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

[d3ath2009]

My problems with the older econoboxes come when things break faster than I can get the time or afford to fix them. Between myself and my wife, we have 6 cars. None of which are owed anything on and the newest of which is a 2015 Honda. My celica leaks/burns too much oil to be feasible as a daily anymore (plus the oil making its way onto the pass side rotor makes it unsafe in the rain). Her cobalt is.. well, a cobalt (i despise working on that thing because they made something so simple as changing a thermostat almost impossible without removing half the wiring harness). Then theres the winter beater '94 civic that has yet to be proven. bought it for cheap and have put more than what we paid for the thing into neglected maintenance undoing things that went bed when somebody half-assedly lowered it. Finally with the 2 projects. One of which is a do it whenever, the other more of a "I really need to get that one on the road". '68 Impala and '83 Yota pickup.. 10 year old cars are cheap enough to pickup and usually fairly reliable, but even then they start to fit into that area where you cant do **** with them because of how complicated the electronics have become.