Extras I Don’t Need Or Want

~ beetleypete

Months after buying it, I am still struggling to learn everything about the new (second-hand) car I bought. I have managed to turn off the stop-start function that always killed the engine at traffic lights, or in queues. I did discover the automatic headlight feature which I actually like, as it turns them on in tunnels, or when dark skies occur during the day.

Because the car is sold across many European markets, there is no information in the instruction manual about a lot of the extras supplied for the UK buyers. The Satnav is on a large screen built into the dashboard, and comes with no instructions. So sometimes I get it right, and other times I presumably touch the wrong button and it defaults to the last place I visited. This means that I will soon have to visit the dealership and ask the young salesman to show me how to use it again. He will have to presume I am a complete techno-idiot when he does that, because I am.

Yesterday, I was leaving the supermarket with the weekly shop when the heavens opened and dropped a torrential rainstorm. That necessitated maximum-speed wipers on the drive home, but as I had to stop at the first roundabout, the wipers stopped too. Cursing my luck, I planned to pull across into the entrance of a different retail park, and call the breakdown service. If I could see far enough to do that safely with water cascading down the front screen.

A gap in the traffic had me accelerating quickly to get to my planned stop, and lo and behold, the wipers went back to maximum speed! Relieved, I continued through the town, eventually stopped by a red light. That seemed to stop the wipers again, and I sat confused and angry at the fault. Then it dawned on me -better late than never- that the wipers are actually ‘speed sensitive’, and go faster when I am am driving in a traffic-free area, but slow or stop when the car has to stop.

As someone unashamedly ‘old school’, I am not sure I like that, or want the feature on my car. Even sitting in traffic or stopped at a light, I like a clear screen in front of me, so I am able to see out of the car. I consulted the instruction manual, but there seems to be no mention of how to turn off this feature.

Another question I am going to have to ask that young salesman.

82 thoughts on “Extras I Don’t Need Or Want”

  1. Pingback: Car Extras: An Update | beetleypete

  2. I also liked the automatic lights on my last car, but I’d be annoyed by some of the features you mention as well. I hope you can get it to do what you want. (I’ve had the pleasure of no manuals as well, or having to download them, but never finding the exact right one either). Perhaps AI would know what to do….

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    1. I was ‘taught’ how to work the satnav at the dealership, (I had to write it all down, one side of A4) but he didn’t even know the wipers are speed-sensitive. That cannot be turned off, because it is apparently a ‘luxury option’. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. I spent an hour with the dealer, and he (eventually) showed me how to work the Satnav, which even he found quite challenging. But he was unaware that the car had speed-sensitive wipers, and there is apparently no way of turning that function off.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. I feel your pain! One time, I made the guy selling me a new car set the clock because he made the mistake of telling me it was simple when I told him I generally never set clocks on cars because the process was too messy. Thirty minutes of struggling to set the clock later, he finally got it done. I mentioned, then, that that pretty much was why I didn’t mess with the clock. i still don’t change the clock when time changes happen.

    I’m on permanent Standard Mountain Time now and for as long as the battery lasts. If I have to replace it during Daylight Savings Time, yeah, then I’ll always be on DST as far as my car’s concerned. My question for manufacturers is why don’t they have atomic clocks in vehicles? I have them in my home and have had them for decades. They automatically update and only need minimal setups (what time zone are you in) that the dealer should do when you buy the vehicle.

    Good luck working out the quirks of your new car!

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    1. In some cars here, clocks are set by simply turning on the car radio. It receives the time from the radio signal and adjusts accordingly. But that would be too easy to be ‘standardised’ of course. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  11. We are experiencing the same, shall we say, awkwardness behind the wheel, with TWO new, to us, vehicles. to make matters a bit more dicey, the controls for thing’s like cruise., lights, and wipers are not in the same side of the steering wheel or same general place in both vehicles,. Warmest regards, Ed

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      1. I had a Ford Escort (1980) I bought new. The horn activated by pushing in the end of the turn signal! The one time I needed it, I slammed my hand into the center of the steering wheel. Then I remembered how you honked the horn, but it was too late. I agree, standardized placement of features would be very helpful!

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  12. Hi Pete, I don’t like fancy car features either so I don’t like driving my husband’s car which has everything that opens and shuts. It doesn’t have a key slot but rather a button that only works if you have the key in the car with you.

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  13. Friend older than me, bravely driving new fangled car ‘Sorry I’m late, I had to keep stopping as warning lights kept coming on and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.’
    It turned out she had put her bag on the seat and the car recognised it as a passenger without their seat belt on!

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      1. My 2009 Chevrolet Impala would tell me how much air pressure was in each tire by scrolling through a screen and warn me when one was low. My current car, a 2016VW Golf SportWagen flashes an icon that I had to go back to the instruction manual to figure out that tells you have a low tire, which tire, but not how much pressure is in it. Any other time, you can’t find out how much pressure is in the tires without getting out of the car and checking it manually. We get back to the need for standardizing car features.

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    1. My 2018 car came with a ‘generic’ manual that is not specific to UK variants. There is supposed to be information online, but it mainly applies to the new model year cars. It makes me feel stupid when I can’t work out how to use things, Lara.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  16. This is an incredibly trite thing to say, but Google is Your Friend. Trust me. We are of a same age. Regardless of what little I understand with computers and computers masquerading as musical instruments, I spent the first few months with my new (second hand) car searching for what kicks on the automatic wipers, where the automatic lights are, what the *&&% the button combo is on the overhead console to make the courtesy lights work as expected (door open on, door closed off), where they hid the release latches for the back seat… most of that information is out there because we are not the only lost boys with car tech. However, and this is funny – I learned about the auto stop/start and what the universal icon for it was after a minor panic attack. We rented a car and had to drive it from the San Francisco airport through town. The counter girl decided since we were polite and not yelling she upgraded us to a new baby Jaguar sedan for the price of a baby Ford. First steep hill in San Francisco we’re sitting at a light and the damn car stops. Shit! Am I going to roll back down hill? My wife says “Mine does this. MOve the wheel and see if it starts.” Whew. How the hell do I tune it off? “I don;t know, she says. Well, get out your phone and look it up before I have a heart attack.

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    1. The indication for the stop/start in our car is an A in a circle. Once it starts again, a line appears through the A. I had no idea what that meant, thinking it had something to do with the handbrake. (Parking brake) So one day when I was waiting for my wife at a medical appointment, I delved into the manual and found the button to deactivate it. The only problem is that action has to be repeated every time you take the car out. It seems it is unable to remember my choice. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  17. I sympathise, Pete. You shouldn’t have to master so many new technology when getting a new car. It is very easy to become distracted by what appears to be a fault, such as with your wipers. I remember a few times when driving rental cars being confused. In one case I didn’t know how to kill the headlights which made me pretty unpopular. Keep it simple I say, but these days it’s not allowed.

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    1. If only they applied one ‘Industry standard’ to every car, with everything working the same way, whatever make you were driving. That would be too much to ask of course,.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. My old rickety 4×4 truck, which I’ve been driving for over two decades, has AM/FM radio, a cassette player, and power windows. That’s it. As for the wipers, they’re totally shredded. I need to replace them. You never think about rain here in Southern Nevada, though we did get some during our most recent so-called monsoon season. I don’t need anything fancy like satnav. I know my way around town as well as this part of the country. At least my truck looks good. Dents, scratches, and, thanks to the sun, a bare metal roof. Anyway, the truck runs. So I’m good.

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  19. I dread the day I will need to buy a new car. I drove my husband’s truck when I went to see my brother and had to call him twice to ask about messages on the dash or to confirm some of the functionality. Gone are the days of simplicity.

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  21. It took me 5 years to learn how to change the time on my car clock. So for 1/2 of the year my clock was an hour wrong. I learned to live with it. Until hubby decided he couldn’t stand it and changed it for me. (He seldom drives my car) Of course, my car is 23 years old so I would have a real problem with a new one.

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  24. Phil has similar things in his newish car, and my boss at work can’t figure hers out either! I’m sticking with my 500, though I would like heated seats. BTW Phils windscreen wipers adjust speed due to the amount of rain on the windows it detects, not the speed the car is doing, maybe you have a setting for that instead?

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  25. So many extra functions on cars these days. I went to a classic car show on the IOW last week, and found a Ford Escort from 1973 similar to what I once owned. There was a choke, a gearstick, a temperature setter, a handbrake, lights, wipers and indicators. That’s enough for me!

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    1. The trivial things just irritate me, John. I can’t top myself being slightly stressed by things on a car I don’t understand. (That is the actual car I bought, but it needs a good clean at the moment. 🙂 )
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  31. Pingback: Extras I Don’t Need Or Want | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  32. Lack of [or incomplete/incomprehensible] instruction manuals seem to be a feature of modern technology, which I find irritating; the response is often “Oh, all/the majority of it is online.”, which is all very well, and I consider myself reasonably internet-savvy, but I always prefer good, old-fashioned paper [sorry trees 😉 ] where different sections can be found easily, and cross-referenced if necessary. I’m also not a fan of a lot of internet stuff now being aimed at mobile phones, as I might have mentioned before. Cheers, Jon.

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    1. That wouldn’t surprise me, Gavin. I am only using about 5% of the ‘available extras’ on that car. Just as well it wasn’t brand new, as they have even more accessories I don’t need.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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