Stupid car design ideas of our time

Audi A3 with only one cup holder in the front, its a £20K+ car and they can’t count to two.

My Vw Touran has 13 cup holders but only 7 seats!

4 (1 in each door pocket)
2 in the front centre console
2 in the glove box
1 in the rear part of the centre console for the middle passenger
2 in the fold out aircraft style tray things
2 in the boot for the fold up rear seats

But it doesn’t have a Curry hook 😥

Maybe Vw where hoping Cup holders would become one of the stats for top trumps.

automatic headlights, seems to result in people driving around in fog/rain with no lights. Me included when I don’t remember. Surely a bad idea?

keyless entry that randomly doesn’t work. Automatic locking that works a little too much.

Molgrips – useful windsreen wiper info, this had been bothering me on my Skoda.

New VAG you can change pretty much all the features through the MFD, including how many clicks to open the drivers door.

I think all my car gripes have been covered though. Most annoying is making it hard to change light bulbs, luckily as I have a titchy engine I can now do this easily.

Ironic you’ve learnt how to insert gifs into a forum and yet you’ve not learnt to read an instruction manual. Very odd…

Ironic you’ve learnt how to insert gifs into a forum and yet you’ve not learnt to read an instruction manual. Very odd…

A mate had a BMW where the climate control sensor was next to the cup holder, so on a warm day you put your nice cold drink in the cup holder and the car thinks ‘brrr, it’s a bit nippy, better put the heating on’. Vice versa in the winter, too. Genius.

The hiding them presumably improves aerodynamics.

I think I read somewhere that it’s also to do with saftey, hidden windscreen wipers are less injurious for pedestrians that you hit (on purpose or otherwise)

My Vw Touran has 13 cup holders but only 7 seats!

Ours was the same – yet did not have wiring for any speakers in the rear or boot… 🙄

My Subaru- 6

My old Xsara Picasso 4 in the stupidious places.

dunno about safety or aerodynamics, but hidden wipers is handy when car is parked in a ski resort for a week and 2m 80cm of snow falls. no need to stand them up like some do, and they won’t get hit by the snow shovel when removing 40cm of snow 3x per day.

rear one was screwed either way.

Leon has 1 pop out cup holder, and one oddly in the lid of the glove compartment.

Only way that can be used is parked up, and with either no passenger (in which case you don’t need 2), or with a passenger so small, and with seat pushed rigth back so they don’t close the glovebox door with their knees. And even then it can only take a cup of the size of a flimsy plastic vending machine coffee cup.

There’s a spare space where the pop out cup holder, rear screen heater and hazard button is for another pop out cup holder.

Just had a call from the garage doing my MOT today. Can I please add ABS sensors held inside the wheel bearing by a TINY METAL CLIP which DISINTEGRATES the very second it gets wet. The perfectly working wheel bearing then needs broken open to realign the perfectly working sensor and fit a new clip. GGrrRrRRr1!!1!

My Alfa had no cup holders. Didn’t have any flat surfaces, either!

Just had a call from the garage doing my MOT today. Can I please add ABS sensors held inside the wheel bearing by a TINY METAL CLIP which DISINTEGRATES the very second it gets wet. The perfectly working wheel bearing then needs broken open to realign the perfectly working sensor and fit a new clip. GGrrRrRRr1!!1!

Ford? Actually no, Ford ABS is a ring that loves to corrode. Why do they design them thus?

1. Northwind – Member
willard – Member
How about the requirement to take the front end apart to change a headlamp or the radiator?
There’s a blown bulb in my dash. I’ve not even bothered to look up how to change it, I’m just assuming it’ll be a 5 spanner job that starts “dismantle entire car”

Mondeo?
4 stars – disconnect battery, leave for 30mins and then take half of the car interior out.
I really need to get around to doing it as half our dashboard is in darkness, I know what revs is what speed in what gear but there are only so many times you can get the car tested and it not being picked up. Needs 6 bulbs of one type and 6 of another.
Mondeo boot liner – 8” high at the back so if you drop the 60/40 split you need to find a way to get rid of the liner to put anything big in (not a problem at home but out and about somewhere?).
Stupid wire thing for adjusting forwards/backwards on the driver’s seat – anything underneath will catch it and stretch it making it useless.
Cup holder is perfectly set up to catch the passengers knee.
The buttons for changing the air moving system – takes me 3-4 good looks (whilst driving) to find what I want and then another 5 seconds to change to the setting I want as you have to keep the button pressed down.
Space saver tyre on a car that big that carries heavy loads and is supposed to be a motorway muncher.
Mk1 focus – carpet in the wheel arch – meant that the rust could work 24/7 for months, oh and oil filter above a suspension strut so oil went everywhere.
Fiesta – when the rear fog light is on, the light highlighting this fact is hidden from view if you are taller than 5’ 10”.
Clio – blocked scuttle ports means the windscreen wiper gets shorted (fixable fortunately), use a carwash and the fusebox/ecu gets fried (Not fixable).
Clio “twist” stalk to adjust lights coupled with pull to go from full beam to dipped– twists too well as whenever I switch off the main beam I switch the headlights onto sidelights.
Clio stereo – has an auxillary function (for mp3/cd changers) but doesn’t have the actual “auxiliary” bit.

Saccades – Member

Mk1 focus – carpet in the wheel arch – meant that the rust could work 24/7 for months

Ah, the rust sponge! I’d forgotten about that. I’m sure it’s suppose to be sound deadening but I couldn’t tell any difference.

VW Touran (and maybe other VW cars)

Bikes on a rear boot carrier, rainy day and engage reverse. Rear wiper engages automatically and mashes itself on the bike carrier smashing the blade and the arm. I’m a regular at the scrappers now as the arms are a couple of quid from them.

According to the dealer, this cannot be decoded in the ECU so its a wingnut on the threads to remove it when the bike carrier is on.

Cars with no spare wheel well/hanger

My Alfa had no cup holders. Didn’t have any flat surfaces, either!

If it’s a 156 you can balance a cup between the speedo and rev counter, the pods hold it in place but you might need to experiment with finding the right cup… and not cornering too hard if you don’t want coffee down your legs!

A few here, well 106 posts of them : http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/irritating-car-safety-features-share-your-gripes

Automatic door locking when you move off – I drive off my drive and stop to let people in but all the doors are locked

Doors locking when you get out of the car – Take two steps away from the car and all the doors lock so you stand in the rain trying to unlock the car to get the umbrella

Mercedes traction control – when I turn it off, I want it turned off

Yes, I got caught in a shower while locked out of the car today and then sat in the car watching wife get drenched because I couldn’t find a button to unlock the doors for her.

New Mercedes A Class, the cup holders are too small for anything bigger than a can of coke. They are also in the way of the gear stick so your ar rests on top of the can when your trying to change gear. The steering wheel doesn’t adjust far enough out so I have to sit bolt upright with my knees out so I can reach the steering wheel. The light for the vanity mirror is on the roof, the flap for the vanity mirror opens up. When you need the light at night it is obscured by the flap rendering it useless.

Current Mercedes C Class Coupe, the steering wheel is over your left leg. With the seat at its lowest height and me at 6ft leaning forward I bang my head on the sun visor. When looking over my right shoulder I bang my head on the roof and once going over a bump (looking right) I got my head squashed between the roof and my shoulder. Also the same problem with the vanity mirrors.

MK3 Focus, the cup holders are a bit tight against the armrest and also too high so with a big cup in there it hits your arm when trying to change gear. The fuel tank in mine is too small. I understand that it only does 28mpg but a range of more than 300 miles would be nice, I can’t even go through a whole week without needing to fill up.

Having read all that, my C-max is a paragon of ergonomic delight!

Assides from the not folding flat rear seats though my other gripe about the be back is the ammount of wasted space in the wings of the boot, I’ve taken the trim off to fit a towbar and they could have had significantly more boot each side if they’d gone right out over the wheel arches rather than shrinking it to a flat sided shape.

A mate had a BMW where the climate control sensor was next to the cup holder, so on a warm day you put your nice cold drink in the cup holder and the car thinks ‘brrr, it’s a bit nippy, better put the heating on’. Vice versa in the winter, too. Genius.

Old 5 Series? I had one of those, it was the other way round than you described though, the heat off your coffee would make the climate control think it was roasting in the car and turn to full cold. The only thing you could do was turn the fan off (thus causing the screen to mist up) or turn up the requested temperature up to about 36 or whatever the max was. Then again, those cup holders didn’t, suggesting that they were a total afterthought.
I loved that car but it had a few issues like that; the wipers were still LHD even on the RHD versions, so the unswept corner was on the drivers side and I don’t think any height of driver could simultaneously get a comfy position and see the top part of the speedo and the turn signal indicator lights.
It was still a lovely car to own and drive though and at least avoided issues like the unlit stalks and minor controls on my current Subaru Outback that makes it very tricky to remember how to, for example, turn on the front driving lights after dark.

To go back to the opening post, I had a New shape C3 previous to my current car which is the DS3 both have the same issue, no cup holders which is bizarre in a car this size and the glove box is a joke, you can’t even fit the log books in it. Seriously I can get 3 cd cases, and that’s all that fits. Not even sure how or why the French did this.

maccruiskeen – Member

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.

With my Mazda 6, you get something like 30 seconds to close the windows after switching off.

ny 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.

My mk1 Octavia was the same.

LMT – Member

To go back to the opening post, I had a New shape C3 previous to my current car which is the DS3 both have the same issue, no cup holders which is bizarre in a car this size and the glove box is a joke, you can’t even fit the log books in it. Seriously I can get 3 cd cases, and that’s all that fits. Not even sure how or why the French did this.

My Wife’s old Pug 308 was like this. Fairly large, wide car with massive dashboard; open the glovebox and you could just about get some thin gloves in there and a CD case. No room for sunglasses or anything else.
What have they done with all that space!?

In my Ibiza the glovebox contains the service/log book/manual, a golf glove, a multi-way lighter socket adaptor, a suction cup phone mount, an HTC charger cord with socket, a spare pair of sunglasses, one of those small (3″?) round multi-LED lights and a broken On One QR seat clamp! And probably a few other bits….I should probably clear it out.

VW Golf mk 4 with climate control. There’s a “sunshine” sensor on the dashboard, right up by the windscreen, that measures the amount of “sunshine”. It overrides the climate control, so on days like today, zero degrees but sunny, it assumes the interior of the car is hot so it blows cold air unless you turn the temperature control to 29 degs.

The winter pack relay, controls the rain sensor wipers, auto dipping rear view mirror and the headlight washers. Has failed, replaced no bother, but requires setting via VAGCOM to make it work. £150 to plug it in according to the dealer. It’s now replaced with a standard intermittent wiper relay. But I get blinded by headlights in the mirror from behind.

Heated front seat wiring loom gets disconnected if you move the seat all the way back. I’m 6’4″ so that’s where it gets moved to. Seat out to reconnect. But the rear seats won’t fold flat unless the front seats are all the way forward.

Letting French people wire the French ones.

There’s a “sunshine” sensor on the dashboard, right up by the windscreen, that measures the amount of “sunshine”

Conversely, the Prius has one of those and it’s rather effective. Drive into shade on a hot sunny day, you suddenly feel the cold air but a second later it adjusts itself perfectly.

Cars that when turn a fog light comes on. Annoying as you can’t make out the indicator and you think it’s just some gimp driving with their fog lights on and one has broken

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.

I guess this is a new feature, my Octavia has the same key fob as the earlier ‘W’ reg Audi A4, two buttons, click one to lock, the other to unlock. Simple.
Headlight bulbs – piece of piss, open bonnet, unclip headlight rear cover, pull out old bulb, pop in new bulb, replace in headlight unit, replace cover. Close bonnet. Takes about five minutes, tops.
Stark contrast to the Puma, around forty-five minutes to replace a bulb, certainly not a roadside repair, especially if you haven’t got a damn great Torx wrench handy to undo all the bolts. 🙄
Heater controls in the Octy, on the other hand, are positively dangerous, stuck down below the radio, all the buttons are identical square ones, and impossible to tell apart without taking your eyes totally off the road to see what you’re doing.
Bloody stupid design.

switchbacktrog – Member
With my Mazda 6, you get something like 30 seconds to close the windows after switching off.

And if you press & hold the lock button on the key fob all the windows close.
Pressing and holding the open button will also open all the windows, great on those blazing hot days to vent the heat.
Some of the gloss/flush buttons for the media system could be better marked, but compared to the Vauxhall explosion in an Awia amp factory they are a paragon of ergonomics.

Also am I the only one to have never used a cup holder? If I want a drink of warm brown etc, I get out of the car and have a slurp while stretching my legs.

Not sure if its been said but lack of lights is probably down more to the fact that everyone has blackout speedos that are illuminated all the time rather than the old type which only got lit when the lights came on. Good way to realise your lights are off.

TR – sliding doors eh? You’ll be after a 1007 then…

FIAT Doblo seatbelt tensioners.

They don’t rewind the belt properly and the clip naturally comes to rest between the door and the jam.
So when you shut the door without checking you get a nice dent in the door recess, pillar recess or both.

Cars with two rear fog lights. Are you braking?

Cars with DRLs in the same cluster as front indicators where the DRL doesn’t shut down when indicating. I can’t tell if you’re indicating!

Any vehicle with LED lights where the DC supply is barely DC. BMW are really bad for this – their flickering rear lights are practically stroboscopic.

Any vehicle where the manufacturer is so skint that they produce one wiper design for LHD and RHD with a 4 bar linkage to extend the sweep across the screen. Renault started it with the clio, followed closely by BMW with the 5 series.

All brembo monbloc calipers. Fine on a race car where pads are changed all the time, but the retaining pins weld themselves into the caliper when used on the road. What was wrong with a bolt and a split pin?

Nope 1007 had stupid electric sliding doors….plus it loked like a mobility scooter 🙂

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Having read all that, my C-max is a paragon of ergonomic delight!

To be fair my MK2 cmax was quite good in terms of ergonomics but those rear seats are the work of the devil. They are just bloody stupid. Yes you can just fold all three down to get one bike in but it sits at an angle and I didn’t like that for long journeys. If you fold the seats forward they are so bloody deep that the reduce the size of your boot so much you have to take both wheels off the bike. To get 2 or more bikes in the boot you have to take at least 2 of the seats out. And where do you put them then? I don’t have a garage so ended up having to leave them in the conservatory which is less than ideal when that’s where the kids toss are.

The windscreen wipers on mine were an issue. Halfords didn’t stock any that would fit so I had to go to Ford. The wiper blades that For sold me didn’t fit either, it turned out that the fitting I needed had been superseded with one that didn’t fit and all the old blades had been binned. Luckily the chap on the parts counter managed to find a dealership reasonably locally who hadn’t emptied their bins and they had one set for me.

On top of that the 115 diesel engine is painfully slow with a powerband that makes my cock look chunky. It used to make me really angry, with a decent engine it would have been quite a nice car to drive. I could have lived with the stupid seats if it had a 2l petrol or similar.