regular cruise control almost useless because you almost always end up falling someone and they are unlikely to be going the exactly your speed. I did have an interesting situation just after we got the car. I was going through a hilly area and as we were going up a steep hill a large flock of birds swirled across the sky (starlings?). Because of the hill it seemed to be right in front of us. As the Subaru uses cameras to figure out what is going on, it got confused and shut down the adaptive cruise. It was not a problem, but shows the limitations of all of these systems.
I miss the two round indents on the back of the glove box door where you could place your drink when eating in the car. I know we have real cup holders now but the back of the glove box door just seems so quaint.
Yeah, but I always wondered just what those things were for. I mean, unless you were parked – like, maybe at the drive-in movie? – there was never any way that a cup of anything would stay balanced in those little indents. Not to mention that whatever was in the glovebox would come spilling out.
I’ll admit to being a bit of the “God never intended cars to have cup holders” guy…but at least modern cup holders actually HOLD the cups.
Exactly, when you were parked. Like at the drive-in burger joint, or the drive-in movie. Maybe not while parked at Makeout Point, though; an errant leg or arm could easily cause a spill.
Also keep in mind we’re talking about an artefact from when a “large” drink was a bit smaller than today’s kid-sized item; we weren’t yet buying our liquid diabetes by the half-gallon Super Giga Quaff tankard.
I’m amused to see these cupholder comments here, since just this morning I started writing an article on… the history of cupholders.
We take cupholders for granted now, but It’s amusing to see the struggles that carmakers faced in designing a cupholder that actually held cups.
Features I’ve had on past cars and miss on my current car: ABS, traction control, an HVAC system where I can punch in the desired temperature and the system takes it from there, heated seats.
I’d like cloth upholstery as an option on better-equipped cars and on prestige marks (likewise, more tire sidewall instead of less). Cadillac has vinyl seats standard in their lower models, probably because the Germans do, too. Does anyone actually like those? I can just tolerate cooled leather, but cooled/heated cloth would be more comfortable in temperature extremes.
Yes, please! Cloth in actual, real colours. And higher-profile tires for those of us who have the impudence, the temerity, the unmitigated gall to drive in the real world with potholes and curbs and stuff.
I miss rub strips on doors and even bumpers. My car is a 2005 and has rub strips in all doors; so did my earlier cars. Subsequent generations seem to have all abandoned this feature in favor of sharp body-side creases positioned to invite chips and dings from other peoples’ doors in tight parking lots.
Something I DON’T miss and am glad to see fade away: power antennae.
I would like to be able to operate the power windows with the key turned to accessories, and be able to sit in a parked with the door open without an annoying beeping sound, I know the bloody door is open, I opened it !
I hope my next car will have the classic 3 rotary dials for HVAC, but I fear it won’t.
Going back 40 years, but I have great memories of the floor head light dimmer switch in my old Torqueflite Valiants, especially on dark winding roads, my left foot was able to rest on it and instantly dim the lights at short notice.
Lots of good things listed. One thing I didn’t see – Separate side sun visor, at least for the driver side. One of the worst things is driving alternating directions into the sun and having to constantly flip the visor from front to side. Sometimes knocking my glasses off in the process.
The 86 Taurus had it. I have never seen it since.
Interesting! I wasn’t aware (or didn’t remember) the ’86 Taurus having side visors. Sounds very useful.