Driver unfriendly car features

[Guest Hooli]

What like Alfas and Passats with their engine out front of the axle line and no PAS?

 

(I'm going off line until this Merlot has worn off)

Never driven one to comment, just thinking aloud as we discuss it.

[robinmasters]

'Clever' locks. Oness that decide that if you've unlocked the door, then got turned the ignition on, you must have left the car unlocked. So they lock it for you. Without you asking.

 

Since the day a Volvo locked me out (with the keys on the driver's seat), I've never trusted a car with central locking. If the keys aren't in my hand, a window is open. Just in case.

[catsinthewelder]

The fucking immobiliser on the Rover,  get in car press button to switch off alarm/immobiliser.  Press wrong button set off alarm etc grrrrr  FFS.

 

 

It would be fine if it had central locking so you press the correct button to open it but it doesn't and I live in the sticks so it's rarely locked anyway.  I couldn't find the keys the other day and had to try and think where I might have put them down 3 days earlier when I moved it.  In the ignition it turned out after I gave up looking and used the 405

[MarvinsMom]

then mini 1000 is FANTASTICALLY light on its wheels, the combination of narrow wheels and a huge steering wheel means that its dead easy to manouver, and is a complete contrast to the Mini mpi which has terribly heavy steering,

 

now, i had put the difference between the two cars was due to the relative size both of the sheels and the steering wheel.

 

mini mpi, dead wide road wheels, small steering wheel, mini 1000 tiny road wheels and calossal steering wheels meaniing that the 1000 is lighter on its steering.

 

i know which one i prefer to park at the supermarket......

[Pillock]

One touch electric windows.

Useful when navigating a tight drive-thru lane.
Utter bollocks for the other 99.99% of the times you want to operate a window for a bit of ventilation without it going all the way down. Who is it that needs to return their hand to the steering wheel in that three seconds it takes for the window to drop?

[MorrisItalSLX]

Good point on one touch electric windows, only fitted to annoy you!

 

The twin fuel tank setup on the Jag is very frustrating, combined with a very vague fuel gauge and the constant anxiety of not knowing how much fuel you have left gets quite tiring. I will never forget the feeling when I was driving in remote Australia with no servos for miles and I swapped from the empty tank to what I thought was the full tank only to find it empty! Much searing and economic driving took place to arrive in the next town on fumes!

[paulplom]

208 instrument binnacle obscured by the steering wheel. A massive design flaw.

[LC Torana]

One touch electric windows.

 

Useful when navigating a tight drive-thru lane.

Utter bollocks for the other 99.99% of the times you want to operate a window for a bit of ventilation without it going all the way down. Who is it that needs to return their hand to the steering wheel in that three seconds it takes for the window to drop?

 

But that feature has ancient pedigree.

My olde worlde P3 Rover has conventional window winders on all 3 passenger doors, but a "quick drop" lever for the driver's window.  Probably because of hand signals, mostly.

 

And +1 on the the automatic "lock the baby in the car" functionality.

 

And Junkman, what 1918 car had auto transmission?  I didn't know they even had synchromesh back then.

[MikeR]

headlight bulbs and bulbs in general ,

 

bulbs that need a major disassembly and knuckle dicing to get out

 

as well a child's size hand to orientate the bulb , its holder and the wires back into position .....

 

and then the smart arse who says " did you not see clip under XYZ ? "

[Jazoli]

One touch electric windows.

 

Useful when navigating a tight drive-thru lane.

Utter bollocks for the other 99.99% of the times you want to operate a window for a bit of ventilation without it going all the way down. Who is it that needs to return their hand to the steering wheel in that three seconds it takes for the window to drop?

I don't understand the issue, you just press the button again when the window has reached it's desired level, no more difficult than keeping your finger on the switch.

[Jazoli]

headlight bulbs and bulbs in general ,

 

bulbs that need a major disassembly and knuckle dicing to get out

 

as well a child's size hand to orientate the bulb , its holder and the wires back into position .....

 

and then the smart arse who says " did you not see clip under XYZ ? "

Oh yeah, mk2 focus, spent ages fiddling trying to get new bulbs in, I was getting really annoyed and ready to break something so consulted the manual, 1 screw and push a clip in and the whole headlamp comes out in 20 seconds........grrrrrrrrr!

[Richard]

'Clever' locks. Oness that decide that if you've unlocked the door, then got turned the ignition on, you must have left the car unlocked. So they lock it for you. Without you asking.

 

Since the day a Volvo locked me out (with the keys on the driver's seat), I've never trusted a car with central locking. If the keys aren't in my hand, a window is open. Just in case.

 

Same here, except it was a Peugeot 505 and I did have the keys with me.

[eddyramrod]

How have we got this far in without mentioning touchscreens?  Just NO!  There's even one shown, in the 208 pic above.

 

Electric handbrake, total waste of time.

 

BMW i-Drive.  I've ranted about this before.

 

Junkman: absolutely with you on the manual gearbox.

 

The 56mph governor on most lorries.  Legally, the lorry speed limit is 60 so why force the fitting of a device that holds them back below it?  Especially when the in-cab harmonics at 56 are specifically designed to send a driver to sleep.  Wonderful.

 

1990s Iveco TurboDaily,  Specifcally the placement of the radio, down by the driver's left ankle.  Or, if you have a passenger in the middle seat, it's exactly where he can kick it to death without effort.

[MarvinsMom]

+1 for them daft telly screen things Eddy,

 

i really dislike "touchscreen" telly screens in cars.

 

well, i hate them sorta screens anyway  be it in photocopiers or mobile phones they all don't work for my stupid sausage fingers.

 

now put such a telly in a car, thats a good idea......

 

plus they just look shit.

[myglaren]

Windows connected to the rain sensor.

Good idea in that if it starts to rain, as the wipers come on then so do the lights and the windows close.

Except.

My son broke his leg when he came off his bike and had to go to hospital frequently to have it seen to.

He took my C5.  Raining when he came out one day. Open the driver's window to insert his ticket in the machine that lifts the barrier.

Window closes before he can get the ticket in.

Several attempts later he has to get out of the car, not easy with his broken leg and being close to the ticket machine.

Twenty-odd cars behind him waiting to get out by now.

 

The trick is to turn the engine off with the window down but he wasn't to know that.  And that is a pain when I leave the windows open, car unattended and it chuks it down.  Windows only work with engine running

[Tamworthbay]

One touch electric windows.

Useful when navigating a tight drive-thru lane.

Utter bollocks for the other 99.99% of the times you want to operate a window for a bit of ventilation without it going all the way down. Who is it that needs to return their hand to the steering wheel in that three seconds it takes for the window to drop?

This depends on who made them, the ones in my wife’s Fiat, my Beemer and the Volvo are perfect, light touch and all the way down, longer hold then stop and you get it to go down a bit. Our old Mazda 3 was designed by Hirohito’s grandson to get us back for Hiroshima, whatever you did the fucking thing would only stop all the up or down. It was supposed to be simple but in reality was shit, but to be fair the whole car was shit except for the fact that it never broke so I had little excuse to get rid.

[ProgRocker]

How have we got this far in without mentioning touchscreens?  Just NO!  There's even one shown, in the 208 pic above.

 

 

The screen in my top of the range Almera isn't touchscreen but I do find it very distracting. After buying it I was very concerned that I was taking my eyes off the road to try and afjust something. I have to toggle through the audio, heater controls and Sat Nav. And to a lesser extent a trip computer. Nearly 8 years of ownership and I still haven't mastered it. The buttons are small and not very tactile, especially their aircon/climate control button which is a small round thing.

 

It makes me want a Billy Basic mobile as my next conveyance just like the Escort L diesel I traded in for the Almera.

 

And the assisted steering is too heavy!

[Pillock]

I don't understand the issue, you just press the button again when the window has reached it's desired level, no more difficult than keeping your finger on the switch.

If you only want it down a bit you're pressing it twice instead of once requiring more concentration to time it right than just the motor skills of knowing how long to press the switch for. Andnthej you overshoot so press it back up, and then it'll probably come all the way back up, because one touch.

[Pillock]

Peugeot instruments are designed to be above the wheel, it was one of their things on the latest ranges. I found them really good, you look over the wheel instead of through so there's nothing in the way of them

[bub2006]

My motors one touch functions have a light press for normal operation and push till click for one touch. Qashqai and Octavia did that,the 05avensis and my r plate avensis were the same. Merc sprinters at work too. Only thing I can think of were the Vauxhall way of press and hold for short time for 1 touch.

[Dan_ZTT]

I like the one touch window thing, on a hot day first thing I do is tap all 4 down to get fresh air in. I admit they take a bit of getting used to though and some are better than others. On my MG only the driver's has one touch to come back up, the other three are one touch down only, not sure why, maybe to stop you trapping passenger fingers?

 

My old Volvo C70 had a single button you could tap to put all 4 windows down at once, because convertible. Best thing ever.

[dozeydustman]

Manual gearboxes. Not sure why that outmoded rubbish even still exists.

They became obsolete the day the fist automatic was installed, which was well over 100 years ago.

 

 

Automatics are the work of Beelzebub and his many sulphur-fuelled assistants.

[Jazoli]

My old Volvo C70 had a single button you could tap to put all 4 windows down at once, because convertible. Best thing ever.

 

Our 307 has this, its great.

[Talbot]

Any function that you can't turn off. I quite often like having automatic-this and self-operating-the-other, but when I want it turned off, I want it turned OFF. Not "less" like mercedes traction control, or off for the moment, but it will turn on again in a bit like just about every radio automatic station search feature, but actually OFF.

 

Electric handbrakes, I-pad dashboards, foot-operated parking brakes on manuals and hidden buttons can all just piss off though.

[CanaryinManc]

Peugeot instruments are designed to be above the wheel, it was one of their things on the latest ranges. I found them really good, you look over the wheel instead of through so there's nothing in the way of them

Fine in theory but doesn't work for me on my 308 as, due to my duff ankle, I have to have wheel adjusted very high which blocks the instruments again. Also agree its touchscreen is a pointless gimmick. Takes ages scrolling through screens to adjust temperature by 0.5C.

Also have we had massive alloys vulnerable to kerbing with rubber band tyres destroying ride quality yet?

[Lord Sterling]

Autobox stalk in modern Mercs. Bloody awful place for them to be located, sometimes mistake for indicators or wash/wipe.

 

Also on modern Mercs; driving mode normal/sport mode. Very annoying thing to change having to go into settings and the like. Some Mercs had a dedicated selector for it which was much better.

 

Floor mounted boot/petrol cap release on Rover 200/400/800. Located next to each other and often mixed up. Didn't get much better on the later 800s when they were repositioned into the centre console.

 

Under slung spare wheels. Shit place to locate something heavy. If the thread was damaged in some way, the spare wheel wouldn't come out of its cage.

 

Modern Peugeots - Just awful, small steering wheel's, too far back. Driver unfriendly menus etc...

[Ghosty]

LED brake lights that blind you in traffic at night.

Being stuck behind a new Audi TT is particularly bad as the high level brake light is almost the entire width of the car, and right at eye level.

[dozeydustman]

LED brake lights that blind you in traffic at night.

Being stuck behind a new Audi TT is particularly bad as the high level brake light is almost the entire width of the car, and right at eye level.

 

 

I'll second this, also the blue LEDs used on Police/Ambulance/Fire Engine etc strobes are so overpowering and bright you need sunglasses at night.

[pompei]

The multifunction indicators, wipers, flasher and washer stalk on the Merc is a maelstrom of confusion, especially when you also accidentally knock the cruise/limiter which in immediately adjacent.

 

I remember in the Punto we had in the 90's having to nod my head in order to see the speedo which was obscured by the steering wheel.  Each time I did it, the ex Mrs P used to prod me in the ribs as she thought I was dropping off to sleep.

 

I'm trying to remember which car it was which would spill a load of water over you when you opened the door in the rain.

[Ghosty]

 

I'm trying to remember which car it was which would spill a load of water over you when you opened the door in the rain.

 

Binis do that.