When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you will likely receive a ban for violating this rule. More info: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/wiki/serious-answers-only/
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
Especially getting rid of switches you can use without looking by touch alone in favour of multiple levels of touchscreens to perform the same job. Sure it's cheaper not wiring up a few switches but it doesn't really improve the driving experience or standards
Not only that, but newer cars with mild self-driving features like adaptive cruise and lane assist are required by law to detect distracted drivers, so I look at the screen and the car tells me off! I WOULDN'T BE LOOKING AT THE FUCKING SCREEN IF THIS THING WASN'T MADE TO LOOK LIKE I'M TRYING TO FLY A SPACECRAFT!
- It can add, change or remove functions for a valid reason
- It can deactivate or restrict extras for “important reasons”
The same type of terms exist for other brands (BMW, VW, etc).
Basically they are saying that “the car will not be able to use the functions you pay for when we turn off the servers inevitably.”
“Digital extras” like CarPlay, Android Auto, Adaptive Cruise Control and more can be turned off whenever Mercedes feel like they don’t want to support your car anymore.
You can imagine how the secondhand market will be affected in 10+ years when it turns out you can no longer enable CarPlay or adaptive cruise control on your vehicle because the vehicle can no longer authenticate.
PS:
I’d also add that the addition of secure gateways and server authentication for diagnostics tools now means that secondhand cars in 10+ years’ time have no guarantee they will be diagnosable if the servers ever go down.
Effectively killing off the secondhand market.
The government has carved out an exemption preventing manufacturers from being required to allow independent garages access to the diagnostics tools.
Therefore locking mobility, for a lot of people, behind a perpetual monthly payment rather than any form of ownership. With parts commonality on EVs, this is only going to get easier for them to do than it was before.
“You will own nothing and be happy” is now extending into cars.
The brake lights are just white bulbs with a red coloured housing. This housing can usually be fitted incorrectly and leak red ish white light which looks either like the car is reversing or that it is indicating when it's braking.
I hate it so much. Even if you realise it's just a dodgy rear light, it's still blinding.
Impossible to work on. I had to take the wheel and wheel arch off to change an indicator bulb today. What should be a two minute job turned into an hour and a half of swearing
As a mechanic in a previous life I’ve never encountered a car that has a wheel arch bulb hatch that can’t be accessed simply by turning the wheel to full lock in one direction or that required full wheel arch removal (unless it was for a non essential bulb).
Initially I did crank the wheel over and it could've been done just like that. But as it was my first time (and hopefully last before I sell this pos) I had no visual on where the bleeding thing was. I removed the wheel to get my big head in so I could see. Also there was no hatch. I had to remove like 10 plastic clips and three screws to get the whole thing off. It's honda FN civic
20 years ago I had a Honda Civic and remember having to remove the battery to get at the left headlight bulbs to change them; so I feel your pain mate!
Nah I like this. One of very, very few things I actually really, really rate on newer car designs.
Firstly, this time of year is RIFE for pricks driving around with a dead headlight or tail light, and this mitigates it massively, I drive narrow road often and it makes it so easy to tell in the dark something ISN'T a motorcycle.
Also, niche example just last week... A "cyclist" (quote marks because no lights or hi-vis in the dark, utter prick) was riding behind a car with standard tail lights, absolutely invisible to me a couple cars back as they were riding pretty much bang in between the lights.
Car ahead overtook cyclist, but I couldn't see WHAT it was overtaking until the silhouette of the cyclist was visible thanks to the light bar it had.
Even more frustrating when you have astigmatism and long sighted, you have a prescription that works for driving but it doesn't work for seeing what's on the touchscreen, I need reading glasses for that, whatever happened to predictable, reliable knobs and buttons?
I've now hit the sweet spot of having astigmatism, being long sighted AND short sighted, so I've just got varifocals and can now see the road AND my dashboard! Hurrah for aging!
I fucking hate electronic hand brakes. You have taken an incredibly reliable and easily adjustable mechanical system that's been around for decades and bastardised it with motors and electronics and a million failure points.
I will literally not even consider a car if it has an e-brake, the one in my dad's V60 failed and cost him about a grand a half in repairs and towing costs, not including the cost of needing two new tyres when the recovery truck had to scrape the car along with locked rear wheels.
Utterly hateful and stupid piece of technology that anyone with a functioning brain cell would write off during the ideas stage, let alone it being in just about every car built in the last 5 years.
I have also seen many hand brake failures. Like you said, the cable can stretch and fail, the ratchet can fail, hell even the release button can fail.
But I can spend a tenner on a new cable and a couple hours of my time to fix it, or pay a garage a couple hundred quid to replace the entire thing.
I have also seen a couple of e-brake failures. Logic dictates that a newer technology will have less failures due to it's significantly more recent development and implementation into modern vehicles. To me, that's not a good start in terms of long term reliability. But I can't help but wonder what these vehicles will be like in 5 years, or 10 years time? Cars being crammed full of hundreds of sensors and actuators etc is not indicative of a robust lifespan outside of the manufacturers warranty period, and third party warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on.
Even when they work fine they can still be a pain in the arse. I had a rental Insignia for a week and it was such a piece of shit. Trying to pull away up a steep hill without rolling back in traffic, handbrake on, accelerator and clutch and hit the button - only for an angry bleeping noise and Depress brake pedal to release electrical parking brake on the display. Seems they designed that one in a pretty flat part of the world.
Most cars with e-brakes have automatic hill-hold. You release the handbrake with your foot on the footbrake, but when you lift your foot to press the accelerator the brake doesn’t release right away, the brake remains on automatically until the cars starts to pull forwards.
In the last fifteen years, they've all become too big for the amount of interior space. Many are too fast for the majority of drivers, too expensive, too ugly, have over specified interiors, too easy to turn over and have dull colour choices.
Apart from those minor niggles, they're great!
I have to agree with the “ugly” opinion when it comes to electric cars. Hyundai just released the Ioniq 3 and it looks like they took the Veloster design (I own a Veloster and love it) and just made it as hideous as possible.
I dislike wanky indicator designs in general (it's a signal, people are meant to be able to see it and understand it immediately), but Hyundai definitely takes the cake with that.
All day lights. I frequently see people driving around with no rear lights on and only the ‘all day’ lights on at the front at night.
I know it’s the drivers fault and they should turn on their lights… but i remember older cars used to not even light up the dash unless you turned on your lights so it was very obvious. I think all day lights and presumably the dash always being lit because it’s all digital now anyway means more stupid drivers will not realise their lights aren’t on.
genuinely one of my biggest hates in life. i drive a small car and a modern car’s headlights are head height for me. sooooooo annoying trying to get anywhere at night. its like being flashbanged sometimes 😭
In reality, low profile tyres are worse for handling and ride comfort. Bigger tyre walls absorb bumps so your suspension takes less impacting. If not mistaken the higher walls also allow the tyre to roll left/right more when cornering, allowing more actual tyre constructing the road - better grip. I have low profiles and considering getting smaller rims on my hot hatch.
Literally the only things you need are a speedo and fuel guage. Look at the original Mini or Morris Minor. Radio is separate, the screen wash button is literally the pump itself and there's just a couple of fault indicator lamps. Can we have this again please? I don't need a built-in supercomputer because I just put my phone in a holder.
I don’t mind them, and I’ve noticed that since they became a thing, more of the crowd who never used to use indicators (looking at you BMW and Audi drivers) have started using them to show them off.
Symmetry.
There was a land rover where things weren't symmetrical and it bothered me. Also, rear light clusters where the brakes and or indicators aren't where you expect they should be
Especially when they're lit up like a Christmas tree. It's like drawing a circle around a zit, why would you want to highlight the ugliest part of the car.
All cars should be fitted with an ambient light sensor that, when linked to the speedometer, beeps like the seatbelt warning for driving in darkness with your lights off over 5mph.
I do mostly short, local journeys and at least once a week I'll see someone driving with only their front DRLs on because they are so bright the driver thinks their actual headlights are on.
The trend for bonnet-wide headlights/running lights and boot-wide rear/taillights. They kind of look cool the first time, but I imagine they'll be an absolute pain in the ass to replace.
Plus why is the whole array brighter than a nuclear blast? No please do not flash your headlights at me, I could see you very well thank you but now I have a purplish image of a Vauxhall badge permanently etched into my retinas
I regularly encounter this particular SUV on my way to work. I am going down a steep hill & they're coming up. So they're already burning my corneas. They then insist on flashing to say they're allowing me to pass, and then flashing again at point blank range, presumably to say "YES I AM STILL LETTING YOU THROUGH I DON'T KNOW IF YOU SAW ME THE FIRST TIME, BUT REST ASSURED I'LL REMAIN HERE UNTIL YOU GET BY, HAVE A LOVELY MORNING" & it takes me until I get to work to fully recover my vision
Rear indicators on cars such as the Ford Puma and Vauxhall Mokka. Can barely see them, they are dangerous and i’m convinced they will or already have caused crashes
the fake exhaust tips, i see them alot on mercs. face chrome tip with the actual exhaust right behind it pointing down, i have a feeling theres an actual reason for this but still looks daft
My car has a textured dashboard which reflects the pattern back onto the windscreen in bright sunshine so you can't always see clearly.
I've driven a few cars where the start-stop is also too aggressive, or perhaps it just isn't fast enough to switch back on when I put my foot down. If I stop for a second at a junction to assess the traffic, I don't want to have to wait a second or two once I put my foot down. It makes me very nervous at roundabouts.
I hadn't realised stop-start could be so bad. My Mazda's engine is up-and-running before I've finished moving the gearstick to 1st. If other cars are taking a few seconds, that's rather dangerous.
Indicators that can't be seen when the lights are on or when the brake lights drown out the indicator light. Also this habit of making them small and moving them inboard rather than having them at the corners of the vehicle. It's form over function. The purpose of an indicator is to be seen clearly.
Piano black interior trim. The obsession with black wheels (lets hide the design of the wheels and show how dirty my tyres are). Electric handbrakes and handbrake release mechanisms in stupid places. Buttons or a dial to select gears instead of a proper gear selector. The obsession with fitting as many screens as possible and hiding climate controls within sub-menus. Touch sensitive buttons instead of just having normal buttons.
All of the above is why I'm still pretty happy with my pair of old BMWs.
Having driving Fords for 15 years, I can confirm that the heated front windscreen is a game changer in winter months. Not only does ice literally slide off it, but it clears much quicker when it fogs up. Given that the patent for this has now expired, I'm surprised more manufacturers aren't including it
My last car (polo GTI 2019) didn’t have a window wash is low/empty warning light, it also seemed to have the volume of a small cup. For driving in Scotland during the winter it was annoying, I had no idea I felt so strongly about it until I didn’t have that little light!
Matte is very hard to keep matte though. Normal washing and normal weathering smooth it out and it eventually becomes shiny, but not uniformly so, so looks even worse. It looks worn and aged earlier than gloss pain will. Not to mention scratches etc tend to stick out even more.
Large SUVs sold as family cars but with only two seats in the rear. If you’re going to inflict a tank on us at least make it useful. See also any interior which feels like a plastic cocoon.
The thing is, even if they have the extra practicality most people don’t even make the most of it (think of all the empty beds in American pickup trucks).
The issue you have is really with modern consumer habits
Anything built with the assumption that the driver has long arms and legs. Citroen vans in particular are awful for this. Pretty much doing yoga to take the handbrake off.
I have long legs, but without equally long arms. I’ve accepted I will never have a comfortable driving position. The wheel doesn’t come out close enough for me, a little uncomfortable for long drives if I’m sat forward
As a tall guy with long arms and fairly long legs, the Stellantis vans are awful full stop.
It's impossible for me to get comfy in the seats. The only exceptions are the big vans destined to become campers (mostly Ducato's when I was at Grouppe Cat).
The Citroen Space Tourer's were alright as well, but that was more because of the heated massage seats.
As a sufferer of short leggies, I wish the length of car seat cushions had some adjustability. If I sit flush to the seat back, most cushions project past my knees; I usually have to sit far forwards and have no back support.
Only car I've ever seen that on was my parents' old VW Golf back when I was learning to drive. For something so simple I'm amazed it's not more common.
This is more on radio manufacturers but radios aren't fun anymore, seriously look at some of the stuff pioneer was putting out in the late 90s - early 00s and you'll see what I mean
Very specific but I find the arm rest on the door of Citroen cars to be too low. Had a VW previously and it was the perfect height but Citroen have them way too low, and to rest your arm on the top where the window starts is too high.
My car doesn’t have a dipstick, so the only way to check the oil level is find a piece of flat ground (I live on a hill…), run the engine for a couple of minutes, then check the computer screen.
I don't understand not having a wiper at the back. It's not like you can see properly or you never could when I was a driving examiner and asked people to show me it working.
Our car doesn't have a wiper on the back window and it really bugs me. Reversing out of spaces/the driveway feels quite risky when the windscreen is covered in rain and you can't see anything.
Also like to be able to see the cars behind me properly.
I hate electric tailgates so much. They are slower than manual boot lids, have a fit if a feather gets in the way of closing properly and are so expensive to fix when they inevitably go wrong. Actually, I'm just an old git and don't actually really like most of the electric gizmos on modern cars. Bah, humbug.
If they’re remotely opened with a button in the car or on the key they’re a god send.
And in a squeeze, when you have your hands full, the little foot wave under the bumper.
The boot is open before I get to it and closed before I can drive off.
And if I carry something into the house, I can close it without going back to the car.
New cars with lights that are always on at the front but not at the back. Then at night they're in darkness from behind. Who thought that was a good standard needs a word.
I drive saloons or estates. Waiting at a roundabout for the SUV style vehicle (of any size) on my right to move before I can see if it's safe to pull out.
Oh and keyless entry. A magnet for thieves and solved a problem that didn't even exist. Most keyless systems still need a press of a button to lock the car which is no more convenient than blipping a remote as you walk away and how many manufacturers/dealers tell new owners to keep the keys to their pride and joy in a Faraday pouch or they'll get up in the morning to no car.
Digital dials. Audi's virtual cockpit is cool, but I always think it would be much better with analog dials and a nav screen or something in-between. It could even remove the huge screens in the middle of dashboards. I like having Android Auto but sometimes I don't like it being visible to absolutely everyone in the car that doesn't necessarily need to see it.
Keyless entry, easy to steal and i hate not having the key in a fixed position
Tiny indicators you cant tell are on if the person is braking
E brakes, why complicate a simple thing?
Last thing is touchscreens playing a major part in the car. In my opinion, they should play a limited role and be accompanied with buttons. Also cars with just screens feel so cheap
My work van is a Mercedes Sprinter. It comes with a driver camera that detects whether or not you're paying attention to the road. It kicks off if I wear sunglasses, scratch my face, yawn, look in my mirrors, don't look in my mirrors. The beep is loud, annoying and incredibly distracting.
The side protection system goes off everytime a blade of grass moves within a mile of the van...you know that loud, annoying, distracting beep? Yeah...that again.
Crosswind Assistance just randomly jabs a brake on causing the van to jerk violently.
Let's not get started on the steering wheel controls. Imagine a touch-sensitive button and a proper clicky button had a bastard child...that's what Mercedes have used. It's really friggin' annoying!
It also doesn't have a drivers arm rest. Even my 8 year old van has that! Yet my 6 month old work van doesn't?
Ohh...and the in cab noise...it's dreadful. The wind noise is deafening!
Minor compared to everyone else but all new cars seem to have a 'programmable' button on the steering wheel that isn't actually programmable, it just gives you a selection of pointless options to choose between.
I don't want or need a button on the steering wheel that allows you to choose between light or dark mode, radio or media, or navigation volume on or off etc but I would like to be able to programme it to change between EV or hybrid mode, which I do regularly (and is currently a button on the bottom of the console) or even a less regularly used option that's hidden under layers of menu.
Cars as a whole, the hazard lights on the rear should be the break lights, so I know if a parked car is on hazards or indicating that it wants to pull out
How fucking huge everything has to be. Why is everything an SUV now? Visibility is another thing, a lot of older cars you'd be able to see down the bonnet AND out the rear. And squeezing in "smart functionality" just to excuse inserting Google gobshite into a tablet onto the dash instead of proper physical controls. We get it, you want all our data and you won't take no for an answer.
When the gear selector is a button, or pretty much anything other than a stick or switch.
Hyundai cars have buttons, and newer Tesla's have the selector on the screen, and Mercedes has it on the right hand side.
All annoying.
My car has it as a thick switch in the centre console.
In the big Range Rover, the window switches aren't where you rest your arm when driving. So to open the window you need to move your arm which is just an annoying extra piece of work.
Wasting space under boot floors, especially when they delete the spare wheel well in some newer SUV/Crossovers when there is enough space under the car that you have to check for stowaways at the Calais ferry terminal.
Older cars used to utilise every nook and cranny, my old E46 touring had space under the boot floor, then a cover for the full size spare, and inside that cover was a little round hatch that allowed even more storage inside the middle of the spare wheel!
Now lift the floor on a newer 3 series and it's a pokey little rectangle about big enough for a pair of a trainers, and they plonked the battery slap bang in the middle when it used to be tucked away behind the wheel arch, and no space for spare wheel, not even a space saver! And under the car they seemed to have made the silencer twice as big as it needed to be so it could have an exit on either side.
I don't understand why DRLs don''t also turn on rear lights. So many cars with no rear lights on in low visibility conditions. Auto lights aren't always reliable. Lane assist in the name of safety, but not rear lights?
It's not a mild complaint, but how every car now needs to be massive. As i've gotten older, a slightly higher car is appreciated, but I don't need a run around hatchback being the same size as my truck at work. Parking, anywhere, is frankly becoming a nightmare with these huge cars now taking up 115% of a space
That modern cars all look the same. Most small cars look identical, most medium cars look identical, most SUVs look identical, trucks look identical, there are hordes of Chinese EVs deliberately looking like Range Rovers. It's so boring!
The latest laser headlights new cars have, usually set high on the front to guarantee cars going the opposite way are blinded.
SUV's or 4x4's with their lights at head height of other drivers literally make everything around them invisible.
The Ford Fiesta's all-black interior made it really difficult to judge the width of the car as you were fitting through gaps.
Also the current petrol VW Polo's front windscreen is angled so shallowly, that the rearview mirror creates its own blind spot that takes up most of the left-hand side of the front windscreen. That definitely wasn't tested anywhere other than on grid roads.
Everything now comes with 20 inch wheels or bigger because apparently it looks more premium. The irony being it actually detracts from premium in ride quality and road noise. Stupid f@ckers.
Self-cancelling signals. I've never used a car which reliably cancels them when I want them to cancel and doesn't cancel them when I don't want them cancelled. Result is that I turn them on several times and then turn them off manually after. And, of course, inevitably, some drivers often don't manage to do this.
I wouldn't allow manufacturers to release cars with this feature.
I've got a pre-big screen/carplay-ready Fiesta. It's great but I do like a nav screen. Unfortunately all the flat surfaces are textured, so a suction cup phone mount doesn't work. Also the vents are weirdly flanged or something so the vent mount ones don't work either that I've found so far. I don't like the windscreen ones. It's actually really annoying. Any recommendations welcome!
Let me raise the seat until I have to crane my neck because of my height.
There's nothing greater than being on the road and feeling high up, like a Transit, or a truck or the top deck of a bus. Meanwhile cars are like "I can do like.....maybe two inches" 😢
•
u/AutoModerator 14h ago
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you will likely receive a ban for violating this rule. More info: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/wiki/serious-answers-only/
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.