Cars We Drive!



RFX45 said:

Are you talking to me and my future Aston.

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No, you posted in between my ^^



Blackhood said:

Am I alone or does the interior matter much more than the exterior with cars?

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Agreed I could live with an ugly car not a ****** interior.



Find Finn said:

Agreed I could live with an ugly car not a ****** interior.

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Really? I couldn't, there has to be a balance there.

Also, it depends what you need the car for. For a track car, the ZR1's terrible 90's looking interior is more than enough. For a daily driver, I'd probably hate myself to be sitting inside it everyday.



Find Finn said:

Agreed I could live with an ugly car not a ****** interior.

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Both have to appeal to me, but a poor interior is a deal breaker.

I've always wanted an old m3.. but i haven't found one that I really liked.. today while browsing this http://www.splendidauto.com/viewcar.aspx?carID=363 came up.

Anything I should know about this?



A Y said:

Two recent cars that are pretty bad from an interior design POV are the Chevy HHR and the Fiat 500. The HHR had all sorts of conflicting things, like cupholders becoming unusable when you put down the armrest, and terrible visibility.

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YES!!! HOLY **** I was given this as a rental down in Miami, and the interior design of that thing was just stupid. The armrests are directly above the cupholders with little clearance and is boxed in by the shifter in front. It is pretty much impossible to grab a cup from the holder directly without having to fold the armrests and maneuvering the cup up and around the shifter and seats.



A Y said:

As much as everyone (including me) like to say BMW is going downhill, after sitting and driving in their recent cars, this kind of usability design is still really alive in their latest cars.

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I agree, and that's mostly because the controls are all still exactly where they've been since the first new-klasse car 45 years ago, but I think the new ones have some sort turn signals that aren't self cancelling or something, I couldn't figure them out well, and I felt the little secondary navigation readout under the gauges was not a good location depending on your driving position, I hope they move that readout just a tad higher somehow. The iDrive is still unwieldy and I believe that 650i I drove still didn't have a touch screen - inexcusable IMO, considering what touchscreen technology is and costs nowadays. Input is so slow via the joystick. They really just need to make a touchscreen with a smartphone-like homepage of apps and a keyboard that pops up when you need to search a location, using Google Maps.

Tahoes have touch screen Nav and look how cheap/****** the interiors our in that thing.



impolyt_one said:

I agree, and that's mostly because the controls are all still exactly where they've been since the first new-klasse car 45 years ago, but I think the new ones have some sort turn signals that aren't self cancelling or something, I couldn't figure them out well, and I felt the little secondary navigation readout under the gauges was not a good location depending on your driving position, I hope they move that readout just a tad higher somehow. The iDrive is still unwieldy and I believe that 650i I drove still didn't have a touch screen - inexcusable IMO, considering what touchscreen technology is and costs nowadays. Input is so slow via the joystick. They really just need to make a touchscreen with a smartphone-like homepage of apps and a keyboard that pops up when you need to search a location, using Google Maps.

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I like BMWs iDrive. The controls are easy to use, got used to it within a week. Touchscreen isn't necessary since the nav is already smart enough as it is. You put the zip code and it narrows down the cities, you just type the first letter of the city and there are choices there already. Type the second letter and it narrows it down further. Same with the street number, with the street it narrows it down so you don't need to type the whole thing. Plus touchscreen is just dangerous since you have to lean forward and reach and type and yes people will use it while they drive (changing stations, adjusting temperature, etc... Lexus IS's nav works this way, everything is controlled via touchscreen. Plus the smudges/oil that gets on the screen from your fingers is just annoying.

yes, absolutely, the HVAC needs to be separate from the navigation system. I could really care less about the 'clean stack' - you should be able to turn down the fan or turn on the defrost with one gesture, rather than hunt through menus for it. I still think there are too many inputs required for the BMW nav, dislike the rotary selection of numbers and letters. It's nearly as infuriating as the old Apple TV interface. Pluses were that the joystick did come in handy for switching views in a controlled manner, which touch screens would need to figure out, and that the screen view switches from regular to reverse negative automatically depending on ambient light if you go through a tunnel or something. That was pretty smart.
As much as I hate aftermarket decks, in my next car I will probably end up with a superior aftermarket navigation unit or find a way to hack the system and use the stock screen a different controller (I've seen this done before so I guess there's hardware and shops to do this)... my old Audi doesn't have a nav screen and I just drove around with my iPad wedged between the shifter and the dash, haha. It works ok but that's not a long term solution, and the glare is unreasonable at times...

sonick said:

YES!!! HOLY **** I was given this as a rental down in Miami, and the interior design of that thing was just stupid. The armrests are directly above the cupholders with little clearance and is boxed in by the shifter in front. It is pretty much impossible to grab a cup from the holder directly without having to fold the armrests and maneuvering the cup up and around the shifter and seats.

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same here, i really think the HHR was designed by some guy who wouldn't retire til they let him design something, GM creates some really terrible cars, not all but vast majority

impolyt_one said:

I agree, and that's mostly because the controls are all still exactly where they've been since the first new-klasse car 45 years ago, but I think the new ones have some sort turn signals that aren't self cancelling or something, I couldn't figure them out well, and I felt the little secondary navigation readout under the gauges was not a good location depending on your driving position, I hope they move that readout just a tad higher somehow. The iDrive is still unwieldy and I believe that 650i I drove still didn't have a touch screen - inexcusable IMO, considering what touchscreen technology is and costs nowadays. Input is so slow via the joystick. They really just need to make a touchscreen with a smartphone-like homepage of apps and a keyboard that pops up when you need to search a location, using Google Maps.

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Has anybody driven any of the new Fords? i admire what they're going for revamping design and interior but the Ford Sync is a complete disaster. Delayed response, cumbersome user interface, pretty disappointing. First generation attempt to be expected though perhaps.



RFX45 said:

Really? I couldn't, there has to be a balance there.
Also, it depends what you need the car for. For a track car, the ZR1's terrible 90's looking interior is more than enough. For a daily driver, I'd probably hate myself to be sitting inside it everyday.

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You don't see the outside of the car when you drive it, the interior on the other hand you are forced to look at.

Track cars are a different entity all together, they are focused on getting somewhere fast, road cars are meant to be comfortable.

Stuff like the wrong colour interior, poor build quality etc. annoy me and I couldn't live with it, the same goes for ugly paint colours.



Find Finn said:

Stuff like the wrong colour interior, poor build quality etc. annoy me and I couldn't live with it, the same goes for ugly paint colours.

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Speaking of ugly paint colors, I bought a turquoise Jetta once. It was a new VW paint color and looked awesome on the lot. After a month, I hated it. Suffered through it for a year before trading it. Lost money on that one.



Find Finn said:

You don't see the outside of the car when you drive it, the interior on the other hand you are forced to look at.

Track cars are a different entity all together, they are focused on getting somewhere fast, road cars are meant to be comfortable.

Stuff like the wrong colour interior, poor build quality etc. annoy me and I couldn't live with it, the same goes for ugly paint colours.

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I agree with you but your prior statement I quoted seems like you'd drive an ugly ass car as long it's nice inside. As I said before, it can be the most luxurious and comfortable interior in the whole world but if it looks like an Aztek, then no thanks. There has to be a balance there. Aston Martins interior isn't perfect but it's definitely good enough for how gorgeous the interior is.



impolyt_one said:

They really just need to make a touchscreen with a smartphone-like homepage of apps and a keyboard that pops up when you need to search a location, using Google Maps.

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I don't think touchscreens are appropriate for cars for two reasons:

1. They require you to look at the screen (and away from the road) to use it. Maybe haptics (to be introduced in the Tesla S) will fix this, but I doubt it.
2. The car shakes too much for the precision of touch that touchscreens require. I notice that I have a harder time using my iPhone in a car (as a passenger) because of the vibration. Maybe a really big screen (like the one in the Tesla S) will solve this, but again I doubt it.

The newer BMWs starting with the E90 do still have that stupid self-resetting indicator stalk. I have no idea why they did that. iDrive is actually pretty good these days. Moving basic controls like HVAC back into physical controls, having dedicated hard buttons for iDrive, and reorganizing the menus has helped it a lot since the E65 days. I used one in an E92 M3 recently with my iPhone plugged in, and I want one!

I think the next big thing will be a HUD that's fully integrated with the infotainment system as well as the outside world in an augmented reality kind of way, maybe controlled with gestures or voice.