4 ms·

Oh really? My current car is over 20 years old so I'm way out of the loop. I guess I'll hope for options with smaller screens that control fewer of the function

by gdulli 11mo ago

Oh really? My current car is over 20 years old so I'm way out of the loop. I guess I'll hope for options with smaller screens that control fewer of the functions.

SoftTalker 11mo ago
Keep that car as long as you can. Modern cars are shit. Peak of cars was probably 1990s/2000s.
- chneu 11mo ago
  You could still buy some rad cars into the '10s but you generally had to go looking. The fiesta st is a decent example. An economy car, so very simple, but with a sports package. The only "smart" features, like traction control, can be turned off.
  - sudonanohome 11mo ago
    You forgot to mention that ST is a manual transmission car, not for everyone
    - qball 11mo ago
      The attitude that the computers should always be subordinate to the driver also extends to the transmission.
      - sudonanohome 11mo ago
        100% manuals are the way to go if you want to feel like a driver, not a passenger. I love my manual Jetta Thing is, people are lazy. US market is automatics only. Can't make people understand what the clutch is or why slushbox is bad for fuel efficiency. No one cares. Gas guzzlers are the national idea My kid learned to drive a manual in 15 minutes. Too much effort for US drivers!
        ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
        I honestly can't say I notice any difference between driving a manual or an automatic car. If we were in a car right now and I was driving, I'd have to look at the gearstick to tell you if it was auto or manual. I genuinely don't get the USian obsession with driving manual gearbox cars being somehow "elite".
        sudonanohome 11mo ago
        When you have a small fuel efficient engine, you can tell and feel the difference. With a V6 under your hood, you probably don't care. US is mostly big engines
        qball 11mo ago
        You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8. Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too).
        ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
        > You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8. You're not really, especially on a long run. If you're doing motorway speeds there is no difference in economy and performance. An auto will be a bit worse in slow driving, when it's using the torque converter which is quite lossy. > Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too). They will let you rev the engine as high as you like and will engine-brake just fine if you select a lower gear. They might not shift into a lower gear if you've got a gearbox that's smart enough to stop you money-shifting the engine.
        ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
    - hvb2 11mo ago
      It's an anti theft feature too
- userbinator 11mo ago
  1960s/early 1970s for me.
ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
My daily is a 1997 Range Rover. My next daily will likely be something with approximately the same level of technology. There are about ten buttons on the dashboard, of which the only ones I care about is the rotary knob that turns on the headlights and the button that switches the heater from "normal" to "EVERYTHING UP FULL ALL ON RIGHT NOW FULL BORE MAXIMUM EVERYTHING WE ARE GOING TO AIR FRY A POLAR BEAR ON THE BACK SEAT". There's an LCD screen. It's the size of my thumb, and tells me how many miles it's done (only 190,000 - it's my low mileage one, my other has done 270 and there's a guy on my forum who's rapidly closing in on 600,000 miles in his), what gear it thinks it's probably in, and occasionally it uses this LCD to lie about the gearbox overheating because water got into the plug for the sensor when I drove through a river and it came over the bonnet. It's not very fast or very efficient, but it does everything I need a car to do, and I have a full factory service manual for it and easy access to spares.

by gdulli 11mo ago

Oh really? My current car is over 20 years old so I'm way out of the loop. I guess I'll hope for options with smaller screens that control fewer of the functions.

SoftTalker 11mo ago

Keep that car as long as you can. Modern cars are shit. Peak of cars was probably 1990s/2000s.

chneu 11mo ago
You could still buy some rad cars into the '10s but you generally had to go looking. The fiesta st is a decent example. An economy car, so very simple, but with a sports package. The only "smart" features, like traction control, can be turned off.
- sudonanohome 11mo ago
  You forgot to mention that ST is a manual transmission car, not for everyone
  - qball 11mo ago
    The attitude that the computers should always be subordinate to the driver also extends to the transmission.
    - sudonanohome 11mo ago
      100% manuals are the way to go if you want to feel like a driver, not a passenger. I love my manual Jetta Thing is, people are lazy. US market is automatics only. Can't make people understand what the clutch is or why slushbox is bad for fuel efficiency. No one cares. Gas guzzlers are the national idea My kid learned to drive a manual in 15 minutes. Too much effort for US drivers!
      - ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
        I honestly can't say I notice any difference between driving a manual or an automatic car. If we were in a car right now and I was driving, I'd have to look at the gearstick to tell you if it was auto or manual. I genuinely don't get the USian obsession with driving manual gearbox cars being somehow "elite".
        sudonanohome 11mo ago
        When you have a small fuel efficient engine, you can tell and feel the difference. With a V6 under your hood, you probably don't care. US is mostly big engines
        qball 11mo ago
        You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8. Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too).
        ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
        > You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8. You're not really, especially on a long run. If you're doing motorway speeds there is no difference in economy and performance. An auto will be a bit worse in slow driving, when it's using the torque converter which is quite lossy. > Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too). They will let you rev the engine as high as you like and will engine-brake just fine if you select a lower gear. They might not shift into a lower gear if you've got a gearbox that's smart enough to stop you money-shifting the engine.
        ErroneousBosh 11mo ago
  - hvb2 11mo ago
    It's an anti theft feature too
userbinator 11mo ago
1960s/early 1970s for me.

ErroneousBosh 11mo ago

My daily is a 1997 Range Rover. My next daily will likely be something with approximately the same level of technology. There are about ten buttons on the dashboard, of which the only ones I care about is the rotary knob that turns on the headlights and the button that switches the heater from "normal" to "EVERYTHING UP FULL ALL ON RIGHT NOW FULL BORE MAXIMUM EVERYTHING WE ARE GOING TO AIR FRY A POLAR BEAR ON THE BACK SEAT". There's an LCD screen. It's the size of my thumb, and tells me how many miles it's done (only 190,000 - it's my low mileage one, my other has done 270 and there's a guy on my forum who's rapidly closing in on 600,000 miles in his), what gear it thinks it's probably in, and occasionally it uses this LCD to lie about the gearbox overheating because water got into the plug for the sensor when I drove through a river and it came over the bonnet. It's not very fast or very efficient, but it does everything I need a car to do, and I have a full factory service manual for it and easy access to spares.