I have the ultimate in bike transport that would suit a luddite like yourself. A 55 plate Fiat doblo with nothing in the way of electronic frippary. You can stick a bike in wheels on in the back (rider too if need be) and of course all the associated kit.
However it does have a particularly crap stereo that you have to reach over to and change channels. This is a pain after me last car which had stalk mounted controls – so to answer your question, the more easy to use gadgets the better, plus as you know a more up to date and flash motor attracts more bragging rights than a 10 year old fiat! – well if you are 12 at least.

But they’re not, really. It’s more that the higher end models are superior.

So, I say car A is inferior compared to car B

And you disagree by saying that it’s actually car B that’s superior.

great point.

😉

This is one of the more unbelievable threads about cars I’ve seen in a while.
My car is fitted with adaptive cruise control. Did I use it on the way to work? No, because it’s b-roads all the way. Damn handy on long motorway trips though where I genuinely believe it’s safer and leaves me less tired at the end.
My car is fitted with auto lights. This seems like a reasonable thing to have and I can’t work out how it’s less safe that they come on a little earlier than I may choose. Didn’t come on on the way to work though
My car is fitted with a sat nav. I didn’t use it either as I know the way, however for finding a street in a city I don’t know, it’s quite handy and a lot safer than looking around for road names, at my map etc.
It’s fitted with a telephone kit. That’s safer than answering a phone directly. I didn’t use that either as there’s no reception across the top of the Mendips on my way to work.
It’s got air con. I can’t for the life of me work out why this could possibly be construed as unsafe to be comfortable and at a constant temperature!
Do you spot a pattern developing here?

Do I need all these things? Of course not, I managed quite well for years in basic cars and vans, on some of which even the windy windows didn’t work. Do I want them? Well, why not. They make driving a more pleasurable experience, and I’m confident, a safer one so I’ve now bought myself an uber consumer driven super car – a Golf.

PS – it’s also got LED interior lights which sadly, have yet to lead me towards any dogging sessions. Shame that.

So, I say car A is inferior compared to car B

And you disagree by saying that it’s actually car B that’s superior.

great point.

(-:

What I was trying to say was, basically, the ‘baseline’ is pretty damn good these days. Which seems to be the OP’s beef, more or less.

The only “gadget” I really want would be one of those Google self driving cars. Then I could sit back and read a good book.

While sipping at a glass of beer.

But the OP original argument is that people, having these gadgets, will constantly play with them as they drive.

And it’s true. As I drive I constantly have to switch knobs, turn levers, adjust seats, open & close openings, alter mirrors and finetune ambient temperatures across all zones.

Once I drove from Manchester to Truro and only managed to glance at the road twice – I was so absorbed in fiddling that the time flew by and I could have sworn I was in some kind of time travelling device.

I used to have a Focus LX. Almost upgraded to a Forester XT, though I did think maybe an Almera SLX would give most of the benefits.

You need the Berlingo XTR!

What I was trying to say was, basically, the ‘baseline’ is pretty damn good these days.

Which seems to be the OP’s beef, more or less.

Could be?

Although it sounded more like a generic moan about people that drive cars really.

And pointing out the fact that he must be better than everyone else because he managed not to die in a huge fireball despite these new “nightmare” cars that are obviously being designed purely to kill.

I can’t see how most of those gadgets are distracting. In fact, built-in satnavs don’t let you faff with them when you are moving, unlike the aftermarket ones, which is better.

Satnavs prevent you faffing with maps, and bluetooth kits prevent you faffing with your phone. All things that increase your time spent with eyes on the road, not reduce it. In theory at least. In practice – well, inattentive people will always be inattentive about something,

Vondally’s got a point, being able to spec your car exactly how you want it would be nice. All the driving stuff you want with the option to opt out of all the frippery you don’t want. Like he says consumerism, instead we get what manufacturers want to sell us, admittedly quite likely influenced by what the majority want.

Mind you a lot of companies don’t let you choose exactly what you want without bumping up the cost, instead you choose packages they offer. Full bikes are (nominally) cheaper than buying separately, but try speccing X instead of Y and it’ll come at a cost (either direct to you or LBS may take it out of their margins)

In practice – well, inattentive people will always be inattentive about something,

I think that’s the real issue, IMO filling a car full of buttons to press and settings to change may not be conducive to getting idiots to concentrate on driving.

and bluetooth kits prevent you faffing with your phone

I shook my head at a woman texting in her Freelander a few months back.

She started screaming at me that it was safe because the phone was on bluetooth so it was hands-free.

“But the phone’s in your hand”

“NO, IT’S ON BLUETOOTH”

“But…”

“IT’S HANDS-FREE”

“But you’re writing a text. With the phone in your hand”

“IT’S ON BLUETOOTH!”

🙄

So you’re worried that people will be randomly pushing buttons for the hell of it? Really? Take climate control – you put it on 22C and you leave it there, it does everything for you. Without that, I’m frequently thinking ‘oh I’m hot, I’m cold, my arms are cold, it’s steaming up’ etc and pressing buttons accordingly. So climate control results in far fewer distractions. Like most of these things imo.

Yeah, my car’s pretty well specced considering it’s age and price. Heated leather seats, heated windscreen, electric seats and mirrors, auto lights, auto wipers. But just normal aircon, not climate control. I’m regularly changing it because it’s just a bit to cold or a bit too warm, climate control would mean setting it and leaving it.

Prius has climate control and is always spot on; the Passat doesn’t and often needs tweaking. I’ll be looking for climate when I get another car.

D0NK – Member

Vondally’s got a point, being able to spec your car exactly how you want it would be nice. All the driving stuff you want with the option to opt out of all the frippery you don’t want.

I like that idea but I’m not a new car buyer and other people’s extras are weird. My Focus had ABS as an option for more or less the same price as the 6-speed CD changer, apparently, guess which the first owner thought was more important? And the original owner of my current car had the option of parking sensors but chose massive dents instead.

Pillock who specced my Passat was too tight to spec the flappy paddle shifters for the auto box. They are only a couple of hundred 🙁

I find flappy paddles a bit rubbish – unless you are in full race mode and crossing arms, your hands are never in the correct position. I very rarely use mine.

I like that idea but I’m not a new car buyer and other people’s extras are weird.

me too, never have yet and quite probably never will, buy a new car so won’t ever get the option to spec a car – just arguing the toss (as per) 🙂

I’m still waiting for the microwave glovebox option to heat up your Ginsters steak slice!

I find flappy paddles a bit rubbish – unless you are in full race mode and crossing arms, your hands are never in the correct position. I very rarely use mine.

Hmm. I sometimes use manual mode in the car, with the gearstick option which wouldn’t be so bad except that to put it into manual mode you have to move it *away* from you which makes it a bit of a reach. One thing they didn’t mirror for RHD cars.

The option I’d really really love, however, is a bin built into the car.

WIth a hatch underneath the car? 😉

Actually, I had a transit van that had this option, although it was more after market. I believe it was made by a company called Rust.

Hmm. I sometimes use manual mode in the car

I tried that on mine too but fortunately mine has a ‘sport’ option that just changes up at higher revs so if I ever want to be move along a bit faster I can just use that option – pull the stick down once to engage, pull it again to go back to normal gearing. It’s great for getting away from busy junctions.

Sport mode on mine isn’t great. Too noisy and too high revs. It wants to keep the turbo spinning all the time to get good throttle response, which is great, except it also downshifts really easily when you apply throttle which defeats the object of keeping the turbo spinning.

ahh right, mine doesn’t behave like that, it just keeps revs up more – very distracting if just in traffic as it feels like it is simply in the wrong gear. But works great otherwise (Audi Steptronic BTW)