The guys at iDrive started this posting on Facebook, so I brought it over here for our esteemed panel of car aficionados . . .

Launch Mode - If you can't practice and master controlling all that torque and horsepower, then maybe you're not ready to drive it like you stole it.

lets see, here are a couple from personal experience

1. Automatic angling down side mirrors.
2. Mercedes and BMW asinine automatic revert to park with driver door open.
3. Automatic slightly lowering windows (ive seen ice failures with this design, though common on BMWs)
4. any vehicle that does not have a button to disable traction control. (makes it impossible to get out of snow)
5. Mercedes side bolster soft to firm automatic feature around corners. Pointless and distracting IMO.

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Big wheels/small tires.

Crossovers the size of ugly hatchbacks.

Yaris front end design.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

I remember being a passenger in a 2002 BMW 745Li, which was the model year that debuted the column-mounted electric gear selector. A friend was driving it when nature called in an extremely urgent manner. He pulled up the inclined driveway to his house, and ran out of the car after hurriedly pressing the "Park" button on the tip of the shift lever. He apparently didn't press the button far enough, as immediately after he left the car, I took a brief ride down the driveway. Maybe the automatic revert to Park isn't such a bad feature after all.

That whole push button shifting apparatus trend is not as intuitive as it could be. make that number 6 for me. change for the sake of change is sometimes less of a step forward than hoped.
Chances are if he had a normal console shift lever, he would have slammed it in park and it wouldnt have rolled. was the door open? my complaint is the system connected to the door.

My experience with the auto shift to park is trying to line a vehicle up on ramps, a lift, or trying to break it out of snow. Opening the door to creep backwards or see exactly where the tire is while looking out is a pretty useful thing to do when lining up the rear tires with something.

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Self-driving cars. CO2 just hit 400 ppm and we want to make it easier for chumps to commute 100 miles each way?

As far as the automatic revert to Park, any driver that's not a blithering idiot knows to use the park brake in addition to Park when stopping.

Even with an automatic. It might also have unintended consequences. Imagine if the car breaks down. In a normal car, you can push and steer with the door open. In a car that reverts to Park, you might end up stuck at a level crossing or something.

Agreed.

Or maybe poor decisions should have consequences?

Agreed about the self driving cars, we don't need to encourage idiots.

Well, to be fair, the E65/66 does use an electric parking brake drive that fails about as often as it works, so there's no real guarantee that using the parking brake would have helped. Of course, that is only used when the engine is not running, engine on, the traction control system uses normal brake application to act as a parking brake. I'm guessing the driver did not have the "Auto Park" feature turned on, which applies the brake automatically when stopped either? The key should not be able to be removed without the vehicle in "Park", so that raises questions as well... Sounds like something was wrong with the car in any case, which, or course, means that all bets are off.

MV

I'll also add, hmmm...

Direct Injection, I can't believe removing the intake manifold to clean the intake tracts is now considered normal maintenance.

Ridiculous oil change intervals. Consider that some manufacturers allow up to one liter of oil to be burnt per 750 miles travelled, in vehicles that hold between 5-8 liters of oil, and allow for oil changes every ~15,000 miles... You see where this is going?

I'm tempted to say turbos. I do think they have their place, and I think they could be used in quite a few applications, but so far their uses in grocery getters is proving disappointing.

Connectivity. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, not even plug in crap. This isn't your living room, you don't need extensive entertainment options, you need to drive and pay attention while doing it.

I'm sure there are others.

MV

Back on the FB thread, there seems to be a large group that would like to banish "stance" "excessive camber" and the "tucked" wheel look.

My cousins wife didn't see where it was going until her Lexus spun a rod bearing when it ran dry on oil

I am all for not wasting oil, 3k mile changes are a thing of the past, but it reaches a point where oil is cheaper than an engine, so I don't hold my OCIs out to 12,000-15,000 suggested on some of the newer cars in my garage.


I personally don't care for back up cameras, people seem to rely exclusively on them, then wind up with front row seats to crashing into the car behind them as they parallel park.

Multi-colored LED interior lighting (new S-class and others), if I wanted to go to a rave, I'd go to one. I don't need the inside of my car to match my ensemble that evening.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

Seats suck in new cars. Seriously, a 1998 Toyota Avalon Seat is more comfortable than the new S-Class. Where's the rolling living room couch cars of yesterday. My old 1995 S420 and Buick Roadmaster Estate are perfect examples of this. Supportive with enough bolster to hold you in place but with the comfort of Grandpa's Lazyboy.


Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

VW supposedly does this too. My 97 SL320 has this to reduce wind noise by promoting a good glass to top seal. I leave the drivers window 1/2" down when in the garage to reduce motor cycling.

My list includes:

Push button start. A key is tactile and you will know if it is in the run position or not. And you can turn the car off without looking if need be.

The 2015 F250 truck at work has a key but also what seems like auto start technology. The ignition switch sends a request to the engine module to crank / start. You can bump the key and it will go through the start sequence. ( like a push to start car )

Turn signal switches without a latch. Now you have to push and hold the SW for a second for a full time flash. If you give it a flick it will only blink 3 or so times. And if you want to cancel, you must flick it into the opposite direction. Hold too long and you get a 3 or more blink. I'm also guessing that it will shut off the turn signal after too many miles in the left lane with the left blinker on. . .. .

Touch screen anything.

Automatic radar braking , lane minder , sleepy head minder. . . this is similar to ABS where non car people will use this to get deeper into trouble rather than a save me from a bad situation device.

Spare tire wells that can't hold a full sized flat. We had a Ford Fusion at work that could not hold a full sized tire, there was nothing under the floor that prevented a deeper well.

Got it, plain white to match your polyester leisure suit on the way to the Disco. ( While driving your 76 Chrysler Cordoba with the rich Corinthian leather seats. )

Though the multi colors LEDs would match the dance floor.

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I miss the metal blade keys. MB since about 1998 require you to keep a spare key in the car to keep from getting stranded if you don't have a spare. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like the "keyless go" crap either.

Yep and on top of you you need a walnut shell blaster to properly clean it out.

I agree with JB3's list too. The two MOST RELIABLE cars in my driveway are the two 95 E300s, one with 322k miles and the other with 280k miles. They are about like a tractor in regards to how they can sit out there for weeks on end and I can go out there to use em and they will crank and go. Different matter if a creature has gotten in there and eaten wiring insulation sometimes. Typically they stick to eating the brown insulation which does not seem to hurt anything.

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Jim

I've been in W140's a time or two, and those seats are ridiculously comfortable.