Stupid Car Features that Ruin Otherwise Good Cars

kanaric wrote: A safety feature so bad that the government decided to get rid of it. Insane to think of.

The government didn't "get rid of it". The IIHS lobbied that cars must be safe from people too dumb to put their seatbelts on. (I say fark 'em, if they are too dumb to buckle up then they are too dumb to live, and if they are not dead but just critically injured then non use is a de facto DNR request) So the manufacturers were given a choice: Install automatic seatbelts, or airbags powerful enough to protect an unbuckled 90th (maybe 50th) percentile male in a frontal collision. Cars with airbags did not have mouse belts. Cars with only one airbag would have a standard belt on the driver's side and a mouse belt on the right.

There was a cutoff where airbags were mandatory, period, so there was no more point to installing the mouse belts. Then it was pointed out that designing airbags to protect unbelted drivers was killing children and short people, at which point the IIHS mumbled something about needing to be somewhere else and disappeared, and people started insisting on rear-facing baby seats, which is why minivans and SUVs have molester tint and the rear beltlines are so high that you can't see to park so we have to have rearview cameras.

So next time you bitch about rear cameras and vehicles you can't see through in traffic, thank the IIHS.

My Focus has knobs and buttons and I have no problems using them without looking. But I have been driving it for 14 years. I put a head unit in the Transit Connect that has a few buttons and a touch screen. It took me a while to learn all the positions but now I don't have to look very often.

The best is my wife's Subaru Legacy. It is nice getting in and pressing one button on the steering wheel and saying "Satellite Radio Channel 5" to change from the country music FM station she always listens to. Push the same button and say "Call Home" works also. I don't drive the car enough to know what else it will do but, she says there are a number of other things you can do with the voice recognition.

This doesn't ruin it but is a bother. In the newer Chevy truck at work, when you start it up a message on the odometer says " Ice possible drive with care". This means we have to wait before writing down the mileage.

I first thought, cool the truck is telling me that the outside temp just went to freezing. But no, anytime the temp is below freezing I get this useless message and have to wait for it to clear.

kanaric wrote:

NOHOME wrote:

clutchsmoke wrote: Tire pressure monitoring systems. I do not wish to elaborate.

^times a bazillion.

Almost every modern safety "feature" fits this category of annoyance We wouldn't have it if people weren't so stupid as to drive on flats because they don't ever look at their cars.

Yup. Everyone else needs them. I do not. I don't like being forced into it either. I have to have them otherwise I can't shut traction control off. Sometimes in the snow or other limited traction situations I need the tire to spin just a little more than what the computer will allow. Grrr.

Chris_V wrote: Temp and fan controls are also right htere and easy to reach and see.

New volt HVAC interface looks a lot easier to control. A step in the right direction.

Quote from Autoblog. Thank god it isn't just grumpy enthusiasts that notice this.

Autoblog said: On the inside, things have been toned down dramatically. Gone is the frustrating touch-sensitive panel that the designers plastered over the infotainment area in the first Volt. It has been replaced by a more traditional HVAC and infotainment system.

Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

My MINI has an alarm for outside temperature that goes off when you first start it. I wouldn't mind it if it was set at the freezing point, but it's not. It goes off at 37*. The other feature I'm not keen on is the key fob activating the sunroof that I never intentionally open. I'm capable of using the button on the overhead console when needed, Thank you.

pjbgravely wrote: Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

Sorry, but I love those. I have my window down a lot and I love to just tap it and it goes down rather than having to hold it.

DeadSkunk wrote: My MINI has an alarm for outside temperature that goes off when you first start it. I wouldn't mind it if it was set at the freezing point, but it's not. It goes off at 37*.

That's a BMW thing, and possibly a Euro car thing in general. My '98 7 series did it too, at 37 degrees. Supposedly to warn you that there could be black ice and that ice might still be on bridges and overpasses.

NGTD wrote:

pjbgravely wrote: Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

Sorry, but I love those. I have my window down a lot and I love to just tap it and it goes down rather than having to hold it.

+1

I either have the windows all the way down or all the way up. I cannot stand them to be anywhere in the middle.

Chris_V wrote:

DeadSkunk wrote: My MINI has an alarm for outside temperature that goes off when you first start it. I wouldn't mind it if it was set at the freezing point, but it's not. It goes off at 37*.

That's a BMW thing, and possibly a Euro car thing in general. My '98 7 series did it too, at 37 degrees. Supposedly to warn you that there could be black ice and that ice might still be on bridges and overpasses.

My 2nd Gen Prius has an indicator light on the dash (a snowflake between two line) that comes on when the temperature is anywhere below 37F or so outside. Also pops up a warning bar on the big display screen IIRC.

EVERTHING on that car is controlled by the touch screen. Sure, you can change stations on the radio, change the volume, and turn the automatic A/C and defrosters on and off from the steering wheel buttons- but any detailed adjusments require using a combination of the side buttons & touch screen. I'm now quite used to it, but it can be frustrating.

NGTD wrote:

pjbgravely wrote: Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

Sorry, but I love those. I have my window down a lot and I love to just tap it and it goes down rather than having to hold it.

Same. The Mazda has auto up as well which I love. So much more convenient. There's also a semi mechanical click when you engage the auto up/down so you can still partially open the windows if you don't go to the stop.

Ashyukun wrote: EVERTHING on that car is controlled by the touch screen. Sure, you can change stations on the radio, change the volume, and turn the automatic A/C and defrosters on and off from the steering wheel buttons- but any detailed adjusments require using a combination of the side buttons & touch screen. I'm now quite used to it, but it can be frustrating.

I hate this about our Prius. I never touch the radio while driving because it would result in an accident of some sort. Doesn't help that on the Gen1 the shifter blocks the driver's view of some of the controls as well.

The0retical wrote:

NGTD wrote:

pjbgravely wrote: Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

Sorry, but I love those. I have my window down a lot and I love to just tap it and it goes down rather than having to hold it.

Same. The Mazda has auto up as well which I love. So much more convenient. There's also a semi mechanical click when you engage the auto up/down so you can still partially open the windows if you don't go to the stop.

Subaru figured this out in the 80s. It's absurd that the rest of the world still hasn't really caught up yet. Especially since everything is computer controlled and this is something that should be possible with just a few lines of code.

And if you don't like it, you should be able to turn it off as part of personalization. Ford realized that if they have unique transponders for the keys, then a given transponder means a given driver and the car automatically goes to that driver's settings.

Heater controls on 80's VWs are completely incomprehensible. My Vanagons have four sliding bars without hardly any easily understandable information. You have to read the manual to run the heater and defroster.

My first new car was an '88 Scirocco 16V. Same deal. You have to read the manual. Thee is only one heat setting that doesn't run the A/C. All they had to do was stare at something simple that works.

On heater controls, I would also prefer to have cables operating than vacuum hoses.

I want my lights to go off when I turn them off.

pjbgravely wrote: Those automatic lower all the way down window switches. I have tried to disable these in the past because I never drive with my windows completely down, except at an autocross. I always screw up and push the lower button for too short a time and the window goes all the way down. Then I have to send the window back up to where I want it. What are these for, people who go to drive-thru a lot?

How hard are you hitting the button? All the ones I've had were two stage switches, first click manual, second click auto, and these were crappy "interior by playschool" 90s GM cars.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: All the ones I've had were two stage switches, first click manual, second click auto, and these were crappy "interior by playschool" 90s GM cars.

Agreed. I DD a playschool GM car and it is like this.

I don't like or dislike them. I do think that for switches that accomplish this via software, a "double-tap" would be a better way of indicating that you would like the window all of the way down. Just like hitting unlock twice on the key-fob, or quickly turning the key twice in the door to unlock all of them.

alfadriver wrote: If all of this stuff really ruins cars, why do you continue to get them when you have so many options to not have them?

Because pricing.

1) Either due to the options being packaged in ways that leave you little choices (want cruise control? here's a bunch of other crap, etc)

2) The deals being better for a car already been sitting around on the lot that a dealer would like to move vs one ordered exactly the way I want it,

or 3)because I'm cheap and buying a used car and none of those are deal-breaking enough that I won't buy the car.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: How hard are you hitting the button? All the ones I've had were two stage switches, first click manual, second click auto, and these were crappy "interior by playschool" 90s GM cars.

My 2000 Mustang and my 2001 Dodge Ram one quick touch of the down button causes the windows to go all the way down. You have to hold it longer to have real control of the window. My 2005 Ford Escape ( Mazda design I believe) has a switch like you describe. For my use the only practical thing would be auto up, and have the up button work even with the keys out of the ignition.

keethrax wrote: (want cruise control? here's a bunch of other crap, etc)

Thanks to drive by wire, for a lot of cars adding cruise is now as simple as installing the switch in the steering wheel.

I hate the way GM vehicles leave the radio on until the driver opens his door. The passenger can't get out first without subjecting the neighborhood to the driver's music, which, in a GM is typically something like Ludacris or maybe Toby Keith.

In fact, I hate all the GM weirdness associated with starting/ending a journey. Put her in "D" and the doors open. Maybe "P" unlocks.. I can't remember. GM generally seems to do weird things with illumination that annoy the piss out of me. They were first on the DRL bandwagon if memory serves.

BMW has some kind of flap in one tailpipe that closes at low engine loads. Mister and Lady would not want their drive disturbed by... engine noise, would they?

Knurled wrote: My Volvo has endless-style knobs on the radio, and one of them has bad contacts so when you try to turn the knob right, it misses a pick-up and it thinks you turned the knob left, so it becomes an exercise in frustration akin to trying to put lipstick on a pig that keeps trying to eat the lipstick WHY YOU FIND LIPSTICK SO TASTY, PIG, IT IS BAD FOR YOU! ANYWAY I JUST WANT TO TURN THE FADER MORE BACK NOT FORWARD QUIT BITING ME PIG AAAAAAARGH THIS METAPHOR IS EVEN MORE FLAWED THAN THIS STUPID KNOB

Ford fixed that problem for me under warranty. It was on an '01 Mustang with the Mach 460 stereo. It was a cool head unit... it had a DSP in it so you could add concert hall echo effects and E36 M3. But it did catch a mild case of what you described.

b13990 wrote: I hate the way GM vehicles leave the radio on until the driver opens his door. The passenger can't get out first without subjecting the neighborhood to the driver's music, which, in a GM is typically something like Ludacris or maybe Toby Keith.

I like that my radio stays on after I shut off the truck. I don't like to leave it running while I do paperwork but I like having the music on.

Wally wrote:

b13990 wrote: I hate the way GM vehicles leave the radio on until the driver opens his door. The passenger can't get out first without subjecting the neighborhood to the driver's music, which, in a GM is typically something like Ludacris or maybe Toby Keith.

I like that my radio stays on after I shut off the truck. I don't like to leave it running while I do paperwork but I like having the music on.

I know a lot of people must like it. They've been doing it for years.