The state of new cars, a non Emira rant!

[Orchardbike]

I posted this on a thread recently, but thought it might be worth having a discussion on ‘the state on new cars”……..

It’s the same for almost every new car now. Hugely heavy, bloated SUV, with more power/torque from the electric motors than its design can really cope with because of its huge bulk and size. The weight and all the drivers ‘aids’ removes as much involvement and engagement as possible. Steering feel is a thing of the past, the height, weight and electric steering destroys the handling and they constantly ‘bing and bong’ at you every minute for something or other. I have the displeasure of an electric SUV courtesy car at the moment. After 5 minutes I want to burn it. Driving it in the recent cold weather actually feels dangerous to me, if you try and straight line a corner (not because it’s faster, but because you’re trying to place less ‘stress’ on the tyres/grip, the steering goes light as the lane assist kicks in and you have no idea if you’re on ice, have grip or no grip, you just have no idea. Even in good conditions, you still have no idea how much grip you’ve got or how close you are to the limit. Things you need such as heater controls are now on the touch screen and need a number of full stretch touches of the screen which is located too far away from the driver. You’re cosseted and removed so far from actually driving that you can exceed the speed limit without realising (until the thing starts ‘bonging’ and you’re then searching the screens to see what the issue is and the you realise you’re over the limit. The automatic headlights don’t react fast enough, so you blind a driver or you can’t see and are fumbling to work out how to put main beam on and the. They suddenly come on. The windscreen wipers in auto mode either don’t come on when you need them to or are going constantly when they’re not needed. I could go on, but you get the point. I have zero interest in any new car and particularly SUV’s. I doubt that if you blindfolded someone and put them in any new SUV, they’d find it impossible to tell what car they were in, they all have zero character. If you buy a new car today, you’re just buying into a brand and the lifestyle that they that brand promotes by their adverts.

 

[Mistral]

I posted this on a thread recently, but thought it might be worth having a discussion on ‘the state on new cars”……..

It’s the same for almost every new car now. Hugely heavy, bloated SUV, with more power/torque from the electric motors than its design can really cope with because of its huge bulk and size. The weight and all the drivers ‘aids’ removes as much involvement and engagement as possible. Steering feel is a thing of the past, the height, weight and electric steering destroys the handling and they constantly ‘bing and bong’ at you every minute for something or other. I have the displeasure of an electric SUV courtesy car at the moment. After 5 minutes I want to burn it. Driving it in the recent cold weather actually feels dangerous to me, if you try and straight line a corner (not because it’s faster, but because you’re trying to place less ‘stress’ on the tyres/grip, the steering goes light as the lane assist kicks in and you have no idea if you’re on ice, have grip or no grip, you just have no idea. Even in good conditions, you still have no idea how much grip you’ve got or how close you are to the limit. Things you need such as heater controls are now on the touch screen and need a number of full stretch touches of the screen which is located too far away from the driver. You’re cosseted and removed so far from actually driving that you can exceed the speed limit without realising (until the thing starts ‘bonging’ and you’re then searching the screens to see what the issue is and the you realise you’re over the limit. The automatic headlights don’t react fast enough, so you blind a driver or you can’t see and are fumbling to work out how to put main beam on and the. They suddenly come on. The windscreen wipers in auto mode either don’t come on when you need them to or are going constantly when they’re not needed. I could go on, but you get the point. I have zero interest in any new car and particularly SUV’s. I doubt that if you blindfolded someone and put them in any new SUV, they’d find it impossible to tell what car they were in, they all have zero character. If you buy a new car today, you’re just buying into a brand and the lifestyle that they that brand promotes by their adverts.

Harry Metcalfe did a recent video about cars being ever more complex, with functions dictated by governments, which most people don't want, but with an ever increasing price tag, which also leads to plummeting values on the used market.

 

[Orchardbike]

Harry Metcalfe did a recent video about cars being ever more complex, with functions dictated by governments, which most people don't want, but with an ever increasing price tag, which also leads to plummeting values on the used market.

I guess the unasked question is that in a couple of year or more, will cars like the Emira be much sought after as the market will hate what it’s got and the used prices will go up?

 

[jonsealsportscars]

I think there are very few true drivers cars left. Emira/GT4RS/Alpine thats about it for sports cars in current production (that aren't MX5s)

 

[Jinba ittai]

jk. I don’t like all the tech either.

 

[brainf18]

100% agree...I recently drove a new toyota camry PHEV rental car and the lane keep assist (that could not be turned off) was so violent it would snatch the wheel out of your hands. The constant bings and bongs and the EV battery state of charge display looked like a video game playing in the dash, which also could not be turned off. New cars are sheeet!

 

[Nova]

This is just the standard car rant.

Cars are appliances to most people. It's a tool they use in life to get from A to B to C and back to A. They want the car to be a forgettable and utterly unremarkable part of their day. The car is to get out of the way, fade in to the background, and be nothing but a backdrop.

I actually think it's a neat time for auto enthusiasts with a lot of available choices. The brands have raised the bar on enthusiast car models and the vast majority of the ones currently on the market have some real performance bona-fides rather than just being a reskinned version of a soulless platform.

 

[Suprluminal]

I read somewhere that we really messed up with electric cars. Instead of designing smaller efficient cars (by efficient I don’t mean slow), most are just massively heavy trucks. By building them so heavy, their supposed benefits are wasted by creating other forms of waste: more rubber from tires, more pavement damage, and so on.
And so we now have absurdly heavy and overpowered trucks, which cannot use that power except in a straight line due to their mass. Having 1000bhp there is just bragging rights. Useless waste of materials and energy.

 

[Tomwa]

This is just the standard car rant.

Cars are appliances to most people. It's a tool they use in life to get from A to B to C and back to A. They want the car to be a forgettable and utterly unremarkable part of their day. The car is to get out of the way, fade in to the background, and be nothing but a backdrop.

I actually think it's a neat time for auto enthusiasts with a lot of available choices...

Agreed completely. Cars have been appliances for most people for awhile. If they are more than that, to most, they are a signal to others of their success or conspicuous consumption.

That said, automakers are realizing they can charge more for enthusiast cars. So it is also filling that second role for some.

People who don't care about driving experience or going and having fun, but buy a Ferrari because it's supposed to be "the best".

The fact is, if you have a daily commute ranging beyond 30 minutes. Self driving car? That sounds like the ideal. In many ways, it is. I can be on my phone, taking work meetings, catching emails, morning news, and feel nearly at home before being dumped out at work?

For mobility, the only thing better would be some kind of teleportation.

 

[Nova]

I read somewhere that we really messed up with electric cars. Instead of designing smaller efficient cars (by efficient I don’t mean slow), most are just massively heavy trucks. By building them so heavy, their supposed benefits are wasted by creating other forms of waste: more rubber from tires, more pavement damage, and so on.
And so we now have absurdly heavy and overpowered trucks, which cannot use that power except in a straight line due to their mass. Having 1000bhp there is just bragging rights. Useless waste of materials and energy.

Well, the fact is that people want larger cars. This is true of consumers all over the world. To be more accurate, people want some "medium-large" sized car: smaller than a minivan, larger than a compact. People vote with their dollars and they vote for larger vehicles that have more/better features. There were no shortage of small and cheap cars in the US, but people stopped buying them.

Except for a rather small minority, people don't want smaller and lighter cars. Until this changes, car companies will no make small/light/efficient cars.

 

[Tomwa]

Yeah. The problem is, if you are going to have 1 car to do it all.. yeah you want that car to be big enough for your regular needs, as well as those odd cases of picking up a visitor from the airport. Or the long weekend trip out of state.

People used to manage those things with smaller cars, got creative with packing or car top luggage.

Add to it the want for managing in more weather situations. (Whether real or not, the marketing is convincing). And the general feeling of safety for having more car around you. To some extent, it's true. Small a pillars are gone. Large side windows are gone. (At least by proportion). Why? Better side impact, more robust roof structure, airbags that deploy.

I don't like it, personally. But when you look at something like the way the Subaru Forester changed generation to generation. It's not by accident or bad decisions. Subaru sold more cars. They gave people what they wanted.

 

[Johnson]

Applies to any form of technology really — the more complex, the greater the amenity… but the more there is to go wrong. E.g. I love being able to control my smartlights with voice or phone, but when the power goes out (a regular occurrence) my house lights up like a Christmas tree.

I’m happy for my Emira to wipe the windscreen, even if it does a dry wipe every so often. Although I draw the line at a self-driving vehicle that doesn’t understand the trolley problem.