OT: Talking Cars Tuesday: What's your biggest gripe among new cars?
We live in an automotive platinum age. When I was a kid, 100K was ancient for a car. Now it's a medium sized milestone. You can practically close your eyes and pick from a list of auto manufacturers and come up with something that will be more reliable, powerful, and fuel efficient than something even 10 years ago, and definitely more than something 20 years ago.
However, not everything is perfect, and, I like to whine. What's your biggest gripe about new cars?
For me it's the death of simplicity. It really hit me when I drove an old fleet Ford Five Hundred a couple years back on a long trip. This car had acutal keys, an AM/FM/CD radio, manual HVAC controls, and manual lights.
And I *loved* it. Something about the simplicity spoke to me, and actually made my driving less stressful and busy. It was a great road trip. My Miata is the same way.
I admit, I may be getting old, and you can all get off my lawn. But still...
My '07 Commander has been acting wierd (trying to waterproof my driveway with oil, for example) and I've been looking online at new/used cars. It's damned hard to find a car that doesn't have automagic everything and a screen the size of a small tablet in the center stack, or $400 easily losable key fobs.
What, if any, are your gripes?
Automated cars will have to talk amongst themselves and the environment. For instance, what happens when a car approaches an intersection where a cop is directing traffic? There is no foreseeable technology that will deal with that aside from the cop having a transponder that will communicate with all self driving cars.
If you hook cars to a network, someone WILL hack them. It is 100% inevitable. It is just a question of how much damage will occur with the hack.
I'm talking about a level or two down, which is the worst of both worlds. The car isn't capable of driving without serious driver attention, and the fact that the car will do fine *in many* situations lulls the driver into inattentiveness. It's idiotic.
I don't hate automated cars; so long as I get the choice of turning it off and driving. Or as long as you can have your automated car, and I get to drive my Miata and row my own gears.
But the 'semi-automated' is just dumb.
Insurance will be a huge factor. You can drive your Miata, but it will soon become clear that the vast majority of fatalities will be caused by drivers who drive their own cars instead of allowing the car to drive itself. So, yeah, for an extra $5k a year, go ahead and make yourself a hazard to all the "responsible" people letting the car do the driving. I'm being a bit Orwellian, obviously, but I think we are headed to that point within 15-20 years.
I'm fine with that. If they put automation on the road and they can clearly show that it's safer, it's fair to charge me more in insurance. I don't know that I'd agree with jacking it that much, but I'm not an actuary or an insurance guy.
"So, yeah, for an extra $5k a year, go ahead and make yourself a hazard "
*sigh*. Life is full of risks and freedoms. Driving myself, after having some honest go God driving lessons, isn't like drinking and driving or randomly shooting a gun off my back porch; so I find it a bit polemical to say "I'm making myself a hazard' to others.
My new car has a feature where it actually shuts down the engine when I'm stopped at a stop light and then immediately starts up when I press the accelerator. Drives me nuts! I can push a button and override it, but I have to re-do this step every time I start the car again.
And just all the fucking sensors. I never know when to take it seriously or if it's just super-touchy. Again, I HATE this. I thought I used to know how to drive a car, but this damn thing is always yapping at me. When I pull into a parking space, the sensor insists I am too close to the car ahead of me a good two feet before I would stop. So it starts beeping very loud and won't stop unless I back up. I can't tell you how many times I've yelled "Shut the fuck up!" at this car.
I think there's going to be a huge backlash and people are going to demand a more analog setup in a vehicle.
My Jeep rental car also had the auto stop feature that made me crazy. What was odd is that you could put it in park and it would run forever.
Dingle balls and pillows in the back :-)
EDIT - I forgot static strips as well.
You hate it because it is different. That's what we're all on here griping about
But the backlash won't happen on a widespread level, because the people against it will be 6 feet under, or in a nursing home not buying cars anymore. The up and coming generations will be used to those features and probably not demand a reversal. Perceptions/reality of conviencence and safety are easily entrenched and hard to revert back to earlier versions
Sure, maybe there will be a few niche "retro" analog cars, but the future is more automated, more integrated, and there's not much that is going to stop that
No one sells anything with a gated manual anymore
I was never a fan of the gated manuals, but I really miss being able to buy a manual for 1500 less.
Thieves broke into my wife's 97 Jeep Cherokee, popped out the ignition with a screwdriver, and left. I'm guessing that's the point that noticed that it was a stick and couldn't figure out how to get it started. They did rummage through her mix tapes in the center console before leaving though.
Last time I went into a dealership and asked about manual transmission possibility on a new model, the salesperson looked at me like I was a disfigured alien life form asking questions that do not make sense on planet Earth. My last two vehicles have been sans manual transmission for "family reasons", and I miss my manual transmission dearly.
More and more crap are moving to touch controls but the tech doesn't yet have the reliability of manual controls, and there's no backup. So for example (and this kind of stuff actually happens), when they move the HVAC controls to touch screen and the interface craps out, it could be 100 degrees in the car and the compressor is fine, the ducts are fine, the vents are fine, yet you don't have air conditioning because there's no way to access the controls. That's just a single example, but the problem is that the more crap they move to the touch panel, the more it becomes a single point of failure for everything. Looking forward to when some dumbass in marketing forces the engineers to move the power windows to the touchscreen.
I bitch about the same thing with my new appliances. Mechanical fixes are easy, but the slightest electronic glitch means you need a tech guy come and replace the entire electronic control board. Similarly, the ice machine on my refrigerator sprung a leak and the only reason we didn't have a total disaster was we came home 20 minutes later and were able to contain the flood. Fuck that shit. I make ice in ice trays now. If there's one thing I've learned about ice machines, it's that they are going to leak eventually.
I work in the world of Internet of Things. They will have all these sensors talking back to the appliance manufacturer and auto maker and even the shirt you are wearing.
This could be good in that hopefully they will be able to proactivly fix things - or tell you something is about to break. But it will give them endless upsell options - "I have noticed your car is especially smelly, would you like an air freshner?"
"I see you can't park for shit, would you like to upgrade to our auto park feature for $9.99 a month?"
I have all Samsung appliances. Very nice looking shit. And yet, every single one has broke in some way or another that caused the repariman to come out and get into my pocket. Hell, the Microwave lasted for a year and then broke - hasn't worked in 6 years. All pieces of shit!
Appliance failure rates are much higher these days too. With digital controls on intergrated circuit boards, when they fail replacement of the entire board is usually the only option, and in the case of appliance likely more than 50% of the cost of the unit.
My Pro Platinum touchscreen is buggy as fuck. Half the time it doens't recognize my iPhone's Bluetooth or that it's plugged in. Often I have to spin the mechanical Tune knob just to "wake up" the interface for the touchscreen buttons to become responsive again.
The lack of buttons and need to navigate numerous pages on the touchscreen to control something as simple as the heated seats or the radio.
Changing the speed of the fan and which set of vents is being used nearly requires pulling out the owners manual on some models. How about a few switches and knobs to keep it simple!
Every gotdamn time I get in the wife's car she has to set the climate control for me. I don't normally feel like a complete moron, but I do in her car.
I think that's a design feature for her car :D
I even have ABS on my motorcycle.
That's not so much new vs old, but rather Subaru vs Ford. After driving several Ford rentals you couldn't pay me to have one. Owned 4 different Subaru's, had 1995 Subaru impreza that was still running just fine that I sold last year; I'll be sticking with Subaru from here on out.
but your right when it comes to Ford. I too have rented a couple of models over time and after driving them for a few days couldn't stand them and would never own one. Actually have owned a couple of Fords, back in the day and both were piles of crap. So bad I couldn't believe anyone auto maker would put their names on them.
I've been a Toyota/Lexus owner for a long time and never have problems with them. They run forever. Recently bought an Audi Q5 and so far love it, will be interesting to see how it holds up compared to Lexus over the years.
Most car brands are reliable now. I'm living with an 11 YO Ford Five Hundred and I love it. My family has put tons of miles on Fords and Chryslers. We've owned Honda's too. There are differences, but it's not 'The Ford rusted to dust in my driveway this morning' and 'The Honda successfully resists entropy' that everyone seems to come up with. Mainly it's been stuff like 'The bushings on the Ford went prior to the Honda's.'
I've also seen some things the other way. One lady sang praises to me about her Accord and how reliable it was. I then discovered she'd just had the head gasket replaced. But for whatever reason the cost incurred didn't bug her because it was a Honda.
Don't get me wrong; I think Honda and Toyota in particular manufacture and engineer wonderful cars. We just don't live in the 70's anymore.
I think it's more the controls and interior stuff these days that is shit compared the Japanese cars. I don't know anyone with a Chevy truck that still has all the window and door controls working. Or the dash creaks with every bump in the road. Or the seat is falling apart. While the 2001 Infinity that my daughter treated like shit for the last few years was still as functional when she sold it last year as it was when we first bought it.
that those are all ad hoc examples. My 500 doesn't squeak or rattle.
I have put about 150k miles on Chevy Trucks since 2005 without any of the failures you note.
Now some of my Chrysler cars were crap.
Different people have different expiences. I have had Audis - great cars but expensive if anything does break, a Porsche that was expensive to fix, Nissan, Honda, Lotus, Mercury, Dodge, Chrysler, Datsun, Jeep, Pontiac, Mini Cooper - all have been pretty decent but I do not keep most cars past 100k and several were lease cars.
The only brand I would stay away from based on personal experience are Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep - despite the fact I like many of the Jeeps and am looking forward to seeing the Jeep truck.
2004 GMC Sierra. 257,000 miles and counting. Little stuff in the interior going out, but she still runs strong.
I'm with JFW. Just got rid of an 11 year old Edge with 200k+ on it and never had even a minor problem. Gas mileage could be better, but that was a solid car that did a great job for my family.
For all the technology I've seen some used that have at least not too much; and I'm comfortable with the drivetrain and AWD system.
Of course, I'm like 2 years out from paying off debt before I can get a new (used) car, God willing.
Yep Ford is "reliable" now, but just now doesn't give a shit about their customers. Bought 2011 Fusion Hybrid (fully loaded brand new). Found out over a year ago (from Ford) and going on two that no one should use the front passenger seat due to Takata airbag. Ford I guess is in a dispute with the Feds about the recall and therefore has no parts to replace the airbag (AFTER OVER A YEAR GOING ON TWO). Oh and no dealer wants it because of no part/can't sit in front.
Will never buy a Ford again (after buying three brand new in the last 15 years).
Given I've only had the Taurus and Fusion but never had a major issue other than some sensor's that were a PITA to get to.
No idea what I'll get once my fusion sport hits 250k miles. Hopefully something cool, sporty and efficient that hasn't been released yet. Or massive subsidies allow me to buy a tesla and solar panels, but my state is so red, they're more likely to give a subsidy for buying an SUV and operating your own coal power plant.
That's a simple fix. If you want a reliable sedan, don't buy a Ford. Buy a Toyota or a Honda
Upside, based on their recent announcement soon you won't even be able to buy a Ford sedan, so the choice is made for you!
don't like the keyless ignition. My wife has it and I am always setting the keys down here and there and then the car is beeping and I can't find them, are they in my pocket, in the seat, on the dash? Having an actual key to start a car was not a problem that needed a solution. I can see remote starting having its benefits, but the keyless ignition where you still have to put your foot on the break to start the car is completely pointless and irritating.