I have a toggle on the dash that is standard. I can leave it on or turn it off. 2023 Silverado. I just did a 4 hour trip by myself. I turned it on. But I didn't have too-because I'm a superior driver like the rest of the 60 (plus) year olds on here.
Any new but low tech cars?
- Thread starter VQLT
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I guess my theory is, if you can't pay attention enough to keep your car between the lines, then you aren't aware of the situation in front of you for some fairly long stretches of time... A 60 yr old looking ahead will avoid a deer, that the 20 yr old looking at their phone will drive into at 70 mph, when it comes out of the ditch 20' in front of them.
All I know is I need to buy something before they all have automatic braking. That’s the one techno-nanny feature I’m really afraid of.
It can be turned off, for now.
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I've been driving for 35 years, I don't complain about my driving skills, I don't like nanny systems, and yet the automatic braking on my 2017 Hyundai (which I suspect should be antiquated by now) has saved my bacon at least twice, for good.
The first time it saved me from myself - I was in an hour+ traffic long jam in Manhattan and someone cut me off, very nastily and dangerously, with a middle finger flying. All I remember from there is everything became red and I simply gunned it, towards his car, with about zero thoughts in whatever was left of my brain. Not my proudest moment. My car stopped me hairs away from his rear bumper.
The second time was when returning from a long trip, at the end of hte Tappan Zee bridge - someone, somewhere in the front decided that they needed to go all Family Guy "how much blinker do I need to go across nine lanes" (google it
), and the car braked a fraction of a second before I did, which was the fraction of a second I needed to keep it from becoming a no-longer car.
So really - anyone with a decently built automatic braking system set on the most agressive setting, who still thinks it's intervening too much and that 3ft behind the vehicle in front of them is enough distance - simply doesn't deserve to drive anything beyond a bicycle.
I'm not talking about driving assistance, intrusive lane keeping and so on - I'm talking about automatic braking, built by regular car manufacturers that are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
As for the rest - there's a lot of mixing in this here thread of reliability with repairability. It sounds like simplicity is a synonym of reliability. It is not.
- A push button start is not less reliable than a key. I've seen more ignition barrels fail than push button systems, first hand. The GM scandal with the ignition barrels that killed dozens of (very young) people was the simplest of ignition barrels there was.
- Even if we set for a key instead of push button - a transponder is still mandatory. This weeds out at least the opportunity thiefs - kids, joyriders, and scum that is simply too tired to walk home and prefers a free ride. In a street full of recent cars, the old one will be the one stolen first.
- I don't see crank windows being more reliable than power windows. Not in 2025. And I have owned cars with crank windows. Try driving on the Paris Peripherique stuck in your lane, your speed mandated by the car tailgating you, your passenger window wide open, and looking straight into the exhaust of a box truck going through gears every other second. It has happened to me. Was stuck like that for several miles. Couldn't reach the crank. It was fun, oxygen felt good after that.
- Repairability is not reliability. Simplicity is not reliability. Or at least - not mandatorily. Any Japanese car is complex enough, yet mostly reliable. A Toyota Technical, if it was available, would probably last longer than a more complex Toyota - yes. But that's about it - it only works within the same brand, all other things being equal.
On the flip side Lada is the simplest thing on Earth, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. There are still lost (reporter) souls babbling every other week about how amazing the Niva is - none of them has actually had to deal with one on a daily basis. And there's always a disconnect between the perceived feeling that they were/are reliable because there's a gazillion of them made and how they were fleet vehicles in some countries, and the hidden reality of these fleets having dedicated maintenance and repair facilities for them.
The first time it saved me from myself - I was in an hour+ traffic long jam in Manhattan and someone cut me off, very nastily and dangerously, with a middle finger flying. All I remember from there is everything became red and I simply gunned it, towards his car, with about zero thoughts in whatever was left of my brain. Not my proudest moment. My car stopped me hairs away from his rear bumper.
The second time was when returning from a long trip, at the end of hte Tappan Zee bridge - someone, somewhere in the front decided that they needed to go all Family Guy "how much blinker do I need to go across nine lanes" (google it
), and the car braked a fraction of a second before I did, which was the fraction of a second I needed to keep it from becoming a no-longer car.So really - anyone with a decently built automatic braking system set on the most agressive setting, who still thinks it's intervening too much and that 3ft behind the vehicle in front of them is enough distance - simply doesn't deserve to drive anything beyond a bicycle.
I'm not talking about driving assistance, intrusive lane keeping and so on - I'm talking about automatic braking, built by regular car manufacturers that are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
As for the rest - there's a lot of mixing in this here thread of reliability with repairability. It sounds like simplicity is a synonym of reliability. It is not.
- A push button start is not less reliable than a key. I've seen more ignition barrels fail than push button systems, first hand. The GM scandal with the ignition barrels that killed dozens of (very young) people was the simplest of ignition barrels there was.
- Even if we set for a key instead of push button - a transponder is still mandatory. This weeds out at least the opportunity thiefs - kids, joyriders, and scum that is simply too tired to walk home and prefers a free ride. In a street full of recent cars, the old one will be the one stolen first.
- I don't see crank windows being more reliable than power windows. Not in 2025. And I have owned cars with crank windows. Try driving on the Paris Peripherique stuck in your lane, your speed mandated by the car tailgating you, your passenger window wide open, and looking straight into the exhaust of a box truck going through gears every other second. It has happened to me. Was stuck like that for several miles. Couldn't reach the crank. It was fun, oxygen felt good after that.
- Repairability is not reliability. Simplicity is not reliability. Or at least - not mandatorily. Any Japanese car is complex enough, yet mostly reliable. A Toyota Technical, if it was available, would probably last longer than a more complex Toyota - yes. But that's about it - it only works within the same brand, all other things being equal.
On the flip side Lada is the simplest thing on Earth, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. There are still lost (reporter) souls babbling every other week about how amazing the Niva is - none of them has actually had to deal with one on a daily basis. And there's always a disconnect between the perceived feeling that they were/are reliable because there's a gazillion of them made and how they were fleet vehicles in some countries, and the hidden reality of these fleets having dedicated maintenance and repair facilities for them.
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As I've mentioned elsewhere, my C43 is equipped with Distronic Plus (Level 2 autonomy). I didn't think that I'd like it but I love using it in stop-and-go or slow moving (under 20 mph) traffic. I also find it helpful on long interstate slogs. I did disable the "route based speed adaptation"- in cruise mode it caused the car to slow down in corners to "80 year old man wearing a ball cap and Ban-Lon slacks driving a Lucerne" velocities.
My Cobalt has crank windows, a broken key stuck in the ignition, no radio at all, AND it’s a manual!I see power windows and push button start.
And it has a personality, drive it too hard and it’ll start misfiring until you restart it
Can bus made everything so much easier to diagnose. What it didn't allow is jerry rig something analog in to get anything working again, at least not without getting new fault codes.
Yes, if you want a hatchback that's a little bigger than a golf, you need to get a crossover. They are poor substitutes for a true wagon too. But for me, vastly superior to a sedan or truck with open bed (even with a cover on).
I once had a customer car brought in for a suspected wheel bearing shot. So I had a quick feel (found nothing) and a test drive (felt nothing) and asked the service manager to contact the client and ask more details.
Long tory short, the car only did it when she turned onto the freeway. Where they put rumble strips on the side. I had her come down to the dealer to find that out.
Then she asked why they would put rumble strips ther, and I said (what else?) it's so that blind people can drive aswell. She didn't question or laugh at that response....
I have no illusions about Niva reliablity, but they are cheap to buy and cheap in parts, and small enough to take off road where they are reasonably capable. I wouldn't care if a $15k Niva gets a ding or scratch on it, not so much with a $70k truck. Imagine getting one of those lights cracked.... that a big part of a new Niva already.
I suppose the Suzuki Jimny is closest to a Niva in size, cost an performance, but it's even smaller. And parts won't be as cheap.
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A Niva will throw things at you that no other car would. Things will break that you didn't know could break, or that you have ever seen breaking on other cars. It will only make sense if you qualify the wrenching time as pleasure/hobby, and don't count it as an expense.
I worked on hyundais, I've seen anything break.
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The day they have the same warranty - I'll compare them
There are a few specifics to the markets the Niva was designed for. And even within the Communist block, car markets were very different - while customers in Czechoslovakia or Hungary could buy cars with minimum wait, customers in the USSR or Bulgaria were going through waiting lists that were several years long.
A new car was a heirloom there, counting at the same rate as an appartment, and the simple ownership of a car was the goal. From there, it could be as unreliable as hell, it didn't matter - it would just get fixed.
As a private party, you couldn't buy a truck, or a pickup truck, or anything utilitarian - they were simply not for private use. The logic was - you don't have a business, you don't do private jobs, there is NO private business at all. Hence you don't need a utility vehicle. You could buy (very) used ones at auctions, in a pitiful state, with special permission. Once bought - they were (as any other larger car btw) on a "military list". This meant that in case of war or mobilisation - your vehicle was to be immediately taken by the military to help with the war effort. As a funny side to this - people owning such vehicles had to always have, by law, a bag of sand and a shovel in their trunk.
The Niva was designed as a vehicle not meant for private ownership. While “regular” ladas were owned by private parties (after several years of waiting lists) – anything 4×4 was meant for aministrations, the army, and fleets – and was thus maintained as fleet vehicles. Nivas eventually became available for private parties after 1990-ish when markets opened.
Note that the Niva was by no means a military grade vehicle, but it very quickly became appreciated by the top brass, and was fancier than the usal UAZ to haul a general's behind to a tank shooting range and such.
These are Niva issues that are Niva specific (from new) – to be added on top of the regular Lada issues (which are in themselves endless, and not always engineering-related):
Transfer case whines, front axle’s attachments are weak, front CV axles can simply slip out of the differential on their splines sometimes, the whole transmission is subject to high wear (constant 4×4 of the not most modern type ? ), wheel bearings can be an issue at 20000 miles, the shaft that connects the transfer case and the gearbox (yes, they are separate) whines from new, which is ok, but can hide other noises when things get bad, front suspension is weak, transmission shaft usually starts vibrating after 35000 miles, which breaks other stuff. The steering box makes for the heaviest steering on Earth, and it lasts about 50000 miles.
This is just from the top of my head – not mentioning engine (it has a timing chain which doesn’t mean it doesn't needs attention and tightening as early as 35000 miles, but it's a simple procedure, I'll give it that), and RUST.
This are the issue by design. Issues with build and assembly (which batch would you get, did you get one of the worst ones from the mid-90’s, would you get lucky to get an assembly line worker’s “congratulations” signature tricks – they do exist, and they are priceless) are not factored in.
I'll admit that the Niva is one of the cutest offroad vehicles ever made. And that it has a tremendous place in automotive history. It's just that it is to be admired from afar.
I don't dream of using a niva as a car, but I have nightmares about hyundais used as cars too. esp awd.
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What can I say. I'm at my third Hyundai, second hyundai awd, and I've owned Soviet cars as well.
Comparing them is like comparing marrying a woman that might or might not end up being nasty, and marrying a chimpanzee. One is an experience with potentially varying outcomes, with a guaranteed honeymoon in all cases, the other is the experience of marrying a chimpanzee and the honeymoon and life that goes along.
Comparing them is like comparing marrying a woman that might or might not end up being nasty, and marrying a chimpanzee. One is an experience with potentially varying outcomes, with a guaranteed honeymoon in all cases, the other is the experience of marrying a chimpanzee and the honeymoon and life that goes along.
If I didn’t think I would die on day three being run over by an f250, or really by a Nissan Altima, I’d be tickled to drive a 30 mph go-kart to work daily.
Now as soon as I say that, I want a little more tech. I’d like a 20amp alternator to run a heated winter suit. And then someone is going to figure out how to add a small AC unit to the suit, but I’ll need 30 more amps to run it, and 15 more HP to push it, and because this one is nicer someone will want to steal it, and then it needs an alarm.
So maybe no AC, and just sweat. But then I’ll show up to many meetings, stinky and wet.
I’d still rock the go kart to work if it was socially acceptable.
Now as soon as I say that, I want a little more tech. I’d like a 20amp alternator to run a heated winter suit. And then someone is going to figure out how to add a small AC unit to the suit, but I’ll need 30 more amps to run it, and 15 more HP to push it, and because this one is nicer someone will want to steal it, and then it needs an alarm.
So maybe no AC, and just sweat. But then I’ll show up to many meetings, stinky and wet.
I’d still rock the go kart to work if it was socially acceptable.
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