Your Dont need a Volume Knob!

[Slickone]

A touch screen is one part. A touch screen and a volume knob are two parts.

A touch screen has no moving parts. A volume knob has moving parts. Moving parts have a tendency to fail first.

And a knob without touchscreen is one part.
And if that knob fails, it can possibly be fixed, if you can solder. A touchscreen can't, at least by us.
Have you ever had a knob fail?

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[Slickone]

Yeah, I'm a little mixed about touchscreen climate controls.

What saves it for me is the dedicated button below the display. If it weren't for that, I'd have gotten the plain Sport model instead.

That's a very common complaint as well. Terrible design.

 

[pukemon]

Putting all the controls in the touchscreen are terrible until cars do get more autonomous. 1 or 2 knobs, minimal buttons, 2 4 way buttons with OK/enter on steering wheel with one auxiliary button on each side could easily control most functions except for granular control with fingers on navigation.

I am in a GTI now and the buttons on the wheel are not intuitive. I've easily gotten used to it but having a knob for volume control helped out with that a lot. And the 8 or so buttons surrounding my 6.5" screen are not bad at all. Because the touchscreen accessibility is sooo good, the slightly small screen is easily forgiven. The music controls are easy, the auxiliary functions are easy and even the nav is OK. Could be slightly better but I doubt I'll be using nav much except for high stakes short trips in heavy traffic. I've used it a few times even though I knew where I was going just to familiarize myself with it. VW did bomb on the climate control though but makes up for it with ease of use. It doesn't remember circulate air which is aggravating but it is a button. Seems VW, Honda and a couple of other OEM's have aggravating quirks in regards to climate control. But to each their own.

I still stand by the knob, or at least an easy to access mute button.

 

[zroger73]

And a knob without touchscreen is one part.
And if that knob fails, it can possibly be fixed, if you can solder. A touchscreen can't, at least by us.
Have you ever had a knob fail?

Not completely, though I had one car where the volume control became "creaky". The knob was motorized, so pushing the volume buttons on the steering wheel rotated the volume knob resulting in the same creak.

I've never had a touchscreen fail, either. I've also seen lots of 1980s Oldsmobile Toronados and Buick Riviera/Reattas with the touch-screen CRT that still works after 30+ years.

Honda isn't alone with no volume knob - Ford/Lincoln/Mercury premium stereos in the 80s-90s had no volume knob (though they did have pushbuttons for volume). The previously-mentioned Oldsmobiles and Buicks had no volume knob as far back as the mid-80s for many years. It's interesting how hated Honda's knobless systems are yet few said a word about it 30+ years ago when it was actually considered cool and cutting edge!

 

[BarracksSi]

It's interesting how hated Honda's knobless systems are yet few said a word about it 30+ years ago when it was actually considered cool and cutting edge!

I didn't like knobless systems thirty years ago, either.

 

[latole]

A touch screen is one part. A touch screen and a volume knob are two parts.

A touch screen has no moving parts. A volume knob has moving parts. Moving parts have a tendency to fail first.

I disagree about the volume knob. It is not a part who fail

 

[Mocha90210]

Touchscreen is less likely to fail. More likely to make a mistake using the touchscreen while driving. The knob comes in handy when you want to turn volume down quick or up quickly. Thinking about it, for me the most important part is turning it down quickly when you pull up somewhere and you're jamming and then you're like 'oh snap, volume!'. Perhaps a dedicated mute button would meet in the middle.

The power button is your dedicated mute button. And when you're listening to XM, it keeps on recording your stations, so you don't miss a thing.

 

[pukemon]

The power button is your dedicated mute button. And when you're listening to XM, it keeps on recording your stations, so you don't miss a thing.

Who turns off their head u it these days? Hell bring back the remote. Miss my Kenwood remote. Give us a Honda or VW remote.

 

[Mocha90210]

Who turns off their head u it these days? Hell bring back the remote. Miss my Kenwood remote. Give us a Honda or VW remote.

Those that use it as a mute button. I'm not saying shut down the entire head unit. Pressing power turns off the radio. That's all it does.

 

[dick w]

That's mainly why you rarely see any touchscreens in airplane cockpits (that, and hard to use in turbulence).

Supposedly 777X is going to have five big honking touchscreens. Times change.

 

[Mocha90210]

Supposedly 777X is going to have five big honking touchscreens. Times change.

Lol I couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic or serious. So I Googled it. I'll be damned! Touch screens in the cockpit. I guess they'll have some sort of safety or redundancy built in for erroneous taps during turbulence. Seriously though, it is so much easier running a flight simulator on a computer using a mouse/key combo than an iPad. Should be interesting.

 

[latole]

Not completely, though I had one car where the volume control became "creaky". The knob was motorized, so pushing the volume buttons on the steering wheel rotated the volume knob resulting in the same creak.

I've never had a touchscreen fail, either. I've also seen lots of 1980s Oldsmobile Toronados and Buick Riviera/Reattas with the touch-screen CRT that still works after 30+ years.

I never had a volume control with knob in car radio fail. Since how many years volume controls exist on car radio ? 80 years ?
Touch screen ( and many gadgets around ) in 2016 Civic has a poor desing. If it was user friendly and work better I 'll forget to ask for a volume knob.

Touch screen in a car is a gadget to sell new car. Do we need it ? For mostly of us no.
But I admit I like the look.

 

[arhncmh]

Who turns off their head u it these days? Hell bring back the remote. Miss my Kenwood remote. Give us a Honda or VW remote.

My wife can't stand the music I listen to, so when she's in the car, it's off. Of course unless I feel like searching for something she can tolerate lol.

 

[Acey]

The swipe mute works 95% of the time for me; I'm somewhat surprised so many in this thread are having problems with it. The touch control for fan speed is my only complaint in this regard.

 

[danmc]

What is scrolling needed for? Music Search by Voice works great to find what you want immediately. Search by Artist, Album, Track. Or maybe you don't have that feature on your trim level? Sorry, you get what you pay for

music search by voice on the USB stick doesn't seem to actually function at all on my 2017 civic touring. It responds with "Generating Voice Commands" and then after 5 seconds or so, it asks again and trying music search again does the same thing. Yeah, scrolling that wasn't painfully slow and with better on screen sorting would be nice.

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