Small issues with your car that annoys you

[buddyholly1969]

1971 Chevrolet Chevelle
I have an annoying leak at the top of the windshield that drips down my rearview mirror only in heavy rain and only when I park it on the sloping parking lot at work. It is actually a leak between two roof seams and I have thus far been too lazy to fix it.

 

[trmiv]

2012 Toyota Highlander Limited.

-The Toyota navigation and stereo blows goats. Wish I would have gotten the cheap stereo and just replaced it.
-Weak horn. It's just a weak "beep beep"
-The door handles get in the way of you reaching the window controls, or comfortably putting your arm on the armrest. Corrected in the 2014. No idea who thought it was a good design in the gen 2.

 

[Spicedaddy]

2014 Q5

-Bluetooth works for phone, navigation, etc. But you can't stream music over BT, stupid.
-Heated seats have 3 temp levels. 1 is fine, but 2 or 3 get insanely hot, they could light your ass on fire.
-The rear-view mirror drops a bit when going over bumps. It's minor, but you have to reset it every 2-3 weeks.
-The windshield seems pretty soft. It hasn't cracked, but it's all pitted after 1 winter.

 

[Mermaidman]

2014 Q5

-Bluetooth works for phone, navigation, etc. But you can't stream music over BT, stupid.

I feel a little better knowing that my Miata's BT has the same flaw as a luxury car.

 

[SearchMaster]

I tend to think that 300 miles is the normal range for most vehicles. You at 360 miles seem to be just a bit better than average/normal. The vehicles I drive are right in that range also though so I may be just used to less than the current norm.

300 seems awfully low...my two previous cars were much closer to 500 ('00 Maxima, 27MPG x 18.5g and '98 Accord, 29MPG x 17.1g). I used to drive ~450 miles per week to commute so I basically filled weekly...now I work from home and it's closer to every two weeks.

I can't complain though, my brother-in-law gets about 200 miles per tank in his R8 and that's with a tank nearly double my ST's

 

[ControlD]

2006 Mazda 3

- The air conditioning is like a bad joke. On a hot day it might take the edge off after 10 miles or so, but that's as far as it goes

- The cabin air filter is damned near impossible to get to

- The headlight clip was designed by Satan

Those are all pretty minor though. This is by far the most reliable car I have ever owned and would buy another Mazda in a heartbeat.

 

[trmiv]

2006 Mazda 3

- The air conditioning is like a bad joke. On a hot day it might take the edge off after 10 miles or so, but that's as far as it goes

Yes! My wife had a 2007 Mazda 3 and that was always my biggest complaint. Had to have that sucker cranked just to get barely comfortable.

 

[Nebor]

2014 Q5

-Bluetooth works for phone, navigation, etc. But you can't stream music over BT, stupid.
-Heated seats have 3 temp levels. 1 is fine, but 2 or 3 get insanely hot, they could light your ass on fire.
-The rear-view mirror drops a bit when going over bumps. It's minor, but you have to reset it every 2-3 weeks.
-The windshield seems pretty soft. It hasn't cracked, but it's all pitted after 1 winter.

I was looking at SQ5s before I go the Macan and noticed that you have to get the nicest stereo in order to get Bluetooth music streaming. Seemed like a WTF that in 2014 Audi didn't have it as standard when it's standard in a Toyota Camry.

My seat heaters are also crazy hot past the 1st notch. If only the seat coolers were as effective.

And my windshield took a pretty good sized rock last month. Created a star with two 1 foot cracks radiating from it, one up and one across. Over a week of driving it the cracks spread to be 3 feet each. Dropped the car off at the dealer since I was going out of town and the windshield was going to take weeks to come in from Germany. Picked it up Saturday with the new windshield. $1291 installed. D:

 

[Riverhound777]

2013 Focus ST:

- brake dust...I'm going to replace the pads soon because it's just crazy how much dust the stock pads make
- like vi_edit said above about his C-Max, sound system is a bit overequalized. All in all it has a better than average sound but could be better
- SYNC nav system has a lot of trouble understanding voice destinations. The latest updates have made it tolerable for everything but nav, so I often use a third party app (Send To Car) to send an address to the nav system.
- Paint quality is subpar so it chips easily - basically comes from the same assembly line as Focii costing $10K-$15K less.
- Gas tank is very small (12 gallons) - for a performance car it gets excellent MPG but even at 30MPG, a 12 gallon tank provides a small range.
- Limited storage space - not a big deal but I loved the little cubby in my 98 Accord under the HVAC/stereo

FWIW, a lot of these issues were fixed for '15.

Agree on all points, the 12 gallon tank really annoys me. And no it doesn't go 360 miles unless your on a road trip and take it to the limit. I usually get around 280 out of it.

- The turning radius is horrid. I know it's probably due to the bigger tires and steering, but it's annoying.
- No Auto dim mirror option. Seriously on a $30k fully loaded car, this should be a no brainer.
- Full size spare takes up too much cargo room.

 

[repoman0]

2003 BMW 330i

Window switches are in the center
Burns a ton of oil
Brake service light just came on despite the fact that I did all 4 pads/rotors last summer
Stupid airbag light keeps coming on for an electrical connection that I keep cleaning
Sunroof shade is stuck in the roof and therefore it won't open
Driver side mirror is turning brown

Lots more little things that I'm forgetting. Still, overall good car and enjoyable to be in

 

[jagec]

300 seems awfully low...my two previous cars were much closer to 500 ('00 Maxima, 27MPG x 18.5g and '98 Accord, 29MPG x 17.1g). I used to drive ~450 miles per week to commute so I basically filled weekly...now I work from home and it's closer to every two weeks.

Hell, my last motorcycle had a ~300 mile range. Inexcusable for a car to do worse than that.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah, I'm annoyed if a car can't do 400+ out of a tank of gas. My C-Max will do that in around 10 gallons of gas.

My Camry has done a personal best of 520 miles out of 15 gallons.

 

[Demo24]

2014 Mazda 3

- center arm rest has no resistance in the hinge so it's hard to keep it open
- the front seat bottoms need to be longer. Also the stitching across the bottom hurts me after a couple hours
- center console juts out slightly into the passenger footwell ( I see no reason why this was necessary and annoys my knees)
- terrible rear visibility so it's hard to backup without the camera (thankfully it's quite good)
- highway road noise is kinda high, may be the tires though
- gas gauge is oddly nonlinear and goes to light roughly 5 gallons before empty. Most I've put in was 12 gallons (14 gal tank) and that ran the gauge to 0.
- auto climate is push on, but not push off. Have to change a fan setting or direction for it to go manual. Passenger side is push on/off though. However the auto is good so I rarely do so.

Otherwise I quite like the car and would recommend.

 

[Raduque]

2013 F150 FX2

-Front left door speaker crackles when it's moist out (rain, snow)
-Sync doesn't like to listen to me immediately after starting the truck
-Radio doesn't do metadata over BT
-Only way to select BT streaming audio is through voice commands
-Radio too hard to replace (and the available aftermarket kits are fugly and put the radio itself too low in the dash)
-Can't swap to factory MFT w/Nav unless your VIN was shipped with it from the factory (dealer's won't reflash BCM either)
-Gauge cluster display doesn't show tire pressures, only "Low Tire Pressure" in a dialog and an idiot light
-No built-in Voltmeter (instead a trans temp gauge... redundant as it's available through the cluster display!)
-Mirror controls are along the top edge of the door near the window, instead of on the arm rest with all the other controls. I still go there first to adjust my mirror, due to both my previous 01 and 04 F150's having the mirror control right in front of the door locks.
-USB port in the center console isn't high-power enough to charge my phone
-Running boards are slippery when wet. I need to put some skateboard tape on them
-AdvanceTrac unable to be disabled completely without physically pulling the fuse
-As somebody else said, tailgate doesn't lock w/keyfob
-Rear seat headrests don't fold flat against the back seat, they instead fold vertically

I still love my truck though. The 5.0's exhaust note is delicious, and it looks sharp when clean.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

2011 TSX Base model
Only the driver's door opens when I click unlock on the fob once. To get the rest of the doors to unlock I have to click unlock many times.

When I open the driver's door only the driver's door unlocks. A surprising PITA as I usually have 1 or 2 kids in the back seat and end up having to dig my fob out of my pocket to open the rear doors.

 

[tortillasoup]

2012 Camry
- It has a tire pressure display on the touch screen. But it just shows 4 tires in a row and their pressures. You don't know which tires are which. How hard would it have been to put a small top down image on there with pressures that actually corresponded to a tire that you can identify on the car?

As nice of an idea that would be, the problem is, when tires get rotated or switched, the display would no longer be accurate. Though they COULD have a way of programming which wheel is where, I think most people would never utilize it, get confused, frustrated and give up and call the manufacturer stupid. Either way, the manufacturer is stupid. lol

 

[tortillasoup]

2011 TSX Base model
Only the driver's door opens when I click unlock on the fob once. To get the rest of the doors to unlock I have to click unlock many times.

When I open the driver's door only the driver's door unlocks. A surprising PITA as I usually have 1 or 2 kids in the back seat and end up having to dig my fob out of my pocket to open the rear doors.

This can be re-programmed by the dealership or if you have a Honda programming tool.

 

[tortillasoup]

2008 tundra

The accelerator pedal is way too touchy when going over potholes or bumps. You tap the pedal and it greatly increases power instead of being linear. No other car I've driven with drive by wire pedal does this.

HAH! This is caused by that stupid accelerator pedal recall Toyota had. What they did was, being the cheap bastards that they are, they put shims inside of the accelerators, causing them to be far too sensitive. There is a solution to this problem if you're interested.

 

[Fenixgoon]

here's another one: cars with automatic headlights. why are they annoying? because when it's dusk, the headlights are on, but the goddamn tail lights aren't. yes, this is another "every car has that". i always turn my lights on right after starting the car.

 

[XavierMace]

2011 BMW 135i

Door Lock/Unlock switch is on the center console. Wiper and cruise control levers are shockingly complicated.

As nice of an idea that would be, the problem is, when tires get rotated or switched, the display would no longer be accurate. Though they COULD have a way of programming which wheel is where, I think most people would never utilize it, get confused, frustrated and give up and call the manufacturer stupid. Either way, the manufacturer is stupid. lol

My 2011 BMW 135i displays the location of the wheel. JLee's 2004 CTS-V did as well and I want to say my 2013 BRZ did too.

 

[halik]

07 Audi S8 -

Lumbar, or rather complete lack thereof, makes my back numb. Seriously as soon as it gets warmer out, I'm taking the seats apart and shoving more foam in them. I've sat in reclining furniture with more lumbar.

AMI will only detect my phone if it's plugged in within like 20 seconds of the system powering on. After that I need to unplug and replug the iphone cable.

 

[Demo24]

here's another one: cars with automatic headlights. why are they annoying? because when it's dusk, the headlights are on, but the goddamn tail lights aren't. yes, this is another "every car has that". i always turn my lights on right after starting the car.

I think you may be confusing daytime running lights with automatic lights, which would turn them all on when activated. I've always been hesitant to run with lights on all the time as during the day the difference with the brake lights is not as significant.

 

[vi edit]

As nice of an idea that would be, the problem is, when tires get rotated or switched, the display would no longer be accurate. Though they COULD have a way of programming which wheel is where, I think most people would never utilize it, get confused, frustrated and give up and call the manufacturer stupid. Either way, the manufacturer is stupid. lol

GM Has it figured out:
http://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/cadillac/ats/2013/lt/2013_cadillac_ats_det_lt_102413_600.jpg

Audi has it figured out:
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Subjects/tires/images/Audi_TPMS_display.jpg

Ford has it figured out:
http://www.fordraptorforum.com/attachments/f52/37813d1385921563t-tpms-display-question-img_5171.jpg

Nissan has it figured out:
http://www.nissanusa.com/vlp-assets...finder/features/safety-details/tpms-thumb.jpg

 

[SithSolo1]

here's another one: cars with automatic headlights. why are they annoying? because when it's dusk, the headlights are on, but the goddamn tail lights aren't. yes, this is another "every car has that". i always turn my lights on right after starting the car.

The issue isnt automatic headlights, its those without automatic lights but with daytime running lights.

Automatic lights function just like you turning them on manually, just light activate.

Daytime running lights are always on but if it gets dark and you don't have automatic lights you need to manually flip the switch. If not then you have lights blazing up front but nothing in the rear. I see this all the time and I agree its stupid.

 

[Gerle]

I think you may be confusing daytime running lights with automatic lights, which would turn them all on when activated. I've always been hesitant to run with lights on all the time as during the day the difference with the brake lights is not as significant.

With good brake lights and the third brake light it shouldn't be an issue. I think your increased visibility for oncoming traffic more than makes up for it. Cars with lights on are so much more visible, day or night, than unlit cars.