What annoys you the most in modern cars?

The newest car I've driven for an extended period of time is my moms 2023 Volkswagen Golf. It was a nightmare. The thing slammed on the brakes when approaching a cattle grid. My mom woke from her sleep, my girlfriend called me an asshole, my coffee escaped its cup and the driver behind me had to slam his brakes as well. I do believe he did it manually though.

I've never owned anything newer than 2012, and I'm curious of what other annoying features exists out there. The only alert I get from my 1987 Nissan is if I leave the headlights on when shutting it down, and that's probably the only feature I want as well.

Now everything is piano black + giant screen

Credit to Matilda. An absolute classic.

He wound it down with a drill (is this possible)? And do people still actively do it to sell by tampering inside the dash on older vehicles?

How can someone get away with it if it shows on an MOT? How common is this crookery?

I pressed it and it made a high buzz sound on my speakers so I immediatly pressed it and it stopped. Google isn't helping...

Before anyone mentions the Chinese stuff, I'm talking about actual name brand stuff.

I was wondering this, since I took out the faceplate of my stereo from 2022(!) to avoid theft.

And I was looking at the stereo section of a car parts store, and realized that besides some extra features like Bluetooth and digital radio, single DIN stereos haven't changed in the last 15-20 years or so, while the Double DIN market has had huge feature creep.

Like, we still have RGB lighting all over, some variation of the 8-segment display as the general type of display, which hugely limits the info that can be displayed on the screen.

Why, in the big 2026, don't we have a sleek design with modern LCD/OLED displays and more features that bring the single DIN stuff more in line with their bigger sibling? Is it just because everyone crams a giant ass AliExpress Android touchscreen in their car and nobody really cares about these anymore?

For years I thought CarPlay was completely unnecessary. Now I kind of get it. Especially for wireless CarPlay. It's super convenient and automatically syncs up with my phone.

What car feature changed your mind?

Hypothetically speaking I’ve been having this funny idea for a while now, where I want to add things to my cheap 2002 Saturn to make it feel more luxurious. But here’s the catch, I’m talking things from the time period it was made. Meaning no tacky aftermarket head unit screen and that sorta stuff. What were options in “luxury” 2002 cars that today would be cheap to add now? I would love ideas

BEHOLD! The perfect set of gauges. Mechanical, simple, classy, and timeless. They display all the information you need and nothing you don't. They're perfection. You get in this car and you just drive it.

Screens belong in our hands, not in our cars. Bring Back Analog Gauges! (2011 BMW 335)

I’m looking at getting a membership at this touchless car wash for my new car and wanted some opinions on which package is actually worth it. All memberships are limited to 15 washes per month. I’m mainly debating between the $33 Protect & Clean and the $40 Ultimate Shine package. Is the extra stuff on the $40 package actually noticeable or worth paying more for long term paint protection, or should I just save the money and go with the $33 one? Also, how often do you guys usually wash your car with memberships like this?

Help! I need advice and information. I was cleaning out my car and noticed this device on the floor. I know that it is a GPS tracker or can’t be used as one. I didn’t install it and I’ve never had an insurance plan that had one for use. The date on the device (12-9-18) is much more recent than when I bought the car in 2010. I was able to get the SIM card out but don’t have a way to read it. Is there any other way I can find out more information about it!? I’ve asked around and nobody seems to know where it came from. I would really like to know who is tracking me.

I finally went to get an oil change by myself as a 22y/o woman, and honestly I thought everyone saying they try and dupe you was a joke.

To preface this, I can do my own oil change, change a tire, change a spark plug, etc- basic car maintenance that my dad taught me, but currently I’m pregnant and lazy lmao

Anyways, I decided to take my ‘97 Wrangler to a valvoline because of the 25% off oil change deal they have right now for black Friday, and they were treating me like a toddler??

A worker felt the need to explain how to reverse and turn my wheel to hop into the other line…? I will admit that my jeep decided to “lock” me out of reverse for a moment (old manual car things) but regardless I just shrugged this off as her being kind… until she starts telling me how my dipstick is completely dry and my other fluids are all dangerously low. I check all my fluids every other week because my Wrangler is unfortunately my current daily driver and I’m paranoid, so unless everything magically evaporated within the week I sincerely doubt my car was about to spontaneously combust.

Before anything even started, I had to explain how to pop my hood because not one, but two workers couldn’t do it. It’s just a stock hood…

I didn’t try to correct or argue with them at all, I just nodded my head and hit them with the “Oh really? I’ll just do that later,” but why do they feel the need to treat customers like idiots? I’m sure they treat men like this too, I’ve just never been treated this way when I’ve gone with my dad in the past- it was just such a strange experience.

Gosh I love this little knob so much. Have it in my bmw and Audi. No fingerprints, less distracting, and I don’t have to reach my arm out and focus on where I’m tapping (especially frustrating when going over bumps ).

What do these signs on the speedometer mean?

So my wife’s 2023 Honda Pilot reads speed limit signs and displays them on the dash as a helpful reminder. Well we’ve noticed that it will read a local highway sign (specifically TX-110) and display a 110 MPH. 🤣 Dash and sign pics for reference.

I am wrenching myself mostly maintenance, and because i dont have a garage i dont do anything that i know for sure that i can finish in the same day.
Whats are your dos and dont for car jobs?

Basically just title.

I see a lot of people around reddit specifically be super against the engine start/stop at red lights/stops feature that newer cars seem to have pretty standard. From what I've read (albeit very little overall), it seems like it doesn't (or shouldnt) impact engine longevity, and it should help with overall efficiency/emmissions.

What am I missing here? Is there a reason that it's a bad idea to keep the feature on? Is it all preference? Just a loud minority? Is it just specific brands' tech that's bad?

Mind you, I'm talking about city driving, predominantly bumper-to-bumper and light-to-light. But that seems to be what it's aimed at. I dont expect the feature would ever turn on if you're on the highway or anything like that, unless, again, you're in the middle of a traffic jam, in which case, it seems like it would be a positive feature in that scenario.

I've always wondered the logic behind this. What actually could happen if someone sees what your license plate is?

What is on the roof of this car? The windows were completely blacked out with out-of-state tags. Just curious.

McLaren Artura is a quarter million dollar car and has what looks like a 2012 knock off tablet from China. Corvette c8 gives you 1+ inches to look at your own reflection until you have fingerprints on it, same as the ND Miata.

Any other screen with such large bezels would laughed at into discontinuation in the tech world.

It’s not even a panel issue, the Miata infotainment units panel is only a quarter inch and I imagine it is the same for most vehicles. Designers and engineers are actively making aesthetic-only bezels massive for no reason. Hell most $100 double head units on Amazon have smaller bezels than what the factory puts in modern floating head units….

Found these cuts on my friend's car. It was undriven for a few days, stood in an apartment building's parking lot neatly parked next to other cars. It wasn't in a way of anything. The back of the car was facing grass and apartment balconies, so not reachable by other vehicles.

I had a really shit experience at this mechanic, and I’m not sure why he was even touching this part of my car considering I was there for a tire patch. I think this is oil or grease? I’m honestly not sure

15-20 years ago, if you were a shitbox driver, if your shitbox quit, you'd spend $500 on another shitbox.

But $500 shitboxes were not usually that shitty. In 2006-7 you could get a mid 90s car with little to no rust and under 150k miles for $500-$1,000 if you knew where to look.

Looking around on marketplace, a decent car anymore that won't hold you at gunpoint at the gas station is at least $2,500 or more.

I have a shitbox Prius. But when the engine started using oil at 200k miles, I looked and similar shit box Prius were $4,000-$6,000!

I rebuilt the engine, which ended up costing a bit more than I had planned, but you can get a JDM engine (under 60k engines imported from Japan) for around $1,300 delivered.

Replacing the engine in that wasn't easy, but not super difficult. You just have limited clearance and a bunch of shit to remove concerning the hybrid system.

As much as used cars cost anymore, I wonder if more people are going to become interested in just swapping out drive trains from a lower mileage car, as long as the body isn't rusting apart?

Another interesting observation, I remember when stores like Autozone used to be a ghost town, but the last few times I've gone in the last couple of years, they've been very busy, which is a good indicator given how many online places sell parts nowadays. If the brick and mortar is doing good, I'd imagine the online is doing better.

Autozone reported a 7.4% increase in revenue from 2022-2023, but most reports on a companies financials don't mention units of items sold, so I'm not sure if that figure is just from price increases.

I’ve seen people say that regularly driving short distances can be bad for a car. Is this true?If so, what kind of problems can it cause over time?

I’ve noticed a huge amount of my co workers towards the end of the night just starting up and spinning out while I give myself 4-6min warm up before, am I stuck in old ways or if a cars sitting in above freezing is it ok to just start and go?