New cars can drive you nuts!(rant)
 

I hate driving almost all newer cars. Its like having your old 3rd grade teacher in the passangers seat reminding you to behave!

I love how our old MB's pretty much give the middle finger to all this modern nanny crap.

No shifter interlock. Its a car, if you can't figure it out you really shouldn't be driving.

I can start the engine any damn time I want, as long as its not in gear. No having to depress the brake pedal BS.

Door locks that do not lock you in. If your dumb enough to open one and fall out, well MB figured they were doing the world a favor.

Not locking you out of adjusting the seat as your driving.

They have a real parking brake, not this auto parking brake BS.

They have a loud annoying buzzer that tells you when you are doing something wrong/dumb in proper German fashion. Its like the car is saying moron you left your lights on, and I ain't shutting them off for you. I don't like that damn Chevy bing, bing, bing!

Not having an annoying seat belt buzzer that goes off if you don't have your belt on when the car is in gear. MB figured that if you wanted to kill yourself they were not going to stop you.

No cup holders, I love this! The Germans way of saying pay attention to the road you crazy Americans!

Rant off.:D

i hate that seat belt reminder in modern cars, it seems like it never goes off. When ever my dad gets in his car he doesn't put his seat belt on for awhile and the noise annoys me so much.

Late W126s had that feature.

What car does that? Doesn't sound like anything I've heard of.
That's nothing new, that technology has been in certain cars since at least the early 1980s.

That actually sounds like something a German automaker would do. HALT! YOU SHVALL ONLY ADJUST THE SEAT PRIOR TO DRIVINK LIKE A PROPER AUTOBAHN DRIVER!"


Funny you ought to mention that. I remember some forum members were actually trying to replace their buzzers with the American "chime" sound. I like the buzzer sound, it's old school. :cool:

But they have a glaring annoying red light.

If that were truly the case, they would also not have radios, those surely distract you on the road.

I saw some TV show about the Autobahn, and a guy they interviewed mentioned that the Germans never used to put cupholders in their cars because they feel that driving, in itself is an activity, and if you are flying along at autobahn speeds, you shouldn't be sipping a soda...

I don't even remember the American cars we had from the 80s having cupholders either.

Really when did they add a shifter interlock? 90's?

My car doesn't have a seat belt light, just an easy to ignore overhead seat belt thing, like on a plane!:D

To start the new MB's with the push button start you have to depress the brake. Drove me nuts.

It began with the 1990 or 1991 model.

[QUOTE]
My car doesn't have a seat belt light, just an easy to ignore overhead seat belt thing, like on a plane!:D[/QUOTE
1st gen W126s have their seatbelt lights in the instrument cluster. Maybe you can add a "no smoking" sign too next to your seatbelt sign.:P

I don't like the idea much of the whole push button start. I prefer a key, it feels more mechanical. How is the issue of security handled? I always lock my doors in my car (even in the garage), but what about the small town owner who has the biggest house in the town in the middle of a big field who still leaves their car unlocked, can unacknowledged Cousin Ned from the trailer around the bend jump the 8 foot fence while on a Crystal Meth binge, push the button and be off?

You carry a keyfob that the car can sense and it allows you to start.
It also allows you to start if you left your keys on top of your car for whatever reason...

haha, knoledge from experience? :D :D

New cars violate the basic rule:

Simpler = Better.

On the keyless note, I really dislike mercedes keyless go in the 221. Instead of engineering it into the car its just a plug that goes into the keyhole and it looks cheap. Nissan/Infiniti's system is great looking, doesn't look like an afterthought, and works great.

Loved my 86 Jetta Coupe. Bosch CIS injection, manual windows... CIS could be diagnosed with a multimeter and a test light. In 15 years and 225K, all I did to the CIS was replace fuel filters and a couple of O2 sensors. Adjusting fuel ratio was as simple as a 3.5mm allen wrench and a dwell meter.

Always a ridiculous point........:rolleyes:

Every once in a while its good to go on a rant. Hope you feel better. Now start providing that great advice. LOL

Heck, I bought the 300SD because it was 100% mechanical. I am not so sure about the SDL as it was electrics going to the IP, but on the 617, you could push start it and run with no battery or alternator. Talk about cool!

I hate all the electronic crap in cars these days.
I look at my 1974 Jeep with it's Holley carb, points and coil and I can understand it. I can also tune it by ear with a flat bladed screwdriver!
When I got her, she was running on 2 cylinders. A few fixes (plugs, wires, a shot of seafoam) and she is purring on all six as only an AMC straight six can purr!

I look at the 1984 BMW with it's Jetronic fuel injection and I have a hard time figuring it out. I have figured out how to tune it a bit and how to make it run fairly smoothly (damn that idle control valve!), but it is MUCH harder to understand.

I look at the mess of wires under the hood of the 1999 Suburban and I am totally lost :eek: The only way I can even attempt to fix anything is by reading OBDII codes. Because I do not understand the newer systems it cost me $2000 for injectors and labor last year!

I am totally afraid of what you would find in a Prius! You need a dgree from MIT to even think about working on one!

I hear ya Hattie!

My current E430 has about as much nannying as I could ever stand. I don't know what I'll do when I get a newer car. I'll have to figure out how to hack the ECU or something to disable all that crap.

The seatbelt one is especially annoying, as is the auto-door lock. That drives me NUTS!!! :D

And don't go wrapping that Prius around a tree...

Hazmat Teams, Power-plant operators (to assist in shut-down and the removal), toaster-bags (your body will be toast...black, crispy/crunchy), and a wood-chipper (all that battery juice - it will kill the tree)...

Yah, the Prius...the "Green" answer to the next "Carbon-Footprint" up your @55!

I hear ya, Hatt. I drove my GF's boss's brand new Lexus, and as nice as it was, I couldn't wait to get back to my w123. The Lexus felt like a toy: the steering wheel was tiny, not enough leg room, everything was plastic and looked/felt generally cheap (flamesuit on). I dig our cars, our hunkering beasts that float down the road so smoothly. Our cars feel like real quality, even wityh the bus-like steering wheel, and the shifter that can go to any position, anytime (whether running or not, whether braking or not). The fact that, being 6'3", I can push the seat (manually, I might add) back so far, that I have to reach to find the accelerator, is enough for me!

PS: anyone remember "the most annoying sound in the world," according to Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber? That's the w123 warning buzzer, and I love it!

^^^When I read that, I was so shocked I dropped my lipstick into my coffee!!!:D

The whole keyless go idea isn't a bad one at all, but as long as the car isn't in gear it should be able to start.

Will you really want to own a 2008 keyless car in 2035? Each one of these features shortens the useful life of the car by making it less cost effective to preserve. Folks on this forum complain about climate control and power windows.

I don't want to own a 2008 daily driver in 2012 if I can help it!

I just want a daily ride that runs and doesn't eat up my time, I'll leave the fun older stuff for messing around in my free time.

That's OK, but I just don't enjoy driving new cars; they feel too disconnected from the driver. All things being equal, I would rather be riding my old motorcycle.

And yet they offer other "driver distractions" as options! :rolleyes:

They HAD to offer cupholders if they wanted to continue selling their vehicles in the US...after all, we Americans are bereft of determining how best to sip a cup of latte whilst blazing down the Autobahn at 180 mph!!

Cupholders in an SL63 AMG? Perhaps not. But if I'm going to haul around soccer gear every weekend in the W164, there'd better be a "Big Gulp"-sized receptacle to accomodate!! :D

I think not having cup holders gave them character.

You shouldn't drink in the new ones anyway, spill something on the center console and you won't be able to shift!:eek::D

Lipstick? You wanna tell us something Jim? :D

Sorry , but convincing a German to do his without Wagner or Strauss for an autobahn run is not going to happen. They're smart enough to know that it's a given that music is an essential part of life!

Our Saab does that, as have a number of cars I have owned. I can understand having to depress the clutch pedal in an MTX car to activate the starter circuit, but it seems a little silly in an ATX as long as it's in park or neutral. I think this "feature" is becoming more and more common.

MB took care of that with the stalk-mounted (W164) and paddle shifters! The console area is now free to store all sorts of American crap! :D

What shade of lipstick?

Try driving a Saab with the ignition switch in the center console. Replacing said switches that have had pop or coffee spilled in them is a VERY lucrative business!

Redonaman

Safety interlocks are not such a bad idea. Let's fade in to a summer evening in 1971 - young PaulC is cleaning the interior of a relative's 1969 Ford LTD hardtop, which was parked on a hill alongside his house. PaulC concludes cleaning and goes inside the house to catch a re-run of Hawaii Five-O. Soon DaddyC calls PaulC to the window: "Where's the Ford?" "I dunno." "Were you in the Ford today?" "Uh-huh, I was cleaning it". "Did you move the car at all?" (A fair question, as I had been driving cars on private property for about 4 years at this time.) "Nope" "Where's the car?" (Now my father pictured himself as the real-life iteration of Perry Mason, and a deft cross-examiner. My vision of him was that of a nascent Hamilton Burger, and even at 11, I usually batted .500 during these inquiries, but I digress.).

Anyway, we went outside whereupon I discovered that the LTD, even with the parking brake on, had drifted down the hill, through an intersection and tried to eat a U.S. mailbox with the rear bumper. I can only theorize that I had bumped the shift lever slightly while cleaning the car, and closing the driver's door as I alit the vehicle helped it into Reverse. The parking brake apparently delayed movement and immediate discovery and limited top speed to a crawl.

Now, if this car had even a rudimentary ignition switch/shifter interlock (alas, not featured on Fords until 1970), a U.S. mailbox would still be alive today, and I would have found out if Jack Lord got the bad guy.

Paul- that was great. Somewhere a sitcom awaits you....p.s. I backed over a birdbath with my 82' Honda once.

I had a Chevy K5 that didn't need a key, the tumblers were so worn that I just turned the switch and drove off with a puff of leaded exaust.

It couldn't have been a 460. I have driven up to '06 S500s and there is sadly no comparison.

We went for a drive in my friends dads LS600h. Great interior, dislike the front end and lights.... Its a nice car, but still lacks that feeling you get when your driving a german car....



It is weird and hard to explain, but it just doesnt feel the same... I drove the new S550, and man, that car just feels perfect. :)

Hattie, a friends mom has a farily new Jag S-Type. That car has died sooo many times as a result of spilling stuff down the center console...

I like the seatbelt warning. It sounds like a stall warning horn in a small plane.
Then there's the trim-wheel climate control.
Lastly, there's that little cool 3 bladed propeller on the hood:P

My 66 Beetle didn't have a key - it was replaced by a toggle switch and a honking big push button for the starter.

Did you see the center console on the new one? Its got a button that pops up and controls everything. Very cool. Spill soda on it and they are into you for a few grand!:eek: I didn't think to look where the cup holders were, probably right above it!:D

http://images.paultan.org/images/New_Jaguar_XF_26.jpg

It's an LS something. I didn't say it wasn't nice, just no character whatsoever...on the interior. I do like the body on it...

Nothing was more annoying than this.
 

I had an '82 Datsun 280ZX many years ago and it had an "vocalized" warning system. A female voice with a Japanese accent would say, "lights are on" or "door is ajar" among others.
AFAIK a door is a door and not a jar.:P

A coworker I knew years ago had a Maxima that was inadvertently fitted with the Japanese voice chip instead of the English one...we all though it was pretty cool that the various voice prompts were in Japanese!

Maybe the accent was so bad that it sounded like Japanese?

Remember this happened in Texas. The voice was probably speaking Yankee English.

I believe the shift interlock deal is Audi's fault. Supposedly, the shift levers would pop out of Park, engage a gear, and lurch. Not sure if somebody got injured or not. But ever since then, we have those interlocks.

No it was Ford's fault. They were famous for popping out of park and into reverse. See PaulC's post.

People did get hurt unfortunately.

I nominate you as moderator of 'www.my dad's friend's ride rocks.com'.

:confused:





I have a bunch of friends..... Many of their parents have nice cars, and are like my parents, so they can drive whatever car, as long as its not in use.