Standing still means going backwards, but not always. Sometimes it’s just good enough. Just look at the design of new cars; Didn’t we peak ten years ago? The same applies to innovations in and on the cars. There are more and more in-car gadgets, many of which work well, but in some cases, modern cars don’t get any better.
We tackle five things that have only gotten worse over the years in new cars. You may disagree and we are very curious about your additions. Let us know in the comments below the article or on Facebook.
Cruise control (especially the adaptive kind)
We are going to lose this discussion, we know that. Entire tribes swear by adaptive cruise control. The more dynamic driver finds it an annoying invention, which in many cases you can not disable. We could also write a book about the lane assistant, but it hasn’t gotten any worse (on the contrary), it was just there all of a sudden.
The problem is that the system slows down very early for safety reasons. If the speed difference with the vehicle in front is not that great, it means that you have to move a lane early on. You then drive unnecessarily long to the left or you have to add gas yourself, which in turn ignores the usefulness of the adaptive cruise control.
Lighting (exactly, the automatic)
It used to be simple. If you left home and it was dark, you turned on the lights. Or you just turned it on all the time, which is even better (and mandatory in some countries). But today, modern cars think they know better. They have an automatic mode on the lighting that doesn’t really work well.
Drivers are no longer accustomed to thinking for themselves, and in the event of fog they do not check themselves whether the lighting is on, let alone whether they switch on the fog lamps. Except for the drivers who turn on the rear fog lamps in the event of a tiny bit of fog – but that’s another story.
We must also say that the light output has greatly improved over the years. In the Netherlands, things are usually well lit, but if you drive an old car abroad, you notice how nice modern lighting really is. The flip side of the coin is that drivers of lower cars can be bothered by the bright lights of SUVs.
Radios (or actually infotainment systems)
In the old days, if you wanted a car radio, you turned left just after the Autostyle products and chose the most beautiful Pioneer from a wall full of car radios. Preferably one with different colored lights and a removable front. The best thing about these radios was that they always worked and immediately. You get in, the bluetooth is connected within one second and there is music immediately.
Nowadays, the screen in modern cars has to start up first. Then with some systems you have to re-select with every ride that you would like to listen to music via your phone and then hope it does. In addition, old radios often simply had a knob for the volume – that is also becoming rarer. Which brings us to the next item.
Buttons (which are no longer buttons)
It looks beautiful, but you can’t eat from a nice plate. Most would agree that buttons work better than a full-featured touchscreen. A large Swedish study supports this view.
With old-fashioned buttons you could blindly set the radio volume, turn up the heating and switch on the cruise control. Now you have to mess around in menus, swipe over panels or skip the number via an extra action.
Small engines
You will have them again, from TopGear. Complaining that cars are too slow. Indeed, you can only drive 100, but the way in which you reach the maximum speed is important. Especially in the small segment, the engines are not getting any better.
The smallest cars must remain cheap, so that there is no room in the budget for hybrid technology. However, emissions must be reduced, so car manufacturers are completely cutting off the small three-cylinder. The result: cars that are so slow that it is sometimes awkward in traffic.
It is often not possible to catch up quickly. That often doesn’t matter if you anticipate well, but if someone is sitting in front of you trying to merge at 60 km/h and you still have to go to 100 km/h after that, that’s just very inconvenient. Still looking for a used one with more horsepower.
#worse #cars #years