Reductive Design... from Ford CEO

[DeathRanger]

mmmm mor screens

 

[stmitch]

You know...

Its no wonder sales are slipping. They are building computerized "devices" on wheels who only appeal to millenials and other "tech" folks who would rather just uber anyways.

Then you got HUGE swaths of the population unserved.

Young people generally have less money to spend on new cars than other demographics. In 2019, the average age of a new car buyer was 53 years old, and 57% of new car buyers were over the age of 55:

Automotive Trends: New Car Buyer Demographics

Demographics of new car and truck buyers. Who buys new cars or trucks? See new car demographics by age, income, gender and more.

hedgescompany.com

Don't blame Millenials for this. They're not the ones buying the most new vehicles, and when they do buy them, transaction prices are lower because they have tighter budgets than the 55+ demographic:

Car buyers getting older, richer, NADA economist says

The auto industry must prepare for a challenging demographic shift as baby boomers age and millennials gain more buying power, the National Automobile Dealers Association's chief economist said today.

www.autonews.com

 

[G8orFord]

I'm hardly a millennial. I'm also a pretty far right of center. Yes, there's stuff on vehicles today that I don't really care for. ABS, traction control, stability control, etc., but I do like a lot of the modern conveniences too. Auto on headlights, auto dimmers, "auto"matic transmissions, climate control, push button or SOTF 4wd and remote start are a few of them. Sure, they can break or have problems, so can every other mechanical or electrical system in a vehicle. Most of the time they can be fixed.

I'm all for reducing the prices of cars/trucks. They have gotten completely ridiculous. The thing is, most of this "tech" stuff you guys have the problem with is actually very cheap to produce and include with the vehicle.

 

[wildbill23c]

The best thing Rusty can do is leave that car unlocked. If someone wants to get inside, it’s just a piece of glass to them... to Rusty it’s a window that’s almost impossible to find a replacement. It’s usually cheaper to let someone open the door and take something, then replace the window.
Studies show that only 18% (that seems low to me, but I know a lot of car guys... that may be your case too.) of Americans can drive stick. And only 5% of new cars have manual transmissions... that 18% isn’t going to get higher. Seems like that manual trans is a deterrent to 82% of the country.
Add a carb into the mix... Most carb’d engines have a quirk where you have to pump it X times, then crank it for Y seconds, then give it a little gas to get it to start cold. (Or some other hokey pokey) This is second nature to the owner. If I jumped in it to steal it, I’d probably flood it. At that point, it’s time to move on before someone catches me.

I think that 18% also includes people that buy new/newer vehicles with the paddle shifters or sport shifter and seem to think that means they're driving a manual LOL.

Today's vehicles have way too much electronic crap in them that I don't want and don't need as well as all the safety nannies...obviously having a 360 degree camera system, and what 2 or more other exterior cameras people still run into and over everything they possibly can...add to that the what dozen or so airbags (not including the passengers & driver) I swear with all that shit people seem to think their car is now a demolition derby vehicle so they try and hit as much as they possibly can, because well they don't have to pay for it, the rest of us do in ridiculous insurance premiums.

The touch screen crap really needs to be banned, talk about a distraction, as if cell phones aren't bad enough, let's just build every vehicle with a damn 10"+ tablet built into the dash and make every interior control only accessible through that garbage...nope don't want it, don't need it and definitely won't buy a vehicle that has it...my Jeep is bad enough with ABS but that's the only "safety feature" it has other than the stupid airbags which were easy to delete.

All I need is something to get from point a to point b, I don't need and want a bunch of gadgets and gismos flashing, beeping, lighting up, etc. as I'm driving, the cute girl in the convertible next to me lacking clothes is distracting enough LOL.

 

[19Walt93]

Someone said I was a grumpy old man- guilty as charged but they missed my point.
ABS brakes will stop you quicker on clean dry pavement if you stand on the brake pedal like an idiot and don't modulate the brakes, on a slippery road ABS prevents you from stopping. It allows you to steer so you can decide what to run into.
Automatic braking, lane keeping, and the like enable people who aren't paying attention to stay in their comas.
Touch screens require the drivers eyes to come off the road for a few seconds- how far will you travel in 3 seconds at highway speeds?
While I agree that newer cars are higher in the rear that does not restrict the view from the side mirrors.
An honest person would not open the door of a vehicle that wasn't thiers and I don't want to believe that all the honest people are in NH.
The dealer I worked at would leave the keys in customer cars when writing them up for service and they'd sit outside until a tech was ready for it, if a customer had to pick the car up after hours we'd leave the key in it for them.

 

[DeathRanger]

I think that 18% also includes people that buy new/newer vehicles with the paddle shifters or sport shifter and seem to think that means they're driving a manual LOL.

Today's vehicles have way too much electronic crap in them that I don't want and don't need as well as all the safety nannies...obviously having a 360 degree camera system, and what 2 or more other exterior cameras people still run into and over everything they possibly can...add to that the what dozen or so airbags (not including the passengers & driver) I swear with all that shit people seem to think their car is now a demolition derby vehicle so they try and hit as much as they possibly can, because well they don't have to pay for it, the rest of us do in ridiculous insurance premiums.

The touch screen crap really needs to be banned, talk about a distraction, as if cell phones aren't bad enough, let's just build every vehicle with a damn 10"+ tablet built into the dash and make every interior control only accessible through that garbage...nope don't want it, don't need it and definitely won't buy a vehicle that has it...my Jeep is bad enough with ABS but that's the only "safety feature" it has other than the stupid airbags which were easy to delete.

All I need is something to get from point a to point b, I don't need and want a bunch of gadgets and gismos flashing, beeping, lighting up, etc. as I'm driving, the cute girl in the convertible next to me lacking clothes is distracting enough LOL.

I would rather have one screen with all the info over having a bunch of instrument clusters and having to navigate thru them with arrows on the steering wheel

 

[rusty ol ranger]

The thing is, most of this "tech" stuff you guys have the problem with is actually very cheap to produce and include with the vehicle.

Its also totally stupid and just allows people to further cacoon themselves from real life

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I would rather have one screen with all the info over having a bunch of instrument clusters and having to navigate thru them with arrows on the steering wheel

Id rather have a few gauges, switches and sliders.

 

[8thTon]

I would rather have one screen with all the info over having a bunch of instrument clusters and having to navigate thru them with arrows on the steering wheel

I think the comparison was to fixed-function gauges or switches, where everything does just one function and it's always in the same place. And there isn't really all that much non-driving stuff to do anyway, so there isn't any navigation needed. In turn, that means while you're sitting in the seat you can do this thing called driving.

 

[wildbill23c]

Someone said I was a grumpy old man- guilty as charged but they missed my point.
ABS brakes will stop you quicker on clean dry pavement if you stand on the brake pedal like an idiot and don't modulate the brakes, on a slippery road ABS prevents you from stopping. It allows you to steer so you can decide what to run into.
Automatic braking, lane keeping, and the like enable people who aren't paying attention to stay in their comas.
Touch screens require the drivers eyes to come off the road for a few seconds- how far will you travel in 3 seconds at highway speeds?
While I agree that newer cars are higher in the rear that does not restrict the view from the side mirrors.
An honest person would not open the door of a vehicle that wasn't thiers and I don't want to believe that all the honest people are in NH.
The dealer I worked at would leave the keys in customer cars when writing them up for service and they'd sit outside until a tech was ready for it, if a customer had to pick the car up after hours we'd leave the key in it for them.

Totally agree with you, most of the electronic crap today in vehicles is to allow people who have no business driving to drive. My Jeep has ABS but really doesn't do anything in the way of helping you stop on ice just like any other vehicle good tires, paying attention to your surroundings (yeah weird concept in today's world), and braking properly and manually downshifting (if you can and know how without losing control).

The nice thing with power windows is you can roll the ones down on the other side of the vehicle...keyless entry, is pointless, you still have to walk up to the car to get in it so having no key or a key fob with buttons to lock and unlock the vehicle is totally pointless and yet another scam with outrageous prices to get replacement keys, key fobs, etc. Damn keys to my vehicles I think are $3-5 depending on where I get them made...VS what several hundred dollars for those stupid keyless fobs for the push button start systems...yeah those also work great when you drive away from your house and leave that fob on the counter at home...friend of mine did that and stranded himself 50 miles away from home. So how smart is that crap now. I'll keep my vehicles that use keys.

I swear the more safety nannies they add to vehicles just means they build dumber people to drive them, please for the love of God, let Darwin do his job and get rid of the morons that seem to be running a muck.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Wow… this got side tracked.

Even though the Honda Fit might be a fine automobile... I'll put this as nice as I can. Hell NO...

Fair enough. I loved mine. But, they're not for everybody. And, living where I live, I'm not 100% sure it'd be the best vehicle for me, anyway.

 

[DeathRanger]

Even with the tech in my 2019 Ranger Lariat. I get in and go. it automatically starts playing the music from my phone and temp is set to auto so the inside is confortable. The only buttons I ever press are to turn on cruise control

 

[wildbill23c]

Id rather have a few gauges, switches and sliders.

Me too, full gauge cluster without idiot lights, buttons, switches knobs...no touch screen needed, how many years did vehicle systems get controlled with a button, knob, switch, or slider? What like 100 years LOL. Now you gotta navigate through a bunch of crap on a tablet to get to a simple setting that has now taken the driver's eyes off the road for a minute trying to find it while flying down the interstate...yeah that's real safe, yet they think banning cell phones while driving is gonna help...not when you gotta read a damn novel in order to turn the air conditioner on LOL.

 

[DeathRanger]

Me too, full gauge cluster without idiot lights, buttons, switches knobs...no touch screen needed, how many years did vehicle systems get controlled with a button, knob, switch, or slider? What like 100 years LOL. Now you gotta navigate through a bunch of crap on a tablet to get to a simple setting that has now taken the driver's eyes off the road for a minute trying to find it while flying down the interstate...yeah that's real safe, yet they think banning cell phones while driving is gonna help...not when you gotta read a damn novel in order to turn the air conditioner on LOL.

what settings are you changing while driving?

 

[wildbill23c]

I would rather have one screen with all the info over having a bunch of instrument clusters and having to navigate thru them with arrows on the steering wheel

None of my vehicles have any screens in them, I have a gauge cluster and manual HVAC controls and manual radio controls, extremely simple to use and find without having to search for them and without having to play with a tablet and play find the app LOL.

Not sure how the safety institute even allowed those damn built in tablets that's more of a distraction than a damn cell phone I think especially if the driver is the one trying to figure out which of the 50+ menus the setting is to turn the hvac fan up or down for example.