32 replies to this topic

[bpirie1000]

Still think there should be an annual test. Or roadside test on highway code carried out by dvla.

Sure bmw/audi drivers need a reminder about the orange flashing light on the sides of their cars....

[DeadSquare]

Still think there should be an annual test. Or roadside test on highway code carried out by dvla.

Sure bmw/audi drivers need a reminder about the orange flashing light on the sides of their cars....

It is not the orange flashing lights that worry me.  It's the blue ones.

[sonikk4]

Electrically operated handbrake. Never had one thankfully but don't see the point. A colleague said he had to go to a main dealer (Vaux) to have it reset by laptop so he could change the rear pads (not sure how true this is...)

VAG cars have the same and you need to tell the car to retract the brakes. There is a function in Vagcom the proprietary software we can buy that does this. I’m sure all manufacturers who have E brakes fitted will have a similar operation system.

Now the crux of this is you need the ignition system on for the software to retract the brakes. IF you don’t change the pads quickly enough or the car suffers a spontaneous battery failure the brakes auto apply. If this happens the pistons come fully out rendering the callipers fubar. So that’s if the pads are not refitted. And those puppies are not cheap.

A small specialist garage I used to use in Peterborough used to put a battery charger on just in case something failed. And this was an ex VW tech.

I should do mine myself but I haven’t bought Vagcom as it ain’t cheap. There are other systems out there that do the same thing which are cheaper but to be honest I don’t do enough maintenance on my A6 to warrant buying anything.

[h9hpj]

I have an Audi S3 and to change the rear discs and pads I used Carista OBD gadget which has a function to release the rear electronic handbrake. Front brakes didn’t require anything special. 

[mab01uk]

Britain's second best-selling EV has a 'potentially dangerous' issue, warns Which?
On three occasions MG 4's lane keeping system steered car into danger.
"Product testing group Which? says it identified the problem with the UK's second best-selling EV, the MG 4, during controlled and repeated tests that it carries out on over 100 different cars each year.
It found that the £27,000 EV's lane-assist system - which is designed to keep the car in its lane to stop drivers veering over the white lines - pulled the vehicle onto the wrong side of the road, which potentially puts motorists at risk of driving head-on into oncoming traffic.
Last year, 21,715 were registered in Britain. Only the Tesla Model Y was bought in greater numbers in the EV marketplace.
'On one occasion where the tester drove on a narrow country road and had to pass another car travelling in the opposite direction, the MG4's lane-keep assistance system steered away from the nearside edge of the road and towards the centre – and the other vehicle,' Which? said.
The tester was forced to manually intervene to prevent the MG4 veering too close to the car travelling in the opposite direction, it claimed.
'On another occasion, this time on a wider road with a clearly defined centre line, the lane-keep assistance technology twice decided that the car had left its intended lane and pulled it onto the wrong side of the road.
'Using a sufficient amount of force, our tester had to manually steer the car back,' Which? says.
A software solution to resolve the issue is very near to completion and the MG dealer network will perform the work at no cost to the customer...
https://www.thisismo...arns-Which.html

 

Reading the reader comments below the above linked article, many other makes and models of car with 'Lane Assist' technology seem to have similar problems...I think I will keep my 2006 E90 BMW thankfully without any modern software driven driver aids for as long as possible!

 

Edited by mab01uk, 01 July 2024 - 09:07 PM.

[wilsonch]

I dont much car for ANY electronic aids.
I have a mk3 vrs ovtavia. It has a manual hand brake, and gear stick.
The vast majority of aids are really gimics.
So for me, fit all the gadgets and gimics you want AS LONG as i have the ability to turn them off.

[Steam]

Just about every gimmick can be acheived by physical manual means, but you dont sell cars when they dont break things or stop working.

[mab01uk]

My nannying new car, by GLEN OWEN (political editor of The Mail on Sunday).
"The first outing in a new car should be a moment to savour. It shouldn't make you want to pull over and thrash the bonnet with a tree branch, in the manner of Basil Fawlty. The Audi which has just arrived on my drive comes equipped with an unwanted battalion of EU-ordered 'safety' features, which are now starting to infect dashboards across the country. If it thinks I am too close to the centre of the road, the car wrests the steering away from me and yanks itself back. It did this when I tried to avoid a pothole, creating the alarming sensation of fighting my own car for control and leading to a dangerous over-correction.
The Nanny State dashboard also beeps constantly about the speed limit – it gets extremely tiresome to be told off for going 21 mph in a 20 mph zone – and includes something called 'Audi pre-sense', which purports to calculate the risk of me crashing by analysing my (admittedly not perfect) driving style.
I don't want this. I want the simplicity of my first car, a throaty MGB with just a fuel gauge, a speedometer and a sound system stuck on Radio 1.
It was the product of 1970s British engineering, so it didn't start every time, but when it did it was an unadulterated pleasure.
'But don't worry,' I told myself, 'I will defuse the road rage by finding a master reset to banish the irritations.'
Nope. After grappling with the manual for several hours and consulting various petrolhead forums on the internet, I learned that Brussels has banned me from overriding the warnings. Yes, I can mute the alarms by navigating several screens – a distracting and therefore risky process – but it resets every time I turn off the ignition. So, for short journeys, I just grit my teeth rather than navigate multiple toggle buttons. Even this small mercy is expected to be extinguished by new EU laws to ban temporary overrides. Why is this happening?
It is not, as Basil would suggest, just the Germans who started it: it's the product of pan-EU rule-making over which we have no control and which applies to all new cars sold in the European Union and Northern Ireland from July 7.
When I rang Audi to complain, the reaction was effectively a long sigh and, to paraphrase: 'Our hands are tied.' A sympathetic corporate character said: 'As we make cars for the entire region, any vehicle sold in the UK will be to the same standard of safety specification as an identical vehicle sold within the European Union.' He said shortcuts could be programmed into the dashboard to override the beeps, but none of them worked for me, and even if they ever do they still have to be activated for each journey.
The speed beeps rule was passed five years after Brexit in EU regulation 2021/1958, which decreed that all new cars, vans, trucks and buses should be fitted with an Intelligent Speed Assistant, which detects the speed limit using traffic sign recognition cameras on the vehicle or Global Positioning System-linked data.
And we have EU regulation 2019/2144 to thank for the Emergency Lane Keeping System which hijacks the steering control or, in the words of the regulation, 'corrects the trajectory only when the driver is unintentionally leaving the lane'.
In my case it intervened when I was on the left side of the road and in control – but when I tested the system by briefly taking my hands off the steering wheel it completely failed to act.
Prepare to be beeped at for the rest of your lives...."

 

[Chris1275gt]

IMO car manufacturers will cram as much as they can in the way gimmicks and it’s everything to do with not being able the fix it yourself as they want you to take it back to them to fix it charging god knows what to do it! Oil warning light, alternator light, fuel and temp dial that covers everything for me.

[Shooter63]

I have a funny feeling the ECU mapping boys will soon have something to sort that sort of thing out pretty quickly if previous attempts by governments/legislation are anything to go by.

Shooter

[mab01uk]

Jaguar death crash warning: Coroner tells the firm the design of £70,000 its electric SUV contributed to rugby-loving boy, seven, being fatally crushed between two cars.
Jaguar I-PACEs do not have a conventional gear stick but instead there are three buttons drivers can select - drive, neutral and reverse. The car did not have a conventional gear stick but instead has three buttons drivers can select - drive, neutral and reverse. There being no intermediary step within the Jaguar ipace being necessary to put the car into drive/reverse other than pressing a button.
'In the police officer's opinion if there had also been a lever or something similar present in the vehicle that needed to be engaged before a button was pressed this may have alerted [the driver] to the fact that he had pushed the incorrect button on the three button console.' Action should be taken to prevent future deaths.' A spokesperson for Jaguar said: 'We have received correspondence from the Coroner and shall be responding in due course.'
https://www.dailymai...oy-crushed.html

 

[mab01uk]

Another interesting summing up below of what many drivers hate about modern cars....

Everything Telegraph readers hate about modern cars.
"Most of us yearn for a simpler life, or at least one in which technology makes things easier. But when it comes to modern cars, it seems that the plethora of electronic gizmos has the opposite effect, with concerns that previously simple and intuitive functions of driving have been subsumed into myriad touchscreen menus and sub-menus.
Not least is the concern for safety. While peering and prodding at a screen on the dash, the driver must avert his eyes from the road. But it’s also immensely frustrating to have to tap your way through several layers of apps and menus simply to adjust the heating or the radio volume. Thankfully, manufacturers have finally realised that decluttered and screen-festooned car interiors aren’t a panacea, with physical buttons making a reappearance.
Your dislikes also encompass multiple chimes and beeps, over-intrusive lane-keeping assist systems, pessimistic emergency braking and blinding LED headlights. That’s before we get to electrically-operated handbrakes and the disappearance of spare wheels."   

Here, Telegraph readers share their main gripes with modern cars:-
Eppie Hutchings has owned her Volkswagen Golf Mk8 for almost 10 months.
“It’s mainly the touchscreen [I hate], having to turn off functions you don’t want before you start off. There’s no button for the heated seats, for example, everything has to be done via the touchscreen.
“Every time I put my VW into reverse, it tells me to look and make sure it’s safe to move. It will not let me reverse into my tiny drive space (necessarily close to the hedge, as I have done with other cars for years) it slams on the emergency brakes at least four times. I’ve never in over 40 years driven into the back of anyone, or crashed after wandering into the wrong lane. The car has been christened Keir, as it clearly thinks I am an idiot and is on a mission to remove my autonomy and run my life.
“The fuel gauge is annoying; rather than increments, it changes colour – but I just want to know how many gallons I’ve got left.
“I dislike all the inbuilt stuff [included] for our safety. I’ve only been driving since 1984… It’s just another facet of modern life – but I don’t like being told what to do.”

Her neighbour Stuart Gould also owns a VW, a 2023 Touareg. He and his wife Mary share the car and have difficulty with configuring the screen to their driver profiles, the system not remembering their preferences – and always switching on the heated steering wheel and the air recirculation function regardless.
“It obviously knows our choices,” she says, “but it always takes three attempts to remember them. It’s such a lovely car, wonderful in all other respects, so this is a shame.”
“I wish I’d bought an old one now,” says Stuart.

Andrew Marchant owns a 2024 Range Rover hybrid that’s done 4,000 miles. It is his ninth Range Rover in 22 years, but this one is different due to everything being controlled via the touchscreen.
“The first thing I do is switch off all the auto functions,” he says. “You’ve often travelled 500 yards before you find the right value. It’s a nightmare, it really is. They say ‘don’t use a mobile phone while driving’ then allow cars like this.
His wife Linda, who drives an older Range Rover Sport, adds: “I don’t like the iPad set-up for how much time is taken with your eyes off the road to do simple stuff like change the radio station. Also, I don’t like the lane-keeping assist. I don’t think I’ll buy a new Sport until they go back to fully manual controls.”
Andy says: “The voice control function instead of using the screen is useful but it’s not that accurate, it probably only works about 60 per cent of the time, so throws up instructions on the screen so you have to revert to using that anyway. The auto-dipping headlights are probably only 80 per cent accurate.”
Marchant concludes: “It’s not just an old-person’s syndrome. They have gone too far, taking out every independent control. The car is brilliant, the engine and drivetrain. It’s just the control interface [that’s the issue].
“We have this faith in technology but it’s replacing common sense.”

What other readers said
David Brooks: “Imagine you live in the 1980s and are told that in the future if you look at or touch the electronic device that you carried into the car you will be fined and receive six penalty points – yet you are forced to look and touch the big screen bolted to the dash.”

Edward Seaton: “New cars are indeed hateful things. The Volkswagen T-Roc I recently hired bonged relentlessly every time a speed limit changed or, more infuriatingly, every time it THOUGHT a speed limit changed. Hundreds and hundreds of times over a week it shouted at me. Incredibly annoying.”

S Carlisle: “The lane assist relies on you using the indicator to move over but if you have to swerve to avoid a pothole or animal it bucks and fights. Ludicrous. I switch it off before the start of the journey, along with stop/start. Touchscreens are a pain if virtually everything you want to do is located on it.”

Mike Oldroyd: “The little switches you get instead of handbrakes annoy me. A manual handbrake is simple and intuitive, even if it does mean a bit less space for a cup holder.”

John Davies: “In winter, having a car where you could find all the controls in the dark without having to look for them must have been the pinnacle of safety. If the designers had to actually use their cars in all conditions for long distances, they might realise how stupid they are getting.”

Jonathan Roberts: “LED headlights. Great for you, horrific for the poor soul coming the other way or getting blinded by the rear view mirror. Too bright, completely unnecessary.”

Ashley Poundall: “Brilliant article [from Sophia]. I’ve thought all of those things; I dislike every new car more and more. I was on a dual carriageway and my Audi saw a 30mph sign on a parallel road, slammed on the brakes and the car behind nearly hit me. I’ve had more near misses in this car in 18 months than in 30 years of driving.”

Brendan Fitzgerald: “Many dreadfully annoying features. But the worst of all is the one that automatically switches on the “lane assist” function every time I start the car. Oh, and the new nanny one that you have to turn off every time you get in, which beeps at you if you go 1mph over the speed limit. Thanks to the EU bureaucrats for that one. I want them all to get out of my car and let me drive the damn thing myself.”

Graham Sutherland: “I had a Hyundai Tucson on hire recently. For no apparent reason whatsoever – twice – it decided I was too close to something (nothing) in front and applied full emergency braking. Extremely dangerous and obviously not tested during design and systems integration. I do not think car manufacturers understand what they are building and selling.”

Drew Anderson: “What frustrates me the most is that my car doesn’t remember my preferred settings. Every time I start the car, I go through a little ritual. Switch eco mode on. Switch auto stop/start off. Switch lane assist off. Why can’t I save these bloody settings?”

William Kelly: “My biggest complaint is the lack of a spare wheel – and I mean a proper one, not one of those silly narrow “emergency” wheels. If I have a puncture, I expect to be able to fit a spare and continue as normal. I will not buy a car without a proper spare wheel – if there isn’t one as standard, the garage can provide one ....or lose the sale. Simples!”
https://www.msn.com/...20da88cf&ei=26#

Everything I hate about modern cars by Sophia Money-Coutts.
They’re safer, more efficient and comfortable than ever – but certain ‘features’ can drive you to distraction:-
https://www.telegrap...ut-modern-cars/

 

[ADRay]

I saw a Lexus commercial last night where the main selling point is that the car can receive phone calls. sadly, that’s what most people want.

That said, I think only useful piece of tech from the last decade is hands free Bluetooth.

[DeadSquare]

I saw a Lexus commercial last night where the main selling point is that the car can receive phone calls. sadly, that’s what most people want.

That said, I think only useful piece of tech from the last decade is hands free Bluetooth.

If the Lexus is driverless, it would be quite handy to be able to ring the car at the end of a country walk, and say "i'm lost, come and fetch me"

[Designer]

I saw a Lexus commercial last night where the main selling point is that the car can receive phone calls. sadly, that’s what most people want.

That said, I think only useful piece of tech from the last decade is hands free Bluetooth.

 

Hi

 

I have finally managed to stop my car from asking me to connect my phone or anyone else's phone to it.

If I am driving I am driving, talk to passengers yes, but no way will I have a telephone conversation which is more than likely to someone on a mobile in a poor reception area so you cannot hear them properly. You end up concentrating hard on what they are saying so less attention on what is happening on the road around you. There are enough idiots out there as it is, so no need to add oneself to the pot.

There is such a thing as voicemail. If you are worried that it is an important call find a suitable spot and pull over and call the caller back.

I recently saw one driver so irate with the person he was having a hands free conversation with he was hands free himself waving his arms around all over the place. Nearly had an accident, I assume he was steering with his knees.

 

Rant over!

 

Paddy