Automotive trends that need to die in 2023

[Poetic Justice]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

It’s quintessentially the Modern Australia. Nobody wants to be seen as making an obviously “wrong” choice, so we get self-enforced conformity.

Well, if it greatly affects its resale then yes, it would be a wrong choice

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

The options of black, white or a shade of grey/silver has bugged me for ages...so boring out there.

Maybe if they started painting them in bright vibrant colours again we might not need all these "safety aids"

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Maybe if they started painting them in bright vibrant colours again we might not need all these "safety aids"

Its an interesting thought.
Not much stands out on the roads anymore.

Mustangs are probably the only car that comes to mind with a good range of colour choices.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

Its an interesting thought.
Not much stands out on the roads anymore.

Mustangs are probably the only car that comes to mind with a good range of colour choices.

and those pokey front lights they call indicator now. Half the stuff out on the road doesn't show up in sunlight.

[Citroënbender]

If I bought a vehicle new, I’d want it to be “Barbie pink”.

Then I’d demand a commensurate reduction in my comprehensive policy to reflect its conspicuity in use and reduced theft risk.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

If I bought a vehicle new, I’d want it to be “Barbie pink”.

Then I’d demand a commensurate reduction in my comprehensive policy to reflect its conspicuity in use and reduced theft risk.

your next vehicle awaits.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

If I bought a vehicle new, I’d want it to be “Barbie pink”.

Then I’d demand a commensurate reduction in my comprehensive policy to reflect its conspicuity in use and reduced theft risk.

When i bought my boat new in 03, i would have loved to have the option of pink. That wasnt an option. It would be a big dicking myself move as its a ****er boat sort of. Goes fast. Had to settle with a metal flake blue gel coat instead. That looks pretty good still.

[aussiblue]

Register yourself an ABN and sign up for these

Not that easy Franco. You can actually be prosecuted if you apply for an ABN knowing you are ineligible. I am not operating any business, and as a retired FCPA it would be a bit hard for me to argue I didn't know I was ineligible.

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by Poetic Justice

Given Toyota's longevity in the hybrid space, they got it to a drive away price that a lot of manufacturers havent been able to compete with. Hyundai said as much a year or two ago.

Having said that, it's all starting to change. Hyundai just released a hybrid Santa Fe with a Tucson coming in 23 and more and more after that.

Haval is also offering hybrids.

It will become more prominent in the next 18 months I feel.



In terms of the colour comment, I've long said this is a vicious cycle. Car dealers order some odd ball colours (let's say bright, loudish colours, or even greens etc) and they don't sell - so then we won't order it again. Then when a customer comes in wanting something different, they don't necessarily want to wait for a colour and will take the grey in stock. Therefore, sales history says colours don't sell so don't order them. We're in a different scenario these days with stock issues so this probably applies to pre COVID - but the lack of colour going out the door issue with a lot of cars is probably more related to the dealers.

In terms of safety mechanisms.. this is an odd thing to talk about. Perhaps the car enthusiasts mindset where we all think we know how to drive and don't need aids. For this reason my father in law doesn't drive anything newer than a 92 model car and would very unlikely buy anything new.

But damned if you do, damned if you don't... my god cars that hit the market without every single safety feature and a 5 star ancap rating is seen as a death trap.

Most cars in my opinion don't really require going in to screen menus to disable a feature, the buttons are generally on the dash or console, though I can't speak for many Fords, maybe they're different.

That's a good counter-point on the colours, how did we go from the time of the BA with bright purples and blues and acidic yellows and limes and reds - with choices of colour highlights inside - to end up where we are today?

Mustang has the colours, one of the dealers here had a beautiful dark green one, was that you?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

It’s quintessentially the Modern Australia. Nobody wants to be seen as making an obviously “wrong” choice, so we get self-enforced conformity.

I love flash colours, my cars don't though



When this stops happening because it sits out in the sun for a few years I'll start buying cars that aren't white

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by hayseed

I've got a feeling that Tesla are already doing this...!!

BISTBC

Now that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest but recently, BMW tried this with heated seats in the US,
the backlash from buyers stunned the brass who thought it a good idea.

Also in a recent interview, Jim Farley mentioned that Doug Field would be exploring possibilities
so get ready to be nickeled and dimmed by Ford management on your premium purchases….

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

Its an interesting thought.
Not much stands out on the roads anymore.

Mustangs are probably the only car that comes to mind with a good range of colour choices.

I have a deeply conservative uncle who only ever buys white cars, because they are safer on the road don't you know. My response to that is it's pretty bloody hard to miss a bright red Mustang on the road!

[PooDog]

Yeah and you car manufacturers stop changing the heads on screws ......I'm sick of buying new tool kits to undo things you don't want me undoing

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

and those pokey front lights they call indicator now. Half the stuff out on the road doesn't show up in sunlight.

Lots of poor choices happening with headlights and indicators. Used to see what was what with a quick glance, now Im studying the front of the oncoming car. Its not my age, I swear! haha

But this reminds me of the new trend to use the headlight or row of drive lights under the main headlight as indicators. A line of white light becomes orange and flashes. So one side stays bright white, the other side now flashing orange. Looks weird to me, like something is broken.

[whynot]

Crappy driver aids (e.g. lane assist in the Toyota Corolla) use to annoy me. Until I realised just how bad some drivers are without the driver aids. These days I appreciate how the computer in the Corolla ahead of me, bouncing from left side of the lane to right side of the lane and back again, is doing a far better job than the “driver” ever could.

Ditto, the speed alert. Yes, it sometimes gets it wrong, interpreting a “90” sign as an “80” sign, subsequently beeping in the cabin, displaying on the dash, and in one car I drove recently, issuing a stern oral warning that I was speeding and to drive safely at all times. But it is now clear to me that most drivers cannot read “numbers”. This is something that I blame on our ideology-based education system. Either that, or they miss the speed sign because they are too distracted being a keyboard warrior on Twitter whist driving.

So, yeah, rule of lowest common denominator dictates that we really do need this buzzing and beeping in the cabin. What would be cool is for the car to post the speed limit and your current speed into your Twitter feed in an undeletable way. Maybe the, A) the driver will actually see it, and B) be socially embarrassed to take corrective action.

The greatest Nanny feature of all is autonomous braking. Sure, it occasionally misfires (like when pointing at the power pole beside the curved road outside Hungry Jacks at Aspley). What would be awesome is if the car’s computer refuses to let the car get closer than two seconds to the car in front.

[PooDog]

Originally Posted by whynot

Crappy driver aids (e.g. lane assist in the Toyota Corolla) use to annoy me. Until I realised just how bad some drivers are without the driver aids. These days I appreciate how the computer in the Corolla ahead of me, bouncing from left side of the lane to right side of the lane and back again, is doing a far better job than the “driver” ever could.

Ditto, the speed alert. Yes, it sometimes gets it wrong, interpreting a “90” sign as an “80” sign, subsequently beeping in the cabin, displaying on the dash, and in one car I drove recently, issuing a stern oral warning that I was speeding and to drive safely at all times. But it is now clear to me that most drivers cannot read “numbers”. This is something that I blame on our ideology-based education system. Either that, or they miss the speed sign because they are too distracted being a keyboard warrior on Twitter whist driving.

So, yeah, rule of lowest common denominator dictates that we really do need this buzzing and beeping in the cabin. What would be cool is for the car to post the speed limit and your current speed into your Twitter feed in an undeletable way. Maybe the, A) the driver will actually see it, and B) be socially embarrassed to take corrective action.

The greatest Nanny feature of all is autonomous braking. Sure, it occasionally misfires (like when pointing at the power pole beside the curved road outside Hungry Jacks at Aspley). What would be awesome is if the car’s computer refuses to let the car get closer than two seconds to the car in front.

Yeah they need all this audible stuff etc otherwise how else would they get distracted from their phone

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

I have a deeply conservative uncle who only ever buys white cars, because they are safer on the road don't you know. My response to that is it's pretty bloody hard to miss a bright red Mustang on the road!

I've had plenty of bright Red Mustang's pull out in front of my big white truck. So I guess you are right.

[csv8]

The stop start feature must go. Its so annoying.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by csv8

The stop start feature must go. Its so annoying.

We had a 2016 Mazda 6 company car which had it, put it in sports mode to turn it off and it would liven up how the throttle response was - that thing was deadly at roundabouts, **** turns itself off and then takes ages to respond to your throttle inputs.

But then it wouldn't change out of 4th gear on the freeway in sports mode, you change it up two gears then put it back into sports mode and it'd drop back to 4th.

So I just drove it on the highway everywhere in 4th while it revved its tits off, saves heaps of fuel this stop start stuff.

Stop start can GAGF - they need to make it a function that you can turn it off permanently.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by csv8

The stop start feature must go. Its so annoying.

Bloody annoying for other drivers with quick changing traffic lights.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by csv8

The stop start feature must go. Its so annoying.

If they insist on putting a feature like this in a car it needs a switch to turn it on if you would like to use the feature, not the other way around, it seems these features are being forced on us with either no way to disable it or a long trawl through the menus to find a way of turning it off.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

If they insist on putting a feature like this in a car it needs a switch to turn it on if you would like to use the feature, not the other way around, it seems these features are being forced on us with either no way to disable it or a long trawl through the menus to find a way of turning it off.

Or they give you a switch to turn it off but when you turn the car off it defaults to back on - thats why I just put the Mazda in sports mode all the time.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Or they give you a switch to turn it off but when you turn the car off it defaults to back on

Sounds like this Chromebook I'm currently using, spend time changing setting only for it to revert back to default mode.

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Or they give you a switch to turn it off but when you turn the car off it defaults to back on - thats why I just put the Mazda in sports mode all the time.

I Just throw It into neutral at the lights..!

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

If they insist on putting a feature like this in a car it needs a switch to turn it on if you would like to use the feature, not the other way around, it seems these features are being forced on us with either no way to disable it or a long trawl through the menus to find a way of turning it off.

These systems only exist so that car companies gain extra economy on the government fuel economy ratings.

Part of the simulated drive loop during the test is for periods at idle, in theory simulating stopping at a set of lights. If the engine is not running at this stage of the test, then the overall fuel use and therefore final numbers is much better.

Because this feature is used to gain those numbers at an official level, the system MUST default to on rather than something that is turned on.

In the real world, stopping and starting the engine saves little to no fuel at all.

[kevino]

Gain those numbers or game those numbers?

The system is fxxxg dangerous.
You are at a busy roundabout in peak hour.
A gap appears press the throttle just as the engine goes into off because of the stop start bs
Result late take off and resulting collision
Green waste at traffic lights as a gaggle of cars all take half a second later due to stop start

I turn it off at the start of every trip
Lane assist and Centreing is permanently off.
I have left the park sensor beepers on as while they are annoying they will save my bacon one day

The other thing mine does on switch off
Is
Beep beep check rear seat for occupants beep beep check rear seats for occupants beep beep check rear seat for occupants beep beep check rear seat for occupants
Stops when I open the door to get out

[DFB FGXR6]

This will come across as contradictory considering I have a car with one of these on order, but I don't care for screens replacing traditional gauge clusters.

Some do it better than others, in fact the current generation S550 set up is nice becuase it maintains a traditional hooded gauge cluster surround.



However, the new S650 simply has a glued-on screen.



Think of it this way, do you want a digital watch or a nice, clear and beautifully detailed traditional movement watch? I feel the same about dials..........





Porsche does the digital dash the best, combining old and new to perfection.

[MITCHAY]

Ah yes, the digital dash. Another solution looking for a problem.

[ford71V8]

I thought we all learnt our lesson here with the XF dash 36 years ago

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

This will come across as contradictory considering I have a car with one of these on order, but I don't care for screens replacing traditional gauge clusters.

Some do it better than others, in fact the current generation S550 set up is nice becuase it maintains a traditional hooded gauge cluster surround.

image

However, the new S650 simply has a glued-on screen.

image

Think of it this way, do you want a digital watch or a nice, clear and beautifully detailed traditional movement watch? I feel the same about dials..........

image

image

Porsche does the digital dash the best, combining old and new to perfection.

image

I agree with this, although I do like both because the screens should be customisable - I'm expecting to be able to display anything that reports data on CAN on those screens.

But I'm also a fan of the traditional real gauge with a real needle.