If you were designing cars, what would you like to include as an option?

Thanks for the opportunity to complain !! . .. ..

Why do good ideas get dropped? a few examples: in the mid-80s many vehicles adopted amber rear turn-signal lenses.......we were told that studies prove that amber signals were much easier for drivers behind us to see than red lenses (they were).....but it was treated as a styling gimmick: they disappeared after a few years...............................what happened to moldings on car sides to prevent parking lot dings - either metal or rubber/vinyl?..........................why did my modest '85 Mustang 4 cyl have an electric remote-control gas door and our newer Fords don't - and now our brand-new one doesn't even have a cap - no way to even install a locking cap to prevent tampering.........................why did cars in the 1930s have lights in the glove compartment - but our new cars don't (both $36,000+ cars).......................why did convertibles formerly come with leather or vinyl "boots" to cover the lowered top - when we ordered our Mustang GT convertible a boot was a $164 option - and when the car came the boot turned-out to be a piece of cloth you must tie onto the car......................why do our new cars come with multiple "power points" but no cigarette lighter or ashtray? we don't smoke but sometimes need a lighter or a place to plug-in a 12 volt accessory (and No, those plugs don't fit "Power Points" - why did they change the size?)......we ordered the "Smokers Sets for our Fords ---- what we got for over $120 was a plastic cup ashtray and a new socket to replace the "power point" socket in the dash --- unfortunately it takes a special Ford tool to switch them and no Ford dealers we've been to have the tool).............................why can't we have interior color choices: in the past, even cheap cars had choices of red, green, blue, tan, brown, white, black interiors - even two-tones. Now you have a choice of light gray or dark gray. We looked at the new Hyundai Genesis - great car - but at that price they offer one color interior - black - and we're sick to death of black!.............................why are things over-complicated: controlling lights used to take one switch: pull it out to turn them on, rotate it to adjust dash lights, rotate the other way for interior lights - now it takes 4 switches (and they all get hot to the touch - what's that about?)

Finally - why are such simple things no longer available, but those stooopid interactive touch-screen controls systems are standard??????????????? Every single car review you read criticizes the touch-screen controls - they were a nuisance on old 80s Rivieras and they're worse now - - - instead of a knob to turn the volume up on the radio, you have to touch a screen to activate the system................then go thru multiple screen to find the right sound system screen..............then hunt around that screen for the volume level........touch it and it usually doesn't go up one notch or two, but jumps to Silent or Deafening........all the while taking your eyes off the road.

Really makes you wonder what kind of clueless geeks design our cars !

@ "Rege" . . . . I remember those rotating seats on Chrysler products.........and I remember seeing people trying to drive with the seat sideways after they broke !!

I'd probably declude rather than include some of the luxuries that make the vehicle cost so darned much. I got a simple car back in the late 1980's that moved forward and back, had brakes and a radio, had the metal divider on the body of the car for strength of the roof in case of rollover, had easy clean comfortable bench seats, had power V8 and decent long wearing tires, Ziebart undercoating, heavy duty springs, partially tinted front window, no liner, no bags, no extras for $5600, l and it lasted me 18 years. Original muffler, no accidents...some pipe from the underside fell off so I had to turn it in. I can do without the automation of the roll-up windows. I don't need the time and temperature. I just want the gas gauge to always work. How about some rubber on the car around the windows that doesn't crack from the heat (or heat of the car wash). I wanna find my car in the parking lot so any noisemaker on it is helpful (rather than me tieing a balloon to it).

Not much to add to P.A.s great answer.

Maybe 'collision alert' light warnings. I would definitely have GPS as 'standard' and not as an upgrade. In the Jason Stratham movie 'The Transporter,' he had the start-code inside a locked dashboard compartment. I like that too.

Seat belts are my personal hate. That they are needed no-one can deny, but why, exactly, do they always rise up and run across my neck and make for such uncomfortable driving..?

Oh, and a decent car jack included as standard too, not those clunky spindly things that need three hundred turns, just to get the car up and the punctured wheel off. I bought a small jack platform, with four wheels and a long pump handle. Slips under the car and jacks it off the ground in seconds. Comes in a nice flat cardboard box which lies flat on the bottom of the car boot. Trouble is, it was quite expensive. Over $100 dollars. Lot of money for something you use maybe once in five years.

First, I want some sort of a deflector, so I can drive with my side windows open and still hear my music. I need seats that will adjust to MY body, not some five foot tall, Asians. Side mirrors that are big enough to actually see something, with dimming for bright headlights.

Now it's time to start dreaming! I want to do away with petroleum products as fuel. There has to be some way to liberate the hydrogen from water, to make hydrogen gas for fuel, and put it in a small, light weight package.

There has go be some sort of battery, that can store enough power to run a car when it's in a busy metropolitan area, saving the internal combustion system for highway use.

How about fully active, electronic suspension systems, that coordinate with drive and braking systems?

Anti collision warning, autonomous braking and avoidance systems? They already have this in prototype form.

With current aerodynamic developments, can't we make a vehicle in an aesthetically pleasing shape?

There is nothing more that should be included.

If I could design a car would be very simple with only a few nods to today's technology.

Power steering is great; power everything else is not needed. Don't need half the stuff in today's cars.

I want a very simple car with a good 2+ liter 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual tranny, Mcpherson struts, rear anti-sway and please, give me some choices of interior materials and color.

I do agree with another poster that GPS would be nice as standard.

I feel your entire posts ignore the truth that several international locations, Japan and Switzerland and Germany to name a number of, have a government sponsored insurance and exclusive organizations as well. You postulate that the coverage firms are not able to potentially figure out a method to compete, even as in actual fact that they may be able to exchange the things which can be mistaken with themselves and nonetheless make a profit. Any reform bill that does not offer a public alternative will not be a reform invoice. As with the Baucus bill, which readily presents hundreds of thousands of more pressured shoppers for the firms who can then charge anything they want. The government plan will be beautiful naked bones, so any organization that may present somewhat more at an affordable cost could have a variety of consumers. The one change is that they may have to hold their commitments to the policyholders rather of the shareholders.

I'd like some kind of electric heater that would defrost the windshield and warm the car immediately instead of having to shiver until the engine warms up. When the engine is finally warm, the electric heater could shut off.

I also would like an exhaust fan to remove cigarette smoke from the interior of the car. (Yes, i know people shouldn't smoke in cars, but many do and they're not likely to stop, especially on long trips.)

Many of the complaints that PA has have just been shifted to "extras". You can still get a lot of that stuff but it costs you more. Also electronic stuff breaks. It just does.

I am perfectly happy with our lastest new car and can't think of anything even from the past that i would need.

PS Our 2013 Ford Escape has a knob to turn the volume up and down.

1. No computer

2. Crank up windows

3. A radio with an on-off switch and volume on the left and the station dial on the right.

4. Some chrome and a real bumper on both ends

5. Wing windows instead of an air conditioner

6. Service manual instead of a worthless owner's manual.

7. I would want to be able to order it level, NOT with it's butt in the air and no road clearance in front.

8. Manual transmission with overdrive

I would like to see some sort of mini-fridge in the trunk area. It's a royal pain on hot days, to have to race home with cold items from the store. And there are a LOT of hot days in my locale. Such an option could run on solar power, even.

There are way too many options on cars today that are not needed. They not only drive the price of the car up, but they encourage bad drivers. I don't need rear tv cameras or a car that can park itself. If I cannot drive properly, I shouldn't be driving at all.