Dumbing up of Automobiles

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
I have tried it. It NEVER works as well as a manual system. I want temperature and airflow where I want it, not where the car THINKS I want it.


Most automatic climate controls are not so automatic that you cannot direct the air where you want it. All the ones I've had allowed you to focus things on the windshield (i.e. winter), the floor, or the panel vents. The Audi gave the least choice, with it enforcing its opinion once in a while, but it didn't prevent one from using defrost or deactivating the AC compressor.

The Town Car and the G have been the best in that regard. You set your temperature and where you want the airflow. The G gives more options for airflow than I could ever want to use, or you can set it on completely automatic, and still be able to override the compressor.

 

[itguy08]

Guess it's just different strokes for different folks. Some of us like to not worry about it and some like to be more "hands on".

 

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
About $650 for the control unit on my stepfather's Concorde!

Seems to be about the going price for many vehicles...

I've gotten the chance to service Toyota, Buick & Grand Marquis control heads, each had dealer est of $700-$900... There were bad solder connection and broken wire on the Buick & Toyota, the MGM needed four small "O" rings to seal the function solenoids, cost in parts was less than $1 for all three...

 

[Spazdog]

Now that I think about it, I do not use my automatic climate control.

Operation is easy enough. Press large knob labled "AUTO" on right in and set temp with same knob. Done.

I just don't use it.

Knob on left controls fan speed, knob on right controls temperature, and button in smaller knob in center directs airflow.

 

[Norm Olt]

If you think the useless junk they are putting into cars as the "standard" equipment is bad, take a look at what the OPTIONAL crud co$t$ and how arcane and complex it will be to maintain! My favorites are the optional $5000+ very HIGH LINE info-tainment systems that, no doubt, sound very good, but...

The typical "price as tested" on most magazine comparison tests is 20-30+% higher than the base price because they load these vehicles up with every unneeded "bells & whistles" (see WorldWideWords) you can imagine.

When the price for a 3-Series BMW as tested is usually more than a base 5-Series you can see what I mean.

Well, there are certainly more than "one born every minute" today...

Cheers!

 

[brelandt]

I hate the new touch screen mainly as a alignment tech. I need to leave the car on the ramp in "N" in order to do my work. This means the key stays on. If the customer leaves anything on, i.e. their radio and climate controls they stay on the whole time. Most times this will run the battery dead because the battery needs to be replaced and they refuse, long story here, LOL.
Anyhow, I need to turn everything off. Old school knobs like what is in my Toyota takes 2 seconds to do so. But in a Prius? Or the 10 or more other designs that are different from the next I spend 30 seconds pushing everything just to find out how to get the fan to turn off.
Otherwise, like I stated before the battery usually runs down the car is stuck on my ramp till I get the jumper out. The customer blames me......blah blah blah......

 

[cutter]

I read somewhere that a girl had to call AAA because she couldn't get into her car. Her key remote battery died, and the AAA guy simply put her key in the door and unlocked it. With the increasing amount of things doing things for you, I'm pretty sure all future children are doomed.

 

[ClutchDisc]

Sadly, I think Hot Wheels has influenced the styling of new cars.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: brelandt
I hate the new touch screen mainly as a alignment tech. I need to leave the car on the ramp in "N" in order to do my work. This means the key stays on. If the customer leaves anything on, i.e. their radio and climate controls they stay on the whole time. Most times this will run the battery dead because the battery needs to be replaced and they refuse, long story here, LOL.


It's bad enough to just open the door and it takes the battery down about 0.4 volt as all the little computer brains and controllers start to wake up.

 

[RatBikeRandy]

My grandfather's 1979 Mercury Zephyr had the horn on the end of the turnsignal stalk. Everything else was where it should have been.

I drove a rental Dodge something that had 5 stalks sprouting off of the steering column and none of them were for the transmission. I drove half of the trip trying to get the display back into miles instead of kilometers.

Just keep it simple

 

[Jarlaxle]

My 1982 Marquis was the same way, with that weird horn.

 

[yonyon]

Rim blow was pretty nice. Why didn't that catch on?

 

[Norm Olt]

Unfortunately it is not only the Automobiles that are "Dumbing up"...

Look at the drivers, the pre-drivers and the post-drivers!