Do you by any chance live in a cave Thomas. :laughing-smiley-018

Don’t worry about Thomas, Mike, he can only run old cars for so long and with an 03 he may be closer to the technology than he thinks.:tongwink:

Opening the tailgate with a leg is a bit of a faff, no doubt. :teeth_smile: Thing is fiddling for a key with both hands full, which I discovered the whereabouts is less likely to be known due to keyless operation, is much more of a faff. Didn’t take me long to get used to not needing a hand to access the boot.:teeth_smile:

Worse than that :)

Its a place full of African and Indian tribes, where at least pedestrian priority of way is often executed with elbows, quite a lot of houses still stands only because of 48 layers of paint that holds them up.. Walls are that rotten..

In short: London :p

I do just fine without bendy lights, automatic tailgate, parking sensors, lane assist, automatic speed limiter and other things that cumulatively- take away joy of driving.

But I do (in collaboration with Philbc) have automated tablet connecting to car, basic live data off OBD (Vida doesn't accompany me on trips), internet radio, and I am actually thinking about moving that tablet into HUD position.

I'm actually thinking of MY09-MY11 XC70 with 3.2 petrol powerplant.

Without 4C
Older to avoid that Sensus thing.
Without bendy lights.

And without many other things that break, are expensive to replace, and most of time I wouldnt need them anyway.

I may agree on parking sensors, but that's for wife, not me.
And maybe, just maybe, rear audio panel for daughter.

And leather/interior is to be black.

There is one, (albeit with 4C) near me for mere £12k.

Bit too much.

Thanks for the laugh Thomas, in denial of the technology whilst welcoming it.:teeth_smile:

Let’s be honest now, is that not how we all felt about electric windows and central locking and whatever happened to hand signals?:regular_smile:

Very good.:teeth_smile:

In all seriousness though, some of the stuff is good. As I said I dismissed bendy lights but they came on a car I bought and heh ho they work...now it’s the shadow technology, I’d never heard of it before looking at changing car a couple of months back...I now have to say...it works. To be fair if you drive mostly in the south east I doubt you would get the benefit of the lights I do.

Sure it is more to go wrong, but then so was electronic ignition over points and a distributor in the day, as was an electric fan over belt driven.

And as for selling cars without a spare.:rolleyes:

I've no experience of the Volvo system, but the newer Merc trucks we have at work have a similar adaptive cruise control/braking system, most of us that have used it found it to be too sensitive at the default setting (which it returns to every time the ignition is switched on/off), the truck has the facility to lessen the effective distances which allows one to get back to normal driving. Before anyone gets aerated about 'overriding a safety system', the system is still active and within the parameters designed into it, it just means one can observe the '2 second rule'on the motorway rather than being slowed a quarter of a mile behind the next vehicle.

Well..OK.

You do have a pont there that I just can't argue with.

But then, I class these things into few categories:

Gizmos that are a "must":

Abs, airbags, ability to level lights by hand (as opposed to automatic)

Things that I class as gizmos that aren't needed and often do more harm than good

Automatically levelling lights
Lane assist
Antisocial media access from car
Keyless entry

Gizmos that I might find use for, but I don't feel the need of them:

Parking sensors
Bendy lights (as long as levelled by hand- does such a thing exist?)
Blis

And things that maybe someone will find useful, but I just don't.

Automatic tailgate.


In the same time I rarely, if ever, see things that I would actually like fitted to my car:

Automatically closing windows and sunroof (yes, I know they exist, but how often do you see that?)
Audio unit that has access to internet radio, local files (in .flac format!) with ability to create custom playlist, not only by genre/artist/album
Daylights (automatic running lights) coming up together with taillights!!!

But instead there's a push for " google drive" on audio units.
Ever brighter and maladjusted headlights.
Car ability to take over the wheel if it doesn't "like" what you're doing..

Can't get my breath. Trying to have my dinner but can't stop laughing. Quality.

Thats easily sorted.

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Thomas, am I not explaining myself very well, or are you not listening?:regular_smile:
In plain English...:tongwink:that’s a dynamic. Auto tailgate, bendy lights, become a must with use. I identify with your sentiments entirely, however I have had to concede that my damning automation based on my belief of how I would use it was rather premature. The first auto tailgate I thought would be useless, not so, have you seen how dirty tailgates get vs saloons? Never had dirty hands opensing a tailgate since.:teeth_smile: Similarly with other automation, but granted not all, the lane deviation thingy is switched off, for example.

I used to hate auto boxes, I am quite capable of changing gear myself, till the other half insisted on them...so I didn’t tell her she was in the wrong gear.:shocked:

Now I see manual cars as workaholics cars.:teeth_smile:

I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage; don’t knock it till you’ve e tried it?