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The most useless feature of a car?


St.Jude

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7 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

Aye there's some on here who get un-necessarily prickish about it if you say anything against CC, I've had it before from a few of them.
My experience is that it increases my stress levels because I'm constantly having to actively monitor and adjust my speed via a stalk on the steering column [snip]

And anyone who thinks they can detect another car's speed varying by 1mph at motorway speeds is kidding themselves on,
 

 That's why adaptive cruise is so good, as it does detect 1mph differences in speeds and adjusts itself and maintains a set distance, I think some just can't handle the technology and tools available to them :D

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Do you really think driving standards are getting better, then?
Driving isn't a quest for perfection, for most people it's a means of getting around; no more, no less.

Considering the increase in road users over the last 20 years I don't believe standards are necessarily worse, and if they are can we really lay blame at the door of advances in technology? - Having a warm seat and power steering doesn't make you a bad driver.

We've always had bad, careless and inconsiderate drivers, there's just more now because there's more drivers.
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This thread got me thinking about how driving has changed in the 40 years (shit!!!) since I passed my test.

So many of the skills I had to learn are almost redundant now, replaced by a new set of skills needed as cars and driving have evolved.

Yes, touch screens, ambient lighting and "what does that button do" can be distractions, but so could not seeing out of your side or rear windows in your Cortina because the heating and ventilation was crap. Trying to read a map while driving was far more distracting than following turn-by-turn instructions. Being cold, damp and uncomfortable is far more distracting than being able to control your environment at the press of a button.

And then there's airbags, ABS, traction control. Are they bad too? - Driving old cars for a hobby is one thing, but give me a modern for everyday use every time (and I tried daily-ing a 1971 Triumph 2000 for a year a while ago, so I have the t-shirt).

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Dials which are always lit, regardless of whether the headlights are on or not. Makes it incredibly easy to forget to turn the headlights on if you're in a streetlit area. Seen quite a few over the last few weeks pottering about at night with no lights on.

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9 minutes ago, AxWomble said:

Bonnet open warnings. I can almost always tell if it’s slightly open - it just looks wrong somehow. But I see lots of cars driving round with the bonnet released to the first position, so maybe it’s a useful feature for most

If the catch is sticky and it's mostly shut but not properly clicked, then lifts whilst you're driving, the light could be useful.  Gives you a chance to stop and shut it properly before it greets the windscreen halfway round the corner.

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2 hours ago, Cheggers said:

Driving isn't a quest for perfection, for most people it's a means of getting around; no more, no less.

Considering the increase in road users over the last 20 years I don't believe standards are necessarily worse, and if they are can we really lay blame at the door of advances in technology? - Having a warm seat and power steering doesn't make you a bad driver.

We've always had bad, careless and inconsiderate drivers, there's just more now because there's more drivers.

Driving isn’t a quest for perfection but that doesn’t mean you can drive like an arsehole because you’re “just interested in getting from A-B”.

Too many just “tootle along” with no awareness of what’s happening around them, oblivious to how serious a crash at their most favoured “tootling speed” (40), can be.

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Cable operated drum brakes, bloody useless in an emergency.

Cheapo coil springs that snap as soon as they are a couple of years old.

Most pattern parts made for classic cars, such as rubber parts that perish and crack after 6 months, chrome parts that rust at the first sign of moisture in the air, any newly made Lucas part.

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Here's another one that'll likely wind some cunts up as well. 😙

Heated seats. (OMG you're such a Luddite!  You'd rather be cold like you were in your cave etc...)
Given my tendency towards Swedish barges you'd think I'd be a fan but I really don't enjoy the sensation of my bum and lower back sitting on a couple of square feet of electric blanket while the rest of me is cold. I've heard it described by some folk as feeling like you've peed yourself and while I'm getting on a bit I've still got sufficient bladder control to not know what that feels like. So far...
My arse generally isn't the coldest part of me when I get in the car in sub zero temperatures, I'd far rather have a heated steering wheel but they still seem pretty rare.

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6 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

Here's another one that'll likely wind some cunts up as well. 😙

Heated seats. (OMG you're such a Luddite!  You'd rather be cold like you were in your cave etc...)
Given my tendency towards Swedish barges you'd think I'd be a fan but I really don't enjoy the sensation of my bum and lower back sitting on a couple of square feet of electric blanket while the rest of me is cold. I've heard it described by some folk as feeling like you've peed yourself and while I'm getting on a bit I've still got sufficient bladder control to not know what that feels like. So far...
My arse generally isn't the coldest part of me when I get in the car in sub zero temperatures, I'd far rather have a heated steering wheel but they still seem pretty rare.


I broadly agree... although I find heated leather seats are definitely more useful than heated cloth seats. Leather gets really cold! 

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7 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

Here's another one that'll likely wind some cunts up as well. 😙

Heated seats. (OMG you're such a Luddite!  You'd rather be cold like you were in your cave etc...)
Given my tendency towards Swedish barges you'd think I'd be a fan but I really don't enjoy the sensation of my bum and lower back sitting on a couple of square feet of electric blanket while the rest of me is cold. I've heard it described by some folk as feeling like you've peed yourself and while I'm getting on a bit I've still got sufficient bladder control to not know what that feels like. So far...
My arse generally isn't the coldest part of me when I get in the car in sub zero temperatures, I'd far rather have a heated steering wheel but they still seem pretty rare.

I've got heated seats in my 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage but, apart from checking that they worked when I bought the car as an ex-demo, have never needed to use them.  Some people seem to like having a warm arse.  I can't see the point.  Just extra junk which ultimately will go wrong.

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5 hours ago, Cheggers said:

Yes, touch screens, ambient lighting and "what does that button do" can be distractions, but so could not seeing out of your side or rear windows in your Cortina because the heating and ventilation was crap. Trying to read a map while driving was far more distracting than following turn-by-turn instructions. Being cold, damp and uncomfortable is far more distracting than being able to control your environment at the press of a button.

And then there's airbags, ABS, traction control. Are they bad too? - Driving old cars for a hobby is one thing, but give me a modern for everyday use every time (and I tried daily-ing a 1971 Triumph 2000 for a year a while ago, so I have the t-shirt).

I've only had the briefest of drives in a full on modern car with touch screens and while I didn't have to adjust anything major on the move I did play with it a bit but the problem I had was that in a moving car where you're bumping up and down all the time, trying to hit a specific 2cm x 2cm target with my arm and finger outstretched in mid air wasn't the mere formality that grabbing a lever or pushing a physical button would have been.
If that difficulty I experienced makes me a hair shirt Luddite in your eyes so be it but there's nothing wrong with a simple rubber faced dial, red at one end, blue at the other to control the comfort level inside your car if the hardware behind the scenes works properly.

The reason your Cortina made you damp and uncomfortable was because it was leaky and had a shit heater not because it relied on an "old fashioned" control interface.
Technology is fine when it genuinely improves safety or performance but far too often it's used as little more than gimmickry or marketing fluff to jazz up what is essentially the same old shite so you'll buy a new one, and I'm not just talking about cars here.

 

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1 hour ago, Soundwave said:


Leather gets really cold! 

…and really sweaty, and really shiny.
But shiny does make it easy to clean food and fluids off. Guess that is why people like it.

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The reason your Cortina made you damp and uncomfortable was because it was leaky and had a shit heater.


 


Which is exactly what I said. I'm not extolling the virues of touch screens (if you think they don't work in a car, try using one at sea ), I'm saying that in general, there's no harm in making cars easier and more comfortable to operate.
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11 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

I've only had the briefest of drives in a full on modern car with touch screens and while I didn't have to adjust anything major on the move I did play with it a bit but the problem I had was that in a moving car where you're bumping up and down all the time, trying to hit a specific 2cm x 2cm target with my arm and finger outstretched in mid air wasn't the mere formality that grabbing a lever or pushing a physical button would have been.
If that difficulty I experienced makes me a hair shirt Luddite in your eyes so be it but there's nothing wrong with a simple rubber faced dial, red at one end, blue at the other to control the comfort level inside your car if the hardware behind the scenes works properly.

The reason your Cortina made you damp and uncomfortable was because it was leaky and had a shit heater not because it relied on an "old fashioned" control interface.
Technology is fine when it genuinely improves safety or performance but far too often it's used as little more than gimmickry or marketing fluff to jazz up what is essentially the same old shite so you'll buy a new one, and I'm not just talking about cars here.

 

My Dad had 3 Cortinas , mk3 ,4 and 5. I don’t recall any of them being damp and uncomfortable, although they were all bought new and only kept for 3 years . None had a/c but the heaters worked ok. 
Demisting worked better than the two Passats ( 2000 and 2012), I’ve had.

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19 hours ago, Soundwave said:


I broadly agree... although I find heated leather seats are definitely more useful than heated cloth seats. Leather gets really cold! 

That's one of the reasons I don't like leather seats. Too hot, too cold, too slippery and too creaky. Cloth all the way 

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It only occurred to me yesterday that as right hand drivers, people in the UK have to operate their stupid touch screens with their left hand.

As the majority of people are right handed, does that explain why we all hate them because we are using them cack handed?

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On 3/7/2023 at 9:06 AM, bunglebus said:

That's one of the reasons I don't like leather seats. Too hot, too cold, too slippery and too creaky. Cloth all the way 

If you properly clean and condition them it will transform the comfort. The leather seats in all my cars are superbly comfortable. 

The quality of the leather also has a lot to do with it. Leather in Vauxhall seats is obviously much less compliant and comfortable in say, an Audi or BMW.

If the seats are cloth, they have to be really soft and broad, like a 90s Renault.

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16 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

It only occurred to me yesterday that as right hand drivers, people in the UK have to operate their stupid touch screens with their left hand.

As the majority of people are right handed, does that explain why we all hate them because we are using them cack handed?

Partially probably but more likely that manufacturers see them as an answer to a problem nobody actually had a problem with.

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2 minutes ago, 5speedracer said:

Partially probably but more likely that manufacturers see them as an answer to a problem nobody actually had a problem with.

It's cheaper to change software than hardware.  I would suspect it really is that simple.  Designing a button, getting it through prototyping and manufacture, etc. is a lengthy process.  Changing options on a touchscreen through code is much quicker and cheaper.

The worst I've seen for it was in a modern Citroen where all of the HVAC controls were two menus deep.  For certain things a touchscreen is fine but give me buttons for HVAC.

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5 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

It's cheaper to change software than hardware.  I would suspect it really is that simple.  Designing a button, getting it through prototyping and manufacture, etc. is a lengthy process.  Changing options on a touchscreen through code is much quicker and cheaper.

The worst I've seen for it was in a modern Citroen where all of the HVAC controls were two menus deep.  For certain things a touchscreen is fine but give me buttons for HVAC.

Nobody had a problem with except the manufacturer's accountants.

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This is a grumpy post feel free to ignore me. 
I fucking hate driver assists. I hate more that the cunting things are on when I get in the car.
 

Surely they should be an option for those who need/choice to use them rather than a blanket for all who need to learn how to turn them off (sometimes every time they start the vehicle or sometimes that they are stuck with them and they can’t be disabled)

My transit raises the revs when you up the clutch. I often on a bumpy track want to pull away at idle. Fuck off.

It also has traction control. I discovered this when it failed to climb my mildly snowy drive. Fuck off.

It also has abs. I like to control my own braking. Fuck off. 
 

I realise that everyone has a different opinion though this is mine and won’t be changed.

 

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4 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Mini Countryman has a weird T shaped hand brake. It’s conventional in operation but awkward to use unless it’s your only car.

But why? Style over substance sure, but that’s the thing. It doesn’t look any better than a normal handbrake and no one has ever got in the car and commented on it. Completely pointless.

Meh.

vl46t-55cb3042b331e.thumb.jpg.6df1874c5f483eb84b30e4c2f67db61e.jpg

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