Question of the Day: What's Your Automotive Pet Peeve?
There's an awful lot in modern cars that can drive a person meshuge. Although I know active safety systems save lives, air bags give me the creeps. They're essentially loaded guns pointed at your chest and head. It's not quite law yet, but by 2012 traction control will be mandatory. Fine on paper. Saves lives, etc. But the application of these nannies will be far from uniform. The really bad systems (hello, Ford) apply too much brake force while simultaneously cutting the gas. The effect on the driver is discombobulating, to put it goofily. Then you have my personal pet peeve: idiot warnings. Every time it's sunny out I'm reminded that babies and short people should beware the passenger side airbag and sit in back. Jeremy Clarkson pointed out the full extent of this lunacy when he showed the warning sticker comes in a Viper: if you have a navigation system you must agree not to crash the car every time you turn the key. Or– ick– push the button. But the one that kills me, and will always continue to kill me, is the damn beeping when your seatbelt isn't fastened. Despite much evidence to the contrary, the motoring public isn't sub-mental. Anyhow, what's your biggest peeve?
Cleanup driver for Team Black Metal V8olvo.
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This has got to be the funniest peeve here: (from factotum) "People who play the trumpet while driving"
I have to believe factotum; I witnessed a dude strum a guitar from Corte Madera to Santa Rosa in awful (normal) traffic one sunny eve on the 101. OT: Rear Fog Lights. And the morons who slow down for them. Do the doofuses with the rear fogs blazing even know they're on?
No. 1 Seat belt chimes. They could at least have a womans voice ask me(once!) to buckle up, not some cheap chime circa 1975. No. 2 Did someone mention headlamp washers? http://www.wak-tt.com/videos/alien1.mpa No. 3 All new cars dont need a huge LCD monitor in them! And if you dont want one, I dont need a cubic foot of sunglasses storage. Has anyone noticed theres not much wrong with the first gen Audi TT's interior, and a whole lot with the new model. They made the chime more pleasant ehem, threw in a huge lcd, and destroyed one of the best no nonsense driving layouts in a modern car.
Many posters here are dissing DRL's. I disagree. It depends on where you live. Where I live in California, the weather can change within seconds depending on your altitude and location. So on your morning commute it may be clear, but you go up a mountain pass and you are in fog. I can't tell you how many times I've seen idiots driving in the fog with no lights on. Some of the roads have signs that ask/demand you turn on your lights (Hwy 154, 17, etc). But not many people pay attention to these signs. Ask anyone who lives in the Bay Area about how the fog is suddenly there during a drive. I think DRL are a small price to pay to increase visibility when conditions are not the best and there are so many dumb drivers out there.