A chauffeur. I was born, brought up, and still live in New York City. I have never been behind the wheel of a car. Now, cars can be useful sometimes, even in New York City, like when you don’t have enough hands to schlepp home a week’s groceries on public transportation. Taxis are our usual solution, but they aren’t always so easy to find when it’s raining. Or rush hour. Or when Mercury is retrograde. So I want a car with a factory installed chauffeur.
AMEN!
Lets get back to rear wheel drive,and have traction and an accessible engine.
Lets have a car that doesn’t cost $9K to fix for a minor fender bender.
Lets have tires that have some air between the rim and the road-and steel wheels also.
Lets have a car that an average person can get into whithout beating their head on the roof.
Lets have a car that has enough ground clearance that the front bumper doesn’t get destroyed by parking lot dividers.
The Honda Civic has NONE of these!
We need less of these "nannies."
I’ll take a manual transmission that keeps me engaged in the activity of DRIVING. If I want to sit on a couch and get somewhere, I’ll take the train.
Traction control has almost killed me several times when I mash the gas to pull out or cross an intersection. Instead of a little, easily-modulated wheelspin, the computer decides to cut all power and leaves me a sitting duck.
Here’s an idea for a feature: Intensive DRIVING SCHOOL. Teach people how to control their 2-ton missle instead of trying to put big brother in the back seat and ruin any chance of driver involvement.
With regenerative brakes, I don’t think you need to be afraid to ride the brakes in a hybrid. Using the brakes will mean you are charging the batteries. A lower gear would just be an additional system for doing the same thing. Isn’t the Prius expensive enough already?
Edit: I guess tardis beat me to it. That’s what happens when I reply to a post at the bottom of the page.
Blind folds and mouth plugs for back seat drivers!
Heated side mirrors and dimable side mirrors for all the idiots who ride behind you with their high beams on,
I’d like to see a standardized, safe, plug-type connector that can be used for jumpstarting a car. Of course, it would require everyone to get new jumper cables, but…
it exists, but it’s expensive, and requires an onboard air compressor. That’s why you only see them on things like RV’s and semis.
It’s standard on Acuras as well, and probably any higher-end car.
Stuff like this is convenience feature territory, not safety. Sure, maybe it’s safer if the car forces you to have the mirrors adjusted normally before you drive. Sorry, but if you’re too lazy to work a power mirror switch before you start driving, then you’re too lazy and stupid to drive a car in the first place, and no amount of standard “safety” equipment is going to change that.
The more “standard safety” crap you require car makers to put on the car, the more the car is going to cost. I don’t need traction control, or ABS, or power windows, or auto-adjusting seats and mirrors, or cameras, or radar, or blind spot monitors. Sure, they’re nice to have, but if it becomes a necessity then that’s a sign to me that I’m a crappy driver, and need to either practice or start taking the bus.
And the more safety crap becomes standardized, the more the average person is going to rely entirely on it, and then they’ll crash into me when the safety crap fails. “Hey, I don’t need to learn proper vehicle handling. I have traction control! Just floor it and steer! Woo!” is a really stupid driving attitude, but it’s one that the safety crap encourages.
How many people here know how to threshold brake? I’m guessing not many, and it’s because everyone’s relying on ABS to save their butt. Well there are situations where ABS will not help you. At all. Black/glare ice is one of them, and if you don’t know how to control your vehicle when there’s extremely limited traction, you’re going to crash.
/rant off.
Ironically, my MR2 has a voltmeter. It’s where the boost gauge goes for the turbo car. They must’ve wanted something to fill the blank so it didn’t look weird, and a voltmeter was easy to install.
I’d have preferred an oil pressure gauge myself.
I’m with freedomwomann. I like your suggestions. They’re practical, useful suggestions that will provide me with necessary information as to the running of my car, rather than dumb crappy-driver compensation systems.
I agree, its sad to see what has become of the Honda Civic. If I could get a new one like the one I have now, with two doors, manual locks, and manual windows, it would probably be my next vehicle. Instead, if I want a basic econobox, I will have to buy another brand, like Hyundai, Suzuki, or (gasp) even a Ford or Chevy!
rear headlights to flash them
It exists indeed! It’s called the sensible driver who goes to the trouble to check his tires regularly.
I, and my husband, would love to see a hook or something to suspend a woman’s handbag from
somewhere that is easy to get at and out of the way near the driver’s seat. My bad keeps
falling on the floor or over the gearshift.Maybe do away with one of the forty-nine cup holders and take the space for this idea.
sure are a lot of luddites around. While I personally like a simple old fashioned truck, I know better than to think that the great mass of auto illiteratii want what I want. so, I would suggest that, just as your GPS talks to you in the voice of your choice, to tell you where to turn and how to find your destination, (are you ready for this?) TA DA, your engine, transmission, brakes and tires should talk to you too, to tell you when they need your attention and why. Hey, you already got a wife and a mother in law and a teenage daughter, so one more nag on your ass wont hurt a bit. And when your daughter goes off to college, you can give her the car with the voice to make sure she keeps it in good shape. Tell her she can send you a digital recording of the car when she writes home for money to fix it. forget “codes” you wont need them when your car tells you that it has a terrible pain all up and down the diodes on it’s right side.
Interestingly, our 1941 Chevrolet Stylemaster Deluxe had an oil pressure gauge (showing PSI), an ammeter to show how the generator was charging and a real temperature gauge with degrees on it! It also had a gas gauge of course. Agree, the dumbing down has resulted in idiot lights (aptly named) to show that red is bad!
By that time it is usually too late.
There are a couple of things I would like to see incorporated into cars. One of these possibly exists on some cars but not mine. I have an indicator that shows average MPG but not instantaneous. I think an instantaneous indicator or possibly one that toggles back and forth would better inform the driver as to how to best drive to get best fuel economy. Given the current state of engineering, the second thing I have in mind is perhaps still a bit far out. In more ways than one it would be advantageous if there was an oil monitor, based on the condition of the oil, that told you when you needed to change oil. Say with fresh oil, it starts out green and as the oil becomes nearer to needing changing it progresses to red; or perhaps on a numerical scale 1 to 10.
- Always-on bullet lights, day or night, make any car “more visible.” Enables #2
- Parking lights are for parking, not “running very dim.” Vehicle should not move with “parking-lights-only” turned on.
- One more notch “forward” for the driver’s seat back, for a bit more variation on long drives.
- Windows automatically close and lock in the presence of cigarette smoke. Yeah, people are trying to keep that smell out of their cars, but I had to call 911 to report a fire well inside a city. Besides, when they wave or dangle that butt, they are giving turn or stop signals from “back in the day.”
All cars should have a feature which makes incoming and outgoing cell phone calls impossible unless the car is in Park or the emergency brake is activated (for manual transmissions). I think a little electronic disruptor should do the trick.
There is absolutely no need use a phone while the car is moving. There is absolutely no safe way for the driver to make or receive a call while driving.
Many cars do, in fact, already employ “limp home” functionality.