Modern Car Rant

[MiniDave]

I have a part time job working for a local dealership group, me and a vanload of my contemporaries (old retired farts) pick up their used auction cars and drive them from the various dealerships to a central processing lot, and from there they get wholesaled or driven to the local Manheim auction. The dealership group includes Honda, Toyota and Acura locally and a couple of dealerships in St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.

Consequently, I drive a wide variety of car from pretty much all manufacturers, (although no Ferraris yet!   ;D  ) but plenty of BMWs, Audis, Jags, Caddys Range Rovers and the like and while I really appreciate the reliability of modern drivetrains......here's my bitch.....

While some controls have become standardized over the years, many high end cars now use a central screen and knob arrangement to control HVAC, radios, nav, etc  - I can't tell you how many cars I've climbed into and started only to have the radio come on in full blare playing some thumping rapcrap and I cannot find how to turn the damn thing off! And just try to find the setting for defrost on a wet day, or to go to A/C when the last time the car was started it was 40* out.....

I have learned to check the steering wheel for a volume control and if I find one at least I can turn the sound down, but it's frustrating trying to find these and other controls. Wipers, headlights are usually intuitive, but mirrors, seat controls and others are sometimes really hard to find and operate - and I don't know why but every car I climb into has the lumbar out as far as it will go - it's like having a football between your back and the seat!

and it's only getting worse.....now they're going to touchscreens that require you to work down thru several submenus just to find the one thing you're trying to change......

Alarm systems are another headache.....many of the cars we take to auction have dead batteries - whether from corroded connections or simply age.....when I hook the jumpbox to the battery to start it the alarm goes off on full blast and you never know if the key fob will shut it off or you have to do a dance with the key in the door first then.......in the meantime your ears are bleeding from the noise!

There was an article I read today in Jalopnik that says when tech is too complex to operate, it just doesn't get used. I can see why....

What frustrates you about newer cars?

[gr8kornholio]

Old farts bitching about them!  ;D  Sorry, as the young-ish guy on here I had to take a shot. 

Seriously I can't stand them either.  Um, distracted driving.  Can't hold your phone, but to change the station or adjust AC you have to stare down your touchscreen for 5 minutes.  Yea, that's safe.  Wednesday the wife and I got our rental while our car is being repaired.  Thanks motorcycle guy.  We sat in the parking lot for a good 5-10 minutes figuring out where the basics of operation were at. 

I'd invest in a good set of noise canceling headphones or ear protectors.  Just for safety. 

 

[BruceK]

I hate the 'approach lighting' that GM cars have.  Sure it might be a good thing to light up the area around the car when the driver approaches - but what I hate is they light up the reverse lights as part of the package.   So I'm walking in a parking lot, such as at the train station where I park, and all of a sudden a car next to me, or in my path, looks like it has just been thrown in reverse and is about to back up.  Am I going to get run over?  Does the driver see me?   No, because the friggin' car is completely empty of any people but some bozo has unlocked it from 100 ft away and is slowly making their way to the car all lit up like a Christmas tree. 

[MiniDave]

That was done for women's safety - so they could see if someone was hiding in their locked car........

The thing that annoys me about the way manufacturers have gone about adding tech to our cars is that they all use completely different approaches. I remember decades ago when the gummint required them to all use PRNDL for auto transmissions so people wouldn't have to guess which gear they were in, and when they required you to put your foot on the brake or clutch before the car would start - but those standardizations didn't cause any repercussions in the industry, and they were easily adapted to be the pubic.

But these touchscreens and mouse knobs are not only confounding, they're also extremely frustrating. It's not like you can't use the heat and A/C, but it sure takes a lot of fiddling to get it to even work, I think that's wrong. And like Mark says, taking your eyes off the road long enough to figure out how to use these controls is not safe. It reminds me of trying to talk to a big corporation with an automatic answering service, the number of menus you have to drill down thru just so speak to a live person is daunting.

They need to do a better job. Maybe voice command? I know some have it, but how do you tell if you've never driven one that does before?

[ve9aa]

Great thread.

What super annoys me about my 09 MINI is I can't turn the defrost on the heated mirrors if the temp is not below 3*C
(like on a cool foggy day but the temp is above say 5 or 6*C they won't come on. (they are 100% auto with no switch)

Also, it boggles my mind that I cannot adjust the delay time on the wipers.  It's set at too slow a setting that is only really good on a barely misty day.

There's more , but that's the top 2

[MiniDave]

Is your car Canadian, so it's different than US models?

My mirror defrosters come on with the rear window defroster, I've seen them work when it wasn't that cold out. I have a 2009 Clubman S.....

I share your feelings on the intermittent wipers - they want you to buy the rain sensing ones but I had those in my 2003 JCW and they sucked - big time.

[gr8kornholio]

I'd just like an eliminate all the gadgety bs option on modern cars. Of course this is completely opposite of my wife's approach. She wants the gadgets with the gadgetry.

[jeff10049]

I like a loaded car or truck but want it to be simple to use Chevy pickups seem to be easy to use still.
A friend just got a loaded Duramax I drove it and everything was easy and intuitive still had regular ole knobs for all the HVAC stuff and radio I liked that and its the most tricked out you can get. 
Super easy to sync a phone too and all that as well.
Not sure about the seat vibrating your ass when you get close to another car or back up to something but you can turn that off.

New ford f150 that another friend got forgetabboutit I couldn't figure out how to even find the radio let alone turn it down. 3 yup three lcd screens in the sum bitch. somehow he changed the auto running board set up left one was in. right out but it went in when you opened the door.
he had to go to the dealer to find the settings in the menu system.

Mini now has one of the best rain sensing wiper systems you can get and it's adjustable for sensitivity.
although the menu system is not great accessing stuff is a pain.
I have read something about a software update for the non-rain sensing might be worth calling a dealer to confirm. I wonder if there is an adjustment in the menu system like for the rain sensing?

That gm perimeter lighting and the headlight turn off delay is damn handy for me but I do go to work and come home in the dark 6 months out of the year. I can pull up at home lock the truck get the tractor keys get it started and the lights on before the truck headlights shut off and then start moving snow. when I'm done I hit the unlock on the truck and can see my way to the house.  same thing locking unlocking the business morning or night easier than having to use a flashlight or phone all the time.

[jeff10049]

One thing I do hate about my chevy truck is it's a Canadian build and you cannot turn off the auto headlights no matter what the switch is spring loaded and jumps right back to auto even if you hold it off they won't go off.
wrecks happen often in winter here and I have sat for hours on the drive home it's cold so want to leave it running but im blinding the shit outta the guy ahead of me and can't do a thing about it all the polite folks turn their lights off but I cant. 
Also pulled up to a restaurant to pick up some friends the other day it was night and cold left it running and realized I was shining the lights right in a couples face through the window of the restaurant it's stupid that Canada trucks are made this way yea maybe modern stuff does suck in some ways.
I may try installing a U.S.A. switch and see if that works. I think it needs a computer flash too.

[ve9aa]

100% Canadian (well, built across the big pond, but for the CDN Market), yes.

Headlights....ugh....annoying as he!!, no way to shut them off or turn the mirrors on.

At least on my 2004 Golf and older Pathfinder, I could turn the lights off, and then use the e-brake and the headlights would go off.  On the MINI, absolutely no way.

So...we use kms and liters up here and folks abroad (or in N. America) build our cars differently. I guess they think we're stupid and need that stuff decided for us.

Sooooo aggravating!

We have 2 modern Minis and while they've been reliable cars, I bet I could get more options on a modern Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla

[jeff10049]

Hey Mike good to see you posting on here more, I don't know why they don't make it so you can turn off the headlights in park or neutral. annoying as hell is right.

My friend with that f-150 announced yesterday that he is done totally over new vehicles it's for sale and he just wants an old 80's square body chevy pick up.
That just works without 400 chimes and warning coming up every time he starts it and the seat belt warning going crazy just because he moves it in his driveway.
That and the fact that the f-150 is at the dealer more than his house with problems he figures why pay 700 a month for a bunch of headaches.