Do some "features" seem to be over hyped and unnecessary?
 

Or am I Luddite? For example, rain sensing windshield wipers. Nice but that feature doesn’t move me. Rain on the windshield…turn on the wipers. Adaptive cruise control? I never use cruise control. My right foot wouldn’t know what to do if it wasn’t on the gas pedal and I’ve yet to find a cruise control that is as smooth in making adjustments as my hand/eye/body/mind.

Auto-dimming side mirrors…I can see the value in the that. Headlights that turn...is this really a value add? Blind spot sensors…looking over my shoulder keeps me involved with driving.

Shifter paddles…I grew up with old Dodge Hemi’s etc. I like the shifter extending from the floor, auto or manual. I never use the paddle shifters but used the shifter a lot when located on the floor.

I guess I’m railing against the continued movement towards eliminating actions needed to perform and complete the driving task. Most people are pretty bad drivers in the NW even when their cars require involvement. God forbid how bad it’ll become if the car does everything which then allows the driver to text and/or just space out.

Am I off base here? Am I missing something? I almost bought a Genesis because of all of the technology. Never mind I really didn’t like the look of it’s Lexus/Buick interior, and was uncomfortable with the ride, and was concerned about resale, I almost bought the car for features. (Fair reporting: the V8 and the 6 speed auto are sweet).

I bought the TL because I really like the ride but sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice because so many reviewers and forum people bash the TL for its lack off the above.

What are your thoughts?

In my 3rd gen TL, there is a lot of tech that i dont use, nor do i need to use.

I have to admit that although some of these features seem nice, they are NOT a MUST HAVE.

The ONLY features I don't have in my TL that I would love...are reverse camera and navigation (even though I always know where I'm going AND my evo phone has great navi)...
OK, the only one I really sweat is the no key entry...key in pocket, door handle opens...push start turn on...no need for key. BUT, friend from work has this, his FOB was low on battery and the dang thing wouldnt' turn on.
Some technology is just a headache waiting to happen.

My BMW i traded had most of these options.
*auto wipers... was nice.. never had to play with them during misting or wet road days
*auto dim mirrors not so much.. my windows were very tinted. But they did power fold In which I LOVED
*adaptive cruise..no.. standard cruise YES cant live without it.
*blindspot is more of a gimick, nothing but annoying
*headlights that turn..i though it was a gimmick till your on a dark winding road.. they do help and in parking lots at night.

But i am an IT guy and i love technology so that doesn't help

I think safety features are great and Honda is known for this. But at some point you become to dependent on stuff and it "Could" lead to you diverting your attention just enough to get you into an accident. These safety conveniences are fine, and I like many on my TL, but their is a fine line that depending on the kind of driver you are, could prove to be a poor substitute to turning your head and looking out the windows.... Every car built has directional signals, but it Drives Me Crazy, when folks change lanes without using them. So Dangerous, and in California, God Forbid, a CHP sees you do this. He will HUNT YOU DOWN, and give you a $975 Ticket!

:gheylaugh

If your friends keyfob was out of batteries, he could just take out the key and open the door manually, then plug in the keyfob and press start. It's the same for regular keyless entry systems. If the key fob runs out of batteries, you wouldn't be able to press "unlock", so just use the key. I don't see why it being push button start has anything to do with having low batteries.

Gee, senior moderator, thanks for the lowest form of input..sarcasm that displays no wit or intelligence what so ever.

Hey, I know what the red text means!

LOL...the TL...especially for being an 04...ALREADY had an overwhelming amount of technology included in the then base package. I mean, the fact that this car is still relevant in relation to technology 7 (late 03 TL here, 3G) years later with how quickly technology changes is amazing in and of itself.

J.

Jasonwdp...the low batteries made the car not acknowledge that the key was in the car therefore disabling the ignition. he held it RIGHT up to the pushbutton for it to finally work.

I don't care for many of those features, but I do want features that I deem useful. Sometimes those features are packaged with useless features (see Advanced pkg for acura)

For example:
-Ventilated seats - extremely useful

-push button start - the keyless access is extremely useful, the actual button itself is just another way to start the car

-auto headlights - acura's system is strange. HID's are not made for constant on/off, so when I realized leaving the lights in "Auto" would mean they turn off briefly when I unlock the car, then quickly go on/off when i start the car. This would reduce the life of the HIDs. This is more useful for halogen bulbs. Acura should figure out a system so that the HID's turn on when you pull out of "P" I now just turn it on/off manually.

-swiveling headlights - very useful on curvy roads, not so much any other time

-auto climate control - somewhat useful. When it's 100 degrees, the system will not work at 100% if you have it at anything higher than the "lo" setting. This means that in the summer, I need to hit the tabs until it says "lo" in order for the system to go 100%, then hit the tabs until it's back at 69 to get it to my temp. If i just leave it at 69, the system will work it's way slowly to 69 degrees, it just doesn't work well. counterproductive imo.

-SHAWD - somewhat useful. Useful for eliminating torque steer and making it easy to "power through" corners, but useless and inefficient when driving normally (3-4mpg drop when compared to the base, combination of larger engine, higher weight, and shawd system).

-steering wheel mounted shift paddles - useless. Between a manual shift gate, and paddle shifters, I'll pick manual shift gate everytime. When you drive on curvy roads, or use the paddles to downshift before turns, you lose track of them as the wheel is spinning.

these are just a few of the features I hear about, use, or that I would want. So far I think acura has done a good job of packaging features, but I wish they'd move the ventilated seats to the tech package. Do they not realized there are people living in sunny states with hot summers? In california, I think I use my heated seats a few days out of the entire year (winter may be 3 months, but it's only cold for 2, and not that cold) I'd gladly take ventilated seats over heated because even though it's summer for 3 months, it's sunny for 9 months, which means the leather seats are super heated for 9 months out of each year, vs them being cold for 10 seconds 2 months out of the year.

ok ok, rant done!

I'm with you. Most of these new inventions are subtle ways to minimize drivers involvement in the actual fact of driving. The sad part is that driving is in essence a very complex activity involving all the body parts which require some focus. So I'm against all the tech that remove drivers involvement as long as they are not strictly safety focused. So rain sensing whipers are a non-no, much like blind spot, touch screens and similar stuff.

I like auto-dimming mirrors, rear-view cameras, GPS, hand free cell phones, nice auto trannies (I prefer a shift gate instead of the paddle shifters as it mimicks better a manual transmission) and a great sound system. The rest, I can live without.

Off-topic but somewhat related: I really like the M56x but 2 things kept me from trading the TL for the M56x 1) base price which is around 73k in canada with the tech package 2) Lack of sport package with the AWD and the obligation of taking all the electro nannies.

Why should I pay 5k more for content I will never use if I use my brain while driving??

:2cents:

Ah I see. Still the system can be disabled (off button in the glove compartment), so the proximity sensor completely turns off, then you can use it as a normal keyfob lol :thumbsup:

I tend to agree with you on most features you mentioned and I can think of others, but I do have to say that auto-dimming side mirrors is a great safety feature. My Maxima has them and they help so much at night with glare from people who are behind you.

It's nice that they are able to take the auto dimming feature of the rear view mirror and apply it to the side ones as well. Its nice not having that glare in your eyes at night!

btw ALL car companies should learn from garmin when making navigation systems. I understand that most navs are made by car audio manufacturers, I just don't get why they all work slowly and inefficiently. For example, the Audi's look like crap (unless you got the 3d MMI system) and updates your position slowly. The acura system works slowly (slow position tracking, slow direction changes), and gives inefficient routes.

My $150 garmin blows all factory car navs away and I don't know why!!

Don't you guys know that this is all a:

"PLOY - A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage."

by the car companies to make you pay more for their cars as well as adding tons more reasons for something to go wrong with the car so you have to bring it to their dealers to get them repaired!

The maore bells & whistles and gizmos a car has, the more oppotunity for crap to go bad. I do like some of these pleasures, but too much is too much I think.

Well, it ws from being obsessed with my home theater that I began to notice that every year without fail, more features were added and more marketing was done to make one feel that a perfectly good plasma is out of date because it's not 3D and so on. But "features" are seductive and can be made to seem as if they should be given a greater weight/value than they really deserve. I thank you guys for taking the time to let me know that I'm not alone and that some of the features shouldn't be factored in as an equal weight when car buying.

The internet is a serious place. There is no room for sarcasm, horsing around or shenanigans.

Lighten up OP. Your new around here. Some of the older members get what I am saying....

However if there were no features like these offered, we would all be complaining now wouldn't we.

Actually I don't see much of a problem with tp's original question. It's just a pointless rant.

He asked if these features are overhyped and unnecessary. If he didn't need those features, buy the base model and don't complain. This whole thread is just about him being against features he wouldn't have even bought anyways.

It would be different if these options were all forced on us, but most of them are not. I rarely hear of people complaining about having more options and new technology *shrugs*

Since this site makes its money selling advertising and the CPM, CPV, CPC rates it can charge are in large part determined by the number of visitors, page views, etc it can deliver, you might be more accommodating to "newbies" so that they'll stick around so that the site can charge advertisers more money to display ads here. :thumbsup:

I'm asking becuase I don't have expereince with any of the features I mentioned and although in theory they don't seem as if they'd add value to me, I wanted to connect with people who would share whether they thinnk they, the features, add vaue or not.

I actually thought it was nice that he even explained himself to you...
I don't know...
Either way. I love cars (no offense IHC).

I know, I'm really picky so i tend to nitpick about all features.

Personally, I think that the higher the option package, the more profit for the automaker. I mean when you're paying $8-10k over the base price, it begins to seem unreasonable no? I mean are you really getting 20-25% more car?

Northwest drivers??? No, there is no such thing as a bad driver here in the Northwest.

Get used to it. If you want to complain about it I would do a print screen of the comment now as he has been known to edit his remarks after the fact.:whyme:

:rofl:

and my tyranny continues.....

Most are nice features but some are unecessary IMO. Things like rain sensing wipers, auto highbeam, power tilt and telescoping wheel, adaptive cruise, blind spot, auto dimming, are not that important to me because the basic funtion is still there, for the most part. In case of the blind spot, I always have my mirrors positioned outward to eliminate that anyway, I notice most people don't. I also feel that tinted side mirrors can be as effective as auto dimming for eliminating glare.

I wouldn't mind having any or all of them as well as others not included here but I don't mind not paying for them or having those resources put into other areas of the car instead but that is one reason why I got a TL in the first place.

If there is one thing I wish my TL has, it would be heated steering wheel.

Tell that to Audi, BMW, MB and Audi drivers and it will just go on deaf ears, or in the case of internet forums, blind eyes! :thumbsup:

I love all the features of the TL, I came from a 05 subaru STI that had like NO TECH.. so to have all these little bells and whistles is awesome..

I love not having to ever pull my key out of pocket to do stuff especially in the morning going to my car and my hands are full your always key searching like DAMN IT spilling coffee on myself FUCK dropping my laptop bag by mistake theres another ding on my mac book fuck!!!!


no more of that shit to be had :)


Everything voice activated.. so much better when your getting road head so you can lean back and just relax and still work everything via voice!!!!


some of these features ya you wont hardly use but when your at dinner with your rich friends and they start talking about their car and what it can do - I love making them envy the TL and some of its features.


and the audio system... 10 speakers DVD-Audio is fucking amazing you can hear instruments in the songs I didn't even notice/hear before..

I could go all day because I just bought my car so I'm riding its dick pretty hard

Don't have to get used to anything. Participate in a lot of forums covering a gamut of hobbies and have always found them to be supportive. People trying to help people understand and to make decisions. Go to www.avsforum.com and note how people acquit themselves there.

But you know the anonymity of the internet allows for all kinds of behavior.

I was and am being earnest in my pursuit of opinions. Sarcasm, ennui, and irony don't play well unless you can see the acotrs face and eyes.

Forbes rates Portland as the most medicated city in America. 70% or 7 out of every 10 people are on psych meds. I'm not. Also, it's the beer capital of the world. Bad combo with driving.

Glashub, if I didn't say it before I will say it now, welcome to the forums. This forum is information based and we are all here to help each other. Please don't take my posts in this thread the wrong way. I have no bad intentions. Happy Motoring.

Listen to your heart :hug:

Coming from 2 previous MDX's, I really miss the rain sensing wipers, even though they did engage when there was no rain sometimes. It is inexcuseseable the TL does not have them. Cripes, my Son's Mazda 3 has them.

When it rains, I normally turn my wipers on. I notice that sometimes my arm feels tired...but that's usually prior to having to turn them on.

Vented cooling seats...I'm in...any of these other things...I could take or leave. Bottom line, I'm almost paid off and don't see a WHOLE LOT of cars out there that make me envy ANYTHING about them. If the TL was RWD...had more HP and keyless entry and push button start...I would likely not look for another car for 10 more years.

Stay off the internets and enjoy your car. If left up to reviewers and forum people you will never like anything.

Life is too short. Think long and hard before you make your choices. Once you do, roll with it. If it's the wrong choice then do something about it. :2cents:

LOL This post made my day.:cheers:

the two features i like on my GLK over the TL is

a) rain sensin wipers, you really need to own a car with it to understand
b) auto dimming side mirrors. The TL only has the interior one

there's a bunch of other stuff but at the end of the day. the TL's a great car for the $. I don't expect it to be quieter than the Benz nor have better quality but all the important attribute are there making it a great car

Glashub, IMHO you will find ggesq as one of the fairest, most neutral, and courteous moderators on Acurazine (more so than some of the other mods here whose names I will not mention). :thumbsup:

His comment was one for levity, nothing more. Search a few of the slightly older threads here on the 4G TL forum, and I think you'll understand the inner joke. :toocool: :)

Am I the only one that gets annoyed by wipers? I only use it when it's really necessary and I can't see anything. I use rain x on all my cars and let the water bead off. The windshield of the TL seems to have a special coating already as I haven't had to put in any rain x and the water beads off easily.

When driving on the highway in heavy rain, I never have to put on the wipers. I actually find the visibility to be much better without them on. Rain sensing wipers would annoy the heck out of me.