RE: PH Blog: Why modern cars are too confusing

[stewjohnst]

mrclav said:

yonex said:

you should be able to order an M5 with no stereo or centre console if you wish

And if you choose to do so, which I'm sure if you were particularly persistent you could get done (I'm thinking Sultan of Brunei/Eric Clapton one-offs etc), may the Gods of Resale have mercy on your soul.

...but how would BMW be able to play the engine through the speakers without a stereo?

[timewatch]

Good points raised Garlick!

The thing that get's to me is BHP etc, ie; 110BPH or 140BPH on the same car with exactally the same equipment with exception
of this, and it can make a huge difference in fuel economy and tax class too.

Yes I agree with you it's high time to simplify the whole damn thing!

I bought a Car advertised in a dealership in Ireland with 2500 miles on clock, read the Large dealers description agreed the cost and and trade-in price, expecting Sat-Nav in the car as described and it should have been in that model, but when I got there it didn't have Sat-Nav, so coming from UK to Ireland I had two choices, go back with my car £300 down and leave their the car, or haggle down the price, so I haggled and got an extra £1000 off the price.

Got to say I wish I'd have just walked away and claimed my expences from them... must say they were good and apologetic about the whole thing.

The point is and as you say Garlick, lets have some clarity in car models, Mercedes for example, my friend has a Merc C220 Elegance auto with many more extras than the Avantgarde model, that should never be the case, the model name should change and the extras described to stop confusion... AND BPH should always be marked on the badge so it's a simple identification.

Cheers

TW>>>

[LuS1fer]

Canningmister said:

Thats perfectly justified for an MPV which has all of them features, and of course everyone is entitled to their own choice. But what about MPV's or the chunkier hatchbacks that fail to have any of these features, or a choice of 7 seats. Like a Mercedes B Class or an Skoda Yeti..

What about longer saloons that have none of those benefits and have the nerve to seat only 4. Outlaw them?

[XJ40]

Leins said:

Gotta love eBay for older cars

Absolutely, keeps mine on the road.

[Prawnboy]

i am in total agreement here. as a car spotter it is nice to know what goes where in the pecking order.

there should always at least be a top of the range with stuff the lower models can't even spec, along with entry level goodness that doesn't try to be anything else.

everything in between is lame!

[RemarkLima]

Also inclined to agree but mainly on the used market - it does make searching for "the right spec" pretty much impossible, or that no one ever ordered that car, with the spec that you would have etc... Sure, if you buying new, it's great, but if you're not a powerfully built champion of business or a sales rep, new car purchases aren't that often (or ever in my case)

[monthefish]

Prawnboy said:

i am in total agreement here. as a car spotter it is nice to know what goes where in the pecking order.

there should always at least be a top of the range with stuff the lower models can't even spec, along with entry level goodness that doesn't try to be anything else.

everything in between is lame!

I think it's good, especially for the nerdy car spotter geek, because now it takes a keen eye to spot the subtle details between the real models and the up-specc'd lower models.

Things like exhaust positions (and count), brake disc sizes are subtle things that joe public misses, but most PH'ers spot.

I like that.

[MC Bodge]

LuS1fer said:

The Mondeo Edge I bought new for £12k had cruise control and heated front screen as standard so why the hell they fitted windy windows, i don't know.

Mine is the same. Fitting the mechanical winders puzzles me a bit, although I'm not really that bothered(other than on an occasional cold morning reversing off my drive with steamed windows ...I drive forwards onto my drive to allow the boot to be opened).

In fact, when you think about it, why does the driver's window need to be electric? It is useful to have an electric front passenger window.

LuS1fer said:

The Zetec only offered those plus useless extra chrome and useless foglights and a Sony CD Player which the saleswoman assured me was really no better than the Ford one (though it does look nicer).

Exactly. The Ford CD player works and sounds fairly good at speed to a non-audiophile like me.

My 'Edge' has a decent engine, a great chassis, steel 16" wheels (a positive in my eyes), manually dipping rear view mirror, cruise control (great), a trip computer (useful), bluetooth phone connection (very useful), voice control (-POINTLESS) and a/c (Climate control is a bit easier, but not having it is no hardship). The Edge probably has a lower Cd and saves the weight of a man in accessories.

My previous car was a Ghia X Mondeo. I don't miss the plastic walnut trim, the electrically adjustable and heated leather seats, the auto wipers or the auto headlights. The Sony Radio/CD didn't sound noticeably different to the Ford one. The climate control was good.

[KimZ]

Never mind too complicated/too many options .. I really miss cars you can fix at the roadside with a fag paper, screwdriver and can of WD40.. Far too much crap on a car nowadays - canbus ppppft! In the red wire and out the black. Simples!

[mojitomax]

KimZ said:

Never mind too complicated/too many options .. I really miss cars you can fix at the roadside with a fag paper, screwdriver and can of WD40.. Far too much crap on a car nowadays - canbus ppppft! In the red wire and out the black. Simples!

haha, i recently bought a 30 year old vehicle. It's great!

the dash has a grand total of 4 buttons - lights, wipers, starter button, heater fan

i've added two more for some fog lights and a dixie horn - no faffing about with a can bus, just wires and a crimper to connect it all up.

I love the old eighties and early nineties stuff. It looked better and was simpler.

[XJ40]

mojitomax said:

I love the old eighties and early nineties stuff. It looked better and was simpler.

I agree, that's my favourite era. Cars were generally developed enough to drive and work well without being excessively heavy and overly complex.

[anonymous-user]

I've just been looking at the owners manual for my car.

1 page on driving (pedal on left = slower, pedal on right = faster, round thing in front of you, turn it in the direction you want to go)

987 pages on the infotainment, navigation and telecomunications systems......... ;-)

[KimZ]

mojitomax said:

..the dash has a grand total of 4 buttons - lights, wipers, starter button, heater fan i've added two more for some fog lights and a dixie horn - no faffing about with a can bus, just wires and a crimper to connect it all up.

6 buttons - best write a user guide for future reference, verging on Garlick's OP re over complicated!! But yes, those were the days </rosetinted>.

[Ftumpch]

I just think, the reason for this is that people just aren't interested in cars any more. And let's face it: you really do have to go out of your way these days to do something fun in a car, like doing track days or spending two hours battling traffic on the main arterials to find yourself a decent stretch of unencumbered public road.

Maybe people who read this blog are an exception, but it just seems to me that these days the average punter is interested in anything a car does *other than* drive. Hey - it's a car, ergo it drives. No brainer! But if it has a unique combination of convenient gadjets, then that's just nifty isn't it.

[suffolk009]

DE15 CAT said:

Dave Hedgehog said:

you think this is bad, try and buy toothpaste

theres 13 trillion types now !!

What about coffee, I just say ''I want what used to be called coffee with some milk in it'' the look I get from those snooty drink servers.

"Choice", the more you're offered, perversely the less you seem to actually have. The brilliant Nora Ephron wrote this about coffee (I think much the same thought applies to people who are speccing their new BMWs, or whatever). It's that "sense of self".

“The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.”

[HebdenHedgehog]

And IMHO this over-proliferation of 'choice' and 'options' also applies to mobile phones!!!

Far too many add-on features that most of us never ever use, just because some 'designer' / geek somewhere can add it on because electronics are so good these days.

The range and speed of 'evolution' of these things is min-boggling. Pity the poor salesperson trying to keep up with those, must change every week!

[Twincam16]

HebdenHedgehog said:

And IMHO this over-proliferation of 'choice' and 'options' also applies to mobile phones!!!

Far too many add-on features that most of us never ever use, just because some 'designer' / geek somewhere can add it on because electronics are so good these days.

The range and speed of 'evolution' of these things is min-boggling. Pity the poor salesperson trying to keep up with those, must change every week!

Exactly.

I must admit, I do use quite a few of my phone's functions. I use it to browse the internet, send and receive calls and texts, and being able to snap a low-res photo of something and ping it to someone is useful at times.

But that's it! I've never felt the compulsion to download an 'app' or sign up to any PAYG services simply because it's a communication tool and that's it. I have no need to do anything else with it in the same way that I have never felt any need to go anywhere near Twitter.

[garypotter]

“The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.”
[/quote]


Well put.

[suffolk009]

garypotter said:

“The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.”

Well put.

Yes, wish I'd written it. It's something the late Nora Ephron wrote.

[LuS1fer]

Ftumpch said:

Maybe people who read this blog are an exception, but it just seems to me that these days the average punter is interested in anything a car does *other than* drive. Hey - it's a car, ergo it drives. No brainer! But if it has a unique combination of convenient gadjets, then that's just nifty isn't it.

My father-in-law was really proud that when his car was serviced, they fitted two tyres for cheaper than a national discount outlet. I enquired what make and he had no idea. Still haven't had the heart to look.