Minor things that bother you

[Scott5114]

I rented a Mitsubishi Outlander for the trip I'm currently on, and today I had to gas it up for the first time. As I got to the pump, I saw that it had one of those fuel doors that you have to open from inside the car. So I looked for a button or something that looked like it would open the fuel door, but I couldn't see anything. I then checked the manual, assuming I had just overlooked it, but it just said there was a lever somewhere on the left side of the driver but didn't actually show where it was. (The only lever I could see was for the hood, which I popped in the process of trying to find this mystery lever.) It was only after looking up an instruction video on Youtube that I learned that the fuel door lever was on the floor next to the driver's door, and it turned out mine was covered up by the floor mat. Why on earth would the designers put a lever you need to use on a regular basis somewhere so unintuitive?

Most Japanese cars have the fuel lever on the floor near the driver's door.

Huh, this is the first time I've run into it, but this is also the first time I've needed to gas up a Japanese car in a while. My own car is an American car where you can just open the fuel door, and my last couple of rentals were Hyundais where the fuel lever was somewhere more convenient.

On my mom's Highlander, there is a button to open the rear hatch very close to this button. Maybe the idea is that they want it to be easily accessible, but you won't be able to accidentally hit it while you're driving.

My wife's Honda has a two-way lever where if you pull it one direction it pops the trunk and pulling it the other way opens the fuel door. Whenever I need to get something out of her trunk it's even money whether I actually remember which way the thing goes.

[SSOWorld]

I rented a Mitsubishi Outlander for the trip I'm currently on, and today I had to gas it up for the first time. As I got to the pump, I saw that it had one of those fuel doors that you have to open from inside the car. So I looked for a button or something that looked like it would open the fuel door, but I couldn't see anything. I then checked the manual, assuming I had just overlooked it, but it just said there was a lever somewhere on the left side of the driver but didn't actually show where it was. (The only lever I could see was for the hood, which I popped in the process of trying to find this mystery lever.) It was only after looking up an instruction video on Youtube that I learned that the fuel door lever was on the floor next to the driver's door, and it turned out mine was covered up by the floor mat. Why on earth would the designers put a lever you need to use on a regular basis somewhere so unintuitive?

Most Japanese cars have the fuel lever on the floor near the driver's door.

Huh, this is the first time I've run into it, but this is also the first time I've needed to gas up a Japanese car in a while. My own car is an American car where you can just open the fuel door, and my last couple of rentals were Hyundais where the fuel lever was somewhere more convenient.

The hyundai I have includes a "deadbolt" lock on the fuel door.

[Max Rockatansky]

My 2024 Corolla has an electronic release button under the wheel that has an odd half a second delay.  One time it took three seconds to release and a message popped up on the gauge cluster reading "opening fuel door."   I much prefer the mechanical floor lever my last two Subarus had. 

[1995hoo]

I'm used to having the fuel lever on the floor and the trunk-pop button on the underside of the dashboard, but in my wife's Acura TLX they're both buttons located next to each other at the bottom left of the dashboard. I've hit the wrong button once or twice.

I prefer having the fuel-filler release inside the car as opposed to having to use a key to unlock it, or alternatively to having it unsecured. My first car (a 1977 Ford Granada) didn't have a locking gas cap—anyone could open it and put stuff in your tank (or, in the 1979–80 gas line era, siphon off your gas, though that was long before I had that car). Indeed one day at school someone stole my gas cap, presumably as a prank. I wound up replacing it with a locking gas cap that used a key, which is one reason I know I dislike using a key for that purpose.

[GaryV]

My Escape has a push button for the fuel filler door, right above (or is it below?) the button for the back hatch. Two things bother me - I might push the wrong one, or I forget to push it at all until I'm outside the car.

[kphoger]

The trunk release gets stuck on my car.  When I first bought the vehicle, it wouldn't latch without pushing the release button a bunch of times.  So, ever since then, I only ever use the key to unlock the trunk.

[Plutonic Panda]

My 2024 Corolla has an electronic release button under the wheel that has an odd half a second delay.  One time it took three seconds to release and a message popped up on the gauge cluster reading "opening fuel door."   I much prefer the mechanical floor lever my last two Subarus had. 

Is that true that you have to pay for subscriptions for the new Toyota Corolla's or Camry's for things like having seat warmers or heated steering wheels, etc. that are already installed in the car?

[Max Rockatansky]

My 2024 Corolla has an electronic release button under the wheel that has an odd half a second delay.  One time it took three seconds to release and a message popped up on the gauge cluster reading "opening fuel door."   I much prefer the mechanical floor lever my last two Subarus had. 

Is that true that you have to pay for subscriptions for the new Toyota Corolla's or Camry's for things like having seat warmers or heated steering wheels, etc. that are already installed in the car?

Don't know, I got the base model.

[vdeane]

Well, my car's aux port saga continues.  Another attempt to use my (worse than useless) tool to remove the broken piece, I discovered that I've made the problem even worse than it was before.  Before, I could at least plug in the broken end of the cable and get audio from the right speaker.  Now, not only have I failed to remove the broken piece, but I've dislodged it such that even the broken end of the aux cable no longer fits in the jack, and the jack is now completely useless.  I no longer have any means of playing audio from my phone in the car (especially as I will never, under any circumstances, connect the phone via USB or Bluetooth due to data privacy/security concerns).  Please help!

I rented a Mitsubishi Outlander for the trip I'm currently on, and today I had to gas it up for the first time. As I got to the pump, I saw that it had one of those fuel doors that you have to open from inside the car. So I looked for a button or something that looked like it would open the fuel door, but I couldn't see anything. I then checked the manual, assuming I had just overlooked it, but it just said there was a lever somewhere on the left side of the driver but didn't actually show where it was. (The only lever I could see was for the hood, which I popped in the process of trying to find this mystery lever.) It was only after looking up an instruction video on Youtube that I learned that the fuel door lever was on the floor next to the driver's door, and it turned out mine was covered up by the floor mat. Why on earth would the designers put a lever you need to use on a regular basis somewhere so unintuitive?

Interestingly, as a lifelong Honda driver, that's literally the first place I would have looked!  Although I'm not sure why the floor mat would be covering it.

[hbelkins]

Well, my car's aux port saga continues.  Another attempt to use my (worse than useless) tool to remove the broken piece, I discovered that I've made the problem even worse than it was before.  Before, I could at least plug in the broken end of the cable and get audio from the right speaker.  Now, not only have I failed to remove the broken piece, but I've dislodged it such that even the broken end of the aux cable no longer fits in the jack, and the jack is now completely useless.  I no longer have any means of playing audio from my phone in the car (especially as I will never, under any circumstances, connect the phone via USB or Bluetooth due to data privacy/security concerns).  Please help!

Check around to see if there are any audio shops in your area who could take care of it. You shouldn't have to take it to a dealership to get it taken care of.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

My Escape has a push button for the fuel filler door, right above (or is it below?) the button for the back hatch. Two things bother me - I might push the wrong one, or I forget to push it at all until I'm outside the car.

One that bothers me in the winter - mine gets frozen shut and I have to bang and dig around through the edges so I can get it to pop open.

[Molandfreak]

A 55 gallon garbage bag is "large," and a 30 gallon bag is "standard", Target...

[kkt]

The enshitification of stuff in stores continues with tape!
Roll of tape bought a few years ago:  3/4" wide x 850"
Rolls of tape bought today at Target:  3/4" wide x 350"

So not only do you get less product for the same price, you're buying proportionately more plastic cases...

[GaryV]

People who report long-term construction projects on Google Maps or Waze. Why do people continue to report construction on I-696? Yes, it's under construction. It's been that way for a year now, and will be for the next 2 years. I don't think it has to be reported again.

[Molandfreak]

People who report long-term construction projects on Google Maps or Waze. Why do people continue to report construction on I-696? Yes, it's under construction. It's been that way for a year now, and will be for the next 2 years. I don't think it has to be reported again.

You probably know that, but it's useful information for someone a few states away who is visiting.

[kphoger]

Incidentally, the number of places closed on 1/1 is a minor thing that bothers me.  I don't think I've celebrated New Year's Day since I was 10, and I don't know anyone else who does either.  The real celebrations are all 12/31 for New Year's Eve, with the holiday being useful only for being able to sleep in after staying up to ring in the new year.

From several of your posts, I've gotten the impression that you think you should be able to conduct any sort of business you need without having to take any time off from work for it.  I don't get it.  I expect most businesses to keep regular hours:  Monday to Friday, closed in the evenings, closed on the week-end except for maybe a shorter schedule on Saturday.  If I can schedule an appointment outside of my own regular work hours, then I consider that a bonus, not the norm.

Anyway, I think it's a good thing that businesses aren't expected to have everyone come in first thing on 1/1 after attending parties that by definition go past midnight and traditionally include alcohol.  If anything, it annoys me more when a business closes at noon on 12/31, because who makes New Year's Eve plans for the early afternoon?

[1995hoo]

... If anything, it annoys me more when a business closes at noon on 12/31, because who makes New Year's Eve plans for the early afternoon?

I was rather annoyed that there is a Capitals game at 12:30 this afternoon because today is not a holiday, although ultimately I somewhat unexpectedly wound up with the day off. I feel like 4:00 or 5:00 would have been a better time for it because many offices do close early, or even if they don't it's generally not a big deal to leave early on New Year's Eve. But 12:30 seems a little extreme.


In the vein of vdeane's comment, the trash company that services our neighborhood quite rightly gives the garbage men the day off on New Year's Day, July 4, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Neighborhoods that get serviced on those days have their pickups slide one day, which in turn means other neighborhoods also slide a day. Friday is one of our trash days, so this year that meant we had Saturday pickup after July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and we will again this week. It's always eminently clear that at least 75% of residents have no clue about it because they rush to put their trash out on Thursday anyway, but what I find annoying is that they then complain about the rescheduled pickup. Some say they weren't given adequate notice (which isn't true—they just ignore the communications about it), whereas others complain about the "inconvenience" and object that the trash company "shouldn't be allowed" to delay pickup. Give me a break. Talk about arrogant self-centered attitudes. Of all the thankless jobs most people would never want to do, trash pickup has to be near the top of the list. How much of an asshole do you have to be to begrudge the garbage men Christmas Day off work?

(I wonder, come December 2026 when Christmas falls on Friday, how many people are going to insist on putting their trash out for pickup that day.)

[vdeane]

Incidentally, the number of places closed on 1/1 is a minor thing that bothers me.  I don't think I've celebrated New Year's Day since I was 10, and I don't know anyone else who does either.  The real celebrations are all 12/31 for New Year's Eve, with the holiday being useful only for being able to sleep in after staying up to ring in the new year.

From several of your posts, I've gotten the impression that you think you should be able to conduct any sort of business you need without having to take any time off from work for it.  I don't get it.  I expect most businesses to keep regular hours:  Monday to Friday, closed in the evenings, closed on the week-end except for maybe a shorter schedule on Saturday.  If I can schedule an appointment outside of my own regular work hours, then I consider that a bonus, not the norm.

Anyway, I think it's a good thing that businesses aren't expected to have everyone come in first thing on 1/1 after attending parties that by definition go past midnight and traditionally include alcohol.  If anything, it annoys me more when a business closes at noon on 12/31, because who makes New Year's Eve plans for the early afternoon?

A lot of this is the trials and tribulations of living 200 miles from family while being tired pretty much all the time; I end up "crashing" and sleeping in pretty much every Saturday (I'm often not ready to do anything out of my apartment until 3:00 PM on Saturdays; after a week of using willpower to force myself to be on time/productive, I have nothing left once the weekend rolls around), followed by still sleeping in Sunday, and if I can't for whatever reason, like attending a roadmeet, I need to take a day off to do later.  Travel to/from visiting my parents also happens during the day and results in a whole day of the trip being just packing, driving, and settling in, even though any normal person would just drive over after work and return right before bed.  I also have extensive evening routines, including watching the local news and checking many websites (including this forum), which I'm loathe to compromise on.  These factors tend to balloon the amount of time off I use every year to the point where I need to ration it (especially since the past couple years I've used so much that I've been drawing down the reserve I keep to avoid having to worry about when time accrues relative to my time off; the last thing I want is to be living "paycheck to paycheck", but with vacation time instead of money).  And it's hard to justify visiting family less when my parents (and most of my extended family, especially those that I see the most) aren't getting any younger (and I mentally start to go stir crazy if I go too long without visiting, which is an interesting balancing act given how the long Thruway drives affect me; honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do when they reach the point where they can't live independently without assistance anymore, though hopefully that won't be for another 10 years).

This has become a major stressor as of late as I've been needing to find any efficiency I can reasonably do while not cutting trips to visit family, roadmeets, or making my mental burnout even worse than it already is.  Combined with the unexpected nature of this (I honestly thought that I was going to be able to magically fix this problem with that tool and the idea that I could make things worse didn't occur to me at all) and the fact that I've already been panicking over the logistics of fixing the wheel bearing when that comes to (thankfully not imminent, but the last time had the car in the shop a whole day, and the person who drove me to work and back has since retired, and as someone with few social connections outside of family members who live far away, I don't have many people I feel comfortable asking).

As for New Year's Eve, how late do people stay up?  Back when the family New Year's gathering was still a thing (most recently ~15-20 years ago IIRC; it started dying after some of my cousins started going to Michigan every year and the nail in the coffin was when Grandma passed), we'd watch the ball drop on ABC, have a glass of champaign when the clock struck midnight, and then everyone would go home shortly thereafter (well, one year we were up until 2:00, but that was very unusual and I think we got sidetracked by some conversation or something).  I'm aware that parties with younger people have more drinking and stuff, but only vaguely, having never had the pleasure of participating in such things myself.  Meanwhile, at work and on the forum I'll regularly hear comments from people not sure if they'll even be able to stay awake until midnight, since being an early bird is more common than being a night owl is society.

I don't care if anything is open on the morning of 1/1 (lord knows I won't be, and the same holds true for Saturdays; Sundays I am awake, but busy watching the morning political shows until 11:30), but the bit with the afternoon too is odd to me.  Maybe because most people actually do shit on the weekends, rather than "crash" to manage their unmedicated ADHD?

Honestly, I know I have big, structural problems with how I live life... but fixing them is easier said than done, especially since the only thing I've managed to get out of therapy is official recognition that I do, in fact, have ADHD.

[kphoger]

I've already been panicking over the logistics of fixing the wheel bearing when that comes to ...

Wait, what?  Do you have a known wheel bearing problem and are still driving around on it?

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife makes me stay up to midnight on New Year's Eve and she usually hosts a party.  I don't particularly care to do so myself, but social obligations now dictate otherwise. 

The social norm nowadays seems to be that a high percentage of people have work today and tomorrow.  My office will be closed tomorrow which threw a camera installer for a loop this morning when I told he would need to come back on Friday. 

[1995hoo]

I slept 90 minutes later than usual this morning, so I may make it to midnight this year without dozing off on the couch. There was one year when I dozed off and woke up at 11:57 PM. 

[GaryV]

There was one year when I dozed off and woke up at 11:57 PM. 

Did you stay awake for the next 3 minutes? 

[thenetwork]

When I lived in the Eastern time zone, it was always fun to stay up until the ball dropped in NYC, because it was shown live.

Once I got married and moved out to the Mountain time zone, we celebrated when the East Coast did, although it was a bit harder to watch the ball drop "Live" as many of the local stations and networks tape-delayed it to "synch" with the local 12:00AM time.

I'll usually go to bed after 10PM, but will usually be woken up at Midnight with the annual amateur fireworks in the area.

I guess in some states, like New Mexico, they will open up pop-up fireworks stands for the week or two leading up to New Years just like they do leading up to the 4th of July.

[hbelkins]

I've already been panicking over the logistics of fixing the wheel bearing when that comes to ...

Wait, what?  Do you have a known wheel bearing problem and are still driving around on it?

Depends on the problem. If it's just making a little noise when cornering, it's not a big deal.

[1995hoo]

There was one year when I dozed off and woke up at 11:57 PM.

Did you stay awake for the next 3 minutes? 

Of course. The only year in the past 40+ years when I don't remember midnight hitting on New Year's was 1997. I was home from law school and I decided to go see Titanic with my parents because I had no other plans. The movie didn't end until around 1:00 in the morning.

Despite my earlier comment, I had a nice 45-minute nap on the couch earlier tonight during the first half of the Cotton Bowl.