Auto Show Observations

Today, I went to my city's Auto Show. I sat in many new cars, and here is what I got from those sittings about the general direction the automotive industry and auto shows are going:

- Most automakers are getting sneaky with interior plastics. They put padded plastics where most people would first see, and thin, hard plastic along the doors, where your ankles are, the second and/or third rows, and/or on the pillars. It seems we are going to less consistency. GM and Toyota are the worst offenders, while Hyundai/Kia seem to have not cut corners.

- Windows are getting higher and smaller. It's been like this for a while. Most every cars' visibility is restricted by small windows except for Subaru cars. Their cars still retain a lot of glass area.

- Too many complicated controls are here! The worst are the touch-sensitive buttons. I tried MyFord Touch and the "buttons" kept not responding when I tapped them. Also extremely annoying are knob-based multimedia systems. Flipping through menus is too complicated for me. I kept looking for the tuning knob and other buttons, and they weren't there. The worst offenders are the German high-end automakers, with Lexus joining the party with Remote Touch in the past few years.

- The Passat's seats are rock-hard.

- Center consoles seem to have gotten larger. They make the cockpit feel restricted when they are too high, and they intrude on knee and foot space when they are too wide.

- Giving out reusable bags seem to be the new big thing.

- The brochures that are there for you to take have gotten crappier over the years. The paper has become of lesser quality, there is less content in the brochures, and in Lincoln's case the brochure was just a card to their website.

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