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Comment by boc | Hacker News Reader

I have the means to buy a much newer car, but I love my old GX470 specifically because it's the last generation of SUV that has a clear gauge cluster, physical dials for everything, a nice sound system + 6 disc changer without the associated garbage infotainment system, and great driver visibility.[1]

Almost every new car I've been in recently feels worse - much worse visibility, weird distracting visual elements on the dash/cluster, touchscreens, etc.

I feel like I'm going to just try and keep my GX running forever. Already have 260K miles and still runs like new.

[1] https://consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/0480609...

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Yep. Not to mention everything now is actively sending constant “metrics” to home base etc.

I’ve physically disabled the onStar on my Volt just so there’s no phoning home at all. But it’s damn near impossible to do that on anything newer.

And people eat the shit up.

And people eat the shit up.

Yeah...and this is what I can't understand: Such a huge majority of people don't give a steaming shit about their privacy, I don't understand why the manufacturers don't just have a real privacy/op-out/ignore-me button (or whatever) because so few people, relatively, would actually click it. And they would be able to say with a straight face "we care".

This is how i feel about my xterra. I can work all the audio controls without looking. Contrast with my wife's crv: changing the "fader" requires clicking through 3 different touch menus.

The 2.1 generation CR-V (2005-2006) was the best car Honda ever made. Physical buttons, switches and levers for everything. Bulletproof engine and manual gearbox. Dead simple to work on, aside from unfortunate oil filter placement. Reasonable fuel economy. Side swing hatch door. Built in picnic table. 6 disc changer with a tape deck.

I understand the nostalgia for physical buttons, but tape decks and cd changers should go the way of the dodo, and it's baffling to even see them mentioned as an advantage?

My car had a CD player that constantly damaged discs that were playing when hitting road bumps, which rendered most CDs unusable within a year.

Couldn't have been happier to get a car with a USB port and a bluetooth connection to let me play a library 1000x as what would fit on 6 cds.

The bit about the tape deck was intended as a bit of a joke. Tape decks were almost unheard of in new vehicles in 2006, and MP3 cd players were fairly common already. It was super strange to mash together a 6 disc changer with a tape deck.

Both the deck and changer have been flawless in 16 years and 350,000KM of gravel roads, and adding an aux input wasn't too hard.

The hidden picnic table more than makes up for the weird av decisions, imo

Tape deck got 99 problems but software update aint one of em.

Really? I love the CD player in my car. I don't have Bluetooth but a $2 aux cable lets me use my phone if I really want to. Of course you have to have a headphone jack on your phone, another obsolete feature.

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