67 Replies to “Yes, Please”

        1. Three on the Tree is an immobilizer to anyone under 40!
          Also: hotwiring and physical key skills, but they can steal a new Jeep starting from the glovebox, steal a Lexus, from the headlights in, or a Kia with a usb cable end, those crazy Yoots!

          1. Three on the Tree is an immobilizer to anyone under 40!

            _______________________________________

            So true. One glance at the floor. Hey, how come there are three pedals? What’s that one on the left for? I, also, fixed up a 61 Chrysler Imperial when I was in high school. Talk about torture. I couldn’t drive it until I was a senior, but the dash on that car was fantastic. A smorgasbord of chrome with push button trans on the left side and other button controls on the right. Gotta love a car that has fins.

        2. My uncle tried to teach me to drive his three on the tree Chevy pickup as a 13yo. I never did get the hang of it. Probably for the best as I would have surely driven into a tree.

      2. Heh. It is. Certainly for young thieves. I’ve always driven manual transmission cars, currently a Mini Cooper ( my 2nd one). Just this week when I arranged for the BMW/Mini dealer to pick my car for its year-three maintenance, I had to be sure to tell the service manager to send somebody who can drive a stick shift. You’d think that all the people working for such a dealership and shuttling cars back and forth would of course be able to drive a stick, but that’s no longer the case.

        1. Try handing them a car with a carburator. I swear nobody except old farts know how to start one, and realize that it needs to warm up before you can drive it. I printed instructions on a card and I leave it on the seat when somebody else will drive it.

    3. buttons?
      mmmmm nah. l MUCH prefer analog DIALS.
      like the old radio on switch that then because the all important vollluuuUUUMMEE! . . .
      (control)

  2. I’d actually pay extra to have the dealership rip out and throw away all of the touch-screen interfaces, which, of course, isn’t possible because they’re fully-integrated. I’ve got a few in my “old” (2013) RAV4, and I never touch ’em while I’m driving (if I’ve got a passenger, I’ll ask them [usually the Spousal Unit™] to do any adjusting required).

    More realistically, I’m hoping that car makers will come to their senses and at least offer “low-end” versions of their models without all the doo-dads and gew-gaws. Until that day, I’m gonna nurse our vehicle along (which might mean I have to do it for the rest of my life).

    Le sigh.

  3. My car is too old to have a touch screen interface, but people that have them tell me that can be downright scary when you try to adjust the cabin temperature while driving.

    1. That greatly depends on the car. Our 2023 BMW X1 has as touch screen but the climate control is very obvious, and the temp controls at the bottom right and left sides of the screen within easy reach of driver and passenger.

      1. I can talk to my radio and the controls are on the steering wheel. The rest of the stuff is very basic.

  4. not a molecule of doubt in my mind the Chirese had something to do with this.
    they care not a hoot about their own people whose babies they kill for pocket change, wtf makes the TURDeau’s fan base think anything different?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal#:~:text=The%20scandal%20involved%20Sanlu%20Group's,other%20kidney%20damage%20in%20infants.

    see how l do that? make it ALL about the TURDeau who “admires” their “basic dictatorshit”

  5. I had had my 4-Runner for many years before accidentally discovering that by hitting certain buttons, the faceplate moved out and then dropped down to reveal a cd player.

    I find touch screens mostly pointless, other than perhaps for entertainment when the vehicle is parked and I’m waiting for something.

  6. I like the old style knobs for the very reasons the writer stated but I like the steering wheel controls too. After you’ve memorized where everything is, steering wheel control of the audio system means I don’t have to look away from the road at all to adjust the music.

    If I could get anything back, it would be the old fashioned key system for the ignition. You could go get keys cut in a few minutes for a few dollars. Now it’s $300 minimum. Not sure what benefits we’re getting for the cost.

    1. no benefit whatsoever.
      what this is, technology is allowing manufacturers to integrate expensive tasks devices and procedures at every level.
      many like the above COUNTER to ‘common sense’ but when car mfgers WILLINGLY AND KNOWINGLY calculate the costs of lawsuits is LESS than the cost of rectifying the Pinto gas tank hazard WHAT DOES ANYBODY EXPECT??????

      ’tis a foregone conclusion.
      same reason they fought and fought and fought seat belts, air bags, collapsible steering columns etc up the wazoo.
      in this regard n american car mfgers mimicked the chirese exactly.
      it boiled down to killing for profit.

      1. My ideal vehicle would be the simplicity of a 1980’s Ford F-150 with a few modern safety features.

        1. With the 300cu straight 6 .Nearly bullet proof, pulled like crazy with the 4speed manual and was reasonable on gas. They haven’t improved a darn thing. Should have had my but kicked for trading it.

          1. …and lots of backyard mechanics could repair them. My father was a mechanic and would do almost all of the repairs and maintenance in our garage.

  7. Honda has gone waaaaaaay too far with their tech. What’s “keep it simple stupid” in Japanese?
    A coffee cup display on the dash when it thinks I’ve been driving too long is simply idiotic.
    I think a kill switch is in our future. Shades of HAL from 2001 Space Odyssey.

  8. Toyota has made a truck that goes for $10 000. All nice and basic. Sadly, our owners will never let it hit the NA market.

    1. If it ever gets to Canada I will be among the first in line to buy it. My old Ford F150 has a bunch of broken sensors. Nothing wrong with the truck. Just the friggin sensors for the anti lock brakes, an engine light over a sensor not affecting anything about the truck running, and I’m always being told my tires are low by another faulty sensor. Whoever decided to computerize trucks needs a good spanking.

      1. whoever had the brilliant idea to have 4 headlights on low beam( 2017-up Ford F-250,350) should be horsewhipped, along with the moron in Transport Canada who approved the design…

    2. That’s the Hilux, which has been selling like hotcakes all over the planet for decades.

      Except in North America, where Toyota would have to put in 30 grand worth of mostly-useless over-engineered safety crap in order to have it deemed “road-worthy” by TPTB. Supposedly the Tacoma’s a “near-equivalent” for North America. And guess what? The 2024 starting price is $46,950.00 CDN.

      I’d give my left nut for a no-frills Hilux.

  9. The automotive world is nutz.
    Tesla is the pinnacle of the electric Peter Principle. It needs power to open the door?
    Hotrodderz too. The Ridler prize goes to a ‘53 corvette hand bashed aluminium body with an aussie v12 based on a GM LS motor?
    Keyless fobs?
    Bring back the knobs…!!!

  10. I remember the idiocy of media telling people to put their cel phones down while driving… and that only police officers could have “the knowledge” of how to drive and talk at the same time.
    Since cel phones became widely available in Canada, accident rates have fallen every year but one since 1999 even while the number of vehicles on the roads have risen by more than 50%. (Transport Canada figures as reported by Canadian insurance companies, it’s not like them to underestimate vehicle crashes!)

    anyways,
    Not a fan of the huge screens, my 2005 Saab 9.3 Aero convertible tells me what the temp is outside and searches for radio stations if I want. As it’s a 6 speed manual, I’m not certain I have to lock it anymore
    I do like the vehicles with cameras for backing up, I don’t have one and learned how to do this back when the entire world was black and white.

    https://www.topspeed.com/cars-with-the-largest-touchscreens/#toyota-prius-prime

    If my neighbor the hoodlum breaks into your newish car and just for laughs decides to break the dash up with a ballpein hammer, is it totalled off?

    1. I’ve always wonder if defence lawyers ever ask police witnesses “What special training do you have to operate, a cell phone, a computer or a two-way radio while the vehicle in motion?” because the police are exempt from those laws…

      1. Too many cops are in the 95% of people who have no business behind the wheel of any vehicle.

  11. Long story short, I found it more cost effective to buy a new 2021 RAM truck. I was realyy, really bummed because it had a touch screen for te controls (no GPS or video crap, thank goodness).

    It took me a couple of weeks of cussing at the touch screen before I discovered that every function on the screen had a corresponding manual knob or switch below the screen. YAY! Hats off to the RAM engineers who seem to still have a few ‘car guys’ among them.

    I don’t know if that still holds up after 2021, though. I heard or read something about new gimmicks. I hope they kept the knobs and switches.

    1. Nice. I put 285,000 miles on a 2016 RAM with no problems. Most reliable vehicle I’ve ever had.

  12. Brilliant. One shouldn’t need to take on several hundred thousands in debt for advanced education in order to learn how to operate one’s new automobile.

  13. There’s another factor driving the control configurations. They can build a touchscreen dash for pennies compared to switches and dials. Then, if any function
    fails, they have you captive to any price for a complete unit, and it’ll be made so only a shop with trained technicians and special equipment can replace it. A $15 switch is now going to be $1,500 , if you can get it.

  14. Its costing me, but I’m keeping my 2010 Subaru 5 speed (mantranny lol) on the road.
    Its got a four level dial for the heated seats and everything else is knobs and buttons.
    Its pretty gutless so I just pretend its turbocharged.

    1. I had a 2010 Forrester. Worst vehicle I ever owned. Everything goes through a body control module. It’s not just flip a switch, close a relay and the lights turn on. You flip a switch, the BCM decides if it’s going to allow the lights to come on.

      I swapped in some led taillights because the incandescents kept burning out… a week later I took them out because the radio would not turn off, even with the key removed from the ignition. Subarus, even 15 years ago, were an overcomplicated electrical nightmare.

  15. A few years back, I seem to recall an article about the touchscreen interface present in many modern military aircraft. The military was finally deciding that they would move a lot of the controls back to knobs and buttons, as those were proving to be more reliable and less prone to accidental (and unsafe) inputs that required the pilot to focus on the instrument panel rather than on airspace situational awareness.

  16. The gadgetry was a serious problem for me the first two weeks I owned my current vehicle. I don’t know how many times I nearly got into an accident getting distracted by trying to make an adjustment via the touch screen when I should have just let it be until I got to the next stop. After a bit of a scare I smartened up and learned to make the adjustments before I drove off. Knobs would still be handier for some functions.

  17. The part I really like……..When the screen has on it “Distracted driving causes accidents, do not touch this screen while driving, press “accept” if you agree”…….This message pops up unexpectedly, while you are driving……The “accept” “button” is on the far side of the screen……

  18. My ’19 GC Trailhawk has many really cool applications on the touchscreen. Absolutely none that has any relevance for day to day driving. All the off-road features are best set prior to off-road driving as they are not intuitive and are distracting: Get to see the camber and pitch while falling off the cliff from being distracted.

    There are many normal operation dials and buttons below the screen and on the steering wheel for everyday use.

    I’ll keep this one going for a long time.

  19. If you like high fidelity music … then you’d love my all McIntosh two-channel, analogue, sound system. Built upon two mono-blocked MC-275 tube amplifiers, C-2200 tube preamp, and MT-10 McIntosh turntable with Dynavector XX-2 MKII cartridge.

    You can take your Apple digital music and shove it. Vinyl is King. We’ve made music more convenient … but not better.

    1. mp3s suck, but .flac with a 192 kHz sampling rate at a depth of 24 bits is awesome, and all myou need to get it is a bit of know-how, a peg leg and a hook for a hand.
      Instead of looking for albums or songs, I just find a given artist’s entire set of work.

      1. I’ll give you much credit for investigating the ENTIRE collection of a given artists work … because those who pick and choose “the hits” often miss some really great music. Playing through a whole lp side is something of a “zen experience” as I term it … it’s like getting to know a woman … it takes TIME and a VARIETY of experiences to truly “know” her.

          1. TBH … despite my analogue penchant … I am coveting this unit to drive my built in speakers in the house … for hands-free party playback … where I don’t want anyone touching my vinyl or turntable … that I treat like a Monk might treat his ancient copy of the Bhagavad Gita

            https://www.whathifi.com/naim/uniti-nova/review

          2. Noice! Too rich for my impoverished blood.
            Nice DACs are getting cheaper now, like the one I showed, but I’ll still have to get an amp and speakers to do it justice. Any way you look at it, hi fidelity still costs $$.

          3. I buy everything used. Essentially half price. Which isn’t half bad for a streaming player with onboard storage for 20k songs and an integrated amp all in one top drawer unit.

    2. Sorry to burst your bubble but vinyl is not ‘King’. Even straight ‘red book’ cd’s are better than vinyl. If you really value quality sound try sacd or dvd-audio high resolution discs. Especially the ones remastered into 5.1 surround. You do need a proper player to play them though.

  20. From the comments:
    “The car button I want back most is the dimmer switch on the floor. So much better than fiddling with a stalk on the steering column.”
    I say, “Amen brother.”

    1. Wow! THAT brings back memories. I cannot remember how long ago that existed. Maybe on my girlfriend’s beater 1965 Buick?

      1. My first car, a 1974 Ford Maverick, had a floor dimmer. The car was almost as old as me and but it was built like a tank. Not the least bit stylish but it survived my teenage driving years, post secondary education and for quite a few years into my career after graduation.

  21. p.s. regarding automotive technology: radios.
    GM had *their* std size radio different from aaaaaanyone else.
    so of course a radio to fit a GM (my case a Vandura) vehicle you pay 3X for a unit that sounds hollow and tinny.
    so instead l pick up a REALLY nice unit from radio shack with lots of sound and separate bass treble you know whut l mean. AND front/rear/left/right seperate balance. (iirc there was some 20 or so connexions l had to make between the radio outputs and the 4-corner speakers, ALSO l could not use the body metal as ‘ground’ the wires had to all got back to the unit.)

    aka F YOU car mfgers, l WILL find a loophole and way around YOUR marketing ‘genius’.

    another time before that, l found out about an FM device that ‘picked up’ the FM broadcast, then *converted it* into an AM signal way at the top of the dial. see where this is going? the FM gadget had NO speakers or amp. ALL it did was provide the programming on an AM frequency.

    all this came into play whilst l was making huge sums of money
    the princely rate of 3.50 an hour.
    a knack for electronics made up the ‘shortage’ of funds.
    kids nowadays seem to need it all bloody SPOON FED.

    1. My man!! Your self-install skills exceed those of my own … and my paychecks started at $1.90/hr. as an exploited teenager

      1. as a long term believer l absolutely HAVE TO attribute my electrical skills to my Maker, esp seeing as l have NEVER had a single day in my recollection anything so much as resembling formal study on the topic other than hi school physics DC and AC stuff and the usual electrical equations.
        but practical skills? zip nada rien zilch.

        and yet to literally to just today march 6, l swapped out a florescent fixture after for example, bench testing the replacement.
        and not long after l walked away from a very lucrative but DEAD END position as a mainframe operator, l then embarked on what became a 5 year career as an electricians assistant.
        in my present abode l conducted (pun intended) roughly 10 to 20K upgrades over 20 years costing only time and materials. (at one point shortly after purchase *every time* l opened a box there was a problemo. the 5 years experience is what told me what the problem was and remedy)
        lve done everything from multistation alarm systems to 3 phase 600V and reiterate
        not
        a
        single
        DAY
        formal training.

        l’ll never forget that day Harvey’s inside the building ascertaining which wire is feeding the outdoor fixture.
        and tells me to feel it with my fingers.
        outside the bldg, 2nd floor, on the ladder, middle of winter and the boss tells me to improvise by using my hand as a voltmeter.
        and all the big commercial projects banks of breakers.
        which one is mine?
        -can l start flipping them off/on/off/on pissing off the rest of the crew, or
        -learn how to work with LIVE circuits.
        proof of the pudding? you licensed blokes can relate:
        the trick is when working with live circuits, make sure you provide the voltage a ‘preferred path’ by keeping contact with the load wire, ie instead of JUST your hands.

        etc etc

        l always get a chuckle from the pros when l see them on the job and explain that electricity propagates via quantum mechanics, that the electrical energy moves about and crosses from primary to secondary in a transformer carried by quantum particles, thus making them all experts in theoretical physics!!

  23. Luddites. Neanderthals. Your knuckles are just too big to use the touch screen. I have air-conditioned and heated seats front and back in my truck. Plus navigation, satellite radio and a voice activated twit who only reacts to an English accent.

    And when my navigation system went down, I cried like a baby. The guy at GMC said I was lucky it was still under warranty. Up to $6,000 to replace the screen, computer and harness otherwise. Dodged a bullet. But I’m back in the saddle. Seats are warm, Cruise control. The voice activated twit still can’t parse my requests to find an address unless I speak like Cary Grant. And is that the satellite radio acting up again?

  24. While on a recent holiday outside North America, I ended up renting a Skoda Scala (it was a free upgrade from a Toyota Yaris). Not only did it have a large screen in the middle of the dashboard, displaying all the radio essentials, the screen directly in front of the driver through the steering wheel had most of the same information, front and center. The important stuff, like the speed you were actually driving, was hidden away in a corner of that display, in small numbers, partially blocked from vision by the steering wheel itself. At least my GMC Terrain has that information in the middle of the screen, in fonts 2x the size of the Skoda’s..

  26. Well , at least, my Honda has a master volume knob even if it has no friggin’ CD player. Everything else is just annoying and hard to use unless you pull over which, to be fair, they instruct you to do. My wife loves it but I do 90% of the driving. I especially hate the voice activated navigation. I’m trying to go somewhere and the dumb thing never seems to understand what I’ve said. Comedy gold sometimes but frustrating for the most part.

  27. I have a 1996 Silverado. Perfect vehicle with power windows and locks and starter and KNOBS. Has cassette, cd, am/fm. Best truck I’ve ever owned. Can’t count how many times I been approached filling up with gas and someone wants to buy it.

  28. I was looking at a 2024 Accord yesterday and the salesman pointed out that the temperature and radio controls are knobs again due to customer demand and the centre display is mounted high on the dash so the driver doesn’t look down.

  29. Wannabe Luddites, read it and weep: the youngest vehicle in my fleet has a carburetor.

  30. I hate my wife’s RAV4. It’s got this feature where it shuts off the engine when you wait at a light. And re-starts it when you press the gas pedal. I guess the stupid thing assumes we all live in a Toronto traffic jam, and I am sure that the starter will conk out in about 3 years. There is a button to turn that shit off. But if you turn the car off, it will default back on, the dammed thing can’t be set to off permanently. It has a little environmental Nazi behind the dash, and the speedo turn red if you push the gas pedal too much and a green leaf if you are a good NPC and drive like a hearse. The engine is too small for that boxy ugly abortion and the oil is that weird purple shit.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation