Seriously considering going back to cars with buttons!
Discussion
After suffering with my wife’s Cupra Formentor and the terrible VW sourced infotainment system for 18 months, I am considering the thought of going back to an older car with physical switches/buttons. She also hates the infotainment system which regularly crashes or just freezes, even on CarPlay.
The current trend of modern cars with everything touchscreen and menus with sub menus to me is a nightmare - even turning stop/start off [the first thing I do when I drive it, along with lane keeping] involves going into a menu then a sub menu (it can’t be set permanently).
Her previous car, a BMW 4 series Gran Coupe with I-drive was brilliant - no need to take your eyes off the road with one control button and how modern infotainment should be in my opinion.
What is ironic is we had a Macan bought new in 2017 and one of the things I didn’t get along with was the sheer amount of buttons on the centre console - it resembled a airplane cockpit with another bank of switches for the pano sunroof etc near the interior mirror.
My current 2017 Boxster has buttons too and stop/start can instantly be switched off on the button on the centre console.
I would seriously consider going back to an older circa pre 2017 diesel Macan for my wife (can’t believe I’m saying that) - she loved the Macan!
Am I beginning to sound like a dinosaur or are others feeling the same way?
The current trend of modern cars with everything touchscreen and menus with sub menus to me is a nightmare - even turning stop/start off [the first thing I do when I drive it, along with lane keeping] involves going into a menu then a sub menu (it can’t be set permanently).
Her previous car, a BMW 4 series Gran Coupe with I-drive was brilliant - no need to take your eyes off the road with one control button and how modern infotainment should be in my opinion.
What is ironic is we had a Macan bought new in 2017 and one of the things I didn’t get along with was the sheer amount of buttons on the centre console - it resembled a airplane cockpit with another bank of switches for the pano sunroof etc near the interior mirror.
My current 2017 Boxster has buttons too and stop/start can instantly be switched off on the button on the centre console.
I would seriously consider going back to an older circa pre 2017 diesel Macan for my wife (can’t believe I’m saying that) - she loved the Macan!
Am I beginning to sound like a dinosaur or are others feeling the same way?
You are completely correct and it's perplexing that modern cars are so heavily this way which is clearly more distracting.
The obvious solution is having physical buttons for all the frequently used things and the rest can be hidden away in a touch screen menu.
The obvious solution is having physical buttons for all the frequently used things and the rest can be hidden away in a touch screen menu.
Edited by Patrick Bateman on Friday 3rd January 17:15
duckson said:
Patrick Bateman said:
You are completely correct and it's perplexing that modern cars are so heavily this way which is clearly more distracting.
Money saving exercise now infotainment systems can do it all (not very well, I'd agree with the above assessment!).Sod buttons, I want to go back to rotating knobs for the the heating, and radio, turn up the fan or heat or volume by feel, none of this plip-plip button shyte,,,,,
Time was, you could get in almost any car and operate any of the ancillary controls without taking your eyes off the road.
There are large numbers of people in the motor industry who need a smack.
Time was, you could get in almost any car and operate any of the ancillary controls without taking your eyes off the road.
There are large numbers of people in the motor industry who need a smack.
duckson said:
Money saving exercise now infotainment systems can do it all (not very well, I'd agree with the above assessment!).
I'm sure I read somewhere that actually at least one manufacturer has said it's more expensive to do these huge touch screens than buttons but I guess some research has shown that's what customers want. I personally hate these huge touch screens and will do my best to avoid buying a car with one but i'm sure my 12 year old child would love it. I think it's a significant reason why the Mk8 Golf has done so badly compared to the previous gen
OutInTheShed said:
Sod buttons, I want to go back to rotating knobs for the the heating, and radio, turn up the fan or heat or volume by feel, none of this plip-plip button shyte,,,,,.
Yes, rotating knobs that have a a click feel, when that is informative. I am thinking of the rotating heater knobs on my F30 BMW, a click means half a degree increase. I also like that the radio ‘station’ buttons can be set to call up other features. I have No.8 button set as ‘Home’ for the Sat Nav - this helps getting out from an unfamiliar location and getting on the route home.The current Toyota Corolla strikes a good balance between physical buttons/knobs/switches and touchscreen control; the latter is only used for features and settings that are rarely changed. The HVAC settings are all adjusted via buttons and knobs, volume control is via buttons beneath the touchscreen and also on the steering wheel, and pretty much all the other things (e.g. various driving aids) you might want to activate or adjust while driving are controlled via buttons on the steering wheel.
In addition to the loss of proper controls what really annoys me is when manufacturers use the same screens for RH drive cars as they do for LH ones which very often puts fixed major controls on the far side of the screen. It's correct for a LH drive car but an unsafe stretch for RH drive.
sandman77 said:
I agree 100% with all of the above. I am also perplexed as to why this is permitted. Using mobile phones was quite rightly banned while driving yet using these touchscreen infotainment systems can be just as distracting.
I can't understand why using a screen while driving is any different if it's on the dash or a phone in a cradle? Seems utter madness to me. 
Like Pica-Pica 's car my E90 BMW has rotary temperature controls where each click is half a degree C so it can be done by feel. Much safer IMHO!
Mr Tidy said:
duckson said:
Patrick Bateman said:
You are completely correct and it's perplexing that modern cars are so heavily this way which is clearly more distracting.
Money saving exercise now infotainment systems can do it all (not very well, I'd agree with the above assessment!).In my past, I had informal links to a large B2B company, supplying a wide range of items to different markets.
One of the markets was, ‘in car entertainment’, knowing I was a car person, they would sometimes ask for advice.
They’d been producing audio visual for the rear seat passengers of cars of for a while, “DG what do you think about DVD players for the front seat occupants?”
Quote:
“Legislation will never allow for an interactive touch screen that can used by the driver”
Seems I got that one a bit wrong!
One of the markets was, ‘in car entertainment’, knowing I was a car person, they would sometimes ask for advice.
They’d been producing audio visual for the rear seat passengers of cars of for a while, “DG what do you think about DVD players for the front seat occupants?”
Quote:
“Legislation will never allow for an interactive touch screen that can used by the driver”
Seems I got that one a bit wrong!
After setting up my tesla for the first time I don’t think I’ve needed to press more than one layer of buttons to command the car. The high usage ones were set up as hot keys and its easy as.
My 2004 impreza has buttons but again I’ve not touched them since setting them to auto.
I don’t get the big fuss. Perhaps my tesla is an outlier?
My 2004 impreza has buttons but again I’ve not touched them since setting them to auto.
I don’t get the big fuss. Perhaps my tesla is an outlier?
OutInTheShed said:
Sod buttons, I want to go back to rotating knobs for the the heating, and radio, turn up the fan or heat or volume by feel, none of this plip-plip button shyte,,,,,
Time was, you could get in almost any car and operate any of the ancillary controls without taking your eyes off the road.
There are large numbers of people in the motor industry who need a smack.
Agree. Our Focus has buttons for the heating and vents but they all look the same, whereas previous cars have had rotating knobs or even a slider from cold to hot. Clearly labelled with blue for cold and red for hot. (Shower and tap makers take note)Time was, you could get in almost any car and operate any of the ancillary controls without taking your eyes off the road.
There are large numbers of people in the motor industry who need a smack.
Hoping this fad will end soon. Even if you buy a top of the range GTI XL RST model, you can't even spec buttons as an optional extra.
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