Worst Trends in Modern Cars

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted by Voleak
Thing that cracks me up about that is, I see a lot of high powered SUV's with the cheapest tires available on them. Tires brands such as: Ling Long, Triangle, Vercelli, Atturo, Zenna, etc. So, the owners will pay upwards of $1,000 a month for their car payment, But won't fork out a grand every two or three years for quality, safe tires. They want tons of horse power, but they put hockey pucks on it.

They buy these big expensive aftermarket rims and put cheap Chinese tires on them

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
NOTHING on a car should be made to where the owner can't maintain it with a good set of tools. My gf's Mustang has the worst transmission setup ever. No dipstick,no idiot light,no drain plug,no fill plug,nothing. Only that worthless Ford specific combo plug that fits up to the dealership's "transmission machine". Come on guys,everyone should be able to maintain their own car in their garage or driveway.


When did they do away with the plug on the side that you unscrew and inside is the dipstick? You fill through that hole too.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted by itguy08
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
NOTHING on a car should be made to where the owner can't maintain it with a good set of tools. My gf's Mustang has the worst transmission setup ever. No dipstick,no idiot light,no drain plug,no fill plug,nothing. Only that worthless Ford specific combo plug that fits up to the dealership's "transmission machine". Come on guys,everyone should be able to maintain their own car in their garage or driveway.


When did they do away with the plug on the side that you unscrew and inside is the dipstick? You fill through that hole too.


Google "How to change 2007 Mustang V6 automatic transmission fluid" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Anything "sealed" is worthless. Dipsticks,drain plugs,and fill plugs should be required by law.


Sorry. Don't understand why a transmission needs a dipstick. It's a sealed system. If you have a leak-it needs attention. If you want to service it-there are access points underneath for both draining and filling.

Are there not fill points underneath all sealed systems?


Have you tried laying on the ground underneath a car with this setup and doing a drain and fill? A huge PITA. My father's 2013 Grand Cherokee doesn't have a transmission drain bolt, but it has a dipstick. So much easier, as I can just use an exchange pump to suck the fluid out from the top and fill it back up, all while leaving the vehicle on the ground.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted by jeepman3071
1. Infotainment:

I work in technology, but the integration into cars is terrible. Nothing like taking your eyes off the road while trying to fumble through menus to turn down the HVAC fan speed or change the radio station. If the infotainment is through a touch screen it is even worse. Nothing like trying to tap on a small icon on the screen while whizzing through traffic at 75 mph. The Audi system and BMW iDrive isn't terrible with the scroll wheel, but some are just awful.



I despised the iDrive interface when it was introduced in the E65 7 Series, but the current iterations work extremely well. I find touchscreens to be worthless while driving- having to take you eyes off the road coupled with the lack of tactile feedback makes them virtually useless.

 

[Cujet]

I rent various different cars regularly. Sometimes 2 or 3 different cars per week. Often many miles driven. 2 weeks ago, I put 1600 miles on an Altima in 4 days, with no cross country trips!

My main complaint is lack of accurate or precise throttle response. Most modern cars are deliberately non responsive, sometimes to the point of great annoyance.

Mercedes makes many powerful cars, but with most of them, I can floor it, remove my foot and put my foot flat on the floormat before RPM's ever start to increase. Yikes!

Other cars, keep the throttle partly open during deceleration (to keep cat's hot and operational) . This results in inability to match speeds with throttle alone. Requiring brake application, where it would otherwise not be necessary.

It's a real treat when the throttle plate is directly connected to the foot.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by MCompact
Originally Posted by jeepman3071
1. Infotainment:

I work in technology, but the integration into cars is terrible. Nothing like taking your eyes off the road while trying to fumble through menus to turn down the HVAC fan speed or change the radio station. If the infotainment is through a touch screen it is even worse. Nothing like trying to tap on a small icon on the screen while whizzing through traffic at 75 mph. The Audi system and BMW iDrive isn't terrible with the scroll wheel, but some are just awful.



I despised the iDrive interface when it was introduced in the E65 7 Series, but the current iterations work extremely well. I find touchscreens to be worthless while driving- having to take you eyes off the road coupled with the lack of tactile feedback makes them virtually useless.

2010 upgrade and move to hard drive made iDrive really good.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Voleak
The demand for turbo engines, to get a lot of power to the asphalt. Huge wheels and tires to reign all that power under control...

Thing that cracks me up about that is, I see a lot of high powered SUV's with the cheapest tires available on them. Tires brands such as: Ling Long, Triangle, Vercelli, Atturo, Zenna, etc. So, the owners will pay upwards of $1,000 a month for their car payment, But won't fork out a grand every two or three years for quality, safe tires. They want tons of horse power, but they put hockey pucks on it.


The turbos are a way to get power while saving gas. At a certain point CAFE wasn't that bad so car makers were able to ditch turbo's and just go with bigger and bigger V6s.

As for no name tires, I think some of that happens from used car dealers. They like to throw on a new set of tires if the old ones are a little worn and they just put the cheapest tires they can on it. I'm not sure what my reaction would be to cheap no name tires on a used car, it'd be a tough call to just ditch them and grab a new set of name brand tires. Probably negotiate with the dealer to swap them for real tires. Last two cars came with real Michelins and Contientials though.

 

[DejaVue]

Bucket seats and huge middle consoles in a non-sporty car.
Split-bench seat in the front, with optional pull down center armrest are great.
Put the gear selector lever back on the steering column if you have to so there can be more room in the middle.

Even worse is when it has bucket seats but they're small. At least make the HUGE center console between the seats a little smaller so the bucket seats can be wider. It'd also be nice if the center console between the seats wasn't so huge its entire length... it would help prevent claustrophobia, and my leg could stop hitting the side of it.

Many modern cars have ridiculously big center console sections between the seats. May as well put a wall up between the driver and passenger and have them talk to each other via intercom.

 

[oemjunk]

ABS is garbage. And put the high beam switch back on the floor where it belongs.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted by oemjunk
ABS is garbage. And put the high beam switch back on the floor where it belongs.


Amen! And bring back mechanical brakes and hand crank starting!

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by oemjunk
ABS is garbage. And put the high beam switch back on the floor where it belongs.



OH-you can moderate pulsating your brakes as fast as an ABS unit can when you start to skid on a wet service? You must be superman.......

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by oemjunk
ABS is garbage. And put the high beam switch back on the floor where it belongs.



OH-you can moderate pulsating your brakes as fast as an ABS unit can when you start to skid on a wet service? You must be superman.......


And he is super fast on the floor mounted dimmer!

 

[PimTac]

Geez, no mention of manual chokes and rayon tires?

I'll take a modern vehicle anyway over the finicky ones from eons ago that required loads of maintenance. Nostalgia is one thing but today's cars are pretty reliable compared to decades ago.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by MCompact
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by oemjunk
ABS is garbage. And put the high beam switch back on the floor where it belongs.



OH-you can moderate pulsating your brakes as fast as an ABS unit can when you start to skid on a wet service? You must be superman.......


And he is super fast on the floor mounted dimmer!


I like my auto high beams. Also stability control was required in 2012 so basically all cars should have ABS, traction control and stability control if newer than 2012. That's why they got rid of the crown vic, they didn't want to add the cost of stability control to a low selling vehicle.

 

[TheLawnRanger]

Discontinuing making cars.

 

[I_4]

Electric E-brake. I do not own one, but most I have looked at are like an on/off switch. Handbrake turns would seem a bit difficult to modulate.