I pride myself on taking care of my car -- not so much in the looks department as in keeping it running. After 22 years with my 1988 Ford Escort (purchased new), it was time for my third car. Over the years, after someone backing into the front corner, being on fire twice, a tree falling over it, and being rear-ended twice (the second rear-ending put the appearance into its death throes), it was time. Being a tall guy in a short world (at six feet, five inches), I don't just fit into any vehicle. After much research and test driving, I ended up in a 2012 Subaru Outback.
The transition from 23-year-old auto technology to the modern world was impressive and also disappointing. As I drove the car and adapted from a small car that was a snug fit to a large one that fit very well, my little paradise began to fall apart. All the cars I have owned have been manual transmissions. So is my Outback. Yet it didn't take long for the first monkey to start taunting me.
Emergency flashers are probably one of the least-used features on a car. So where was the emergency button placed? It was in the middle of the center console, behind the stick-shift, level with the shift knob and about two-and-a-half inches away when the lever is in a forward position. More so when I first got the car but still happening on occasion, when I reach for the shift, one of my fingers will skip off the button and turn on the emergency flashers. Sometimes I catch it and turn them off. Other times, I would be driving down the road and then notice the flashing lights on the dash. I have contemplated finding a clear piece of plastic to mount over the button to help prevent the unintentional fingering, but I have yet to do so. Why did they choose that placement? Maybe because it looks nice and provides nice visual symmetry.
The seat warmer switch is also a problem. While it is a nice feature on a cold day, why did they mount it facing up on the center console, between the seat and double-drink holder? Driving my mother to a doctor's appointment, I took a drink and put the cup back in the holder. I unknowingly hit the switch, and for the next 20 minutes, I was trying to figure out if the AC was working. There I was, hot, just sitting there driving while the AC was blowing reasonably cool air. In the meantime, I was getting hotter and hotter.
And don't get me started about the radio.
This entry was submitted by Richard Bedell and edited by Rob Spiegel.
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The issue of leg room is a big one in my family. My two youngest sons are 6'-7" and 6'-6" and have been unable to drive a number of different vehicles that I've either rented or brought home for test drives. A few cars are said to be very good in this area, however. Those include the Honda Fit and Nissan Cube (both have high roof lines). Shaqulle O'Neal does commercials for the Buick LaCrosse, which suggests that it can fit a 7-footer, but I haven't verified it. Surprisingly, Smart Cars are also said to be pretty good, again because of the high roof line. We've found that cars with sun roofs and moon roofs aren't very good. Tall people end up with their heads squeezed up against the ceilings.
I also own the new Outback - my fourth Subaru. While these are good cars, the most affordable and fuel efficient AWD vehicles around, they do suffer from poorly designed user interfaces.
The horizontal, center console mounted, seat heater switches that Richard mentions, have been their design essentially forever (at least from mid '90s). And yes, they are very easy to accidentally turn on. It is nice to hear that Richard, like myself, is a diehard manual transmission fan. Apparently the console designers do NOT drive a manual, and don't realize how easy it is to hit the buttons when shifting.
Perhaps the worst interface design is the Bluetooth system. A simple "passthrough" operation, like on Bluetooth headsets, would be quite usable, and easy to design. But no, the designers have opted to make it more complex and less usable. You must record the name and number of only up to 20 contacts, and use their "less than perfect" voice recognition operation. Why? A passthrough connection to the phone, which generally has a much better voice recognition, would be much more usable. I can only guess that the designers are not using Bluetooth when driving. Or they suffer from the poorly trained marketeer's curse of "We have some technology. Let's use it, no matter how silly it is." I guess they never heard of KISS.
Wow, so the problems continue to be a bother. I went through a period when I used a good number of rental cars. The first thing I did was check where the lights were and how the window wipers worked. Those are hard systems to learn on the spot.
All electrical switches should have spill proofing feature or else they should not be placed in a horizontal surface near the console. Seat warmer, power windows, etc.
Here is a somewhat stretched real story of unprotected switch.
A quarter fell through the open slot of the shifter bezel, lodged i somewhere below and eventually shifted and jammed the shifter position switch open. After I parked the car in the airport parking lot I couldn't remove the key to lock the car! Apparently the design intent was to require the shifter to be in P to release the key, ostensibly for safety. But with that particular failure mode the security of the car was thoroughly compromised. I was lucky to have a passenger so I could dispatch a live human guard while picking up the second, arriving passenger.
For the next couple of weeks I used a second key to lock the doors, and a cap sitting on the ledge of the dash to cover the ever in-position ignition key, until eventually I removed the shifter bezel and found the culprit. Judging from the appearance of grime and dried up syrup, the coin had probably been there for a long time, even before I bought the car. It was probably in a non-interefering position but over time shifted to fool the safety design.
This was a Volvo 940 turbo stationwagon. But I believe all of 740, 940, and 960 shared the same key-shifter `safety' interlock design.
Richard, the dashboard has a finite amount of space. Location of the hazard button is low priority, so it gets put low and "out of the way". It's a somewhat understandable (if frustrating) design choice.
I have a bigger problem with changing the "standard" location of common controls. The PT Cruiser design team made a conscious choice to simplify wiring. Commendable. Removing wiring harnesses from a door is always a good choice, except when controls that have ALWAYS been on the door get moved. The PT Cruiser has its window controls mounted right in the middle of the dashboard.
Granted, it's a central location for both front seat occupants. However, this is not a good design choice for a car that is frequently used in rental car fleets. Every first-time renter who is not a PT Cruiser owner fumbles around for a minute looking for the window buttons.
Yes, it does take time to adapt. The emergency flasher will probably always be an issue with my large hands. I do remember the first time it rained while driving the Subaru. I almost had to pull over to search for the windshield wiper control. The Ford Escort was on the left hand steering column lever and the Subaru had it on the right side and it operated differently. I have adapted. I haven't hit the seat warmer in awhile either. But that emergency button...
Richard, you have discovered one of the conumdrums of modern automobile design. We just replaced a ten year old minivan. The transmission went and we decided that the cost of fixing that coupled with the mileage on the van made a replacement the prudent thing to do. This was for my wife. So, while we didn't have quite the leap you did, there is quite a difference. We also had two cars from the same manufacturer from the same year. The controls were not exactly the same, but they were similar. Now they are very different. We have not run into quite the issues you have, but it does take some adjustment. There always seems to be something in a place you don't expect, or want it. You would think that with all the ergonomics research that has been done that you new Subaru would be better laid out.
When your lab is only one scope, one meter, and one homebrew function generator and power supply, the scope is stage center. But this one wasn't working right.
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