In my opinion, these things on vehicles should be discontinued and the engineers behind them need to be questioned.

1. Rubber timing belts. On an interference engine, if that belt breaks, kiss your engine goodbye. Most have gone back to timing chains and when maintained, will last the life of the vehicle. I for one, do not want to worry about a belt breaking and have to remember to change it on time.

2. Auto stop/start. It has been proven it does not save fuel or emissions. Most people turn it off every time. It also adds wear and tear to your battery and starter if you use it.

3. Cylinder deactivation. Having a cold cylinder working next to a hot one is a recipe for disaster. Warping on heads, blocks, and uneven wear on piston rings is very bad. Some still use this, though it has been tried many times in the past by several manufacturers.

4. Lane keeping assist. If you need this, you probably should not be behind the wheel.

5. TPMS. Why have a battery powered sensor in your tire, that you cannot change the batteries? The batteries only last 5-7 years. That light on the dash gets annoying. Just check your tire pressure each season. A tire pressure gauge is your friend and only cost a few bucks instead of new sensors, which requires a day at the tire shop and about $50 per tire.

6. Radar assisted cruise control. It seems to make you slow down or speed up constantly around traffic which is the opposite of the idea behind cruise control.

7. Sensors in the windshield. It works. but when you need a new windshield $$$$. Plus it needs to be reprogrammed = $$$$.

8. I am old school, but I still like a key to start and lock a vehicle. Keys still function when they get wet and there is no battery to die and replace like the fob.

9. Electric parking/emergency brake. I prefer the hand pull or foot push much better. The electric has been known to break and stay in the on position.

Anything to add to the list? 

People standing on my lawn…GET OFF MY LAWN!!! 
 

I do hate the TPMS…it’s actually blinking at me right now because of a low battery, likely in the spare.

I was just telling my wife this morning that the auto makers are getting close to ditching Android Auto and Car Play and going with in-house, maker specific operating systems.  Everything will then be on a subscription based service.  It makes me chuckle when my buddy has a newer 3.0 Silverado and I have functions on my 2016 High Country that he can’t get without a sub to OnStar.  I’ve read that some makers like BMW have required a subscription to use the heated seats and other functions.  I don’t like too many functions, that equals more mal-functions but it won’t be long before you will be paying extra for everything.  

Everything that includes the word "cyber" or the letters EV in the name of it.

A-Jay

 

I hate auto anything on the new cars.  Also hate the big screen tv's sitting in the dash.  I am not THAT old, but I am old school.  Give me points and a carb and manual roll up windows and I am happy.

Pretty much everything you said plus CVT's. Bring back manual and automatic transmissions. 

 

 

Automatic bright lights 

I hate the auto shutdown and start up on my work truck. Mines to new to turn it off with a push of a button like our older trucks. The mechanics have to do it with the scan tool but once you turn the vehicle off and back on it re activates and has to be turned off with the scanner again. 
 

most the time it turns off on me I just lift foot off the brake a hair and it starts up again. It’s funny to see some people’s reactions when I do it and they are hurrying across the street infront of the truck right when it starts again. 
 

I hate also my work truck is constantly yelling at me to have both hands on the wheel. That and our trucks have a AI camera system it’s not in regular cars but our work trucks have them. Do over 2 mph the speed limit and it will tell you every time you pass a limit sign “please slow down” I’ll be doing 57 in a 55 and I’ll hear “please slow down”.  Some one will cut me off on the highway and it will ding and then “maintain safe following distance”. The new programming they did on the system 2 weeks ago is “distracted driving” it’s supposed to go off when we use our phones while driving which is an immediate firing they say. I had it go off 74 times I got dinged for it in one day because I would be parked at a stop doing paperwork or typing in on the pda for the stop and it would say “distracted driving”. Management sent me a video of it today saying it to me and I told it to F off and gave it the bird because I was re mounting my body camera that I took off so I could use the bathroom. 
 

my personal truck doesn’t have any new fancy annoying things other than the tpms sensors my right front one just went bad but it’s original one that came with the truck and it’s a 2017.

Meh.  First world problems.  Until....

 

 

 

Both of my vehicles have smart cruise control or adaptive cruise, or whatever you call it.  I hate it.  I can disable it on the Ford but not on the Toyota.

Several things on your list that I agree with however I will never buy another vehicle without Car Play and the new fangled Cruze control.  

 

The last time I bought a car,  the salesman kept telling me how great all these new electronic features are.  Then when agreed to buy the car,  he started telling me how often they fail and how expensive they are to replace and how I needed an extended warranty to solve this problem.  He told me they had a customer that ran over a raccoon and had to replace $900 worth of sensors.  😀

LED headlights that literally burn your retina 

6 hours ago, VolFan said:

People standing on my lawn…GET OFF MY LAWN!!! 

 

I was just about to type this as I was reading the original post.  I can understand some of the manufacturer mandatory things that you can’t select in options, but most of this list is actually quite useful.  Lane assist, adaptive cruise, and similar ‘semi self drive’ type features are great safety features.  I hear the argument of ‘well if you need it you shouldn’t be driving’ but that’s not the right way to look at it.  Assuming you are a competent driver, these are features that take away the mental load in one way or another and keep you fresher while driving.  The constant hyper attention to staying in lane or ensuring you are not running up on the car in front of you while in traffic are all mental load.  That might not be critical for a 2 hour drive or your commute to work.  But when you are doing a 4-5-6 hour drive or longer the mental strain adds up.  You can be as attentive as you want, but inevitably there will be a time when you are changing the radio station, noticing a deer in a field over yonder, or just otherwise paying less attention.  That’s what these features are for and what they are great at.

 

I too don’t prefer auto high beams and wipers, but that’s because the systems in both of our vehicles don’t behave the way I want them to.  When the sensitivity and timing is adjustable in a menu, then I’ll turn them on.  In the meantime, I’ll just do them myself.

 

My peeve is washer fluid.  And not the fluid specifically, but the size of a tank and when the ‘low fluid’ light comes on.  Washer fluid is sold in a gallon jug.  When the car tells me I need it, I take the jug and dump it in.  I don’t want a part bottle to sit around.  So put a 1.25 gallon reservoir in the car and tell me I need it when there is .25 gallons left. .25 gallons is plenty to get you around still but if I have to buy a jug then let me put it all in.  

They should stop showing car commercials showing open roads on sunny days with no traffic; or taking the car 4-wheeling in places you would NEVER take it 4-wheeling.

 

Instead, show the car in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or in the rain, or with somebody tailgating it while the kids are fighting in the back seat.  Be real!  LOL

I hate almost all of it.  I do like power locks and power windows, though. That's about it.

 

Not joking.  Between the $*@%& I don't even appreciate that breaks and cost an arm and a leg to diagnose and fix so I can pass a safety or emissions test - and the sheer complexity, electronics and inaccessibility that prevents diy much of anything.... my next truck will likely be 20 years old or more.  Even my BASE model 2007 truck has given me fits due to sensors... not the crap they are sensing... just stupid sensors.

   I just spent 5k on repairs to our 2012 truck- only a few hundred for parts - but the labor cost for mechanic to get to the problem was the bulk of it.  I'm sick and tired of lights in the dash of 2015 car for crap that doesn't affect safety, driveability, longetivity, etc., but cost $120 to diagnose (even after I have pulled codes) and thousands to fix just to pass mandatory state inspections

    AC and FM radios are probably some of the last vehicle 'innovations' that I truly appreciate.  

  

Not only are most of these features unnecessary, but how much do they add to the cost of a vehicle, they also add a ton to repair costs like a lot of you have mentioned. 
 

It’s all for nothing everyone, these safety features save on your auto insurance. 🙄 

That’s a racket in itself. 

11 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Automatic bright lights 

My biggest complaint right here

I like and use most all of the so called "safety" features.  I don't like it when my lane keeping assistance reads the new tar lines created from filling cracks in the highway.

I did like the blind spot assistance when in a driving rainstorm it kept me from pulling into the lane where there was already a vehicle.  Side mirror was useless due to the severity of the rain.

I did learn hands free use of the phone with Car Play after getting a distracted driving ticket in Georgia while sitting at a stoplight with the cell  phone in my hand.  Admittedly I was a little slow getting away when the light turned green. Distracted, yes, because there was a sheriff's deputy on a motorcycle sitting beside me watching my every movement, of which I was unaware. Figured the $60 ($50 + $10 transaction fee) fine was a wake up call that could save my life in the future, under different circumstances.   

18 hours ago, gim said:

Both of my vehicles have smart cruise control or adaptive cruise, or whatever you call it.  I hate it.  I can disable it on the Ford but not on the Toyota.

On the Yoter it can be disabled using the mode button on the steering wheel.

 

 

My '12 Tundra alternator just took a crap.  Been watching videos on how to replace it.  I am very good mechanically.  I have anxiety now.

29 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

On the Yoter it can be disabled using the mode button on the steering wheel.

 

 

My '12 Tundra alternator just took a crap.  Been watching videos on how to replace it.  I am very good mechanically.  I have anxiety now.

I would gladly trade you a bad alternator for a wonky crankshaft . . . .

#L87

🙄

A-Jay

1 hour ago, Rockhopper said:

On the Yoter it can be disabled using the mode button on the steering wheel.

 

I asked the dealer about it and they said there was no way to disable it.

Another vote here for automatic headlights,  I believe Toyota stopped putting them on the corollas because of too many issues.

Just got a 26 Camry “hybrid”.

Arch Enemy, driver monitor camera that you can almost turn off.

 

small stuff

 Lane change assist, flat out useless, worse, it gets in the way.

 I get alarms for unknown reasons, by the time I look down at the gauges the alarms gone.

 How the heck do you use the radio, regular old am/fm radio???

 So far the auto wipers are not worth using, they seem to keep sensing rain after it stops.

 

I’ve only driven it at night once so far but the auto brights seems to work better then the 2020 Honda we got rid of, time will tell. I preferred non auto on the Honda.

On 11/11/2025 at 5:39 PM, Rockhopper said:

Give me points and a carb and manual roll up windows and I am happy.

Got you covered. My ‘68 GS400 convertible is just such an animal. It’s even a 3-pedal car! 
 

You know the points window on Buick distributors is an inch or two from the radiator fan, right?   😝

 

As far as what I think car manufacturers should get rid of … CAN bus, sensors in every part of the car, and most of what the membership’s already listed.

 

Cars were best in the late ‘90’s to mid 2K’s.

57 minutes ago, padlin said:

 

57 minutes ago, padlin said:

Arch Enemy, driver monitor camera that you can almost turn off.

Can you get to the lens and put some tape over it?

9 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

Can you get to the lens and put some tape over it?

sure, but it posts messages when it can’t see your face. On occasion I drive with my hand at 12 o’clock, blocking the camera, it gets mad.

The camera is mounted on top of the steering column, just aft of the wheel..