Unecessary Complication in Road Cars

Mitchi

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Seen this in another forum; thought it would be worth getting a shot at here - and I don't want it to go down in the random thoughts thread.

We all love bitching about cars! So why not make a thread to collect some unnecessary complicated things in cars?
Technology advances further and further but does it always have to be complicated? Post your rage about weird, stupid, unnecessary things in cars that shouldn't exist the way it exists. Bonus points if you say how they could've made it better.

I'll start with a little anecdote I recently read about an E39 BMW:

"Attached is a photo of three of the washer pumps in a 1999 528i. Closest (left) is the headlight washer pump, then the rear washer pump, and on the inside the windshield washer pump. On the far, lower right is the level sensor. The fourth pump, on the reservoir in the engine compartment near the passenger fenderwell, is for the low-temperature ("intensive") washer fluid and has already been documented."
 
Cue many cars made between about 2000 and about 2008 for unnecessarily complicating the procedure of changing bulbs - sometimes you have to take off one wheel to get to a maintenance opening (cue winter - slush on the streets - bulb fails - you have to grab into the slush to open the maintenance opening) or even the front bumper to get to the bulbs. :? Same goes for the rear bulbs where you have to unscrew the whole light since there is no opening inside the car (again cue winter - slush yadda yadda)...
 
Girlfriend's old '96 civic. Had to take off the whole front bumper to change headlight. Had to remove the whole bottom half of the dash to change the radio.
 
I'll avoid the low-hanging BMW fruit and go for a different example or two.

Many 90s Chryslers have the battery in a hidden compartment and they didn't always have good remote hookups for jump starting. To get access to the battery, you must jack the car up, remove the driver's side front wheel, remove the wheel well lining and possibly a hard plastic cover panel by means of screws that may have rusted into speed clips, then you have to play Tetris to get the battery out of the irregularly shaped compartment just ahead of the wheel well. All this to avoid rear-mounting the battery in the trunk.

Many "Art And Science" era Cadillacs like the the early CTS and SRX require you to remove the front bumper cover if not the entire front fascia to change out bulbs. Best part is that from what people have seen, there's no good reason for most of these bulbs to have required bumper cover or fascia removal to get to other than GM couldn't be bothered to provide access panels.

Many GM and Ford products made in the 80s and 90s through to today have large flat gas tanks mounted under the vehicle. They also had EFI fuel pumps mounted in the gas tank from the top, where you can't get access to them with the tank installed. Where many competing vehicles of the time were designed with fuel pump access panels in the floorpans, trunks or cargo bay floors to allow easy access to the fuel pump in case it failed, the US designs didn't so you have to go through the annoying, sometimes complex and messy task of dropping your fuel tank to replace the pump. This turns what could be a ten minute job into something that could take hours because they couldn't be arsed to include an access port in the floor stampings.
 
I see you guys are focusing just on lazy design or cost-saving measures. What about pointless features that complicate things and provide little benefit? Like automatic seatbelts of the 80s in US. Or talking dashboards.
 
Automatic seatbelts were something demanded and mandated by the US government in lieu of airbag systems that weren't ready yet, so that's not really the car designers' fault. Nobody wanted to fit them to their cars on purpose. Talking dashboards were kind of cool and in most non-GM implementations were actually fairly simple to hook up. There's a bit of interest in retrofitting such systems to later cars, actually.
 
 
Cruise control.... I had a Renault Megane several years ago, and to use the cruise control you had to push a small (hidden from view when driving) button on the dashboard. That was super annoying and ensured I never actually used it.

And now I have a 2017 Renault Captur and they've moved the button next to the shifter on the floor!?!? If there has to be a separate button to switch on the cruise control (And for the life of me I can't figure out why one is needed), why can't it be on the steering wheel like most other cars?
 
You are doing it wrong. :p The correct procedure is this: 1.Use the button to select whether you prefer to use cruise control or speed limiter. 2.Leave it there for a lifetime. 3.Use the designated buttons on the steering wheel.
 
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My Discovery has the dashboard master switch, while I'm not the type to floor the wrong pedal or press buttons by mistake but it's nice to know that if I do press the button on the wheel, the thing won't take off.

If I'm doing a motorway journey it gets switched on, if not it remains off.

I think climate control has been overcomplicated for about 20 years with blend motors and such but I do like it.
 
You are doing it wrong. :p The correct procedure is this: 1.Use the button to select whether you prefer to use cruise control or speed limiter. 2.Leave it there for a lifetime. 3.Use the designated buttons on the steering wheel.

Yeah... that's what I do now, but the cruise control is now always shown on the info display in the instruments pane? and I have to scroll through menues to see the more useful day to day info there, which is also annoying and unnessary.

And who uses the speed limiter??? I've never met anyone who has confessed to using it?
 
My dislike for push button start is well documented so I won't go into it again someone already got the headlights bulb change that require removal of a front bumper. So here are a couple of generics and one specific.

Generic 1:
Touch screen for things that are likely to be used while driving such as climate control, radio controls, etc... It makes no ergonomic sense to have something with 0 tactile feedback if it's something one might use while driving. Corollary to it are steering wheels that look like they are from F1 because of all the buttons because of the aforementioned love for TS. Corollary 2 infotainment in general, it's just always too clunky and overcomplicated, I don't need 100 settings for interior lighting and how long the lights stay on, 90% of people won't ever bother to go into all these menus.

Generic 2:
Non-slush autos, like DCT, they are expensive and complicated to service, in some applications fail quite easily (looking at R35s here) and often are jerky in traffic. Bottom line is no civilian driver is ever going to be held back by shifting speed, even if they take it to a track day they simply won't have the skills required to get to the point where that half a second decrease in shift time is making a difference.

Specific:
The fucking Audi I had, replacing the steering rack required removing the wheels and opening up an access panel, because in their infinite wisdom VAG decided to put the steering rack on top. Another thing is having to take front end off for engine work because it was too far forward.
 
I see you guys are focusing just on lazy design or cost-saving measures. What about pointless features that complicate things and provide little benefit? Like automatic seatbelts of the 80s in US. Or talking dashboards.

I like hearing both, to be honest :) what you mentioned is probably even more interesting though.
 
About pointless things with little benefits...my black NA MX-5 has a rather large windshield washer reservoir with a low-fluid level sensor and the according warning light on the dash...the tiny fuel tank sadly has no such warnings...even my old Mercedes and Fiat have a low level warning. I'd gladly swap one for the other.
 
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About pointless things with little benefits...my black NA MX-5 has a rather large windshield washer reservoir with a low-fluid level sensor and the according warning light on the dash...the tiny fuel tank sadly has no such warnings...even my old Mercedes and Fiat have a low level warning. I'd gladly swap one for the other.

Hah, that's hilarious.

Something that perhaps only bothers me: Ford-style heated windscreen. If I have to chose between spending an extra minute in the morning defrosting the windscreen and having to see the bloody conductor wire mesh in front of me every second of driving the car, I'll chose the former. Especially since it's probably broken anyway.

And only tangentially related to cars: balance adjustment on the (car) stereos. Usually hidden in audio settings, it's actually a physical knob on the my Lexus' console. Something no one ever needs to adjust. Unless you're always driving alone and deaf on one ear, I suppose...
 
As someone who works in automotive, this thread is amusing to me.
 
About pointless things with little benefits...my black NA MX-5 has a rather large windshield washer reservoir with a low-fluid level sensor and the according warning light on the dash...the tiny fuel tank sadly has no such warnings...even my old Mercedes and Fiat have a low level warning. I'd gladly swap one for the other.

In same vein, my A4 had a low washer fluid warning but not low power steering fluid warning... I think the latter is a little more important

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As someone who works in automotive, this thread is amusing to me.

Post examples I'm sure you have many
 
...and to add insult to injury the stupid washer fluid sensor is now stuck in the low and always on position...which I'm sure is an easy fix but as it is so insignificant I keep forgetting about it as soon as I leave the car.

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Something that perhaps only bothers me: Ford-style heated windscreen. If I have to chose between spending an extra minute in the morning defrosting the windscreen and having to see the bloody conductor wire mesh in front of me every second of driving the car, I'll chose the former. Especially since it's probably broken anyway.

I agree, it's a case of once you see it you can't unsee it...it's like driving in a mosquito net.
 
I'm sure if Jeremy and May were here they'd point out Flappy paddle gearboxes.
 
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