Stupid car design ideas of our time

#1
We’ve got a Citroen C3 loaner while our Golf is in being repaired.
The gear knob and the lower half of the steering wheel are covered in an alloy trim – the result is that this morning (and yesterday) it’s like changing gear with a lump of ice.
Same goes for the steering wheel – you have to hold the lower section when turning sharper corners. Form over function.

You need;

you’ll feel like Carlos Fandango wearing them as well, which can’t be a bad thing.

most of the civic with the pointy bits to stab you, lack of visibility and mismash of spares bin parts to make a dash

My Wife’s Astra, the seats have been designed to hurt me.

Honda Civic back window, why make it so hard to see when reversing.

My old Ford Focus (2000), no way to open the boot while at the door without a key.

Toyota Avensis button operated handbrake – shall we put the button where the conventional handbrake would have been? No. On the dash? No. How about under the dash, roughly half way down your shin so you have to feel about for it blindly like you would for the bonnet release? Brilliant.

Any car where you can’t close the windows after you’ve switched off the ignition. So that pretty much any car other than a KIA.

Tiny rear windscreens and thicker-than-necessary pillars.
Narrow mirrors.
Moving the steering wheel across from Euro cars without swapping the lever functions.

AlexSimon – Member

Tiny rear windscreens and thicker-than-necessary pillars.

Yes. Seat Leon is guilty of this, you could lose a bus behind the A-pillar. Also, what is it with VAG cars and their insistence that it takes 15 button clicks to open the car? One button click, open the f***ing car. One to lock it. If I own a Porsche in Johannesburg my feeling might be different but I’m a long way from either.

Last Astra I drove (previous shaped one) had such high window lines that I couldn’t rest my arm on the door even with the window open.

Tiny rear windscreens and thicker-than-necessary pillars.

This is all down to car safety and Euro NCAP

My old RX7 had a belter of a flaw. The petrol filling cap was only above the level of the top of the tank when you were parked level or facing downhill. Park facing uphill with a full tank and the petrol drained out, ruining your rear 3/4 panel paintwork 👿

The current MG has an odd one too. If your headlight/foglight switch has a fault, simply buy a replacement and fit it. Except the car’s mileage is stored in the instrument cluster AND the light switch unit. Putting a new light switch unit in means there’s a mismatch between the two stored mileages and your dash just reads ‘ERR’ instead.

Any car seat that has a ratchet system to adjust the recline angle of the seat.
Every one I’ve been in has never had enough positions to get comfy; either too steep or too reclined.

Cigarette ligher/power sockets that turn off when the ignition is off so you can’t leave a phone to charge without the key in the ignition…

Recent headlight design that means you either need to remove half the front end of the car to access the bulbs or half the skin on your hands.

Once I tried to change a flat on a work’s C8. Couldn’t for the life of me find the jack.

After reading the manual (surely a sign of bad design) I discovered it was under the bonnet. Stupid enough I thought. Then I spent ages trying to find the bonnet release lever. Again had to consult the manual. Found it was under a hidden panel, on the passengers side! French cars are innovative just for the sake of it.

Oh and who puts the speedo in the middle of the dashboard, pressed up against the windscreen? I now just guess my speed in relation to other vehciles…

The move to isofix rear seat and then claiming that’s why the seat base doesn’t fold up. I don’t want to fit kiddy seats but I do want to carry bikes.

Onzadog – Member

The move to isofix rear seat and then claiming that’s why the seat base doesn’t fold up.

That’s weird. My car’s got isofix and the seat bases fold up, so clearly not a limitation of the system.

My missus has a type R (three door) and to get in the back you move the front seat, which is fine.

But it does not return to its original position, which means every time you do this you have to faff about with the bloody thing.

Perhaps the people designing them should actually use them.

“Any car where you can’t close the windows after you’ve switched off the ignition. So that pretty much any car other than a KIA.”

On my ford you just hold the keyfob button down till they close, same on the Octavia and my old saab….

Cigarette ligher/power sockets that turn off when the ignition is off so you can’t leave a phone to charge without the key in the ignition…

I think that is a good safety feature. Whilst it’s inconvenient, you know people would be forgetting all over the place and flattening their batteries. I know I would, eventually.

Hired a Citroen C4 Picasso a while ago. They seem to like putting the pedals about 10cm to the right of where your feet should be, which is annoying enough, but for some reason they opted for acres of blank plastic in the centre of the dash, with the heating controls down low by your right knee. That means that you can’t adjust them without taking your eyes completely off the road and looking down at the floor. Because this is quite dangerous I’d ask the passenger to do it, but they can’t reach! Now that’s stupid design.

The current trend for using multi function touch screens to control the heating – scrabbling about for menus is probably worse than being on the phone PEUGEOT!

ford something or other (fiesta or focus), with huge vertical distance between pedals. almost missed the brake pedal once or twice, or hooked sole of shoes on it.

all new cars, with stupid euroNCAP pillars that are now so frickin’ wide they’ve had to start putting windows in them.

all cars, not even just new ones, not designed for people > 5ft11. don’t recall the last car I drove where I could see the top part of the speedo without ducking. that’s at 6ft2, steering wheel at furthest reach and highest adjustment. good job I can still see and stare at the 20/30 mph section outside schools with flashing 20 zone lights 😉

Also, what is it with VAG cars and their insistence that it takes 15 button clicks to open the car?

i don’t think you can blame a flat battery on the manufacturer..

new cars that need the cluch depressed to start. i never knew looked a right **** when i called the aa out.
having to leave car doors open to fill up with fuel i like my van locked as i cannot see all the doors

Two. It takes two. Not really a big deal!

with stupid euroNCAP pillars

Yeah how dare they make us more safe! Bastards!

Last time I drove a pre-NCAP estate car I felt pretty vulnerable, it looked flimsy as hell!

isn’t a flat battery.

changed my keyfob battery a few times, and the last time only seems to work in the vicinity of the drivers door. the range of the brand new fresh cr2032 was no better than the one I thought was on its way out.

seat leon so same key etc.

15 clicks is a bit of an exaggeration. 4-5 for me typically.

“Any car where you can’t close the windows after you’ve switched off the ignition. So that pretty much any car other than a KIA.”

On my ford you just hold the keyfob button down till they close, same on the Octavia and my old saab….

But Kia make it easier for those who can’t find the handbook and have never had a ‘proper’ car

My mates Peugeot’s has a sat nav that cannot find destinations by post code, you need to know the street name and number.

At first I thought he’d just got the thing set up wrong, but no…it really only wants street names!

jam bo

i don’t think you can blame a flat battery on the manufacturer..

andytherocketeer

seat leon so same key etc.

15 clicks is a bit of an exaggeration. 4-5 for me typically.

Yes, I should include a hyperbole warning on all my posts. Sold the car now but it used to do my head in. One click opened the drivers door, but then it was another 2 more to open the passengers door, and another two to open all doors, or something equally stupid. Great when you are standing in the rain with a wife and two kids.

Opening the boot was similarly stupid.

I like the microswitch on the clutch for starting but then I’ve always deloaded the engine for starting anyway coming from motorbikes.

Any car with crap, dim reversing lights. It’s one of the most awkward maneuvers you can do in a car and it would be nice to see where I’m bloody going!

Park facing uphill with a full tank and the petrol drained out, ruining your rear 3/4 panel paintwork

You must be parking fairly close to the petrol station to have a full tank in an RX7. 😉

I think one of the worst designs I’ve seen was the front window/bonnet water draining on a 3 series. I’m not sure how many of them are like this but when leaves get into the drain holes the water backs up and then flows into one of the circuit boxes and fries the ecu.

bonnet release lever in the passengers side on right hand drive cars 🙂
Renault idea of removing the front wheels to change the headlight bulb

“Any car where you can’t close the windows after you’ve switched off the ignition. So that pretty much any car other than a KIA.”

On my ford you just hold the keyfob button down till they close, same on the Octavia and my old saab….

Not a feature on all Fords. Only those with one touch close on the windows (and hence the trapped finger sensor).

One thing that annoys me slightly is that when they create RHD cars they invert everything except the radio controls. On/Off/Volume seems to end up furthest away from the driver.

Seems to be a similar issue with the auto gear selector in the Passat. To put it into manual mode ie for sporty driving you have to move it *away* from the driver, so to change gear you have to reach – if it were a LHD car it’d be really close to you and much more comfortable.

all cars, not even just new ones, not designed for people > 5ft11. don’t recall the last car I drove where I could see the top part of the speedo without ducking. that’s at 6ft2, steering wheel at furthest reach and highest adjustment. good job I can still see and stare at the 20/30 mph section outside schools with flashing 20 zone lights

I hate this,and it’s lots of cars So this was one of my favourite things about the citroen I drove the other day

Oh and who puts the speedo in the middle of the dashboard, pressed up against the windscreen?

VAG remote opener one click for the drivers door, several manic clicks to open the passenger doors pointless and annoying.

Ford focus cup holders, obscure by the armrest, in fact most cup holders in most cars are crap.

Alfa 156 doors which come to a point exactly at neck height.

Anything from Vauxhall, there dashboards are modelled on 80’s AIWA hifis.

A few years back the DSC (dynamic stability control) and ABS warning lights came on in our Ford Territory, and both stopped working. I checked the fuses for those features, both fine. That was the extent of my auto-electrical expertise so into the garage it went. Turns out we’d blown a brake light!

Genius idea from Ford. Hook up important safety features in the same circuit as high-use consumable parts. When the part fails, the logical thing to do is disable the DSC and ABS…

The same thing happened again a couple of weeks ago, luckily it was a $4 bulb this time and not $50 garage bill for their investigation work.

Never mind metal gear knobs, our cars have steering balls as MrsMC is disabled.

Huge metal clamp, right where you hold the wheel. Not been pleasant at 06.45hrs this week!

The current trend for using multi function touch screens to control the heating – scrabbling about for menus is probably worse than being on the phone

I was thinking about this. Manufacturers make controlling everything from the screen out to be a good thing but it’s a cost saving measure and I think it’s actually making things more difficult.
Seeing as you can now make a call on a phone just by asking it to do so, these multifunction screens seem more dangerous.

all new cars, with stupid euroNCAP pillars that are now so frickin’ wide they’ve had to start putting windows in them.

The window is a sop to get passed the regs.

You’ve actually a huge blindspot, but it gets past this by having a window in – the regs are there to protect pedestrians/cyclists and motorcyclists.

molgrips – Member

I think that is a good safety feature. Whilst it’s inconvenient, you know people would be forgetting all over the place and flattening their batteries. I know I would, eventually.

Not really a safety feature is it? And how long would it take for my phone/Garmin/iPod/Bluetooth Handsfree etc. to drain the huge battery in my car…?
And if you forget – tough luck. You’ll only do it once. You being forgetful shouldn’t trump my requirement to use the power socket with the ignition off.

The VAG key thing really isn’t that hard. One click opens the driver’s door, two clicks open all doors including the boot. My brother was ranting about this on his previous Golf and how difficult it was to open the doors, as sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. I told him it was once for his door, twice for all doors. He reckoned it wasn’t.
We went out to his car and I unlocked and locked it about 10 times, telling him whether I was going to open one door or all doors on each occasion, and managed it without issue. Gave him the fob and watched him randomly stab at the buttons, swear a lot and wander off saying it didn’t work.
I think you can get a garage/dealer to turn off this feature via VAG-com if you really don’t want it, so one click unlocks all doors.

Bimbler – Member
This is all down to car safety and Euro NCAP

Safer to avoid an accident, rather than just rely on safety in an accident.
The lowering roofline towards the rear leaving a letterbox rear view is mostly styling.

Not really a safety feature is it? And how long would it take for my phone/Garmin/iPod/Bluetooth Handsfree etc. to drain the huge battery in my car…?

Also not very difficult to cut the power once the battery gets to a certain state of discharge.

AlexSimon – Member

Also not very difficult to cut the power once the battery gets to a certain state of discharge.

True – I meant to say that in my post and forgot!

My Wife’s old Ka had a timer on the stereo so if you turned it on with the ignition off if would turn itself off after an hour. You could have something similar on the power socket.