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.

Totally agree , there’s nothing that doesn’t cost a bomb to fix , old cars also had more head room every car I try now is squashed in the roof department
I don’t want to drive laying down!!!
miss the days of a full windscreen, and being able to sit upright when driving

Mine tells me nothing, it's great. I wish the tyre pressure would be a little more sensitive as it seems to go from fine to YOU ARE NOT FINE
2014 car

I took a Range Rover home from work the other day and the warnings.. stop beeping at me!

I've never used a car with lane assist.

Near me there is a main road with 3 lanes, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other. There are frequent blockages on one or both sides of the road, sometimes buses, sometimes parked cars or vans etc, and it routinely turns into 2 lines, 1 in each direction. What would lane assist do here? Beep uncontrollably? Try to force me into the parked cars? It's not a signalling situation, as the stream of traffic is all following in a line, and signalling would suggest you're going to turn down a side street.

Just like washing machines! How many of us only use 2 maybe 3 programs. DP changed his car 4 years ago and I won't drive it ss it basically takes over. Slams brakes on for no reason, steering wheel shakes if too close to white line etc etc. No idea what half the things do.

Love hate relationship with mine. It’s too big but we needed a bigger one as my DH is a football coach and we have two dogs, boot space and leg space for kids was needed. It beeps constantly about hazards which freaks me out nearly causing a crash in the process or kerbing it, tries to steer for me and I really don’t like the camera parking thing. I’m old school and like using mirrors. It’s all buttons, I’ve only driven automatics but had a gear stick to shift, mine has buttons which are bloody awful. DH loves it and I’m thankful I only use it twice a week for work. Give me a smaller, less beeping straightforward car any day.

My electric car has all these safety features, but it works fine. All new cars have to have them - they wouldn’t pass NCAP ratings without.

I have a brand new car, and an old car for this reason. Sometimes I want to drive my car, not be driven by my car!

I’ve got to say, I actually love my hybrid Toyota! In fact I’ve had two since 2019. I love the smoothness and quietness of the electric drive. Also, long journeys are now a dream to do with ‘cruise control’ and ‘keep to safe distance active’ (I turn off lane assist though). And in traffic, (frequent M25’er here) being automatic is amazing! The manual gear box on the Honda CRV I had prior, was really hard work if stuck in traffic because of the low gear ratio between gears one and two.

Having said that, I’ve never experienced a problem with any of the functions on my car. In fact the ‘collision control’ did actually stop me from having an accident when someone did a u-turn directly in front of me on a junction.

all in all… sorry!!! I am a fan! I love my car! 😁

Yep, not only low head room but also tiny triangular shaped doors and extra wide door pillars, so you have to be a contortionist to actually get in them. Then when you're in the door is super-wide and there's usually a huge central divider that you're squashed in like a sardine. No wonder people are buying bigger cars, they're the only ones you can actually get in. Modern versions of traditionally smaller cars are for skinny midgets only. My old C3 is a lot more roomy inside and has a bigger door, easier to get in and out of than my brand new C3 which is actually longer, wider and taller! Madness. (Yes, I know, safety blah blah blah, but there must be ways of making cars safe enough without making them impractical).

My 63 plate beeps at me if I put something too heavy on the passenger seat or if my passenger takes their seat belt off before I fully stop, or if don’t put the handbrake down properly, this is all basic and I hate it, it shits me up, I don’t want beeping whilst I’m driving, it’s distracting. I can find the heater knob without looking and I also have a key to start the car. I dread the day I need to upgrade. Although I wouldn’t want anything fancy so I’m still hopeful I could still get a car and not a spaceship.

I've just had to get another car as my old one died. Now I'm quite pleased I couldn't afford any of the newer showroom ones. My new one is from 2015 and isn't full of fancy gadgets, which I'd have to deactivate. Sat nav is something I can't be doing with at all. How do you learn your surroundings? Just look at a map before you go and have a copy of it handy just in case.

New cars have all these bleeps and whazzo gizmos. But no spare tyre! Saves space for bonkers technology! Imagine that when you’re stuck in bleak moorshire with a flat tyre.

My car is 28 years old, I’ve owned it for 25 years. I wouldn’t be able to cope with a high-tec all electronic vehicle now.☹️

Are you aware of the Stephen King book / movie 'Christine'? Your car is either haunted or possessed.

It might be a good idea to go to the garage and ask for a firmware update. All this stuff is coded in the software in the car and can definitely be fixed with the right update.

So I’m in a hire car at the moment. It apparently can read road signs. So we are going through a 30 zone and if you’re doing 31 it beeps at you. Great. However it beeped all the way home the other day adamant I was in a 20 zone when it’s most definitely a 30 rows with 20 signs as you exit into side streets and 30 from those side streets back onto the main road. I’m going to lose my temper with it soon.

Another one where you’ve got to go through screen selection to get your heater on and adjusted. I prefer a dial to turn one way for cold and another way for hot and a second dial for speed of air.

If also seems to beep a lot when something passes by too close. Parking camera is useful. I though it was a reverse one only until I was trying to get really close to my wall to get the car off the road and it beeped loudly and went to a view from a camera above.

Was in a friend’s Tesla the other day. Couldn’t work out how to open the door - my 12 year old had to point out how to work the handles. His screen was so big and had Netflix on it! Well that’s going to be a distraction for the driver when everyone wants a film!! Then the cameras weee bizzare, different views from different angles and all looked very complicated. I could do with a front camera as I never park close enough to objects and usually end up sticking out as o fell too close but actually have another couple of feet. Why do the less complicated cars only come with a rear??

Manufacturers should be obliged by law to offer a no-frills car that just drives and that's it.

My new car has so many "automatic safety features" that make it unsafe and distracting alot of the time. Like you say, it will beep at me constantly but very rarely can I work out why. It goes into emergency steering mode as soon as I'm on a B road, and pulls me into or away from the edge of the road (when I'm driving perfectly central to my lane), which is so dangerous. It tried to drag me into a cyclist I was overtaking earlier today, as I went over the middle line in the road, I had to grip he wheel so tight to regain control! And the braking... the obsessive braking as if I'm unable to do it myself. When I approach slow moving traffic it (literally) shouts "PRESS THE BRAKE PEDAL" when I'm 50 metres away and naturally slowing down anyway. I shouted back at it earlier, "why bother telling me to do it, because you're going to brake for me anyway?!" Which it obviously then did in full emergency stop style, 20 metres away from the moving traffic. I feel the brake pads are going to wear out so quickly, because it's constantly applying them when unnecessary. Most annoying part is, I can turn the safety features off, but then they reset at the start of every journey, and considering most of my journeys are under 10 mins, I can't be faffed sitting there turning it all off as that takes as long as the journey itself. I actually love the car, it's very nice to drive, when the safety shite is off! When it was icy the other morning, the sensors were blocked so it couldn't brake or steer for me, would have been actual bliss, if it weren't for the fact it felt the need to chime at 20 second intervals to remind me the safety features weren't active. Learning to tune out and ignore the beeps, which probably isn't good as if there was a major issue with the car I'd probably be unaware!

That's quite a leap!

I totally agree OP. I have a new car, it has all the bells and whistles…lane assist, self driving, auto everything. And it’s annoying AF! It’s always giving out and beeping about something … I can’t put my handbag on the front seat because it thinks it’s a person & the seatbelt siren won’t shut up. Unfortunately because of where I live it’s pretty impossible to run an older car … but I miss solid, normal, non plasticky, regular cars. I just do!

Sandflea9900
DH just messaged me to say that switching off some of these features might be a problem with the insurance. Anyone know anything about this?

DH is talking shit. If you weren't meant to be able to turn them off for any legal reason (including insurance) the car simply wouldn't let you. Tell him to grow some balls.

Think that response is a bit harsh @Couldyounot

Googling says insurance companies vary and it's best to contact them for your specific cover.

Yanbu. I have sadly had to let me 20 year old car go to the scrap yard in the sky ....best car ever and still worked just had a few things that make it an mot fail but they cost too much to fix on a car worth less than £200. I've replaced it with a 8 year old car. I miss my old car, a proper car.

Of course Netflix won't play when the car is in motion! It's just nice when you are stuck waiting somewhere in the parked car.

I love the Tesla driver assist stuff. It's done really well, so is actually useful, and I feel much safer driving in it than in my older car.

I currently have a Ricky Martin CD in mine. Partying like it’s 1999 😄

The only electric gadget I'd like in my car is power windows. Having to wind them down is a bit of a nuisance (I only do it at the ticket machines of car parks). But that one small, occasional inconvenience is well worth it for the pleasure of having a small, very easy to drive old Corolla.