How fast do you want it, how hot do you want it, where do you want it
Let me play devils advocate……
One of my cars has the hvac controls on the screen and it’s usually fine, because it is actually smart. I only need to set the temperature and it remembers that.
For example now that it’s getting cold, I almost never need to touch those controls
- I can preheat through an app (no subscription needed)
- when I start my car, the thermostat is set to 69 (heh heh) where I last left it
- the car goes through a progression: heating steering wheel and seat first, then automatically off when the cabin temperature comes up
- the glaring problem is defroster. Aside from initial heat up I don’t know a good way to switch to that while driving. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be automatic and fails or if there is a shortcut somewhere
Never letting go of it.
achkually your title is wrong because it was never improved upon.
My vw passat has that, but the temp control maintains the temperature, so straight up is 72°f
I should do a video on the bad UX in the Mach E.
So long as the vents have analog dials that manipulate how much air is coming out. Otherwise I’d have to be pro left/right temperature difference. When it’s 100 degrees out side and someone says the AC is to cold it blows my mind
There is such a thing as the AC being to cold. When I turn it all the way down in my car it’s like being inside a freezer. It legitimately starts to hurt where it blows on your skin after a while. Same with the heat though, it gets so hot that you burn yourself if you touch the vents.
I miss my old car where the engine was so small it got up to temp in minutes even in -30 and the airflow was so direct it felt like it was burning your hands if you aimed it right at the steering wheel
Yeah, I’ve got a 2.3L engine and the heater gets warm by the time I leave the driveway. Strangely enough the 1.2L engine in my moms car takes forever.
huh. the 1.4L in my old car is what I was referring to
my current 2.5L takes forever in comparison, so did my last 2.0L (Mazda3)
You know you can adjustt the temperature AND air flow, right? You can blast the air to accelerate to the desired temperature and then dial back on the air flow and temperature to keep the car actually pleasent. I only say this because i have a friend who cranks the heat full blast in the winter and then rolls down his windows while still max blasting the heating! Dude has serious brain worms.
I know someone who does this as well, mostly because he always drives with his arm hanging out the window lmfao
you don’t do that?
having the window down in the winter for the fresh cool air over your face and chest while blowing heat on your feet and hands feels great
I live in Northern Ohio 40 minutes from Lake Erie. We have COLD winters here with wet air. Plus, my shitty soft top VW Bug with a busted window lets in more than enough cold air
Iol I’m in Ontario, similar weather. I still love the feeling of the cold air on my face. but tbf I get stuffy in cars if there isn’t fresh air coming in
When it’s 100F or higher, there is no such thing as AC too cold.
If there is 100 degrees, your water boils.
Probably means 100 degrees of Freedom° units no C°
He should have said so! He may as well measure distance in bananas or area in stadiums 😂
Celsius is near useless as well, you can’t use it for anything without converting it to kelvins first. Both F and C are “because we use it and it’s familiar”. 100 degrees we should have said your blood is already frozen! Turn the heat on
Celsius is near useless
Found a USian 🤦
“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”
Then the a/c can’t be too cold!
There is in fact 100 degrees. 360 degrees if you can believe it.
Lol, yes, automatic vents are only beginning to get good (and are far from prefect).
For me it’s def not something you set only once. Witch is a fail by default.
I haven’t owned a new car in my life so I can’t say what they are now, but if it comes with a witch inside, I have to say I’d set them free. Lol
No, the witch is for private data only.
Yeah, just make them more robust and maybe add more steps between settings.
However you probably don’t miss the manual choke valve, double clutching, hand winded starter crank, or even window cranks.
There was really no golden period of car controls. It went fluidly from one kind of shit to another kind of shit.
There was really no golden period of car controls
I’m going to say there was and it was around 2010. Like maybe 2005 until 2015.
The BMWs of the E90/E87 generation that I drove in those years are still the pinnacle of automotive achievement for me. They had all the things I needed and nothing that annoyed me. Anything after that started to include more and more annoying stuff.
From 2006-2012 we had decently reliable, simple to operate vehicles, that got not shit gas mileage
I dunno. I had an 03 Corolla that had heated seats and electric windows that held on to gas like a camel with water. Best car i ever has
Yeah, I have a 2012 Civic and I’m keeping that thing until the wheels fall off (assuming I can’t reattach them). The only thing I don’t have that would be useful is Bluetooth and that’s only because they’ve stopped making phones with headphone jacks. I had a much newer model as a loaner while it was being serviced one time and I fucking hated that thing. The only thing I’d consider trading in for would be a light truck with a full size bed but those don’t exist. At least not in USA.
Those little FM transmitter things are better than nothing.
I’m currently driving a low-mileage 2012 Mazda 3 that we have owned since new, and it’s pretty great. It’s a 40mpg hwy vehicle, is fun to drive on the back roads to work manually selecting gears, and I can load 8ft lumber and 10ft pipes into it lengthwise (it’s a sedan too, not hatchback) at home depot while the guys hopping back into their shiny $80,000 commuter trucks watch me.
I think I want to replace it with an MX5 one day. Recent Mazda interiors I’ve looked at seem to have kept a reasonable balance of physical controls along with moderately sized infotainment screens. So maybe a new one could be on the table. We’ll see how the next revision turns out.
That was also the period when the introduction of tire pressure sensors created brand new issue that people never had before.
And in the same day the crime was at the lowest someone still got killed, and the day the stock market rose to a new high some stocks went down.
Just because a problem exists doesn’t negate that it was the best time period
90s civics? I mean they’re all rotting now, but they were pretty reliable for like 20 years.
Or… 90’s Toyota Corolla, there are plenty of them riding around in here.
Perhaps even a bit later. My 2014 F20 BMW 1-series was still pretty great. The facelift model of the same car I had after that (2017 or so) is the first one that started to include things that annoyed me.
Light, rear-wheel drive, cheap to run and even mod, mechanically “simple” (relative to today’s BMW electronics), even slightly overspected.
Fun little car.
Exactly why I had four 1-series since 2008 (E82, E81, F20 pre-facelift, F20 facelift). Switched to a G20 3-series when the 1-series went FWD, and soon it will be all electrical and qualities like “fun”, “light” and “simple” will be a thing of the past. We adapt and move on.
Yes, this really describes it.
Sure, maybe I would wanna manual choke even today … but like twice, that’s it, just for the fun of it (it wouldn’t even work with modern engines anyways).
Also the environment changed, roads, congestion, etc.
You can find great examples from any era.
Fat disagree. No way. Nope. I have cooling seats in 105 degree weather. Ain’t nothing like my balls having a cooking time on the commute home.
With the old style set up I just popped a small ice bag under them
Wrong. This has no ads. How will I become a tech billionaire if I can’t disable your breaks until you watch my ad?
I think you mean brakes, but funnily enough both work in this context.
I did, but wait how does the other one work?
EDIT: Nevermind, I got it. That’s funny. Now I’m happy I can’t spell lol
To: Driver@Car.com
Subject: Major Alert Notification
Dear <INSERT NAME HERE>, It has come to our attention via our sophisticated proprietary carAI system that you and your friend (Brad) were discussing the owner of this CarCompany Inc, LLC and one of you called him a “Poop-Head”. In light of this recent conversation, we have disabled all non-essential functions in your car until you send $150 to “President@NeedsMoreMoney.com”. If after 90 days this payment has not been received these functions will be permanently revoked until End of Life (Yours or Cars).
Sincerely, Probably Elon Musk.
~CarAI is a service offered at no cost with a irrevocable revocable license. All data gathers with or without consent are the sole property of CarCampnay Inc, LLC. Subject to Terms and Conditions. May be updated at any time by CarCompany Inc, LLC without notification. Any legal issues are required by Arbitration only within the city limits of Pyongyang~
This works well and it’s not a hill I’ll defend but automatic control of temperature is better when it’s done well. In the UK we have a culture of driving cars with manual transmission and I’ve never understood it when automatic transmissions exist and are pretty good. People wanna feel like they are in control of stuff.
Not sure about the UK, but I know Germany likes manuals because they last longer when you have a lot of hills and mountains.
Well, as a kid I thought by the time I’ll do my driver’s license there will be no more manual transmissions around.
Turns out, automatic is just still way more expensive to buy AND, as I recently learned, crazy expensive in maintenance.
It’s about 5-10% more in the UK. The maintenance on a reliable transmission is fairly minimal but any mechanical problems are almost guaranteed to be a nightmare buried under a mountain of metal. I’ve been spared that trauma so far but I remember test driving a used VW Passat which clunked with every shift. Thanks for the test drive, bro.
I like electric, because fuel and maintenance is so cheap
First gen tundra controls really are excellent. They and used mechanical linkages for the diverter and for the hot/cold control. The only problem is the knobs get loose over time and can break or fall off when you accellerate.
Lol how hard are you accelerating that you dials fly off
They get really loose. While no slouch, these trucks are not world beaters.
It’s -5C/23F outside, you hop in the car, winter boots and thermal layers. Your climate control’s lowest setting is 16C/61F. You have two options: personal sweaty sauna or drive in your winter jacket with frozen hands.
Other options: blast heat with windows down. Full AC, just get it over with.
I always just freeze while the car warms up. Driving with a jacket on is an absolute no-go. I see so many people do it and I don’t understand how, it’s restrictive and you will inevitably start to bake when the sun hits you.
It’s difficult to take thermals(wool under-layers) off/on for a regular car ride. Just let me set temps down to 5C or something even if the AC couldn’t achieve that in California.
You’re opposed to stripping butt naked in the parking lot?
Oh Look at Mr fancy pants here with his working heater in his reasonable priced car!









