What kind of car do you drive?

[D-Dey65]

Power windows apparently are standard, and are a welcome convenience. I don't have cruise control but I'd never use it if I did. And, nav system? Pfft, who needs that? It's actually amusing, given how much driving I do and how often I go to places I don't frequent, people are at times surprised to learn I don't have a GPS device or any such thing.

I do have cruise control, but I don't like to use it. At best I find it boring, and at worst I find it dangerous, either when you end up approaching a slow driver, or being the slow driver.
As for GPS devices, I got one as a gift, but I've never used it, or at least I was never able to. My parents got one as a gift and they used it; I was better than their GPS.

[realjd]

Power windows apparently are standard, and are a welcome convenience. I don't have cruise control but I'd never use it if I did. And, nav system? Pfft, who needs that? It's actually amusing, given how much driving I do and how often I go to places I don't frequent, people are at times surprised to learn I don't have a GPS device or any such thing.

I do have cruise control, but I don't like to use it. At best I find it boring, and at worst I find it dangerous, either when you end up approaching a slow driver, or being the slow driver.
As for GPS devices, I got one as a gift, but I've never used it, or at least I was never able to. My parents got one as a gift and they used it; I was better than their GPS.

GPS has it's uses. It's great for directions to specific addresses in unfamiliar cities, and great for warning about upcoming traffic so I can reroute. I use mine mostly when I'm traveling. Getting from the rental car place near the airport to my hotel to the office I'm visiting is much easier with the GPS, at lease the first time I drive it.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

(Do you visit the TurboBricks forums; is he "TDi244"? I'd be interested in knowing the mods involved in his specimen.)

Not too often.  I only have damn nearly 13,000 posts logged there... 

I'm almost certain I remember a guy that went buy TDI244 having a 13.9 sedan a few years back.  I used to have videos of it doing a burnout.  Still do, actually...they're just on a dead hard drive.  I'm going to attempt a platter-swap once I find a good identical chassis to see if I can't rescue all my old Volvo videos.

[1995hoo]

Funny you mentioned cruise control and a manual transmission.  Those were two musts in my book when I was car shopping.  I like cruise control for long trips.  It allows me to not worry about maintaining speed while I look for cool license plates and signs.  The manual transmission I wanted for a more hands on driving experience, however, I'll be the first to admit they suck in stop and go traffic.  

It's funny, while I've always found cruise control helpful on long trips, lately I've come to like it more and more for LOCAL driving when the traffic permits. It helps me keep my speed down on roads where I might otherwise be inclined to go faster. For example, coming back from downtown DC after a Caps game at night in the I-395 express lanes the speed limit is 65 and I often just get in the right lane and set the cruise control to 70 to keep myself from approaching 80 because anything over 80 is grounds for a reckless driving ticket in Virginia. On the 25-mph street that leads in and out of my neighborhood I sometimes set the cruise control at 30 mph to keep myself from going faster–and it majorly pisses off some of my neighbors who want to go 40 to 45 or faster.

Incidentally, I've always liked the way Acura's cruise control controls (that's awkward) are configured. Honda vehicles have long had (at least since 1982; I used to have an '82 Accord) a master switch for the cruise control and then on the steering wheel you have buttons for "Set" and "Resume." Those two buttons also let you decrease and increase, respectively, the set speed. Acura cruise controls have a third button: "Cancel." It lets you deactivate the cruise control, but retain the set speed, without tapping the clutch or the brakes. It's very useful in various situations, perhaps the most common being if there is a cop coming up behind you and you want to slow without being too obvious. In Honda vehicles hitting "Set" and "Resume" simultaneously does the same thing as "Cancel," but I know I've always found hitting those two buttons together to be much more awkward.


Regarding GPS devices, my Acura has one built-in and I find it useful as an aid, but it's not something I rely upon. On a long drive I sometimes activate the guidance even when I know which roads I want to use simply because it displays distance to the destination and an estimated travel time. Of course that's not foolproof, but it's useful to have the information at a glance. I like having the "Find nearest gas station" type feature as well, especially since I tend to try to go as far as possible on a tank before looking to fill up. My sat-nav is integrated into the car in terms of having voice control that operates both the navigation system and the radio and climate control systems, which can be useful at times (example, if I want to turn on the radio to get the traffic report but don't want to look at the display because of traffic, I just hit the button on the steering wheel and said "Radio 103.5-FM" and it turns it to that station). So I guess in my case it's the overall functionality of the system more than the mapping per se. My wife has a Garmin and one thing I like better about mine is that it has a joystick for panning the map around. When I'm stuck in stopped traffic in an unfamiliar area, the joystick is a lot easier to use to search for alternate routes than a touchscreen is.

(The mapping can zoom in a lot more than it was when I took this picture. BTW, the cruise control buttons are visible on the steering wheel. The master switch is above the "Cancel" button.)

.... I'm not aware of any "four pedal" cars.

....

The first car I owned was a 1977 Ford Granada that had a manual transmission (four on the floor), a pedal-operated parking brake, and a foot-operated high-beam switch; the latter was sort of like a button located down around where the dead pedal is on most modern cars. So I guess you could say that car sort of had "five pedals," although the high-beam switch wasn't a "pedal" in the truest sense.

[DeaconG]

This. I find when I'm on the highway, I rarely use the brake to control my speed, just the accelerate and decelerate buttons. Makes it much easier to decelerate two or three miles per hour to keep my distance from a car and accelerating back to my previous speed afterward is much more efficient.

I actually do the opposite.  I tap the brakes to disengage cruise control, and use accelerator and brake/coasting to set a new desire speed. 

I would be perfectly happy with a one-button cruise control ("lock speed at current")... my car has something like five (!) buttons for it, most of which I never use.  Just "on" when turning on the ignition - force of habit, just after disengaging the e-brake - and "set" to lock in when I want it engaged.

You'd love my cruise control, it has setpoints for six different speeds and you can go between them by either pulling the cruise control stalk forward or back to step through the setpoints.  It's a bit of a PITA to delete/change specific points, but once they're set you're good to go.

I can also set a speed limit alarm that warns me when I've reached a certain max speed limit.

[Sanctimoniously]

Those two buttons also let you decrease and increase, respectively, the set speed. Acura cruise controls have a third button: "Cancel." It lets you deactivate the cruise control, but retain the set speed, without tapping the clutch or the brakes. It's very useful in various situations, perhaps the most common being if there is a cop coming up behind you and you want to slow without being too obvious.

My car has the Cancel button as well, and I find it useful for the same reasons.

As far as my touchscreen controls go, all the infotainment functions actually have three ways to control them. There are physical buttons (radio has them on the center stack and the steering wheel), the touchscreen, and voice command. I usually only use the voice command to operate the phone functions, because I like to use the physical controls for the radio and AC. I usually keep the touchscreen on the Sirius screen. I always thought the RDS feature my second Buick had helped me expand my musical preferences since I could finally put a name and artist to some of my favorite songs as a kid, so I definitely like having those features again, and the large print of my LCD screen all but eliminates the scrolling my Buick had. I also have three Sirius bands that I can set presets for, and I can set it up to alert me when certain tracks come on.

[D-Dey65]

(The mapping can zoom in a lot more than it was when I took this picture. BTW, the cruise control buttons are visible on the steering wheel. The master switch is above the "Cancel" button.)

Add a USB and Auxillary jack or two to that thing, and you might make me jealous.


There have been a few aspects of GPS's that make me consider using them anyhow, even if I don't need them. One is the dual use as speed trap detector, and then there's the fact that you can get specialized voice programs for them.

[bulkyorled]

The inside of my car, a 2011 Honda CRZ. Awesome little thing it is. A few of the dashboard pics made me think of mine, especially that Oldsmobile with the digital everything 

[Takumi]

I like the look of the CR-Z, but I'm not buying one unless they make a high-performance version (~250-300 HP) of it.

[bulkyorled]

I love my car. I think it does what it needs to. I could use a bit more power but i like it haha I can't complain. I just love that its got a look like its from the not to distance future. Its like a mini Insight.

[bulkyorled]

I said in my OP that I wanted to get a Ford Flex, but I guess I caved a little bit to the allure of having a hatchback.





2012 Ford Focus SEL. MyFordTouch, Sync, alloy wheels, etc. Great little car, I love it.

I really love this. Its the first Focus I've ever liked. I dont mind old cars but I like that cars are starting to look like futuristic space ships and what not haha

[bugo]

I've ever liked. I dont mind old cars but I like that cars are starting to look like futuristic space ships and what not haha

I hate the way auto design is heading.  The Hyundai Sonata is a good example.  It's supposed to be a bland middle of the road car but it is grotesque looking.  Same for lots of other modern cars.  The best styling era was from 1954-1972.  Is it any coincidence that the best looking modern cars (Mustang, Challenger, Camaro) are built to resemble cars from this era?

[1995hoo]

(The mapping can zoom in a lot more than it was when I took this picture. BTW, the cruise control buttons are visible on the steering wheel. The master switch is above the "Cancel" button.)

Add a USB and Auxillary jack or two to that thing, and you might make me jealous.

....

I've never felt the need for a USB or AUX connector because that stereo plays DVD-Audio discs and I have the software to burn my own. That means that in addition to DVD-A being a high-rez format, I can also use it as a means of storing large quantities of CD-quality audio without using crappy lossy compression like MP3–for example, I fit the Beatles' first ten albums (Please Please Me through and including the White Album) onto a single disc, which is a lot more convenient than having the same material on 11 CDs. I know some people say "with an iPod you'd have even more stuff in less space," and that may be true but it doesn't matter to me. I almost prefer NOT having that amount of music in the car because I'd waste my time thinking about what to listen to, not to mention I prefer not to mess with iPod controls while driving.

[Takumi]

I love my car. I think it does what it needs to. I could use a bit more power but i like it haha I can't complain. I just love that its got a look like its from the not to distance future. Its like a mini Insight.

I'd like to see Honda use a retuned version of the original RDX engine (2.3L Turbo, 240 HP, 260 tq) in some of its cars. That engine in a base model CR-Z would be amazing to drive. Unfortunately, Honda killed it; the new RDX has a J35 V6.

[realjd]

I almost prefer NOT having that amount of music in the car because I'd waste my time thinking about what to listen to, not to mention I prefer not to mess with iPod controls while driving.

Assuming the car's software is up to par, it fully integrates with the iPod to the point where the song data is pushed to the car's screen, and you can use your car's radio interface to select songs. It may or may not be easier depending on how good the car's radio interface is. Plus, even the non-Siri iPhones have an excellent voice interface. I can just hit the home button and say "Play artist Beatles" for instance.

As for the sheer amount of music to choose from, I usually just keep it on shuffle.

[bulkyorled]

I don't like Hyundai at all really, but the rest I love. I'm glad we're finally getting cars that look like the future. Not the same old boring designs over and over that we use to see. It hit about 5 years ago. It changed from mostly cheap shitty looking things to a new style.

[realjd]

I don't like Hyundai at all really, but the rest I love. I'm glad we're finally getting cars that look like the future. Not the same old boring designs over and over that we use to see. It hit about 5 years ago. It changed from mostly cheap shitty looking things to a new style.

How can anyone dislike the Hyundai Equus? Such an awesome car!

[Truvelo]

Do I spot a cassette player in that Acura? When did I last drive a car that had one of those

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Do I spot a cassette player in that Acura? When did I last drive a car that had one of those

Prior to the advent of iPod interfaces (and/or AUX IN jacks) in factory and aftermarket stereos, I actually preferred a tape deck, so I could use my iPod in the car with one of those cassette adapters.  That was right up until 2005 or so.

[formulanone]

I also preferred the cassette adapters if a car did not have an AUX (auxiliary) port. The FM transmitters are usually woeful for any long trips, because you're always hunting for a blank station. I'm no audiophile, but there's also a huge sound quality difference between playing your music directly versus over the sonic limitations of a broadcasted frequency, for which fumbling over an extra cord is worth the trouble, in my opinion.

The problem is that fewer and fewer cars have cassette decks in them, since roughly 2005 or so, they've been phased out. I haven't had a rental car with one installed since 2007, although this probably varies on a model to model basis.

Edit: Just found out the 2010 Lexus SC 430 was the last vehicle produced for North America with a cassette deck; granted, most of its buyers are retirees, but that model also barely changed since its debut in March 2001. My guess is that Panasonic finally had to twist Toyota's arm a little!

[SteveG1988]

I drive a 2003 mercury sable now.

[signalman]

Do I spot a cassette player in that Acura? When did I last drive a car that had one of those

I noticed that as well, but never bothered to ask.  I was shocked to see it in a relatively new Acura, if that is infact what it is.

[1995hoo]

I almost prefer NOT having that amount of music in the car because I'd waste my time thinking about what to listen to, not to mention I prefer not to mess with iPod controls while driving.

Assuming the car's software is up to par, it fully integrates with the iPod to the point where the song data is pushed to the car's screen, and you can use your car's radio interface to select songs. It may or may not be easier depending on how good the car's radio interface is. Plus, even the non-Siri iPhones have an excellent voice interface. I can just hit the home button and say "Play artist Beatles" for instance.

As for the sheer amount of music to choose from, I usually just keep it on shuffle.

<shrugs> It's a 2004 TL and I don't believe such inputs were common back then (although to be fair, DVD-Audio compatibility has never been all that common either and it plays those).

Edited to add: That is indeed a cassette player. I've used a few times, not very often (usually when I have an old mixed tape that I haven't transferred to CD because it won't fit on one disc). You have to remember that with the TL, Acura/Honda wasn't chasing the 20-something demographic.

[bulkyorled]

I don't like Hyundai at all really, but the rest I love. I'm glad we're finally getting cars that look like the future. Not the same old boring designs over and over that we use to see. It hit about 5 years ago. It changed from mostly cheap shitty looking things to a new style.

How can anyone dislike the Hyundai Equus? Such an awesome car!

It looks like a knock off Mercedes to me 

[Sanctimoniously]

Edit: Just found out the 2010 Lexus SC 430 was the last vehicle produced for North America with a cassette deck; granted, most of its buyers are retirees, but that model also barely changed since its debut in March 2001. My guess is that Panasonic finally had to twist Toyota's arm a little!

Wow, I had no idea that model was still around in 2010. I never see them on the roads anymore.