Irritating car safety features – share your gripes

trail_rat – Member

the kerb is the least of my worrys when parking – i want to see the cars behind and beside me ….

You can still see all that though.

The binging when you leave the key in the ignition after turning it off in my Toyota, yes I know I need to take it out when I go.
Had a Megane hire car a few years back with the most stupid starting method which involved holding what looked like a credit card over a panel, depressing the clutch and pressing some other start button

How about missing safety features? For some reason my petrol gauge lights up before I run out of petrol, but my oil gauge will only light up AFTER the oil level has gotten so low that the engine is shagged.

WHY THE **** DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER??? Useless piece of **** indicator!

It’s generally oil pressure rather than oil level- there’s a sensor for the oil level under the bonnet 😉

Oil level light? Blimey, mine doesn’t even have a dipstick! Along with a temperature gauge, these are apparently things one takes one’s fine example of British automobile engineering to one’s dealer for.

My new golf, which I do love, has a camera on the front under the registration plate that detects when you get too close to a car in front (does not do this say in queuing traffic)
Slams the brakes on randomly normally when a car in front is turning left and I gauge how they are turning in, planning to casually cruise past within a hairs breadth of their rear bumper.
Defo needs turning off…

For some reason my petrol gauge lights up before I run out of petrol, but my oil gauge will only light up AFTER the oil level has gotten so low that the engine is shagged.

That’s because it’s not an oil level indicator, it’s an oil PRESSURE indicator. It’s designed to alert you to the emergency of having no oil. That’s why if you see it you have to stop immediately. You should only see it if you’ve sprung a leak or cracked a sump or something terrible. Someone on here thought it was like the fuel light. So you drive until it comes on then put more in 😯 My Passat has an oil level indicator – it tells you when it’s low and needs a top up.

As for temperature – you don’t need a gague, you only need a warning light.

is it 1995 again ? even my useless french car has an oil gauge inside the car! (as well as an oil pressure warning)

– not that i trust it – still use the dip stick.

Oil level or pressure tr?

Agree with heebyjeeby on this one. Octavia with Front Assist. Bloody irritating and positively dangerous as a warning buzzer goes off as it auto brakes which distracts massively. Can’t be permanently turned off either.

As above, on the Fiesta :-

Indicators that cancel if you move the steering a tiny bit in any direction, mean reapplying upto 3 times depending on the angle of approaching a junction, especially if a vehicle is parked close and you have to steer round it.

Green light to shift up on Fords.

My Vauxhall puts a message up saying “Warning slippery Roads” when the temperature is 3 degrees or less AND I have to press the ok button to get rid of it!!!!! Grrrr…

A very annoying feature on our Freelander. If the fuel gauge starts warning of low fuel, it down-tunes the engine, and will shut it down before it completely runs out. This feature is great if you are stupid enough to run out of fuel as it means you don’t have to bleed the fuel lines (not easy with a modern diesel) to get it going again.

However, if the fuel sensor becomes faulty, or the electronics play up, or given that it’s an off-road vehicle if you move the fuel tank in an argument with a big rock, it can leave you stranded with a perfectly usable vehicle, with plenty of fuel.

2010 c-max
rear wiper comes on when reversing even if its dry
if you are stationary with the wipers on then they slow down to intermittent until you start moving again
tried to do a wheelspin last week and all that happened was that the EPS kicked in and reduced the power making it look like a very feeble attempt
stupid rear seats take up loads of room when folded making it near impossible to shove the bike in (has to go in upside down and at an angle to fit)
parking sensors that go crazy when reversing into the drive. they make you think a collision with the house is imminent only to realise you have at least 1.5m to go

other than that its a really nice car!! 😀

My rear tailgate wont open unless I open the drivers door (when sat inside engine running). Not bad as such.

Key left in ignition warning. OMG

Low fuel warning. Yes I get it- you don’t have to remind me EVERYTIME I start the car. I will remember you know and I can see the display.

Door open – yes thats because I reverse with the door open when its a frosty morning.

Some of the above may be great but I am odd.

Pretty nifty stuff for a French car that also has auto light and auto wipers. That work 😀

As soon as you turn the ignition on it starts beeping at you to put your seatbelt on. It stops beeping in about the same length of time it takes me to put my seatbelt on as fast as possible, so whether you’re belted in or not, it stops beeping at the same time. Genius.

oh i forgot….if you open the bonnet while the car is still locked the alarm goes off!!

molgrips – i have an oil pressure light (the oil can symbol) and i have an oil level indicator that comes up when ignition at position 2 prior to turning the engine over.

but as i said i dont trust it and still do my checks.

“tried to do a wheelspin last week and all that happened was that the EPS kicked in and reduced the power making it look like a very feeble attempt”

you dont know how good that is for your clutch 😉

you dont know how good that is for your clutch

it was on the car park at Gisburn forest…a combination of loose gravel and wet buddy shoes.. 😳

Slams the brakes on randomly normally when a car in front is turning left and I gauge how they are turning in, planning to casually cruise past within a hairs breadth of their rear bumper.

That grinds my gears [/peter-griffin]

What if a dog runs in front of the left-turning car and he has to stop?! I hate people who drive up my arse, especially at junctions.

Other than that, the mechanism which holds your belt in place. Say, at a T junction at the bottom of a steep hill. You try to lean forwards to see into the junction and you’re strapped to the back of your seat, futilely rocking back and forwards, hoping it’ll release.

Not anoying but amusing sat in a car park facing uphill and the winds pushing my car so hard against the handbrake that the your handbrakes still on donger keeps going off.

My last car had a built in sat nav that was very out of date (I only buy old cars) so I never used it. Unfortunately even though I turned it off every time it it would start up again when I restarted the car. It wqs slow and after about 3 minutes you would get a a Bing! and the screen would flash “DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY THIS SAT NAV!!!!!!!!!!!!”

If it would stay turned off, I wouldn’t be distracted!

I find the brakes irritating, I much prefer to use the horn.

I’ve got that gear suggestion display on my car, thankfully it’s not illuminated and small enough to ignore. It also tells you which gear you’re in when you’re behaving. But it does get confused when you miss a gear out, go from 3rd to 5th and it comes up with a ❓ , then a ❗ , then goes back to normal.

It will learn 😈

you dont know how good that is for your clutch

it was on the car park at Gisburn forest…a combination of loose gravel and wet buddy shoes.. [/quote]

you dont know how good that is for your paintwork 😉

half of these now seem quite sensible…

my bosses Passat has auto hold brakes. When coming to a stop on a hill, the abs system detects you have stopped, and leaves the footbrake on, after you take your foot off to go for the accelerator.

All very well, (and totally pointless) until you roll to a stop without the brake, and then you end up going backwards because the brake pads were never engaged for the abs to hold them.

Fine, except because it has this crap, it has no handbrake!

ALSO

why do new VAGs put their bloody “inside” foglight on when going around corners. it just looks….. broken!