The shared master cylinder reservoir is the worst. You can lose all braking all at once. Anything that causes you to have 20 more feet of brake tubing. All time? Power brakes that fail and leave you with no braking. I had a 79 pickup truck without and could not tell the difference. It stopped well. Without power brakes your Ford could stall and you could still stop. Some would let you have a pump and a half but others won’t. Never had the problem with any other make.
Heaters that freeze your feet. Minivans with two working windows. Rear minivan seats that won’t move far enough from the front seats for leg room. Toyotas that hide everything you drop. Headlight assemblies that cost $300 and up. Turn signals mounted almost on the headlights, almost invisible. They used to be under a real bumper where you could see them against the darkness there. Rear cameras that don’t work unless you are in reverse. On and on.
This one is a little older than 20 years ago . . .
motorized seat belts
We could probably go on and on . . .
I just thought about another oldie but “goodie” . . .
I seem to remember a few vehicles that would not let you start the engine unless the driver’s seat belt was buckled. I never drive off if I’m not buckled in, but there are times when you just want to sit in the car with the engine idling
The worst one for me by far is ABS… Haven’t met a system I liked yet, no matter how well meaning.
I definitely do not like ABS and so far…in real world testing, it cannot outperform my personal stopping ability using regular power assisted brakes…not even close. Granted my skill set behind the wheel may differ greatly from the “public at large” so… I wont call ABS a total travesty. It just doesn’t work better than I do currently.
I also frown upon any device that can take control of the vehicle…in any way… Braking, Steering, Throttle control etc… If you need control taken away, then take yourself away and out of a vehicle. Control should rest squarely in the hands of the operator… then again… that whole “public at large” and their skill set behind the wheel thing again… So… I dunno
I think I have managed to not answer the question whilst using the most possible verbage yet again… Oh well…at least I am aware of the problem, but I cannot guarantee that I will work on it.
The dislikes outnumber the likes.
Likes. Three point seat belts.
Dislikes. ABS, TPMS, motorized seat belts. (My daughter had an Eclipse with those. I always felt like someone was trying to strangle me from behind every time I got in the car.)
As for cell phones, from what I’ve seen they ARE a part of the car in many cases…
Or, even worse, if they no longer function.
When I worked for my state’s child protective agency (2005-2008), some of the cars in the fleet were old Ford Escorts with motorized seat belts, but the mechanism for those belts no longer functioned, and the folks at the motorpool garage claimed that they were unable to fix them.
Obviously, none of the caseworkers wanted to drive those old cars, but sometimes they had no choice.
