Things Id like in a future car design

[Tonz]

Id love the oportunity of buying a chassis, selecting what engine & transmission then wait for it....

interchangable body panels... like an old Land rover. SUV type thing, remove the rear panel and have a 4 door ute/pickup, unbold the roof and have a convertable...hell the red wine is kicking good.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Tonz

Id love the oportunity of buying a chassis, selecting what engine & transmission then wait for it....

interchangable body panels... like an old Land rover. SUV type thing, remove the rear panel and have a 4 door ute/pickup, unbold the roof and have a convertable...hell the red wine is kicking good.

Sort of like a truck.

[Tonz]

hot diggity, immagine driving that down the Hume or across the Nullabor, flies, bugs, err no thanks, around town for advertising yes.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Tonz

hot diggity, immagine driving that down the Hume or across the Nullabor, flies, bugs, err no thanks, around town for advertising yes.

The bugs and flies wouldn't bother me, Its the badge on the front that would.

[anobserver]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

Apart from seeing tactile buttons (the low spec SY Territory is a great setup as mentioned above), I'd like to see simple mechanicals, robust simple suspensions and 'built to last'.

And bench seat 6 seater wagons, bench seat 3 seater panel vans. Column shifts. Make use of all the width of the car.

There was a campaign in the 80s for these very outcomes. Increasing car prices were blamed on higher complexity, demanded by more and more safety regs.

Did we get a simple and cheap aussie made car? Of course not.

Instead, we got a deregulated financial market that ponzied everything in sight, including housing. Joe six pack didn't need a simple and cheap car when he could withdraw the fake equity from his always rising house valuation, and use it to lease a complex and overpriced foreign made $#@% box, guaranteed to last the length of the warranty, but not a second longer. When he could trade in, redraw and carry on.

And here we are today, decades later. Older, often indebted, and with cars we can't repair or maintain economically.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

I'm hearing you.

For eg, there are controls in the big screen in the new Outbacks, but, there's also a camera that will beep at you if you take your eyes off the road.

Does not compute.

The old man's i30N has some fatigue warning system that keeps an eye on your face.

But I can use my phone while driving it and it doesn't do anything

But god forbid you're turning right from the outside lane of a roundabout and someone else is also turning right from the inside lane, the blindspot monitor goes off its head.

I like the concept of the VDJ79 but I don't like the accompanying $120,000 price tag, same with the Suzuki Jimny.

The Jap trucks like the Isuzu NPR are like the reasonably priced VDJ79.

[Burnout]

Looking back and forward, Im becoming more impressed with the Early X Series Falcons.
1/4 windows & the Giant hand opened air vent under the Dash on either side inside . At least you knew they were working, cause when you opened them at speed all the dust, leaves and twigs off the floor blew around the cabin or into your eyes. At least the bloody things worked.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Burnout

Looking back and forward, Im becoming more impressed with the Early X Series Falcons.
1/4 windows & the Giant hand opened air vent under the Dash on either side inside . At least you knew they were working, cause when you opened them at speed all the dust, leaves and twigs off the floor blew around the cabin or into your eyes. At least the bloody things worked.

As long as they are, as you say the earlier cable operated ones.
Stupid XF ones are vacuum operated, found out they don't work when you disconnect the ****y little green line from the inlet manifold.

[Ben73]

I like new cars with modern tech, but I also want a brand new 0km car from the 90s.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Ben73

I like new cars with modern tech, but I also want a brand new 0km car from the 90s.

EV series 1 AU Falcon Forte with the whale mouth grill

[lra]

Originally Posted by Top_Ghia

Maybe we are just too old.
Today I witnessed a 10 year old boy jump in a new Everest and pair his dads phone and get Apple car play working, all in about 30 seconds.
Keep in mind this car and system was new to him.
He also had the hvac system dialed in even quicker time.

So I think the next generation will be more than comfortable with all the touch screens going forward. It was quite an eye opener.

Compare that to the average 60 year old that can’t connect their phone or even change screens on a display. There’s quite a few older drivers who are too afraid to touch any buttons in their cars.
I still say the industry needs a “country pack” with zero technology in it. It could have am/fm radio and basic hvac controls. I’d call it a country pack as elderly pack isn’t too pc.

This is what annoys me about modern cars.
The technology connectivity, driver aids and extraneous stuff has overtaken the purpose of a vehicle in basic form, that is to get you from A to B as quickly and comfortably as practical.

I don't care if a 10 year old can set up all the doodads in record time. I want a 16 >17 year old to be able to control a car without driving it into the trees or a shop because some electronic chip failed.

I am one of those elderly drivers who hates keyless activation, self locking, and a distracting tablet stuck to dash that resembles a slab of kitchen bench.
I completely fail to understand why the simple functions of slotting a key into a hole, selecting a lever into 'D', releasing a real 'handbrake' and having a selection of favourite music entertainment to insert into a hole in the dash, have to be replaced by a different method which will be obsolete itself in 10 years.

Yes, I am too old for this ****, but I do enjoy driving my uncomplicated 21 year old dinosaur juice V8.

[Top_Ghia]

Originally Posted by lra

This is what annoys me about modern cars.
The technology connectivity, driver aids and extraneous stuff has overtaken the purpose of a vehicle in basic form, that is to get you from A to B as quickly and comfortably as practical.

I don't care if a 10 year old can set up all the doodads in record time. I want a 16 >17 year old to be able to control a car without driving it into the trees or a shop because some electronic chip failed.

I am one of those elderly drivers who hates keyless activation, self locking, and a distracting tablet stuck to dash that resembles a slab of kitchen bench.
I completely fail to understand why the simple functions of slotting a key into a hole, selecting a lever into 'D', releasing a real 'handbrake' and having a selection of favourite music entertainment to insert into a hole in the dash, have to be replaced by a different method which will be obsolete itself in 10 years.

Yes, I am too old for this ****, but I do enjoy driving my uncomplicated 21 year old dinosaur juice V8.

It sounds like you’d be a candidate for my “country pack”.
Maybe I’ll add a CD player as an optional extra.

[lra]

Originally Posted by Top_Ghia

It sounds like you’d be a candidate for my “country pack”.
Maybe I’ll add a CD player as an optional extra.

As long as the CD player doesn't play just country or western music.

But ......... seriously, my (outdated) opinion is that there are too many distractions, and the method of operation, in new cars that take attention away from actually driving.
And, if my grandsons are any indication, they don't care about the basics of their car, like, checking tyre pressures, knowing if something is 'not right' and following it up.
I asked one if his car had been damaged in a recent hail storm .... "I don't think so". About a week later I showed him about 20 dents in the roof, he had not seen them, and didn't care.
So, if cars become a very expensive, electronic, disposable commodity ......... not my problem, as I won't be here to stress.

[Franco Cozzo]

It's always electronics failures that bring about the early demise of cars, they become uneconomical to fix/repair/keep on road.

Add on top virtually zero information available to the aftermarket to fix them, with dealerships having access to all the information but preferring to just do scheduled servicing rather than attempting to fix more in-depth problems, combined with huge staff turnover in the workshop and we're in a situation where cars are disposable goods.

My daily is a WZ Fiesta ST, now 212,000km on the clock, it's not given any mechanical problems what so ever aside from usual maintenance items like engine mounts, but the stereo is on the fritz with Bluetooth randomly working and not working and there's a CAN issue causing intermittent front windscreen washers to only work one in every 50 presses.

I think with EVs they're mechanically and electrically simpler than current ICE cars, they don't have any of the emissions control bull**** nor require hugely complex electrical systems.

Plus with Tesla they've got the backing of nerds/geeks which normal cars don't, you should see all the things the army of geeks are designing and turning out for Tesla cars you can print on 3D printers.

[anobserver]

Originally Posted by lra

As long as the CD player doesn't play just country or western music.

But ......... seriously, my (outdated) opinion is that there are too many distractions, and the method of operation, in new cars that take attention away from actually driving.
And, if my grandsons are any indication, they don't care about the basics of their car, like, checking tyre pressures, knowing if something is 'not right' and following it up..

I wonder it the tech not only distracts, but supplants actual driving and de-skills those thinking they are driving.

Blind spot detection, speed alerts, crash sensors, driver monitoring, radar object detection..... all make it 'easier'..... to not drive at all, but just passively steer. No insight or involvement needed.

And in so doing, theres no need to learn how a car functions, or warning signs all is not well. Because we've been removed from that awareness by a tech intervention that promises to keep us safe at all times.

Anybody who knows what a clicking cv joint sounds like, or the smell of a binding brake disc, will know those things shouldnt be ignored.

My mate told me a story recently of test driving the business mini bus. Someone had said it had a noise in it, and they were having to turn up the radio. He took it for a drive and immediately from the grinding racket knew the diff was blown.

But to the office staff, it was just a noise that drowned out the radio.

[Top_Ghia]

Originally Posted by anobserver

I wonder it the tech not only distracts, but supplants actual driving and de-skills those thinking they are driving.

Blind spot detection, speed alerts, crash sensors, driver monitoring, radar object detection..... all make it 'easier'..... to not drive at all, but just passively steer. No insight or involvement needed.

And in so doing, theres no need to learn how a car functions, or warning signs all is not well. Because we've been removed from that awareness by a tech intervention that promises to keep us safe at all times.

Anybody who knows what a clicking cv joint sounds like, or the smell of a binding brake disc, will know those things shouldnt be ignored.

My mate told me a story recently of test driving the business mini bus. Someone had said it had a noise in it, and they were having to turn up the radio. He took it for a drive and immediately from the grinding racket knew the diff was blown.

But to the office staff, it was just a noise that drowned out the radio.

I take issue with the current generation of driver aids. They are meant to be aids but are quite invasive and take over the driving. Now this would be ok if the technology was prefect but it’s far from it.
So there you are cruising down the highway with adaptive cruise with speed sign recognition keeping the speed in check. The lane keep system now with lane centering means the car virtually drives itself, until it doesn’t.
So you tend to rely on it a bit too much and can zone out a bit and you can suddenly find yourself in a situation where you’re suddenly leaving your lane or the road itself. Where previously you may have been paying more attention and anticipating this better.
So these systems are great until they aren’t.
I like my SZ II Territory level of tech. It’s all passive and in the background. It has very well calibrated stability control and abs and plenty of airbags I hope are never required. But you still have to drive the car.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by lra

This is what annoys me about modern cars.
The technology connectivity, driver aids and extraneous stuff has overtaken the purpose of a vehicle in basic form, that is to get you from A to B as quickly and comfortably as practical.

I don't care if a 10 year old can set up all the doodads in record time. I want a 16 >17 year old to be able to control a car without driving it into the trees or a shop because some electronic chip failed.

I am one of those elderly drivers who hates keyless activation, self locking, and a distracting tablet stuck to dash that resembles a slab of kitchen bench.
I completely fail to understand why the simple functions of slotting a key into a hole, selecting a lever into 'D', releasing a real 'handbrake' and having a selection of favourite music entertainment to insert into a hole in the dash, have to be replaced by a different method which will be obsolete itself in 10 years.

Yes, I am too old for this ****, but I do enjoy driving my uncomplicated 21 year old dinosaur juice V8.

You don't have to be too old to hate that stuff, I'm closing in on 37 and I find some of these "innovations" to be frustrating to deal with. If you can't even remember to lock your car, then what does that say about you as a driver?

[Franco Cozzo]

Old mans I30N Sedan ****s me with all its 'safety' stuff - turn off forward collision stuff, lane keeping assist and all the warnings except blind spot monitoring.

You have to do it EVERY DAMN TIME you start the car, or it always defaults to on, its a right pain in the ***.

Even the blind spot assist, if you're in the left lane of a roundabout turning right, and someone is on the inside lane also turning right, the blind spot monitor goes off its head.

You just get all these beeps and boops and all sorts of crap, absolute nonsense, should be able to request the dealership put its default state to OFF.

With the lane keeping assist, if it doesn't like the line you've picked it'll take control of the steering wheel - **** off.

It basically drives itself with all that junk turned on, if thats the case why do we even have a steering wheel? Let me sit in the back seat and it can drive itself then.

I like passive safety features, like ABS/SCS/TCS/SRS - the ones that sit in the background and step in when it turns to **** rather than the ones that want to take the steering wheel out of my hand or jam on brakes or do any of this nonsense.

[DFB FGXR6]

I'm a fan of automotive innovation when it comes to design and technology advancements. Without that, we would be still driving around in unsafe tin cans with underpowered and thirsty engines.

What I'm not a fan of is when something universally understood and functionally perfect gets re-designed for the sake of re-designing, in the process making it function worse or more complicated than it needs to be.

Top of mind would be the modern gear selector. Various companies have made this vital part of the car more complex and needlessly unintuitive, removing the classic P-R-N-D selector gate with a defined detent for each setting. In some cases, this has led to dangerous situations, to the point where Jeep had a lawsuit against them for transmissions not being properly put in park.

BMW have been doing this for years now, Volvo joined the party, and now Ford.








If these shifters saved space on the center console, that would at least be a functional benefit. But they don't, so these things are just different for the sake of different.

And while I'm at, Ford, the + and - button for manual shifting has to go! A terrible design that just isn't intuitive or pleasant to use. Ford had the manual function on most of its cars nailed, this solution is a massive step backward.







The only alternative gear selector I like is what Jaguar have been using since the release of XF back in 2008. Ford have also added it to a selection of their models, the Mustang GT500 as well.









This solution is so wonderfully intuitive, offering a defined P-R-N-D detent, all operated in a single movement rather than having separate park switches, which in turn makes selecting a gear a two step process.

[kevino]

Kia s and Hyundai s are getting some pretty bad raps for all this nanny stuff

LKA can be turned off permanently in Ford Puma
It doesn’t beep when you go over the speed limit
It’s un nanny like for a 2022 car
Although when you turn it off before you get out it beeps at you non stop to check rear seat passengers but stops when you open the door

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by kevino

Kia s and Hyundai s are getting some pretty bad raps for all this nanny stuff

LKA can be turned off permanently in Ford Puma
It doesn’t beep when you go over the speed limit
It’s un nanny like for a 2022 car
Although when you turn it off before you get out it beeps at you non stop to check rear seat passengers but stops when you open the door

They got all this beep boop, take control of the steering wheel and jam on the brakes stuff, but they can't get cruise control to maintain speed properly, set it to 100 and point it down a hill and do 125km/h

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

I'm a fan of automotive innovation when it comes to design and technology advancements. Without that, we would be still driving around in unsafe tin cans with underpowered and thirsty engines.

What I'm not a fan of is when something universally understood and functionally perfect gets re-designed for the sake of re-designing, in the process making it function worse or more complicated than it needs to be.

Top of mind would be the modern gear selector. Various companies have made this vital part of the car more complex and needlessly unintuitive, removing the classic P-R-N-D selector gate with a defined detent for each setting. In some cases, this has led to dangerous situations, to the point where Jeep had a lawsuit against them for transmissions not being properly put in park.

BMW have been doing this for years now, Volvo joined the party, and now Ford.


image

image

image

If these shifters saved space on the center console, that would at least be a functional benefit. But they don't, so these things are just different for the sake of different.

And while I'm at, Ford, the + and - button for manual shifting has to go! A terrible design that just isn't intuitive or pleasant to use. Ford had the manual function on most of its cars nailed, this solution is a massive step backward.


image

image


The only alternative gear selector I like is what Jaguar have been using since the release of XF back in 2008. Ford have also added it to a selection of their models, the Mustang GT500 as well.


image

image

image


This solution is so wonderfully intuitive, offering a defined P-R-N-D detent, all operated in a single movement rather than having separate park switches, which in turn makes selecting a gear a two step process.

The SA Focus has that round knob style of shifter too, I don't mind it but I'm a fan of ye olde T-bar with the clearly defined detent for an auto as well

[Sprintey]

Count me in for the CD player in my country pack wagon, I promise I will play Ween's '12 Golden Country Greats' and listen to such classics as 'Japanese Cowboy', **** up a rope', 'Help Me Get This Mucus Off My Brain' and 'Fluffy'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzTb...fZqFRhTK1cdBnE

It's actually a really accomplished album too with some of the great session players on it...

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by Burnout

Looking back and forward, Im becoming more impressed with the Early X Series Falcons.
1/4 windows & the Giant hand opened air vent under the Dash on either side inside . At least you knew they were working, cause when you opened them at speed all the dust, leaves and twigs off the floor blew around the cabin or into your eyes. At least the bloody things worked.

I mean, why not have this in electric? Great battery and management system, the 1/4 vent windows, simple buttons, a very bare-bones electric system, lots of mechanically operated comforts that will last an era, the passive safety tech, the styling of an XA Falcon 500 ute, and a CD player. This surely is possible.

[kevino]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

They got all this beep boop, take control of the steering wheel and jam on the brakes stuff, but they can't get cruise control to maintain speed properly, set it to 100 and point it down a hill and do 125km/h



The SA Focus has that round knob style of shifter too, I don't mind it but I'm a fan of ye olde T-bar with the clearly defined detent for an auto as well

Should have got a Tesla Franco?

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by anobserver

There was a campaign in the 80s for these very outcomes. Increasing car prices were blamed on higher complexity, demanded by more and more safety regs.

Did we get a simple and cheap aussie made car? Of course not.

Instead, we got a deregulated financial market that ponzied everything in sight, including housing. Joe six pack didn't need a simple and cheap car when he could withdraw the fake equity from his always rising house valuation, and use it to lease a complex and overpriced foreign made $#@% box, guaranteed to last the length of the warranty, but not a second longer. When he could trade in, redraw and carry on.

And here we are today, decades later. Older, often indebted, and with cars we can't repair or maintain economically.

The genius of materialism is to get you to buy stuff you don't need, often.

[anobserver]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Old mans I30N Sedan ****s me with all its 'safety' stuff - turn off forward collision stuff, lane keeping assist and all the warnings except blind spot monitoring.
You have to do it EVERY DAMN TIME you start the car, or it always defaults to on, its a right pain in the ***.
Even the blind spot assist, if you're in the left lane of a roundabout turning right, and someone is on the inside lane also turning right, the blind spot monitor goes off its head.
You just get all these beeps and boops and all sorts of crap, absolute nonsense, should be able to request the dealership put its default state to OFF.
With the lane keeping assist, if it doesn't like the line you've picked it'll take control of the steering wheel - **** off.
It basically drives itself with all that junk turned on, if thats the case why do we even have a steering wheel? Let me sit in the back seat and it can drive itself then.
I like passive safety features, like ABS/SCS/TCS/SRS - the ones that sit in the background and step in when it turns to **** rather than the ones that want to take the steering wheel out of my hand or jam on brakes or do any of this nonsense.

Just spent 20 minutes digging through sub menus to turn most of this $#@% off.

Thanks for the inspiration, Franco.

[anobserver]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

The genius of materialism is to get you to buy stuff you don't need, often.

The aim of materialism: buy stuff you dont need, with money you dont have, to impress people you dont like.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by anobserver

Just spent 20 minutes digging through sub menus to turn most of this $#@% off.

Thanks for the inspiration, Franco.

No worries - I'm sure you look forward to doing it all again tomorrow morning when it all defaults back to on the next time you start the car

You can still buy vehicles without all this bull****,

https://www.trucksales.com.au/items/...16969571/?Cr=0

They're just slow and ride like ****, at least its half the cost of the VDJ79 though

[Citroënbender]

I think horizontal exterior panels near the front doors (meaning bonnet and roof) should have almost level pressings each side about eight inches square, to park your coffees or meal while you open the door.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

I think horizontal exterior panels near the front doors (meaning bonnet and roof) should have almost level pressings each side about eight inches square, to park your coffees or meal while you open the door.

And its heated for those cooler months.