To hate modern cars?

[Sandflea9900]

Just got a new car after having our previous one for about 9 years. It’s a disaster. Too damn clever for its own good with automatic everything. The problem is that all these automatic features don’t work properly to the point where I think they’re actually making the car more dangerous. Examples:

a) Automatic headlines on, driving at night on the motorway, car changes from dipped headlights to full beam despite there being oncoming traffic on the other side of the motorway.

b) Driving along a residential road at the speed limit of 20mph, late at night. No other road users on the road, no pedestrians, cats etc. The anti collision system does an emergency stop for no reason.

c) Car randomly beeps warnings with no visual warning light/symbol/message so I have no idea what it’s warning me about. Car manual doesn’t explain.

AIBU to want to go back to a simpler car without all these magical gadgets? DH insists all cars are like this now. I know I can turn off automatic lights (and have done so) but I’m thinking I need to turn off all the other safety features if this is how the car is going to behave.

I can turn all these off in my car, and have done for some such as emergency braking. I still get an alert, but no actual braking. But I also purposely bought a car that wasn't overloaded with tech, and still uses a key!

My car is a 2014 Audi A3 (TFSI). I’ve had it 7 years. Didn’t know it had a CD player until I found it in the glovebox 2 weeks after I bought it. Its only drawback is that I can’t update the satnav any more. It’s fine 85% of the time, but goes to pieces on new roads.

And having a clutch makes me feel much more in control and confident.

Yup, I do a mixture of a map and satnav (and road signs really). I tend to look at a paper map and make a short list of junctions/turns etc on a post it note which I stick to the dashboard (I've always done that since starting to drive 40 years ago).

I also do a google street view of the destination and maybe half a mile around it, so I know what it will look like when I get there, best way to approach (sometimes easier from the opposite direction), so I have a vision in my mind for that last half a mile which the Sat Nav so frequently gets wrong (as they usually only go to the post code itself, and not the specific property). Far too many times I've arrived at the "back" of a shopping centre or attraction meaning a long detour back to the main entrance!

I also tend to follow road signs where possible rather than the sat nav, especially for attractions where it's usually better to follow the brown signs rather than whatever weird route the sat nav wants you to take where you end up nowhere near the visitor car park and have to circle again to get back to the brown signs.

When we first got sat nav, I found myself relying on it too much, and not really looking at road signs and road markings, and it's so easy to find yourself in the wrong lane meaning a last minute switch to the annoyance of other drivers, or ending up on the wrong road and having to u-turn back. Now I've trained myself back to looking at road signs and road markings more as the sat nav often doesn't put you in the right lane soon enough, especially at convoluted multi-lane, multi-junction roundabouts.

Now I regard it as just another "tool" alongside a paper map and alongside a google map street view overview before setting off.

My car is 22 years old and I have had it for 20 years. It has enough automated stuff to be useful, but not so much as to be annoying.
One reason I haven't thought much about a new car (or new to me) is all the "safety" features. I have never even used my SatNav on the basis that if I was unable to look at a map before my journey then I shouldn't be driving.
The car also passed its MOT with flying colours this year, so is good for another 18 months at least.

@Jinglingandmingling

he doesn’t understand why I want to hang on to my ancient, totally reliable Polo…

Likewise here. I had an 18 year old Citroen C3 which we gave to our son when he moved away to a different city for his graduate job and replaced it with a brand new car. I'd love to swap them and "treat" our son to the brand new one so I can have the old C3 back. OH thinks I'm crazy, but I really miss it. It was so easy to drive, utterly reliable, and easy for basic maintenance. The new one is all "bells and whistles" but (I'd never let OH hear it), but I hate it! Just too much hard work and I don't feel confident with all the things it takes over and does itself. I hark back to the days of having a "proper" car that you can control and drive yourself. I just don't feel in control of the new one as it does things itself (nothing quite as extreme as emergency stops for no reason yet thank goodness), but it just freaks me out.

Ironically, our other nearly new car, different brand, doesn't freak me out as much - it's full of features, but they don't seem to be so intrusive. You can turn things off, and other things are "gentler", i.e. instead of a loud warning and the steering wheel wrenching itself out of your hands when you cross a line, it's just a gentle vibration on the steering wheel as a kind of gentle "reminder" you're crossing a line - no klaxons, no wrenching. Same with speed limit warnings, no klaxons, just the speed display in the dashboard flashes and is larger - much more subtle.

With both cars, the salesmen didn't really demonstrate the features like that at all, barely mentioned them, which I think is a bit of an oversight really, as we've ended up having to research ourselves what the car does, when it does it, and which features can be disabled or changed.

He's right. New legislation has mandated a raft of 'safety features'. I can't stand lane detection because it's useless on back roads, and the last time we had a hire car it beeped randomly for no apparent reason because of it.

All these safety features in cars are going to make the roads less safe for pedestrians and cyclists as driving standards decline.

@KhakiSheep 'But in all cases these features can be overridden if the car decides to do something I don't agree with'

The trouble with the Volvos is the anti-braking thing can't be switched off. That's the issue. I talked to the main dealer, asked them to...

turn the damn thing off
disable the sensor
put tape over the sensor
downgrade the management system.
take the fuse out

but they say it can't be done. 😡

I have 25 years no claims. I don't need help parking, I need a car that doesn't throw a psychotic fit for no reason.

The beeps may be if you are exceeding the speed limit

I remember many years ago there was a documentary series on TV about Eddie Stobart haulage. The boss was buying himself a very expensive new car (can't remember the brand), and told the dealership he wanted the warning sounds disabled. Dealer told him they couldn't do that. So the guy told them to cancel his order. Funnily enough, dealership suddenly decided they could disable the sounds after all!

It's reliance on things like that which make the roads more dangerous.

I've had three cars with speed recognition, either by use of the sat nav or by the vehicle "seeing" the speed limit signage. None have been anywhere near reliable enough to rely on.

It's just something else that drivers can rely too much on and stop looking for the roadside signage or working out for themselves what the speed limit will be (i.e. in the absence of signage).

Sat navs rely on regular updates (you need a subscription) and of course any recent changes may not even be updated to the sat nav system at all. Cameras looking for road sign signs won't recognise signs that have been nudged away or dirty, or missing etc., nor are they able to work out speed limits where there are no signs (i.e. distance between lamp posts, whether single or dual carriageway, national speed limits etc).

They're all just a "crutch" to help you, but you really shouldn't be relying on them. They're there to remind you when "you've" got it wrong, and nowhere near reliable enough to replace the driver's own observation and knowledge.

And mine is 22. I’m hanging on to it as long as I can for the same reason …

I agree 100%. At the end of the day (apologies for the cliche) a car is only as safe as its driver.

Your car can drink alcohol in the USA! I hope mine makes it to that stage too 🤞

My 18 year old one is only a baby. I confidently expect it to last another 5/10 years as it's very low mileage and always passes it's MOT. I did the simple maintenance myself, i.e. change wiper blades, bulbs, fill water, check oil levels, etc. And I have a good local independent garage who do the services and keep an eye on everything else for me, i.e. brakes, battery, spark plugs, oil changes, and tyres.

Surely when you car starts beeping you just turn the music up so you can’t hear it! I have got a gizmo that means I can listen to my Spotify playlist in the car and got a cup holder with mobile phone slot so I can use Google maps. But I do miss the days of multiple post-it notes stuck on the steering wheel so I knew where to go without looking at the map.

We have this in our Golf. It’s shit. I’ve memorised turning all the shit off without looking via the steering wheel as I drive up our street.

Crash collision comes on allll the time.

BMW wanted £200 for auto full beam, but only you own it. Can’t be passed on when you sell it.
Nope.

We got rid of our last Golf as the front sensor went that controlled the cruise control and lane assist etc. It was dangerous to drive.

£2500 for a new sensor, car was only worth £2000.

All this wanky 'safer' tech yet one of the biggest complaints is that head lights are too dazzling, and road are treacherous (pot holes, white lines and cats eyes barely visible).

@Meadowfinch ahhh I never had the brakes behave inappropriately on the volvo, occasionally it would put them on if I was backing into a tight spot but the accelerator always overroad that.

Our volvo hybrid has moved on today and I am going to miss that car!

Oh yes, I forgot about the speed limit thing. My new car tells me the speed limit everywhere. Except it is often wrong. Sometimes it tells me the speed limit is 100mph on the motorway! Other times I'm in a 20mph zone and it says it's 30. Or I drive past a junction that's a different speed limit and it thinks it's for the road I'm driving on so it makes a noise at me because it thinks I'm going over the limit when I'm not. So actually it's completely useless - I have eyes that tell me what the speed limit is.

Turn the automatic features off on each individual thing that bothers you

As mentioned above, some cars don't let you disabled some things.

Does it not have this option if you swipe right on the main screen?

The good thing about BMW is that some of these things (automatic dipping headlights, for example) cost extra, so you can avoid them. My Fiat 500 has headlights that sometimes come on when it gets dark and wipers that usually come on eventually when it rains but no other “features”. When I’m forced to drive DH’s BMW I’m very aware of all the bits I don’t really understand.

"Turn the automatic features off on each individual thing that bothers you..."

If only it was that easy. 😃