What is fundamentally flawed on your car?

[lordrobs]

Sometimes I come across something so flawed, so blindingly stupid, that I mentally facepalm at the thought of someone signing it off as being acceptable.

The one that always bugs me with my current company ride (Seat Leon) is the bonnet release. It is on the passenger side, which is fair enough I guess. Cost cutting as most models are left hand drive but I can live with reaching over to get to it.... oh wait a sec. To pull the bonnet release the passenger door needs to be open.

So if you happen to park close to a wall on the passenger side, as I do every single day, you have no way of getting the bonnet open without moving the car. Or, to put it another way, if it was parked on my drive with a flat battery I'd be up poop creek without a paddle!

Please OCUK, give me your fundamental design flaws to make me slightly less annoyed with my Golf in a Flamenco dancers outfit.

 

[alexp999]

The Mk4 Focus is exactly the same.

The manual explains how to disassemble the lever and turn the cog manually in the event of a flat battery.

Guess how I know....

 

[kindai]

How much petrol it uses.

 

[Bug One]

Not much to be honest. Nissan knocked it out the park with the 14/15 version of the leaf. Aside from the obvious battery size compared to more modern EVs, DAB radio seems like a weird omission considering the level of tech elsewhere in the car. That and having to press Confirm on the sat-nav every time the car turns on. It must be a Nissan thing, because our old X-Trail had the same annoyance.

 

[ttaskmaster]

The manual explains how to disassemble the lever and turn the cog manually in the event of a flat battery.

Hey, at least they made such a thing possible.
I've had to fix more than one sunroof that did not have an emergency manual mechanism!

 

[King4aDay]

My TVR has room for either the spare wheel or the roof in the boot, but not both

 

[dlockers]

Sometimes I come across something so flawed, so blindingly stupid, that I mentally facepalm at the thought of someone signing it off as being acceptable.

The one that always bugs me with my current company ride (Seat Leon) is the bonnet release. It is on the passenger side, which is fair enough I guess. Cost cutting as most models are left hand drive but I can live with reaching over to get to it.... oh wait a sec. To pull the bonnet release the passenger door needs to be open.

So if you happen to park close to a wall on the passenger side, as I do every single day, you have no way of getting the bonnet open without moving the car. Or, to put it another way, if it was parked on my drive with a flat battery I'd be up poop creek without a paddle!

Please OCUK, give me your fundamental design flaws to make me slightly less annoyed with my Golf in a Flamenco dancers outfit.

This is a great thread but this first OP has got to be one of the oddest non-issues I've ever seen another human raise, ever.

To get ahead of team Mercedes:
The seat belt warning you have to acknowledge every single time you use the car.

General fault on a lot of cars (Jag XF/ Merc E Class):
Gloss/piano black surrounds that reflect deadly beams of sunlight into your eyes.

My old Jag XE:
Rear seats that don't fold unless you pay for a £50 option. One of the key reasons I shifted the car, lol.

 

[robj20]

The Mk4 Focus is exactly the same.

The manual explains how to disassemble the lever and turn the cog manually in the event of a flat battery.

Guess how I know....

They must have learnt as the one on my Mk5 Mondeo you can pull with the doors shut. Still on the wrong side though.

I think the one thing that I facepalm at and it's not just my car is that horrendous piano black plastic that is completely unsuitable for it's purpose, just look at it and it scratches.

 

[Kenai]

This is a great thread but this first OP has got to be one of the oddest non-issues I've ever seen another human raise, ever.

I get where he's coming from as the Octavia is the same - if you find yourself unlucky enough to get a flat battery, you can't open the bonnet to sort it out without risking snapping the bonnet release handle as you try to bend it past the door in the process.

 

[kaiowas]

Traffic avoidance on the Sat Nav in the Volvo at some point in any journey where I use it, usually multiple times:

“A new route has been calculated due to a change in the traffic situation. Would you like to use the new route?”

At this point I have no way of easily seeing where the issue is or either the old or the new routes, it’s an old enough system (2008 model car) that the traffic information is RDS based and the information it’s reacting to is most likely some peak traffic an hour or two away that will have cleared by the time I get there and I’ve instinctively hit ‘No’ by the time it’s spoken the first 3 words but I still have to listen to the full spiel every time.

 

[dlockers]

I get where he's coming from as the Octavia is the same - if you find yourself unlucky enough to get a flat battery, you can't open the bonnet to sort it out without risking snapping the bonnet release handle as you try to bend it past the door in the process.

OK I temper my enthusiasm to berate the OP. I didn't quite grasp the door open bit related to allowing the catch to freely work.

 

[dave28]

The UK Gov putting the Tax on it up every year.

It started out a nice £135 a year and now its £220

Its a 1.4 engine for god sake

 

[throwaway4372]

astra k, bonnet release is right by my foot and I keep snagging it by accident when getting out the car.

 

[shaank]

Touch screens for controlling anything while driving are a pain, the chance of hitting the wrong thing, you have to look at what your doing as no tactile response and then your left with finger prints on the screen.

Buttons just worked


While I'm thinking about it:

I can't see the HUD in my M4 properly with polarised sunglasses on, this annoys me sometimes.
I have to hit 'confirm' on the satnav in my Cayenne every time I get in it, to agree to some disclaimer about keeping my eyes on the road.
I can't by default keep stop/start disabled in the Cayenne, I have to hit the button every time I turn it on.
I can't by default start the M4 in 'M mode' I have to hit a button. I can change almost everything else though?
BMW have the same error 'gong' for absolutely everything, from low washer fluid, to it's cold, to major engine failure.
My old Merc has a foot handbrake. You push the pedal in, to engage the handbrake.... fine, easy. To release the handbrake you pull a lever, similar to an old manual choke. If your foot is anywhere near the pedal, you get hit by it. It hurts. weird design.

 

[Hades]

2016 Mini Cooper
The "soft" indicators lever is utterly appalling and has a mind of its own.

 

[ahenners]

No keyless sensors on the rear doors. Usually put the kids in the car first, so have to grab a front door handle first before opening the back door, or take the key out and unlock. Which kinda defeats the purpose of having keyless.... I love how well it works when it's just me.

 

[lordrobs]

OK I temper my enthusiasm to berate the OP. I didn't quite grasp the door open bit related to allowing the catch to freely work.

Even I'm not miserable enough to complain about simply having to reach over to the passenger side

Ignoring the theoretical flat battery it's still super annoying having to move two cars and reverse half way up my drive to perform the major mechanical task of topping up my screenwash

 

[Bear]

The Ackermann steering angle (or lack of) which causes the tyres to skip on a slow tight turn when its cold on a Mercedes. Whilst its not a flaw as such, its annoying as it makes it feel like its broken

 

[Conscript]

No keyless sensors on the rear doors. Usually put the kids in the car first, so have to grab a front door handle first before opening the back door, or take the key out and unlock. Which kinda defeats the purpose of having keyless.... I love how well it works when it's just me.

+1, this is minor, but I've noticed this. Had keyless on my 2-door car, think it's a neat little feature. Girlfriend upgraded to a newer, higher spec version of her car (Kia Sorento), and it also came with keyless entry, but the button for it is only on the front doors...has caught me out many a time when going straight for the back door.

Another one on the same car, and related to the same tech - the car has mirrors which fold automatically when you lock, much like most cars. But the mirrors unfold automatically as soon as they detect you are in range with the key. It's annoying more than a flaw, because her car is parked quite close to the house, and every time I walk between it and the house to get to the garage, I invariably forget and end up clonking the mirror as it unfolds on my approach and pushes me against the wall. Why not just have the mirrors unfold on unlock or ignition start?

 

[dlockers]

The Ackermann steering angle (or lack of) which causes the tyres to skip on a slow tight turn when its cold on a Mercedes. Whilst its not a flaw as such, its annoying as it makes it feel like its broken

Can't believe I forgot this. It is outrageously bad on my E43.