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

[Box]

Hmm, the only plastic in my cooling system is the radiator tanks and it's doing a lot better job of holding up than any Japanese radiators of the same time. The radiator in my brother's Miata is newer and has a little less miles on it and it's already dried out and cracked, yet mine still looks perfectly fine and it gets a lot hotter under the hood of the Firebird. I think it's the type of plastic used, some are more heat and chemical resistant than others. I guess most everyone decided to follow BMW's model set forth with the E36 where the entire cooling system needs replaced every 60-100K miles.