In general new cars are fantastic - vastly more reliable and better-built than the cars of the past. But some have features you wish would stop working, or that had never been installed in the first place.
Here's a quick sampling:
GM's always-on parking lights. When I was in high school, the sure brand of a loser wanna-be was the guy driving around the lot in his clapped-out '77 Camaro with Gabriel Hi-Jacker air shocks out back and the parking lights turned on in the middle of the day. So cool, man. General Motors installs the same basic deal on several new cars, including the '04 Corvette, which has pop-up style headlights and so can't really deploy the also-annoying (and unnecessary) Daytime Running Lamps (DRLs) that keep the headlights burning whenever the car is running. But the Cadillac CTS, Camaro/Firebird, and some other GM models are equally afflicted - bestowing upon their owners all the cachet of a notice-me-please teenager cruising the shopping mall parking lots in his glass-packed 15-year-old Civic, hoping it'll impress the girls.
Toyota's back-up alarm. When a big trash truck or something like that starts backing-up, it's not a bad idea to let people who might otherwise get smushed know what's coming. But is it really necessary for a compact sports car (Celica) or econo-compact (Echo) to ding-ding-ding! every time you put the thing in reverse? Why not just have a flailing robot pop out of the trunk? Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!
Source: TCC
Here's a quick sampling:
GM's always-on parking lights. When I was in high school, the sure brand of a loser wanna-be was the guy driving around the lot in his clapped-out '77 Camaro with Gabriel Hi-Jacker air shocks out back and the parking lights turned on in the middle of the day. So cool, man. General Motors installs the same basic deal on several new cars, including the '04 Corvette, which has pop-up style headlights and so can't really deploy the also-annoying (and unnecessary) Daytime Running Lamps (DRLs) that keep the headlights burning whenever the car is running. But the Cadillac CTS, Camaro/Firebird, and some other GM models are equally afflicted - bestowing upon their owners all the cachet of a notice-me-please teenager cruising the shopping mall parking lots in his glass-packed 15-year-old Civic, hoping it'll impress the girls.
Toyota's back-up alarm. When a big trash truck or something like that starts backing-up, it's not a bad idea to let people who might otherwise get smushed know what's coming. But is it really necessary for a compact sports car (Celica) or econo-compact (Echo) to ding-ding-ding! every time you put the thing in reverse? Why not just have a flailing robot pop out of the trunk? Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!
Source: TCC