Worst gadget or gimmick in modern cars?

AMKC

For me it is touch screens. They are just horrible and a silly dangerous distraction to the driver as well. Having these horrible things in cars also means the design of the dashboards is limited too. It also means you can not turn the radio on when the car is off. How annoying and stupid is that?

#Endtotouchscreensincars

Lantus

My radio works fine when the keys are out on a touchscreen? It's a skoda.

I'd remove glove boxes which are getting smaller and hold only junk you hardly use and create better defined space in the boot for manuals and cold spaces and create more cabin space.

EPAndlee

Active park assist

GM228

The driver in a driverless car

JoeA3

AMKC wrote: »

It also means you can not turn the radio on when the car is off. How annoying and stupid is that?

In what current car does that limitation exist? I’ve yet to see it.

theteal

Keyless entry isn’t really working great for lots of folk around here. A lot of high spec cars going walkabout. Was the old clicker button really such a drawback?

Atlantic Dawn

Stop Start technology, I was in a taxi over the weekend with it for a short trip, it wrecked my head so much with it turning the rattling diesel engine I felt like paying him extra to have it removed. How someone could spend a day driving around with it is beyond me.

run_Forrest_run

can of gunk instead of a spacesaver tyre and then having the cheek to advertise the space under the boot, originally the home of said spacesaver as 'additional storage' :mad:

Caliden

EPAndlee wrote: »

Active park assist

Stop that nonsense right now.

My current car has park assist and its the dog's bollocks around Dublin for parallel parking.

I don't do it enough so the only practice I have is when it's crunch time.

wally1990

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Stop Start technology, I was in a taxi over the weekend with it for a short trip, it wrecked my head so much with it turning the rattling diesel engine I felt like paying him extra to have it removed. How someone could spend a day driving around with it is beyond me.

Same
GF car Audi 2012 A1 has it and it’s drives me mad when I driver her car
I have to keep reminding myself to turn it off

CrankyHaus

Audio warning reverse parking sensors. A series of ever more urgent beeping noises that sound like the blast door opening siren on a nuclear missile silo any time you want to reverse.

The visual warning only sensors that came later are fine. The top-down camera view in the new Volvos is the absolute business but why car execs back around 2008 thought passengers would want their cars to come with sound effects from Fallout 3 is beyond me.

ELM327

removal of spare tyre

ohnonotgmail

theteal wrote: »

Keyless entry isn’t really working great for lots of folk around here. A lot of high spec cars going walkabout. Was the old clicker button really such a drawback?

You would have to pry keyless entry and keyless start from my cold dead hands. Really handy if you are walking to the car with both hands full.

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Audio warning reverse parking sensors. A series of ever more urgent beeping noises that sound like the blast door opening siren on a nuclear missile silo any time you want to reverse.

The visual warning only sensors that came later are fine. The top-down camera view in the new Volvos is the absolute business but why car execs back around 2008 thought passengers would want their cars to come with sound effects from Fallout 3 is beyond me.

my only issue with the audio warnings is that they start far too early and go absolutely apoplectic when you still have 2 or 3 feet to go.

CrankyHaus

OSI wrote: »

Because it allows you to get feedback without having to stare at a screen?

It's feedback that isn't necessary in most cases and is always extremely intrusive and annoying. There should at least be an option to permanently turn it off.

One's eyes are always moving between mirrors, and sometimes rearward glances when reversing anyway so glancing at a screen during the process does not alter it significantly.

ednwireland

keyless entry

button parking brake rather than a lever

cjt156

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

You would have to pry keyless entry and keyless start from my cold dead hands. Really handy if you are walking to the car with both hands full.

What do you do once you get to the car?

ohnonotgmail

cjt156 wrote: »

What do you do once you get to the car?

I just pull the door handle. much easier than trying to fish a keyfob from my pocket..

carj

Hill start assist with an electronic handbrake..

Reduces the control i have over the car, and "helps" where it's really not needed!

.......

This post has been deleted.

bazz26

A right bunch of Victor Meldrews in here.

marvin80

The alert telling you you're running low on window-washer - ridiculous

Lantus

....... wrote:

This post has been deleted.

It's not dangerous but it's annoying and only drives to promote fuel efficiency as tests allow for a third of urban driving to be stationary. I'd like to be able to turn off completely.

cjt156

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I just pull the door handle. much easier than trying to fish a keyfob from my pocket..

I'd rather use a key fob & know my car will be where I left it.

JoeA3

The only one I agree with here is "Stop/Start". Annoying feature which I have disabled (or rather, I have set it to permanently remember it's "off" setting).

Many of the other suggestions are, imo, silly. What next? The engine is silly, we were doing perfectly fine with horses?

Electric handbrake / auto-hold for one thing, I think it's a brilliant feature if implemented well.

duffman3833

im not sure if this counts as a gadget but i think lack of spare tyre and replaced with a built in compressor. Most times when a person gets a flat tyre its because the tyre is damaged from a nail or pothole. A spare tyre is necessary as it wont be able to be pumped up so why not provide a spare tyre. My parents Suzuki has a air compressor instead of spare tyre, pointless when a puncture happens and the tyre wont inflate

Second option would be electronic hand brake. Its useless, not reliable and when releasing it, it looks like your taking off in the car with the handbrake still on looking like an tool.

EPAndlee

Heated steering wheels are completely unnecessary

Caliden

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

You would have to pry keyless entry and keyless start from my cold dead hands. Really handy if you are walking to the car with both hands full.






my only issue with the audio warnings is that they start far too early and go absolutely apoplectic when you still have 2 or 3 feet to go.

Found the sensors in Audi's give you the flatline when you've got a good 1-2 foot of space.
My c-class gives the flatline when you've only got a few mm left of space.

martingriff

JoeA3 wrote: »

In what current car does that limitation exist? I’ve yet to see it.

My parents cars have it. 1 is a 161 Kia and the other a 12 year old opel. Second car does not have touchscreen

flazio

I have to agree with the op on touch screen dashboards. After a month of owning a car I usually have good touch memory of where the radio, heater and hazards are, and can reach them without taking my eyes off the road. You always need to see the screen these days, and let's not forget those cursor movers down where the handbrake lever should be. Even if these are not meant to be touched when driving, they still delay you setting off while you set up the car to go.

ohnonotgmail

Caliden wrote: »

Found the sensors in Audi's give you the flatline when you've got a good 1-2 foot of space.
My c-class gives the flatline when you've only got a few mm left of space.

1 foot i would be happy with. a few mm is cutting it a bit close

vintagevrs

Interesting thread how one mans gimmick is another mans essential. The new gesture control BMW have in their current line up has to be up there with biggest gimmick ever made anywhere, never mind cars. Gimmick in the sense that every single car review talks about it, sales men mention it and if I owned one, no doubt id be showing it off myself to any poor passenger. It is completely tech for the sake of tech though. If you want to put the volume up on the radio, the button is under your thumb on the steering wheel, or there's another button 12 inches away you could choose.

Cienciano

Most annoying feature for me is some cars automatically lower the radio volume when you're reversing. I fúcking hate it. Always an interesting part of a podcast. If it paused, it would be better. But lowering the volume so you can't make out what's being said is really annoying.
One thing I thought I wouldn't bother with but now couldn't go without is electric seats.

Hurrache

CrankyHaus wrote: »

It's feedback that isn't necessary in most cases and is always extremely intrusive and annoying. There should at least be an option to permanently turn it off.

It's easy to switch off with the click of a button in many cars, and the volume can be adjusted too.

.......

This post has been deleted.

zilog_jones

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Stop Start technology, I was in a taxi over the weekend with it for a short trip, it wrecked my head so much with it turning the rattling diesel engine...

I think the problem is more it's a rattly diesel than anything else. I've only driven a petrol with stop-start and honestly didn't find it a problem at all, then again my own car is a PHEV so the engine's not on half the time anyway.

Touchscreens with no tactile feedback are awful though. Much more of a distraction than real buttons and dials if you're trying to drive.

May Contain Small Parts

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I couldn't understand the hate for stop/start until I read this and I think it's purely down to driving styles. If I'm at the head of a queue I'm always in first and ready to go.

Personally, I really like it. I like that moment of quiet when the engine cuts out and I've never had a problem with it cutting out at the wrong time...because it cuts out according to a set of rules and you know what they are.

lsjmhar

Windows

com1

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Am I missing something here? You get to the entrance of a busy roundabout at rush hour and take the time to put the car into neutral and release the clutch (which then stops the engine), but you have an issue with the time it takes for the engine to restart when you want to nip out into a gap in traffic?

Why are you taking the car out of gear and releasing the clutch if it is that busy?

Samuel T. Cogley

Mirrors on the drivers visor. Just encouraging the 'doing the make up on the way to work' brigade.

CrankyHaus

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Audio warning reverse parking sensors. A series of ever more urgent beeping noises that sound like the blast door opening siren on a nuclear missile silo any time you want to reverse.

.

ednwireland wrote: »

keyless entry

button parking brake rather than a lever

carj wrote: »

Hill start assist with an electronic handbrake..

Reduces the control i have over the car, and "helps" where it's really not needed!

I couldn't disagree more on these points.

I pretty much never look at the screen for reversing, always use audio. I'd almost go so far as to say the total opposite is true and the visual display is fairly useless and it's all about the sound but it's handy to have the visual so no need to get rid of it.

As for the electionic handbrake and hill hold, this is one of the best additions to a car in a long time (when done right e.g. VW). I go between two cars one with it and one without and it's a massive pain now driving without it and would not buy a car again without it.

Unlike many I also like stop/start as it's quite nice for the car to shut off in traffic. It's fairly easy to either turn it off temporarily or keep your foot on clutch in moving traffic if you don't want the car to turn off.

Wibbs

Touchscreens are "in" because they're cheaper than buttons and more scalable and adaptable as a new car goes through development. They're touted as the "future" but it's much more about the accounts dept. Similar goes for no spare tyre. It's cheaper and they can advertise more space.

kyote00

self driving ..... just take a taxi :cool:

.......

This post has been deleted.

ohnonotgmail

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

but in an automatic would you not have your foot on the brake anyway? its not like you would put the handbrake on at a roundabout.

van_beano

Timing Belts, alternators and Renault.

Pretty much my input. :cool:

.......

This post has been deleted.

heroics

com1 wrote: »

Am I missing something here? You get to the entrance of a busy roundabout at rush hour and take the time to put the car into neutral and release the clutch (which then stops the engine), but you have an issue with the time it takes for the engine to restart when you want to nip out into a gap in traffic?

Why are you taking the car out of gear and releasing the clutch if it is that busy?

Yep automatics - Once foot on brake and car stopped the engine shuts down. Happened me a few times joining a roundabout where there is a delay as it is turning off as I start to go.

First thing I do is press the button to turn it off. its as automatic to me now as putting on my seatbelt.

heroics

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

but in an automatic would you not have your foot on the brake anyway? its not like you would put the handbrake on at a roundabout.

in an auto you never use the handbrake except when you park it up.

anyone I know who has it turns it off as soon as they can. Either by pressing the button or putting gear lever in S

.......

This post has been deleted.

GM228

heroics wrote: »

in an auto you never use the handbrake except when you park it up.

I do same as I would in a manual.

heroics

GM228 wrote: »

I do same as I would in a manual.

Same for me all though talking about electronic parking brakes in my manual A6 I used to use the electronic handbrake sometimes as it auto disengaged once you tried to drive