My curmudgeonly rant of the day on modern technology.

[BarracksSi]

Seriously it's infuriating. If it wasn't for losing heated seats, I'd totally swap out for the lower trim AC control bezel just to not deal with this hassle anymore.

Same here. I saw the thread about swapping out the climate controls and how easy it is, and then I thought, well, hang on -- I only want ONE thing, and that's quick access to the fan speed.

My wife loves heated seats, and I've caved and used my seat's heater, too. I also like how I never have to fiddle with the controls to change between heat and a/c in weather like we've had lately.

But if I can quickly override the full-blast fan as soon as I've selected Defrost -- or, at least, change the default initial fan speed -- I'd be completely satisfied.

Surely there was enough room for the speed up/speed down/climate trio of buttons on our cars. I think the touchscreen UI was chosen "because we can".

Sponsored

 

[Gruber]

The electronics and controls were the main reason why I test drove this car. I was almost sure that I will like or accept everything else, but the lack of volume control knob and climate comtrols on the screen hit me immediately as a possibe deal breaker. I almost switched to Accord or CR-V to have that volume knob.

The rear view camera dictatorship also came up during the test drive. Ans where is the front-view camera? I didn't have to buy this car, and there is a lot of other cars on the market with a volume knob and a fan knob, but once I bought it, these things are now my fault. So, while I feel your pain, I'm surprised you just discovered all these annoyances suddenly one foggy morning.

I also did a freedom riot after buying the CR-V and yanked out the fuse for the stupid daytime running lights. Honda was kind enough to have a dedicated fuse for this. In this way I can control at least one thing in my life - when my headlights are on.

Btw. I didn't yet find one thing (3 months +) that doesn't work as expected. Even the walk away door locking is now reliable and the rain-sensing wipers are better than I thought such a silly thing can ever be.

And the voice controls are so much fun that who cares about buttons and knobs. Wait for the next Siri-like generation or better and you will just say turn up the volume or the fan.

 

[AndyAndromeda-AUS]

Who doesn't put thier seat belt on even for the shortest of drives this is just crazy to me.

Also just putting the car back into Drive, Neutral, Park would give you back climate control. It won't kill you to stop, change settings and then go back to reversing.

And I would have just rolled down the windows really don't care what them green stickers say it's not going to make much of a difference.

I think it's best if you keep the fridge stocked with milk and coffee in the future.

 

[CivicChina]

To me the most annoying thing (for keyless entry models) is, by a long shot, the inability to shut off the engine while still being able to listen to music or talk on the phone. Freaking stupid, that one-way-cycling 'Start' button/ignition sequence design...

Can KTuner reprogram that thing by any chance? I might get it just for that...

i can do that thanks to the stop&start function. If it is activated i come to a stop, the engine turns off and everything else stays on. I can then decide to restart the engine by releasing the clutch or shut everything by pressing the start button.

 

[db_tanker]

I feel you on the rant.
first gen My Ford Touch/SYNC was awesomely bad.
guess you can call the gen 1.5 MFT/SYNC in our old Escape wasn't as bad as there was plenty of buttons for this, that and the other including dedicated HVAC and radio controls.

I can however say this...in the hatch there are several extra little blind spots here and there and the back up camera comes in quite handy.

My main grumpy face on this car (hell really my only gripe) is all the stuff the center stack does. It really is too much IMO. I want radio controls, HVAC, and navi if installed. The Android Auto is nice (we don't have fruit phones) and works nicely with our phones.


Just remember tomorrow brings a brand new day.
D

 

[BarracksSi]

I also did a freedom riot after buying the CR-V and yanked out the fuse for the stupid daytime running lights. Honda was kind enough to have a dedicated fuse for this. In this way I can control at least one thing in my life - when my headlights are on.

I almost wish the daytime running lights were brighter. Seems like too many knuckleheads on side streets don't see my car when I'm approaching, and they pull in front of me anyway. I've started turning on my headlights manually -- and the fog lights, too -- when I see someone waiting to pull out, and it's actually caught their attention a few times.

What's next? How much stupidity to we have to accommodate? Will we need to attach strobe flashers to our cars like buses already do?

 

[dmitri]

i can do that thanks to the stop&start function. If it is activated i come to a stop, the engine turns off and everything else stays on. I can then decide to restart the engine by releasing the clutch or shut everything by pressing the start button.

That's a very cool feature, although it would be annoying (and wasteful) for the engine to turn off/restart on every red light, or even in heavy "stop-n-go" traffic... I was hoping it could be programmed so that if I push the Start button under certain conditions, e.g. when parking brake is on and the car is running, or maybe even just recognize/respond to a "long press" on the Start button, that the engine would shut off and the car would go into Accessory mode... Hmm, I need to do some more research on Ktuner, see if they maybe support some sort of custom scripting that would make something like that possible...?

 

[CivicChina]

That's a very cool feature, although it would be annoying (and wasteful) for the engine to turn off/restart on every red light, or even in heavy "stop-n-go" traffic... I was hoping it could be programmed so that if I push the Start button under certain conditions, e.g. when parking brake is on and the car is running, or maybe even just recognize/respond to a "long press" on the Start button, that the engine would shut off and the car would go into Accessory mode... Hmm, I need to do some more research on Ktuner, see if they maybe support some sort of custom scripting that would make something like that possible...?

i always keep it off, i only activate it each time when i need to stop for a long time. it would be intersting to see if the function can be retrofitted to american cars

 

[exyia]

Same here. I saw the thread about swapping out the climate controls and how easy it is, and then I thought, well, hang on -- I only want ONE thing, and that's quick access to the fan speed.

My wife loves heated seats, and I've caved and used my seat's heater, too. I also like how I never have to fiddle with the controls to change between heat and a/c in weather like we've had lately.

But if I can quickly override the full-blast fan as soon as I've selected Defrost -- or, at least, change the default initial fan speed -- I'd be completely satisfied.

Surely there was enough room for the speed up/speed down/climate trio of buttons on our cars. I think the touchscreen UI was chosen "because we can".

I just don't understand how NOBODY at Honda considered that someone might want to keep the car defrosting the windshield without being BLASTED with fan noise.

Like jesus christ, when you start the prompt for voice commands, the car will TURN DOWN the fan speed on your AC just to hear you. Clearly they thought ahead about fans at full blast are obnoxious to listen to.

There are some great minor touches here and there in the car, but then they miss something obvious and it just makes no sense.

 

[exyia]

Almost every car is like this when the defroster button is pressed.

That's completely besides the point. The point is after the first few minutes, nobody wants their defroster blasting at full speed anymore. It's just completely unnecessary. Honda neither had the foresight to calm it down automatically AND made it hassle to turn down yourself.

 

[typemismatch]

This rant still makes me smile

Definitely worth the time you took to write it.

 

[BarracksSi]

Almost every car is like this when the defroster button is pressed.

My last car didn't do this. The defrost button only directed all the air to the windshield vents.

Then again, my last car was bought in 2002, so a lot of stuff has changed since then.

 

[Machine20]

My problem is with the windshield wipers. No matter what I do I cannot get them to swipe at a low interval. Whether I have it on auto with the lowest sensitivity or if I have it on low with the lowest interval the wipers are swiping as if im in a hurricane. Ive tried everything and cant get them to work like any other normal car.

 

[exyia]

My problem is with the windshield wipers. No matter what I do I cannot get them to swipe at a low interval. Whether I have it on auto with the lowest sensitivity or if I have it on low with the lowest interval the wipers are swiping as if im in a hurricane. Ive tried everything and cant get them to work like any other normal car.

This too

My Mitsubishi has more accurate auto sensing wipers than Honda.

And from various random posts on reddit, seems like crap auto-sensing wipers have been bad for years on Hondas too

 

[Chief 08]

Oh man thank you, I need a good laugh.

Sponsored