On Reality Check, while I don’t usually report on stories about our major media peers, Cars.com mostly got it right this week with their list of Top 10 Most Annoying Car Features. And I agree with most of them.
Number one, Touch-Sensitive Controls. They’re meant to be cool and high-tech, but often on the road they suck because they don’t always work as advertised.
Number two, Touch-Screen-Dependent Controls. You take the aforementioned touch-sensetive controls and force drivers to use them instead of hard buttons or knobs, it sucks twice.
Number three, Stereo Tuning Buttons Instead of Knobs. Duh! It’s much easier to spin a simple knob that press an arrow button 24 times in rapid fire to get to that station you know.
Number four, Navigation Systems That Lock Out Passengers. Hates it! We’re all grown ups here, let us use the technology we paid for.
Number five, Giant Key Fobs. This is less an issue for me, but some cars do come with huge big blocks that don’t live will with a smartphone in your pocket.
Number six, Square Cupholders. I’m not so sure I’ve dealt with this one. But I will insert here my own which is driver assistance features like lane keeping or blind spot warnings that default to on or must be turned off. Very annoying. Maybe some people like the electronic mother in-law in the back seat, but I like to be able to turn the bitch off.
Number seven, Auto Stop-Start. To help save gas yes, these systems turn off your engine at stop and restart it when you lift off the brake. I can’t wait to see what that’s like when the car is 10 years old.
Number eight, Voice-Controlled Systems. Yeah well luckily so far, most cars don’t require you to use this feature and that’s good because most don’t work well at all.
Number nine, Car Alarms. They don’t bother me much so let me insert safety alert seats that jolt you when you do things like veer our of your lane. Creepy.
Number ten, Small Side Mirrors. Again, not one I come across much so I will plug in here traction controls that cannot be entirely turned off. What a buzz kill.
Granted, many of these features might at the surface sound like fun to prospective car buyers, but when you live with them every day you often find that they can be a pain in the ass.
