Is there something relatively trivial, but intensely irritating about your car?
The odo/trip display on the CC3 is a bit too bright at night and it can't be dimmed.
Another irritant is the handbrake on the left side of the transmission tunnel.
Having to pull up with your arm slightly outstretched means you can't get decent leverage, and handbrake starts are harder to execute smoothly.
What design feature annoys you about your car?
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The pick up has probably the best door mirrors i've ever used making manoeuvering and overall visibility from the sizeable beast a doddle, they are electrically adustable huge oblongish shape and superb....not heated though and this on the top spec available...Toyota didn't have any aftermarket kits to do them either despite me writing to them suggesting so.
It really annoyed me, but i wonder if like us so many people were buying these instead of usual Landcruiser type 4x4's due to the extremely good value for money/simplicity/VED reasons and they stopped short of making them too luxurious to preserve sales of more upmarket models.
I believe they could be specced in very cold climates, and it may seem a small thing but it did annoy.
The other thing is the astonishingly complicated standard fit SatNav, the handbook for which dwarfs the handbook for the rest of the vehicle, used it twice and it works brilliantly if you have 15 minutes to spare to set it up first.
Oh and in this cavernous interior the one paltry 5W interior light might as well have been left out...got my sparky to fit 4 LED's in the B and C pillars to give the light it should have had, oh and the reversing light was ONE 21W bulb...that was joined by 2 55W halogens for proper reversing pleasure....hmm might have been cheaper to get the Amazon after all...;)
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The CRV is a good car in many respects - irritating features are :-
The dashboard illuminates whenever the car is riven, makes no difference whether the lights are on or off - although there is a green lights on indicator still all too easy to drive off with the lights off when under street lights, Ford in the Mustang elegantly cured this problem with white instrument lights when the lights are off and blue when the lights are on...
HRW switch is on the nearside of the heating switchgear - the warning lamp is hidden by the gear knob - silly for a car built in the UK which the original designs would have been in RHD (Japan) and according to the manual some variants have the switchgear mirrored so the switch is in the correct place.
The rear parking sensors are switchable (presumably for towing) - the switch is by the driver's knee and glows green when the sensors are on - this warning lamp should be on the binnacle and the light should be on when the sensors are off. Even better would be to adopt the Skoda principle which switches the sensors off through CANbus when the trailer plug is connected.
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Ford in the Mustang elegantly cured this problem with white instrument lights when the lights are off and blue when the lights are on...
The Mustang actually has 125 different colours for the dash lights (well, mine does anyway) ;)
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I was happy with two and never really looked at the manual.
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IfI!
And I thought the CC3 was perfect in every way.
The lancer? Drivers seat does not pump up high enough, has no adjustable lumbar support and failry widely spaced fixed backrest angles.
With a new drivers seat, it would be so non descript, inoffensive and forgettable It couldnt possibly annoy in any way.
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Everytime I want to go round a corner at speed :-(
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As with Iffy's other thread (surprise and delight), it's the little things that make the difference - maybe because if it was something major you wouldn't have chosen that car in the first place.
Skodas are popular because there's not much to infuriate, plenty to like: but with a bit more imagination they could devise rear headrests that don't have to be taken off before the seatbacks are folded down.
I know that people get used to the indicator switch on BMWs (including the Mini) and Vauxhalls - but why should we have to? Can anybody say that that type of switch sells more cars? The same of course goes for electronic handbrakes: fortunately we haven't got a car with one of those (in fact I'd call that smothing major as above).
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The combined climate/ventilation/radio controls on my late model Almera are an absolute nightmare.
We've had the car 3 years now but still get foxed by the numbskull devised operational settings.
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The bluetooth stereo in our works new Transit Connect van hacks me off. The bluetooth to the phone works well, but whereas before with the old van if I wanted to scan through the radio presets all I had to do was press one button on the stalk by the steering wheel, but now when I press it, I get asked "function please", I then have to give 3 or 4 different voice commands just to change station remotely - and that's after setting up all the voice and station commands in the first place.
Far easier now just to reach across to the stereo and just press the relevant preset button.
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The radio display on my Volvo S60.
The two outer characters are a different size to the others and the scroll speed leads to blurred vision when trying to find out what track is playing on the radio.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 2 May 10 at 16:54
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The rear hatch on a MK2 Focus that dumps any water on itself into the boot on opening, brilliant design!
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So it's not just Ford then? My Megane does this. It's ruddy annoying as you open the tailgate then have to dart backwards as if rudely surprised by a rampant gazelle to avoid the veritable waterfall cascading from above. Gah.
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>> So it's not just Ford then? My Megane does this.
So does my Vectra-C.
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As a car the 1.6 CR TDI Octavia I have at the moment is pretty good, but what 'depresses and dismays' is (a) the manual, which appears to have been written by somebody who was working on a different car, then translated via babel fish
(b) the number of functions that could 'surprise and delight' butdon't, as they need a dealer to turn them on - DLRs, cornereing lights, that sort of thing
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>> As a car the 1.6 CR TDI Octavia I have at the moment is pretty
>> good but what 'depresses and dismays' is (a) the manual which appears to have been
>> written by somebody who was working on a different car then translated via babel fish
>>
My wifes Citroën C4 GP manual has that feel to it too.
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The Roomie's manual was well written and concise compared to the Golf's - which was a massive loose leaf tome.....
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Wife's car:
-rain sensitive wipers....to steal a phrase from James May..reasonable downpour, nope they are staying put, the slightest bit of cuckoo spit lands on it and they're off and running
-heated front screen works perfectly, but on my car the wipers have an element that heats the wiper blades at rest, so they don't become frozen and then not fit the screen. Wife's car's screen clears perfectly, but then the wipers can't clear it properly.
-auto lights that switch themselves off on a rain soaked m/way, despite being on when you checked them on entering the m/way
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The Altea had auto lights, that were set perfectly. Always turned on at the most perfect part of approaching gloom, always turned off at the correct amoount of lightening skies....
Except in fog, when the damn things refused to work point blank no matter how gloomy it got.
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The mk4 Golf is pretty easy and painless to live with, generally, but it's quite annoying that a couple of the features they have put in which should be brilliant, have been implemented badly. A couple of examples:
The cars have a "full closure" system which closes windows and roof when you lock the car. Despite remote locking, the full closure only works when you put your key in the door! Why?!
The electric windows stay powered on at ignition off, which is great for fools like me who always leave something open, but the one-shot facility stops working. Again, why?!
Other stuff:
Any attempt to left foot brake, heel and toe, or do anything involving accelerator and brake pedal pressure at the same time in the TDI sends the engine management system into a complete meltdown. Flashing glowplug light, and temporary "limp mode". It's a characteristic of the PD's engine management system, as my mate's Fabia vRS is exactly the same. The GTI's 1.8T engine doesn't seem to mind.
The fiddly Climatronic panel is at the lowest possible point in the dash.
You can't insert or eject a CD when the cupholders are in use.
I've never driven a Volkswagen with a decent gearbox, and these two cars haven't changed my experience. The 5 speed "02J" box in the GTI petrol is among the notchiest and on cold oil, most recalcitrant manual transmissions I've ever experienced. The 6 speed is better, but still clonky and a bit sloppy. Compared to the "knife through butter" feel of Ford's MTX75 transaxle in the Mondeo and Focus, they both suck.
Everything else about both cars I either like or love.
Cheers
DP
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>> The cars have a "full closure" system which closes windows and roof when you lock
>> the car. Despite remote locking the full closure only works when you put your key
>> in the door! Why?!
>>
>> The electric windows stay powered on at ignition off which is great for fools like
>> me who always leave something open but the one-shot facility stops working. Again why?!
>>
All my Vauxhalls since my 1990 Cavalier have had the same features with the same limitations, I can't think why either, although the fact that different marques have the same limitations suggest to me there is some method in the way they have been implemented. The leccy windows in the Vectra will only do one up/down cycle once the ignition is off.
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>> The cars have a "full closure" system which closes windows and roof when you lock
>> the car. Despite remote locking the full closure only works when you put your key
>> in the door! Why?!
Have you tried holding the remote locking button down for three seconds? It worked on my last two vw built cars.
>> Any attempt to left foot brake heel and toe or do anything involving accelerator and
>> brake pedal pressure at the same time in the TDI sends the engine management system
>> into a complete meltdown. Flashing glowplug light and temporary "limp mode". It's a characteristic of
>> the PD's engine management system as my mate's Fabia vRS is exactly the same.
I used to heel and toe, ( i Never left foot brake) using various tecniques of clutch and clutchless changes with never any problem, certainly not warning lights or limp home mode of my two last 105 pd lumps.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 2 May 10 at 21:32
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>> The cars have a "full closure" system which closes windows and roof when you lock
>> the car. Despite remote locking the full closure only works when you put your key
>> in the door! Why?!
>>
We noticed this on Friday with my wife's car. Parked up, all windows closed. I went back to the car as it was a very hot day, opened all door windows (key in the ignition), locked up with the remote and walked away. My wife then went back to the car, unlocked with remote, opened the boot/hatch. closed it and locked with the remote. Two minutes later all the windows are closed. Why ?
>> Other stuff:
>> I've never driven a Volkswagen with a decent gearbox and these two cars haven't changed
>> my experience. The 5 speed "02J" box in the GTI petrol is among the notchiest
>> and on cold oil most recalcitrant manual transmissions I've ever experienced. The 6 speed is
>> better but still clonky and a bit sloppy. Compared to the "knife through butter" feel
>> of Ford's MTX75 transaxle in the Mondeo and Focus they both suck.
>>
>> Everything else about both cars I either like or love.
>>
>> Cheers
>> DP
>>
I had a Rover 216 with a VW gearbox and that was the best bit of the car...OK, so not exactly stretching engineering but never had a problem with it. Also, the gearbox on my Mk2 Golf GTi was pretty straightforward. You've not experienced FIAT 2nd gear synchromesh.
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my car will open all the windows and the sun roof remotely from the key fob...but to close them all again, you have to put the key in the door and turn it
I've always presumed this is so, so that you can't accidently jam a kid's head in the windows/sun roof
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The design feature which hacked me off most about my Espace was the regularity with which it broke down. When it was going it was ok but that vile thing despite being bought brand new came home on a trailer eleven times in two years. On the final occasion the local Renault dealer took six weeks to "fix" it......again. If it had been a horse I would have shot it and fed it to dogs. Never have I experienced such a pitiful excuse for a modern motor vehicle. Despicable, hateful heap of useless scrap.
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>> If it had been a horse I would have shot it and fed it to dogs.
>>
Do you not like dogs ? :)
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On my car, the driver's seat moves backwards when you take the key out, so you've got more room to get in/out the car and it goes back to your setting when you get back in again. Trouble is, if anyone is sat behind you, it traps their legs and feet, so you have to learn to keep the key in the ignition until they get out.
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>> I had a Rover 216 with a VW gearbox and that was the best bit
>> of the car...OK so not exactly stretching engineering but never had a problem with it.
>> Also the gearbox on my Mk2 Golf GTi was pretty straightforward. You've not experienced FIAT
>> 2nd gear synchromesh.
The gearboxes I had in the Touran (6 speeds) and the Seat (5 speeds) were both short of throw, and completely baulk free, good enough that cluitch use was only required down into 1.
The Lancer box is not as sweet, nor was the various renault boxes before it.
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In the CRV i concur with Pug. I also think window switches and door and window lock switches drivers side are too close together. I have had both rear windows opened, when i wanted front opened. My fault using wrong switch. I have returned to car and a rear window has been down. Unwittingly not known i have lowered it.
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>> -rain sensitive wipers....
Oooh, don't get me started on these. My Megane has them and they're blimmin' useless. The worst thing is that you can't turn them off. They are the default 'intermittent' setting and so often I resort to manually switching between 'off' and 'position two' as the automatic setting is so woeful.
>> -auto lights that switch themselves off on a rain soaked m/way despite being on when
>> you checked them on entering the m/way
Yup, that's another feature of my car that I love so much. [/sarcasm] The auto lights can switch on randomly in good visibilty yet, as Westpig say, switch off in the murkiest of murky conditions. I've turned this wonderful facility off and, as a punishment, my car beeps reproachfully at me every time I open the driver's door to remind me that I am not taking advantage of this marvellous service.
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Having my very good lady in the car. Not quite as keen on um, reducing the journey time...
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There are a couple of things on my car which I would prefer were different, but I accept that no car will ever suit me absolutely perfectly. Nothing about it hacks me off and annoys me. If there had been something on it that bad I wouldn't have bought it.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Mon 3 May 10 at 07:26
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The C5 has a feeble cup holder.
A French colleague suggested that "in France we stop for coffee".
The glovebox is tiny.
It has one of these one touch release boot covers (it is an estate).
I have had one of these on an Octavia Mk2 as well and they don't appear very durable.
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Removing the two back seats in the Espace - which I do in mine fairly often to make room for loads for work - hacks-off, annoys, and frequently hurts.
It's not simply fold and remove, as some people claim. It's fold ALL the back seats, then release the back fastenings on all three in the middle row, and tip them forwards to make clearance for releasing the back seats. Next, release the back fastening on one rear seat, tip it forwards, then undo the front fastening, and lift out, all the while preventing the middle seats from tipping back. Disconnect the seat belt and lift out the seat. Now repeat for the other seat. You lose points for skinned knuckles, bruises, trapped thumbs, and any other minor injuries.
This is the one thing I dislike about the Espace - the flexibility with seating positions and space is superb but I can't help think a bit more thought with the seat design would make things so much simpler.
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>> This is the one thing I dislike about the Espace - the flexibility with seating
>> positions and space is superb but I can't help think a bit more thought with
>> the seat design would make things so much simpler.
For the centre seats on the Grand Scenic we had, it was just a case of releasing the lever on the chosen seat to fold the backrest against forward against the seat squab, pulling the catch to release the rear mounts (via a helpfully provided nylon loop for easier access, tumbling it forwards, then squeezing a release bar to disengage the front mounts, and allow the seat to be lifted clear. To refit, line up the front mounts (a bit tricky as the seats were heavy), click into place, tip the seat back until the rear mounts click in, then release the catch on the side to spring the seat back into its normal position. I could get all three out in less than a minute, and about the same to refit. The two back seats just folded into the floor in one easy movement.
The seats were heavy, but other than that it was a doddle to do them individually, or as a set.
I'm surprised Renault didn't use this system on the Espace as well.
Last edited by: DP on Mon 3 May 10 at 17:55
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When we had an Espace (a long time ago now, new in 1988) the five rear seats were all the same - interchangeable and room for adults in all of them (good), but very heavy to lift in and out (not so good).
I think the Scenic's rearmost seats are smaller - correct me if I'm wrong.
A people-carrier where BOTH rows of rear seats fold flat into the floor would be one for the 'surprise and delight' thread.
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Thanks for that - I hadn't realised.
Possibly the S-Max has this as well - if so you can have 7 seats, optional van AND fun to drive all together.
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Discovered the firsts thing to irritate me on the A5 the other day. It doesn't have a dipstick! Oil is monitored on an electronic gauge. Don't like that at all. There's no substitute for sticking a bit of metal into the sump.
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...It doesn't have a dipstick...
I will ignore the obvious comment and confine myself to agreeing - I'd want a dipstick - particularly if it's a diesel.
Some VAG diesels are known to use a lot of oil between services.
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Funny that MLC. The Qashqai has a sort of pre-flight check system which it goes through on start up, first it tells you how many miles to the next service then it switches the display to "Oil Good" or presumably a warning if not and then it reverts to being an odometer / clock etc once it has submitted its report.
Like you, I wanted to check the oil for myself but was puzzled for ages trying to find a dipstick. Comically enough two of my neighbours are senior engineers at Bentley and neither of them could find it either. Eventually my wife came out to find out why there were by now four blokes standing peering into the engine compartment of my new car.
Upon hearing of the problem she grabbed hold of the oil filler cap and tugged it out to reveal the dipstick attached to its underside.
Saying nothing further she went back inside to leave us all shuffling and staring at our feet and trying to make light of our ineptitude.
Irritates me sometimes that girl.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Mon 3 May 10 at 19:04
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>>>>
>> Saying nothing further she went back inside to leave us all shuffling and staring at
>> our feet and trying to make light of our ineptitude.
>>
>> Irritates me sometimes that girl.
>>
Good God Humph, you need to take a lesson from this chap -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Mon 3 May 10 at 20:27
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>> There's no substitute for sticking a bit of metal into the sump.
>>
Good reminder. Citroën and there useless piece of plastic for a dipstick. I might as well shine a torch down the hole and try to guess the level for all the accuracy you get with a plastic dipstick.
Last edited by: gmac on Mon 3 May 10 at 19:04
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>> Discovered the firsts thing to irritate me on the A5 the other day. It doesn't
>> have a dipstick! Oil is monitored on an electronic gauge. Don't like that at all.
>> There's no substitute for sticking a bit of metal into the sump.
So how do you top it up, or even fill it up after a change
pour some in, walk round sit in car check guage
climb out car, go back under bonnet and pour some in
go back in car and check guage
etc etc
madness. I see the whole point of having a guage, it makes sense, but no sense in dumping the dipstick
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On the Zafira A the squab on the middle row folds upwards, so you can then push the middle row seat backs almost against the back of the front seats, giving a pretty big load area for the size of car. Maybe they went one step further on the Zafira B, not had a chance to muck around with one.
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Similar system DP, but in the Espace the middle row have to be moved to allow the back row to be removed. The seats are fairly hefty in my 92 Helios, in SWMBO's 96 Alize they're hernia material. It's certainly more than a 1 minute job.
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The most annoying thing about my car (amongst many annoying things) is the orange lighting to the instruments.
I've had cars with white, blue, green lighting and TBH was not something that I have ever thought about when choosing a car. I'd never had a car with orange illumination - and never will again. To me, orange and black just looks ....yuck!
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I'd never had a car with orange illumination - and never will again. To me orange and black just looks ....yuck!
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Not as bad as Vauxhall Yellow, on my Astra G it had Standard filliment bulbs in, (one of them popped in mine) and it just looked old fashioned and it was poor, sort of a yellow glow - but renault where fitting LED's on my older Laguna although orange, looked sharper and more modern - I dont know why Vauxhall had not got round to it
My Vectra C uses LED's a improvement over the filliment bulbs - but still a yellow/orange colour, where as the older Megane we had as a hire car once had brilliant white/blue tint. I beleive its different now in the Insigina, but surely someone at Vauxhall could have said "lets us at least do away with the yellow like everyone else"
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oh
And the auto wipers, talk about a problem that didnt exist, on my partners C4 they are brilliant, but on the Vectra a slight bit of rain and it sets them off in warp speed, if it chucks it down they dont want to know
There is no "off" for the auto wipers the next option on the stick is speed 1, but if they annoy me to much I can get them "tech 2'd" out and they will revert to standard variable intermittant. - still it would be just nice if they worked properly
Last edited by: Redviper on Tue 4 May 10 at 20:27
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The wipe wash facility hacks me offthe most. Where is the logic in it?
Many many Fords having the hazard light button on the top of the steering column.
Washer bottles that do not permit measuring the depth of the contents.
e. g. Focus Mk1
Focus - stalk for headlamp flashing. Why mess with the system that is simple and works.
Mondeo light switch that you can accidently operate with your knee thus switching on the parking lights with of course no warning bleeper when the door is opened.
The same switch forces the front fog lights on before the rear fog lights - logic?
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At the Steam Rally this weekend, my friend's mobile needed charging. Only place was the car as he was tenting. Chrysler Sebring...very classy !
Put the phone on charge, switched ignition to first position and left it to charge.....safe, car couldn't be got out.
Came back 15 minutes late and the damn thing had locked itself.
80 mile round trip to the Wirral in grandson's car to get spare key !
Just what he needed !
Ted
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>> Mondeo light switch that you can accidently operate with your knee thus switching on the
>> parking lights with of course no warning bleeper when the door is opened.
I've heard quite a few others say the same, but I can honestly say in my 2 (happy) years with a Mondeo, not once did it happen to me.
I do agree though that messing with the traditional "pull to flash, push to main" light operation is very irritating. It's not just Ford. Both my late 90's Pug 306s were the same as the Focus, as was my Volvo S60.
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C5 cup holders. The only one in the front is in the storage bin under the arm rest (yes it is as daft as it sounds....) The only way to use it is to keep the lid (arm rest) up and lean to the right or shut it when your drink is safely inside.
On the test drive the nice lady tried to tell me it had been put there in response to "customer feedback"
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It is a slimming device because if you limit yourself to a small coffee and give it a good push into the holder you can (only) just get the arm rest shut.
Repeat the process with each sip.
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Tailgate that occasionally doesn't open as far as it should, and I crack my head on the sharp end.
Must spray some more 3-in-1.
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Load cover on the Verso. It's a b*gger to take out of its mountings, and although you can stow it at the back of the boot, it's such a faff to access the storage compartment that I end up laying it between the front passenger seat and the nearside front door, or at home. Things may have improved with the new version.
The sequence of illuminating the fog lamps has been referred to above: it's the same on the Verso - fronts first then rears. Other way round would be much better, imo.
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I have found two annoyances on the S-Max!
1. Ignition barrel not illuminated. After driving many cars in which the key simply slots in without looking (Mercedes) or well illuminated (Subaru and Volvo) having the scrabble around in the dark to slot the key in is annoying.
2. With either or both rear seats up the rear load cover has to be let at home or somehow jammed across the car in a awkward fashion. Not like the Mitsubishi Spacewagon we had years ago which had two slots for the cover, permitting a seven seat format and protected reduced boot area.
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Does your car hack-off and annoy? - -
