Wow, New Car Technology

[ls99]

Best money I ever spent on Vehicle maintanence. Saved buches of $$$.

The blue ones cover both my suburban and Winter Beater pickup truck. The one on the far left has dealer level info (pricelesss) on the Jaguar.
The three ring binders have tips and tricks collected over the years. I had my Sub since 2000, that is when I bought the service manuals.

 

[audreyh1]

For those who think the owner's manual is thick, try the service manual(s). When I bought my 2003 GMC pickup I bought the service manual. It is five volumes nearly a foot tall when stacked. There is an entire volume for just the electronics for the engine alone. And I did read them. Well, most of it, and then decided I'm not going to be doing much more than changing light bulbs and engine oil.

I haven't yet bought the service manual for the 2014 Honda Accord.

Made me kind of miss the days of dwell meters and timing lights, both of which occupy space in the basement.

Service manuals!

I gave up when cars went to fuel-injection!

 

[Zathras]

Just when car makers finally reach a level where cars are mechanically more reliable than ever...

The Feb issue of Consumer Reports has an article titled "High-tech Headaches", saying new car buyers are finding "infotainment" systems to be complicated and trouble-prone. Thirty two percent of 2013 owners of the MyFord/Lincoln Touch system reported problems as did thirty percent of those with HondaLink systems.

That is the poor implementation though, not the tech itself.

I like to see the manufacturers using better tech, but it is a pain when they fail.
Onscreen user manuals are a great thing.
And as mentioned by others, the safety features are wonderful, as is the better engineering to protect occupants in the event there is an accident.

Bluetooth connectivity of phones is nice and available in many many cars.
My favorite new tech is how simple voice commands for navigation has become.
I remember the first of those, what a mess. Now, you can just say "find the nearest McDonalds" and up pops a list.

 

[ls99]

Took DW's car for a ride. This car has lots of the new tech stuff in it. Adaptive all wheel drive, the now usual ABS, tire pressure monitor, navigation, Dual sun roof. And on and on. Good thing for the long warranty she took out on it. Not sure I care to fix any of that when it goes on blink.

Also it has more airbags than the number of pillows she stacks on the bed daily after making it

I am still thinking that my next car should have the keys in the dashboard and the dimmer switch on the left sside of the floorboard. Maybe even 4 on the column shifter?

Edit add:
Another reason to avoid new vehicles:
Proposal may lead to more accidents, mileage taxes and tickets for “recorded traffic violations”
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 1, 2014
In a few weeks, federal officials may require new vehicles to have trackable GPS “safety” devices which could be hacked to cause automobile accidents and may even usher in mileage taxes.
http://www.infowars.com/feds-may-require-vehicle-location-tracking-in-new-cars/

 

[haha]

I still don't need or want all the gadgets. I barely want the radio. Speedometer, gas gauge and maybe a warning light or two are all I need.

What is the dash shown? I like it.

 

[F4mandolin]

What is the dash shown? I like it.

I had one of these (although this isn't it).....1972 Mini Clubman. Loved that car, even though it was trying to fall apart. Only a minimum of gauges... I have been reading through this thread a couple of times now....I am kind of on the opposite side from most folks. I think a lot of the new tech is causing a problem at times. Yeah.....ABS breaks etc are good things for most people. But all the do-dads you can play with now are mostly a distraction in my opinion. The first time I was in a car with a rear view camera.....the guy backed up into a little kid in the parking lot. He was using the camera to back up with and had stopped using the common sense (and old style that works) method of actually looking around before (and during) backing up. The new tech makes you lazy in my opinion. I have seen waaaay too many people on cell phones who can't separate driving and yakking and drive through lights etc. I've got lots of opinions....some of them are even good.

 

[aja8888]

I had one of these (although this isn't it).....1972 Mini Clubman. Loved that car, even though it was trying to fall apart. Only a minimum of gauges... I have been reading through this thread a couple of times now....I am kind of on the opposite side from most folks. I think a lot of the new tech is causing a problem at times. Yeah.....ABS breaks etc are good things for most people. But all the do-dads you can play with now are mostly a distraction in my opinion. The first time I was in a car with a rear view camera.....the guy backed up into a little kid in the parking lot. He was using the camera to back up with and had stopped using the common sense (and old style that works) method of actually looking around before (and during) backing up. The new tech makes you lazy in my opinion. I have seen waaaay too many people on cell phones who can't separate driving and yakking and drive through lights etc. I've got lots of opinions....some of them are even good.

My wife has a newer Hyundai Santa Fe with a back up camera. One night she was about to come to the airport to pick me up after a out of town project and she backed into my Jetta that was sitting off to the side at the end of our driveway, I purposely parked it there so she would not have to deal with it coming and going. She said she didn't see the Jetta in the dark and sideswiped it. Nice. Good thing it was not a person. I wonder about the effectiveness of these back up cameras.

 

[Walt34]

The car we just bought has a back-up camera and I think it's great for that last two or three feet. But otherwise I keep my head swiveling.

 

[sengsational]

I have yet to figure out how to listen to radio while the engine is out

The old joke about "what if your car ran like MS Windows" looks like it's about to come true.

 

[DAYDREAMER]

I'm still wowed by our "Ford Touch" infotainment, however, it went blank for 5 minutes a couple of weeks ago, and no dash components worked. Scared us into thinking we made a mistake buying the Escape. Luckily it rebooted itself and all is well. Now i've got big doubts the system will live a 10 to 15 year lifecycle we tend to keep cars

Had a chance to drive in the snow. All the traction control worked well. We bought Michelin X-ice-3 snow tires, that i'm sure had more to do with control than the vehicle itself.

All and all, i still like all the new "wow" gizmos, but i really doubt the systems will function properly past 100k miles.

 

[robnplunder]

The old joke about "what if your car ran like MS Windows" looks like it's about to come true.

It already did. Today's cars are moving computers, especially, with the navigation screen which does a lot more than giving you direction.

 

[clifp]

It already did. Today's cars are moving computers, especially, with the navigation screen which does a lot more than giving you direction.

I have tooreboot my Tesla twice since owning it. It is remarkable computer-like hold the left and right scroll button on the steering wheel, for about 5 seconds, the screen goes blank and then it comes back to life.

I am very tempted to get a Ctrl+Alt label for the left scroll wheel and Del label for the right one.

 

[cantlogin]

What is the dash shown? I like it.

It looks like an Austin Mini.

I had one that was ten years old in 1972.

The interior and instrumentation was even more simple than this one.

 

[MikeD]

The old joke about "what if your car ran like MS Windows" looks like it's about to come true.

I am a Windows 7 fan boy but was disturbed to find out that the Ford/Lincoln Sync system was a Microsoft product! I think the engine control stuff is written but automotive contractors, though.

Mike D.

 

[imoldernu]

1996 Cadillac SLS 68K miles
1998 Lincoln Signature Town Car 114K miles
Both have all that we need for safety, comfort, driveability and economy.
Both look like new and over the combined 23 years of our ownership, the annual cost of ownership including original purchase price is $1326/car. Includes all repairs. (excludes taxes, registration, insurance, basic fluids maintenance and fuel)

I do have to click the remote to open the locks, and both times I had to parallel park (driver tests) Had to do it (shudder) manually.

Trade the 6way leather seats or the JBL and BOSE CD player systems, or the OBDCII readings... and the adjustable air ride electronic systems and the super quiet ride for a back up screen?.... naw! Just too set in our ways to wanna try the new stuff.

On the one time each year I fill up with premium unleaded, indulge my primal joy... cruising the local highway stoplights for the young kid in his '64 GTO... and leaving him in the dust with the SLS.

Yeah... so in our own way, already have new car technology.

 

[RAE]

My only beef with all this technology in cars is that it's so much more that can break and result in costly repairs -- repairs that "amateur" DIY mechanics can rarely, if ever, perform.

+1. One of the reasons I got rid of my '04 Silverado was the electronics (a lot of digital stuff) were so screwed up that you never knew when you started the thing which, if any, of the dashboard guages would work. Took it to the dealer and they got things working again (temporarily), but they also said they see a lot of this, and it could go out again at any time (which it later did). For my next truck, I went with a basic model Toyota Tundra with as little of the fancy digital stuff as possible. I can live without that stuff, but I can't live without a vehicle I can't drive at times because basic things are not working properly.