WHY all this complexity?

[timswi]

Both my father's Corvette and my wife's Grandma's Cadillac will not start if left for more than a week. That don't work too well when you are in the airport parking lot for more than a week.

Chris

First I've heard of that and that's knowing people with Cadillacs and Vett's. In fact a guy at work's 6.2 2013 Camaro sat all winter an fired right up..Who knows.

Odd that I only find serial GM problems on TBN and now where else.

 

[Diamondpilot]

First I've heard of that and that's knowing people with Cadillacs and Vett's. In fact a guy at work's 6.2 2013 Camaro sat all winter an fired right up..Who knows.

Odd that I only find serial GM problems on TBN and now where else.

Truth is both of these vehicles are used very little and have tons of electronics. I'm sure any brand with this much stuff that sits would do the same.

Here Grandma's Caddy is a 2003 model and just turned 36,000 miles. My father's Corvette is a 1997 and has about the same.

Chris

 

[txdon]

Another area in which GPS saves lives is in automatic phone calls if air bags go off. My F150 will dial 911 and send coordinates to the dispatcher if I am involved in an accident. The response vehicles also rely on gps to arrive to most all emergencies.

Five Reasons Why You Are a Safer Driver With GPS

There's a #6 - In an unfamiliar area you can call 911, the Sheriff's Dept., and tell them which road the drunk behind you (that almost ran you off the road) turned off on so they can intercept him and before you get home can have him safely in their backseat so he won't kill himself or others.

 

[JDgreen227]

There's a #6 - In an unfamiliar area you can call 911, the Sheriff's Dept., and tell them which road the drunk behind you (that almost ran you off the road) turned off on so they can intercept him and before you get home can have him safely in their backseat so he won't kill himself or others.

The sad truth is that in many areas you will not have a police officer within a half hour of your car.

 

[txdon]

The sad truth is that in many areas you will not have a police officer within a half hour of your car.

I know. The Sheriff's department finally got him after 45 minutes and called me back (before I got home) and said the driver was very drunk - I had to go 90MPH at night because he was swerving behind me all over the road and I could not chance him passing - he was in a Hummer, I was in a Prius with Nav.

 

[bcp]

It's getting closer and closer to the old joke "If Microsoft built cars."

Here is an expanded version:
IF MICROSOFT BUILT CARS

Bruce

 

[Fordman1981]

"Around here we have "distracted driver" laws, no texting, dialing, GPS programming, etc... only hands-free allowed. And then they allow these new vehicles with a complex menu system just to turn up the heater. Can't figure that out. " .......................................................................................................................................................................... And now they advertise TV availability on your Iphones so I presume that includes streaming to the in dash GPS screen? In our local news a lady got fined because she had looked at the cellphone to read the time.(some show time with the lid closed) Now tell me that following a map on the dash GPS is safe! heck tweaking that map is far more dangerous than talking on a phone, but it is legal. I also fly, constant scanning (in and out) is simply a good and necessary practice and not all that hard to accomplish. Sure we use headsets with mike and PTT switches for communications but B4 we survived with hand mikes all while monitoring gauges and traffic left/right and up/down.

"And now they advertise TV availability on your Iphones so I presume that includes streaming to the in dash GPS screen?"

No they will not allow this very few vehicles work with CarPlay or android auto yet. Neither mirror your phone they run an app that allows certain things such as Siri or OK Google instead of your cars voice recognition and apple maps or Google maps. They also have a quicker cleaner interface for the audio selection than the factory setups.

The map apps that are available via the phone will be the same as the factory Navs it will not allow you to enter addresses and make changes while moving through the cars interface.

Please educate yourself before spreading false info.

 

[jejeosborne]

There's a #6 - In an unfamiliar area you can call 911, the Sheriff's Dept., and tell them which road the drunk behind you (that almost ran you off the road) turned off on so they can intercept him and before you get home can have him safely in their backseat so he won't kill himself or others.

I wish this would have happened last Saturday night. I am currently sitting bedside in the ICU next to my 16 year old son who was hit by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on a divided highway. The drunk already had an accident minutes before that took out his headlights. Head on collision killed my son's passenger and critically injured my son and a third passenger. It has been a terrible week and unfortunately you hit the nail on the head.

 

[JDgreen227]

I wish this would have happened last Saturday night. I am currently sitting bedside in the ICU next to my 16 year old son who was hit by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on a divided highway. The drunk already had an accident minutes before that took out his headlights. Head on collision killed my son's passenger and critically injured my son and a third passenger. It has been a terrible week and unfortunately you hit the nail on the head.

Oh....that is sad and shocking...sending my sincere good wishes and prayers to you now.

 

[Oaktree]

My two new Dodge Dakotas and my 08 Sierra have precious little heat or air flow to the floor area!

What year are your Dakotas? The heater in my '02 is a blast furnace! My only complaint is that the lowest fan speed is a bit too high...either too much fan or off. One of these days I'll futz with the blower resistor and try to find one that drops the speed a bit more. Of course I've been saying this for the 10 years I've had it...

Most of that electronic crap is there because it's high profit for the corporate CEO, and the American consumer no longer thinks for themselves. The ads say they "need" this crap, so they think they "need" this crap. Thus, corporate gets rich and the consumer goes on being gloriously ignorant sheep.

Unfortunately, this is the trend. Don't learn how to actually drive or park your car, let some electronic wizardry do it for you..

It's a selling point. Fuel economy, reliability, etc. are about as good as they can get, and there really isn't a big difference between brands in that regard. This is how they compete, on gadgetry. It's relatively cheap to include since 'most everything goes thru one of the on-board computers these days and buyers think it's cool.