Crap design in modern cars

[IanF]

My F10 has a knob for temperature and buttons to cycle the air direction & seat heating. Hiding that stuff in a menu on a touchscreen is in no way an improvement.

Even if it's always displayed on a second screen, it's still worse than knobs.

Shame there aren't really any desirable cars where a properly big screen for nav etc is accompanied by physical switchgear. The screens were smaller and resolutions worse until knobs and buttons started to be phased out. My MX5 is probably as good as anything, since Mazda grafted on a bigger, higher-res screen for 2024 but kept the rest of the interior. So you have a touchscreen or an iDrive style wheel and can use either, the HVAC is entirely button/knob based and the screen is high res. But the screen is a bit shallow and wide to fit on top of the dash, so you can't see very far ahead when using nav unless you zoom way out.

Ahem!..

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[Jobbo]

Ian is correct, and I have clearly forgotten that I want a 992.1 and that I have spent some time driving them

[jamcg]

i’m liking the simplicity of my van. i have a touchscreen for carplay and 3 old school knobs for heating. Also, the fan speed knob has increments from 1 all the way up to 6 - because reasons…?

Wait until the screen properly steams up, vans take ages to demist because of the size of it

[Gavin]

I am not convinced by the need for massive screens TBH, yes, looking at a sat nav map that is a little bigger is handy, but I don't need MPG, or HVAC etc on teh touch screen.

I suspect when I change the Superb, that will be a tricky choice as more recent Skodas seem to have moved to touch screen. My car has the HVAC on rotary dials beneath the bog screen, but the connectvity can be dodgy, again, a detail common to all VAG products, especially the newer ones.

Eye piercing rear lights and headlights also seem to be a little enthusiastic.

[Rich B]

i’m liking the simplicity of my van. i have a touchscreen for carplay and 3 old school knobs for heating. Also, the fan speed knob has increments from 1 all the way up to 6 - because reasons…?

Wait until the screen properly steams up, vans take ages to demist because of the size of it

i have a heated screen too which might help, but i did have to wait a while the other day when i parked facing a certain way at work and it misted over.

[DeskJockey]

i’m liking the simplicity of my van. i have a touchscreen for carplay and 3 old school knobs for heating. Also, the fan speed knob has increments from 1 all the way up to 6 - because reasons…?

Wait until the screen properly steams up, vans take ages to demist because of the size of it

i have a heated screen too which might help, but i did have to wait a while the other day when i parked facing a certain way at work and it misted over.

What could you see through the screen to cause it to steam up?

[Rich B]

Wait until the screen properly steams up, vans take ages to demist because of the size of it

i have a heated screen too which might help, but i did have to wait a while the other day when i parked facing a certain way at work and it misted over.

What could you see through the screen to cause it to steam up?

The direction - i sometimes find if i park facing my house my screen doesn’t fog up and when i park facing away it does. i’ve not don’t any scientific studies though. Presumably it’ll be to do with where the sun is and any colder breezes?

[Gavin]

i have a heated screen too which might help, but i did have to wait a while the other day when i parked facing a certain way at work and it misted over.

What could you see through the screen to cause it to steam up?

The direction - i sometimes find if i park facing my house my screen doesn’t fog up and when i park facing away it does. i’ve not don’t any scientific studies though. Presumably it’ll be to do with where the sun is and any colder breezes?

I have found the same, and always assumed some heat leakage from the house made the difference. Certainly parking nose in made scraping the ice an easier job.

[240PP]

But then you have to reverse onto the street with presumably an iced or steamed up rear screen.

[Gavin]

But then you have to reverse onto the street with presumably an iced or steamed up rear screen.

No, by the time I have scraped ice off the side windows and the front, the back has de-iced. Also, I live in a quiet village so sight lines are good

[V8Granite]

The VW can I had was awful for this so I put one of those de-humidifier bags at the base of the windscreen and it made it a lot better.

Dave!

[Beany]

Those can be surprisingly useful, although do make sure to actually dry them out every so often...

I've found the heaters in the M135i get going pretty quick the last few days, dunno if there's a PTC in there or something or if the engine just gets warmed up damned fast for economy/efficiency/emissions reasons, etc.

Still, not grumbling. By the time I had given the windows a good scrape, the front was fully demisted.

I would prefer an internally heated front screen though, I really miss those from the Fords I've had.

[16vCento]

I don't think I could live without the remote start and heat function now, 10 mins before you get in, start it up, heated screen, seats and wheel on, makes a big difference

Same the other way round in summer, getting into a pre cooled car is great.

I don't like that the element in the screen is so visible in the Kuga in certain light conditions though.

[Mito Man]

Yep this time of year I keep thinking about binning the heated screen in the Defender. It’s utter shit when it’s dark, raining, and you get oncoming headlights.
The one in the XJ is similarly shit so it’s not like the Defender one is crude.
I imagine it’s how living with cataracts must be like.
Some cars have heating elements just under the wipers to stop them sticking and immediately melt snow/ice at the bottom of the screen which I think is the best compromise.

[DeskJockey]

I've never found the Galaxy's heated windscreen wires a problem. They're visible, but I've never found myself thinking they're "in the way".

[Beany]

I've never found the Galaxy's heated windscreen wires a problem. They're visible, but I've never found myself thinking they're "in the way".

Same. Obviously we have The Eyes of Angels, DJ, and everyone else is just doing it wrong.

[DeskJockey]

I've never found the Galaxy's heated windscreen wires a problem. They're visible, but I've never found myself thinking they're "in the way".

Same. Obviously we have The Eyes of Angels, DJ, and everyone else is just doing it wrong.

Totally. Not like I've just ordered a new set of prescription lenses for my reading glasses.

[Beany]

I've never found the Galaxy's heated windscreen wires a problem. They're visible, but I've never found myself thinking they're "in the way".

Same. Obviously we have The Eyes of Angels, DJ, and everyone else is just doing it wrong.

Totally. Not like I've just ordered a new set of prescription lenses for my reading glasses.

Thanks for the reminder, it's been noted on video calls that I sometimes look over my glasses and I've been asked by my younger colleagues to not play up my age/wisdom jokes seeing as they're both in their mid 20s. Sadly, I am not, I think my eyesight is just going down the fucking drain

[Sundayjumper]

The Aston has it, I find it mildly distracting.

The RR had it, I found it moderately distracting.

The Disco has it, I find it minimally distracting.

So…. dunno ? Something to do with exactly how close it is to your face ?

[Beany]

Might also be the angle of it, etc.