Mazda ditching touch screens in their cars starting with 2019 models

Have you guys seen this?

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles

What's your thoughts?  I'm thinking it's a good move...

Can confirm. I rather preferred having the dial. 

Berkeley yeah.

Yeah, touch screens are super annoying to use while driving. I like this move.

HashtagMazdaUnderstands

Touch screens are a terrible choice for anything that has to be used while driving. It's why I keep my music on iPod classics with the good ol' click wheel, because I can play/pause/change track/change volume without looking at them. So good for Mazda for taking steps.

I don't know about the other models in the range, but the ND Miata has always disabled the touch screen as soon as the car starts moving. So you get the convenience of the touch screen when doing things like entering a navigation address, but your interaction with the car while moving is all done with two dials and three buttons.

I used a BMW that had a touch-sensitive pad on the top of the big nudgin' knob. You could spell out letters on it. Pretty entertaining to use.

So pretty much they are saying what I said when the ND Miata came out.

Prior to the inclusion of Android auto and Apple carplay I had no issues with this. 

But I'm curious if anyone commenting here is under 30. I find it annoying to use some of the Android auto function on the cars with the dial. And I'm not alone in that feeling. 

Honda went too far with the removal of the volume knob as we see with the complaints now growing enough they added it back on all models with the screen. 

Mazda will do whatever they think is best to target their upper middle class and higher family market for their vehicles. 

spacecadet said:

 

But I'm curious if anyone commenting here is under 30.

27. They get messy and scratched, the screens delaminate or stop responding, they're kind of danger and distracting in a fair bit of situations. 

Sweet.

Now that we don't sell cars, having Mazda an option is a good one when we transition to not working for a living.

I prefer any type of analog input (dial, button, slider) to a touch screen in a car.

Under 30 and I'm not a big fan of touch screens in cars.  I don't mind a car having one, but it shouldn't be the primary input method.  I want buttons and knobs for all of the basics / important stuff and things I'm likely to do while driving. 

A touch screen to poke through the settings or do more advanced stuff (or for a passenger to adjust something where the button is best reached by the driver) is fine though.  IMO, they don't have to disappear, they just need to be a secondary input method, not primary. 

Far under 30, I hate touch screens in cars. I think the only way I can do it is if it has a physical volume knob/hvac knobs. 

Brett_Murphy said:

I prefer any type of analog input (dial, button, slider) to a touch screen in a car.

Yup, you don't have to look at a dial, button or slider to use it, not the case with a touch screen.  I will NEVER own a vehicle where this is the only or primary way to control a function.

NickD said:

spacecadet said:

 

But I'm curious if anyone commenting here is under 30.

27. They get messy and scratched, the screens delaminate or stop responding, they're kind of danger and distracting in a fair bit of situations. 

I don't have issues with disabling them sometimes. But eliminating them completely is a bad idea in my mind. 

Appreciate your reply though. 

I'm 28 and I was genuinely curious who was or wasn't.

Toebra said:

Brett_Murphy said:

I prefer any type of analog input (dial, button, slider) to a touch screen in a car.

Yup, you don't have to look at a dial, button or slider to use it, not the case with a touch screen.  I will NEVER own a vehicle where this is the only or primary way to control a function.

 Yes, but that's Tesla of the past decade and Honda of a few years ago. That's not ever been Mazda, mazda is saying they're eliminating the touchscreen completely, Which IMHO is short sighted. 

If they’re keeping the display screen - which they presumably will for the backup cam & nav, then a touchscreen has some merit when interacting with those functions. You shouldn’t need one to tune the radio though. 

Pete Gossett said:

If they’re keeping the display screen - which they presumably will for the backup cam & nav, then a touchscreen has some merit when interacting with those functions. You shouldn’t need one to tune the radio though. 

Mazda's system has that down pretty well. I enjoyed the hot keys that never change in function and the volume knob location on my mazda6. 

mr2s2000elise said:

 

That said, we sold our last Mazda, after 20 years of 9 Mazdas. We will not be buying them anymore, so this thread doesn't effect me, and I am sure Mazda doesn't care about my opinion. Have done Miatas, Mazda3, Mazda5, Mazspeed Miata, Mazdapseed3.  Prefer Tier 1 manufacturers that build high quality products. Zoom Zoom isn't enough in my life. Reliablity, quality, and resale are the top 3 things I care about. 

This is literally what mazda of 2019 is, top notch materials, features and quality. They threw out zoom zoom in 2014 with the ditching of the mazdaspeed3

Their sedans are hurting in resale more than honda. But the CX5 goes toe to toe with CRV resale. 

I think that Mazda's in danger of becoming seen as a fuddy-duddy brand with stuff like this. A combination of touch-screen and traditional display/switches seems like the way to go IMO. 

I prefer knobs/buttons for hvac and radio and touchscreen for nav.

Do most people not just use their phones for Nav? I think I've put an address into a car once in my life.

STM317 said:

Do most people not just use their phones for Nav? I think I've put an address into a car once in my life.

It depends.  I use my phone most of them time,  but when I do use the car I prefer touchscreen.  I’ve missed turns before while trying to juggle work calls and nav on my phone,  so for long trips and or busy work days I prefer in car nav.

This sucks for CarPlay and Android Auto users but probably not a terrible thing otherwise.

Cotton said:

STM317 said:

Do most people not just use their phones for Nav? I think I've put an address into a car once in my life.

It depends.  I use my phone most of them time,  but when I do use the car I prefer touchscreen.  I’ve missed turns before while trying to juggle work calls and nav on my phone,  so for long trips and or busy work days I prefer in car nav.

I don't text or talk on my phone when driving, so that doesn't impact me. But every car I've had with Nav, even when I bought them NEW (my '15 BRZ had 3 miles on it when I took delivery). It already seems a few years behind Google Maps on your phone.