What's One Of Your BIGGEST Auto-related Pet Peeves?

Having the ability to test a wide swath of products really does shine a light on where some products are good and others are not so good. It also elevates areas where there's a universal problem.

Take, for example, autos and their Bluetooth connectivity.

In some vehicles it's as simple as a couple clicks in their infotainment display and pairing the phone. In others, it's a bit more detailed. With Mercedes-Benz's latest products you have to pair the phone two times: Once for making calls and, again, if you want to use your phone to listen to music — kind of silly.

But that's only the start.

That's because one area where it seems all vehicles seem to miss the boat is with making calls. And there's a variety of ways these systems are a let down. Most of them lack clarity on the line. You can tell immediately when you switch it back/forth from the headset to piping the audio through the vehicle's Bluetooth. Then there's just audio systems that simply aren't loud enough. Take, for example, the Volvo XC40 I am driving this week. On the highway I can't even hear who I am speaking with on the other end of the call.

That said, I've got to ask, Spies: What are your BIGGEST auto-related pet peeves?

MDarringer - 8/20/2019 8:27:59 AM

-2 Boost

My #1 is that manufacturers are not trying hard enough to produce excellent cars--regardless of price point--that are trend setters for styling. Everything is generic, run through opinion clinics, dumbed down, and boring.

skytop - 8/20/2019 12:21:35 PM

0 Boost

That my electric car created huge amount of carbon dioxide when the batteries were manufactured and that to recharge my electric car, huge amounts of coal and oil must be burned to generate electricity.

scenicbyway12 - 8/20/2019 12:51:29 PM

+6 Boost

When people with Bluetooth equipped cars, still have their damn phone in their ear!

dumpsty - 8/20/2019 3:08:11 PM

+3 Boost

The absolute worst - to be in traffic & hear a full conversation b/c the driver has the caller volume set at the max with the windows down. AND they have their phone up to their ear TOO.

TomM - 8/20/2019 5:28:34 PM

+3 Boost

I have two - and they have been that way for decades

1 - I really really hate that driver who decides to continuously drive the far left lane at 5 MPH below the posted speed limit

2 - After all the advancements in cars - turn signals in cars would seem to be something that would be easy to produce and get right - but did you ever notice that on the road - the more expensive the car - the LESS likely the turn signals are to work.

valhallakey - 8/20/2019 8:23:27 PM

+2 Boost

No friggin kidding, I am sure they wonder why that stalk moves up and down. Second on the list is formation driving. If you are going the same speed as the person in the right liane move the freak over. Third - back to the blinkers, I do not like that if I want a single blink I can't do that in most modern cars. They are set to blink 3 times and that feature is not always disableable.

blackbr - 8/20/2019 5:30:50 PM

+4 Boost

Start/stop.

Cars using Sirius satellite receivers. The sound quality is AWFUL. There are still some manufactures using XM receivers (BMW I think) which sound much better, but most use Sirius.

4 way stops. Replace them all with traffic circles.

Toll roads. Huge waste of time and gas, non-deductible taxes.

Luxury car pricing. Have to buy pricey option packages to get features that sometimes come standard on much less expensive cars.

Black interiors. (A matter of taste)

Cheap cars with tinny doors and engines that sound like angry pigs (Nissans in particular). Although I was impressed with the Altima SL I recently rented.

mre30 - 8/20/2019 5:55:39 PM

-3 Boost

For me, hands-down, it is the proliferation of "Turbo" or "Hot-Vee Twin Turbo" engines.

While they may be easier to 'game' than naturally aspirated engines in the fuel economy tests, they generally get worse gas mileage than advertised and they ALL seem to start having significant problems in the 40,000 to 60,000 mile/5 year life range (like $3,000 problems!).

The days of the 200,000 mile Mercedes Benz and Honda are over. Toyota is seemingly the only manufacturer that sticks with naturally aspirated engines.