"What are Your Automotive Pet Peeves?"

Most other drivers.

DIY repair manuals. They always fail to warn you that your socket could fall off your extension and bonk you on the forehead at least 17 times. What's that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Well I remember when the '64 mustang came out, and it was so popular that they did another production run, and it was called the '64 1/2, and I remember the '65 and the '66 and so on....many of my friends and neighbors had these cars...The '64 1/2 is what it is, it is not a '65.....and a woodie is a woodie.....I think "classic" is a made up word....there is cool cars and old cars and antique cars.....there are rice burners and eurotrash, but I think the American classics are cool American cars that are recognized from other countries as such.....just like classic British sportcars, and classic Italian sportcars.....it means something to Americans....but just 'classics' is a marketing term that just means older.....$.02

Running production changes that require the VIN to be sure you've got the correct part.

Hybrid fastener use on the same vehicle; some metric, some SAE.

Then there's all the new-fangled head styles in use and I never have the right one.

Unecessary/irrelevant sensors which dissable the car when they fail.

Like the warning in my Nissan Micra that tells me I haven't turned the ignition off... when I have, it then stops me locking the door, leaves a shed load of electronics running which then flattens the battery....
Del

(sorry if I've mentione this before)

On-line auction sites (names withheld) are great for solving problems like that...

Thats one of the joys of buying one of those riceburners.

I somehow feel that using a CR4 website to discuss having a "Woody/Woodie" is simply the wrong place and time!!!

If I get one, I am sure not going to discuss it here with you Guys and Gals.....heck no!!

Smarten up!!!

"If I get one, I am sure not going to discuss it here with you Guys and Gals.....heck no!!"

Thank you for that.

I second THAT sentiment...!

'Dollars-to-donuts', here: I'll BET that automotive engineers must pass a test before being admitted into the "Pack". They simply MUST be able to perform a PERFECT imitation of Stuart, doing his "Look what I can do" routine.

I have 'barked' this elsewhere, but rather than linking-to-it, I'll repeat: I am SICK of accidentally bumping the "Lock" button on my car key WHILE I am trying to extract 15 bags at once from the rear seat, and having the car WAaaaiilllllllll at me continuously for doing so.... (like a little KID screaming, "No!!! you CANNOT lock your door while it is open....NOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

AND WORSE : I am sick of unlocking the car-door (3-rows-out) from under the awning over the store-front, grasping all those bags from the shopping basket, and then RACING through the cloud-burst, only to reach for the door-handle with my only available pinkey-finger WHILE HEARING the doors AUTOMATICALLY Re-Lock (because I didn't get there "In Time"...!?!?!).

Who-the-He_- *are* these engineers, who think they know "better than us"...?

Or ... ... are they watching us all, via satellite, laughing their collective butts off each time they see that they "got another one of us"...?!

Done some of this my self and once while gassing up to get to airport I bumped the lock with keys inside. Now I never leave car without the keys in my hand. Cost me $350.00 as I had to break a back window to get into the vehicle.

I understand aircraft that fly by wire have 4 systems, three for backup. How may people are killed or maimed in aircraft incidents v/s auto incidents. I fail also to see how all these gadgets help to keep the price of the car affordable and or reliable. NOT

I also am on the opinion that a lot of these useless features were mandated by some government anal retentive that was probably conceived in a petri dish.

My old '94 Honda Accord won't let you lock the keys in from the driver's side. You have to have the key to lock the driver door. But you can lock all doors from the passenger side, so if you leave the keys in the car and walk around to get something out of the passenger side and then lock all doors, you're SOL.

V-dub has done that with their cars all the way back to the '75 Wabbit. I kinda like that feature.

Then there was the time I left my keys in the Suburban while we were traveling with kitty, and he stood up to look out the window while we were loading up, and he stepped on the door locks button . . . . . and my wife left her purse on the front seat with her keys. Do you know you can spend hours trying to get kitty to try to step on the button again, except rocking it the other way?

Cats are a real trip! Er, in this case... not.

Passerby, if you pull the inside door handle and push the lock button, all the doors will lock. It's a Honda only trick. Try it.

Yea - ask Airbus about fly-by-wire. -- JHF

The decreasing user serviceability over the last 30 years or so.

Not only user... even the dealerships know zip.
If the diagnostic socket is damaged they are screwed.
And if they do work they just blindy follow the list of stuff to swap out.
I had an ex company car about 15 years back, it would always stall when cold, the dealership had not been able to fix it during it's working life. I took of the throttle body off dunked it in a bowl of parafin, cleaned it out and it was fixed... they'd been too busy looking at diagnostics to go back to basics.
Del

Well, it sounds like you have more knowledge about what to do for most problems than I would. I recently needed to have my brake rotors replaced. After getting bids from the dealership and a couple of independent shops, I priced the rotors at around $30 each. Then, I figured it couldn't be THAT hard to replace them. Wrong.

After looking at a video a guy posted on YouTube showing how to do it on that era Accord, I didn't even finish the video. He complained up front about how difficult it was; captive rotor it seems and he had to build a special 2-part jig just to hold it in his press properly (the rotors were rusted in place). At my age, that was enough for me. I paid $500+ to have the rotors replaced, pads, and a CV joint that was bad. I obviously didn't recognized the "sound" of it "clicking." The mechanic did, though. And how many times in my life have I wondered if some of the work found needed to be done was, in fact, really needed.

So, I guess, that would chime in with your complaining about dealerships. I would add service shops in general. Some can be trusted, and if you find one it's best to stick with them.

The problem these days is most software is written by kids stuck in front of computers who don't get out into the real world to actually use and the product and it's specified by marketting wonks who's vison only reaches as far as "comany xyz has it, so we've gotta have it".

There is no recourse for the customer to complain, and there is no choice
If you try, you are met with blank stares.
just try complaining about the software in the supermarket self service checkout.
There is no feedback loop from customer to designer anymore.
An the marketting wonks think your bar of soap needs to be bluetooth connected to make it sell...

HERE IS A FREE MARKETTING IDEA FOR ANY WONKS OUT THERE.

CONFIGURABLE SOFTWARE FOR YOUR CAR, SO YOU CAN ENABLE/DISSABLE ALL THE IRRELEVANT CR4P YOU DON'T WANT.

Please someone take up this idea.... I for one will beat a path to your door, especially if it comes with everything dissabled as the default state.
I expect some top end motor already has this....?

Del (click rant mode to auto)

Del, there are many cars that let you disable some of the electronics. For instance, you can disable the auto lock feature (and auto unlock) or you can program them to lock when out of park or at a set speed. You can unlock all the doors or just the drivers side. You can bypass the auto tilt/telescopic wheel movement, the seat automatically moving back and the folding mirrors on many new car.

Unfortunately, you can't control all the electronics, but at least you can control some.

Yeah, but I bet you can't bypass the stuff that screws up!
It needs an 'essential electronics only' switch, but that needs someone sensible to define 'essential' and where will you find someone like that these days?
Del

My Pet Peeves? Okay, you asked for it. In order of most peeved off.

1. Driving slow in the fast lane blocking traffic.

2. People who drive too slow and block traffic on canyon roads (where passing isn't allowed, yet there's a nice shoulder to pull off and let others pass).

3. When someone is driving erratic, due to being on the phone or texting (and it's illegal in our state).

4. Someone who parks right next to me, even though there's lots of empty spaces - I park far away, so you don't ding my car!

5. People who yield to oncoming traffic while in a traffic circle. It's actually pretty high on my list, since I live near one and drive on it all the time.

6. People who aren't paying attention in the left turn lane and due to their delay, I miss the arrow.

7. Rubberneckers. Come on, there's nothing you can do about it and you may even cause an accident. Not only that, but you're wasting my (and everyone else's) time.

8. Cars with stinky exhaust. I don't know how they are still able to drive these, since the state is very vigilant about cheating on your smog test.

9. Trucks who don't stay in the two right lanes.

10. People who stop short at a light. We're expecting you to stop like a normal person - you can actually cause an accident.

As far as driving/driver pet peeves go:

1. Driver's who don't use their turn indicators (or blink it just once as their 3/4 into your lane)
2. Drivers in the fast lane but not going faster than the slow lane
3. Drivers paying attention to everything under the sun except what's going on outside their cars

and car pet peeves:

1. I have been quite pleased with my 2003 Honda Accord, however the door detents are terrible. Even on a level surface, the door(s) do not stay open at either position (half open or fully open), but close about the time you get one leg out.
2. Poorly designed maintenance access. By that I mean things that require routine maintenance and are not (or should not be) terribly difficult to do). Tasks such as changing the oil and oil filter, changing the battery, spark plugs, air filter(s) and bulbs. My Odyssey requires removal of the dash to change the bulb for the clock. My father's Chrysler requires going through the wheel well to change the battery. Is the purpose is to force the owners back to the dealers or other garage mechanics? Or the fact that the designer engineers just don't give a damn? Oh wait...there's a third option - it's both.

JB, Honda is pretty good about things, in general. Detroit makes it very difficult to do maintenance. The European cars are typically a nightmare and require special tools and scanners. I've found that Mazda, Mitsubishi and Subaru are not very mechanic friendly. Nissan is okay. Toyota is the best - I've been told that the engineering of a Toyota includes the dismantling and reinstallation of parts that commonly go bad.

One of the worst is VW. My mechanic had a Jetta in the shop with the front of the car disassembled. The radiator, AC Condenser, grille, bumper, headlights, air dam - all these parts removed, so he could do a timing belt!

My old Porsches had to have the engine pulled to do a tune up - luckily it wasn't that hard to get the engine out, but those tune ups weren't cheap and were necessary every 5K miles.

Yes, i have few complaints about my two Hondas, especially typical maintenance stuff (Oil and battery).

The door open detent on my Accord just drives me nuts. I guess that's because I have to deal with it every day getting in and out of my car 3 or more times/day.

The clock light on the Odyssey is a minor annoyance (at least for me, as my wife is the primary driver). So we either live with it, i spend an few hours yanking out the dash to replace a $0.99 bulb, or I take in to the shop and pay someone else $100 to replace the $0.99 bulb.

Honda is known for dash lights being difficult to replace. If you have a 2nd gen Odyssey, it should be a fairly easy fix. The dash pieces just pop off (be careful marring the surface). I'm not sure about the 3rd and 4th gen.

I'm not sure what model year goes with each generation. Mine is a 2003.

I haven't attempted to remove the dash yet, but reading the manual, it doesn't sound easy. But perhaps it's easier than I imagine. Probably from all those years of the actual effort being much worse than what I imagined after reading the manual.

Yours is a 2nd gen. We owned a 2001 Odyssey with the same problem as yours. This is a great description of what to do. I'd say you're looking at about 30 mins to an hour on this one. http://www.odyclub.com/forums/27-diy-modifications/17441-clock-light-replacement.html

Thank you. Much appreciated. I'll give it a try this weekend.

Ok, how about gas filler tubes on both sides of the car? Or, at the very least, standardize the same side for all cars.

You can't have them on the same side of every car. Imagine the congestion of increased two-way traffic at the pumps.

I would have to agree with all the replies and could another pet peeve. TAILGATERS

Yes, I've often thought of adding a toggle switch to my dash which would turn the brake lights on without applying the brakes. But then a repeat offender would probably catch on to that.

1. When working on cars which have had backyard mechanics previously "let loose" on them, and you find one part of the vehicle attached to the main component/body/chassis and out of the 5 bolts there are 3 different head sizes (& thus you need 3 different socket/spanners to undo them).

2. What I call '80k Wonders'... they drive at 80kmh in the 100kmh zones (holding everyone up), & also do 80kmh in the 60kmh zones, so when you slow down, they roar past, meaning you will be held up by them again when the limit goes back to 100kmh!!!

3. People who cant drive except on a straight road - they drive along at the speed limit (or just above), making it difficult to overtake. Then when they get to a slight bend they feel it is necessary to jam on the brakes & go 3/4 of the speed while they negotiate the slight bend (a bend which any competent driver could drive at 50% above the posted speed limit). They then feel "safe" to speed off as soon as they hit the straight road again.

I agree with many of the replies, including left lane sleepers that will not get out of the passing lane and let the faster traffic go by. My biggest pet peeve is people who text or do other things while driving that contribute to distracted driving and accidents. I was hit by a distracted driver who blew through a red light and totaled my car. I have seen many distracted drivers including a truck driver of a fuel tanker who was texting! It's a jungle out there or should I say demolition derby.

Years ago, I loaned my XJ to a friend. He crossed a green light, then WHAM! A guy in a Nissan Titan T-Boned him. Luckily, he was in the Jag, so he walked away with some minor cuts and bruises. The frame was bent and they had to cut the door open to get him out. If he were in a light weight car, he may not be here today. And of course, the guy who ran the red light was on his phone texting and completely missed the light!

In our state, it's now a law - no texting while driving. I still see many doing it and I hope they don't wind up killing themselves or someone else.

I was reminded of another pet peeve while driving home last night. Drivers who speed up when you are trying to pass them. I don't believe they are even doing it intentionally, however, I also don't think they are paying much attention to maintaining their current speed.

For example, I'm driving in the middle lane of a 3 lane section of interstate (I-275). I approach a guy who is doing slightly under the 70 mph limit. There is a car doing the same limit in the far left lane adjacent to the car in front of me. The right (slow) lane is wide open. After following for a mile or so waiting for a chance to pass which never came, I decided to pass on the right.

I changed lanes (using my turn indicator, of course) to the right hand lane...accelerated to 70 mph and gradually moved next to the car in the middle lane, who then increased speed to match mine. We drove side by side for awhile, until I decided to speed up enough to get far enough ahead of him to move back into the middle lane.