Newer Cars Rant, Why must they complicate things so much?!? Options

[d3ath2009]

Just wanted to rant about how newer cars are becoming less and less customizable. Honda has done a mid-life refresh of my current car that has a few little odds and ends I would LOVE to have on mine, but such things are impossible because of how stupid auto manufacturers have become. This refresh includes a new, much cleaner layout for the gauge cluster as well as an updated infotainment system. The new cluster looks better, but swapping is not possible due to everything they have routed through it (think new safety features, adaptive cruise, etc.) and forget about trying to update the odometer. The new infotainment, however, is the best upgrade to the whole damn car. It's amazing how something so simple as bringing back a volume knob instead of a stupid sliding feature on a touchscreen (and Apple Car Play) will make you envious. And of course that can no longer be swapped as modern units are coded to the cars computer and VIN. Stupid, stupid, stupid.. Whatever happened to the easiness of swapping out newer parts for newer features without needing a coding expert or dealership to make it work? I fear the golden age of easy customization and upgrading is behind us... Rant over... for now.

This post has been edited by d3ath2009: Nov 26, 2017 - 9:55 PM

[richee3]

The radio thing also has to do with theft. How many older cars have had windows busted out and dashes torn apart just so a thief could steal the radio? Modern radios may not be swapped out easily but at least they won’t be stolen either.

I do agree with the OP though. For nearly $40k, my 4Runner came with Entune infotainment and standard sat nav, but no auto headlights. When did navigation supercede auto headlights as standard equipment? To add the feature requires a new dash harness among other things.