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I like the Bluetooth in my pickup: hit the button on the steering wheel and say who you want to call. Works great!

It doesn't work very good for texting, cause it messes up most messages.

I really sparked something here, didn't I? I am very aware that I will not be able to buy a newer luxury car without a touch screen (with the possible exception of a Bentley or something, which ain't in this guy's future). If I could only find something fairly simple and didn't dominate all controls, which is what I find now.

At least I can go out, turn the key, and start up my Packard, shift it into gear, and drive it down the road. Simple as that. No touch touch screens. No Bluetooth. No nothing!

Call me a Neanderthal, but this is the way that I prefer to drive. BTW, it is hard to drive while I am typing this at the same time (just kidding)!

MrBumble Quote:

Amen to that! I've been professionally involved in cutting edge high tech all my life (Apollo program, Pontiac performance and computer software development), but I am what is known as a "late adopter" when it comes to personal choices. Give me old tech every time. It's usually reliable as a rock whereas new tech is often "bleeding edge." And, it's not as expensive either.

Craig

I got 366,000 miles out of my S-10. I intend to do the same thing with my Canyon. Both trucks completely manual including windows, excepting p/s and now a/c. Scary that any manufacturer would put any software produced by Microscheist in a moving vehicle. Worse is that your vehicle is under potential take over by sinister government agencies.

Looks like I will ever buy a new vehicle again due to the intrusive screens and software. Plenty of reasonably priced K-5s around.

I once owned a 1988 Riviera that had - in addition to a (simple) digital instrument cluster - touch-screen controls for climate and audio systems, plus a few other perks. Although I hated working behind a 'green-screen' computer terminal in an office, the high contrast of the Riv's small monochrome CRT touchscreen was well-suited for day/night driving. The text-based menus were simple and well laid out, with a summary, 'root' menu that had only the most essential functions for relatively distraction-free driving. Yet, if you knew the right three 'buttons' to press, simultaneousy, on the 'root' menu, you could access a hidden menu for OBD functions. Fantastic!

However, I hate the screens and virtual clusters in this new generation of vehicles. Also, I have no interest in adding to my monthly bills with fluff like OnStar (or the like) or satellite radio, either. I'll do anything I can to avoid owning a vehicle so equipped.

I'm perfectly content with my simple, old, clamshell cellphone, a spare door key, and a portable GPS that I can transfer from vehicle to vehicle, when needed. It's not that I'm some heretic or technophobe, but I've been burned too many times by 'Rube Goldberg' technology.

BTW, when my GPS boots up, there's a warning against operating the touch screen while driving - clearly a disclaimer for liability. Yet, how can you NOT operate a touch screen while driving when it's an integral part of the vehicle controls?

I'm sorry I sold my old Mercedes diesel. In a pinch you could push start it and drive it coast to coast with no battery and no electrics at all.

I'm not a big fan of Mercedes, but I saved an old MB diesel from the scrapper last summer: 300+k miles, & 30+ mpg!
it isn't fast but it always goes.

Sounds like a bunch of old guys who just want some of yesterday back again. What's worse is that I agree with you. One of my Corvette club friends is a retired civil engineer with three everyday cars from GM; two 2009s (Cadillac, Suburban) and a 2010 Corvette GS. Each one of them has a different generation of GPS systems that makes moving back and forth a nightmare. His solution is to carry a trusty five year old Garmin that he knows and trusts implicitly. The factory GPS systems (probably $5,000 worth in total) stay turned off. He can also still read a map and remember the turns needed.

On a trip to a car show last week (in my Packard), this same friend remarked that some of the best road trips over the years involved at least one episode of "getting lost and discovering something wonderful." No matter who makes the GPS or touch screen, there might be an entire generation coming who never knows the magic serendipities of finding something when you're not sure where you are.

The offshoot of all of this is that today's cars are ten times better in some ways than our old Detroit Packards. But there's something to be said for substance and style and the Packards have that in spades. If I have to get lost, then I will choose to do it in a Packard unless it involves running out of gas.

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DITTO!!!

I haven't kept the map files updated, and someone told me the files have grown so large that the NA set will no longer fit on my unit. While the streets and highways haven't changed as much as their list of POIs, I do have to be mindful of exit renumbering. I generally know where I'm going and still like to preplan my route with a map (via paper or online), but the GPS really comes in handy when you're diverted from the planned route.

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DITTO!!! (Just like his thread!)

About 20 years ago, I was on the way, with a Studebaker friend, to a swap meet in central PA and missed the exit for the Turnpike (accidentally on purpose) north of Pittsburgh, but I knew how to navigate to and along the Parkway to get back to the Pike fatrher east. However, when things started to get bogged down on the Parkway, I decided to try a short cut down US 30.

My friend was complaining about wasting time and gas UNTIL we stumbled across Kliment Bros. Garage - a former Studebaker dealership that was still in business. Of course, we had to stop and smell the roses, and the owner let us wander around the place a bit. An adjacent structure was stuffed with old vehicles, including numerous service vehicles that they must have made (the stuff of legends) over their many years in business. It was quite a treat. Although the place and its owners are long gone, member acolds could probably tell us more.

Ironically, I had first learned of its existence a decade earlier (even listed in the Yellow Pages), when I lived and worked in the Pgh. area. I went looking a couple of times, but could never find it. Guess I just didn't go far enough, then. About 15 years later, I wound up taking the same route to visit Randy Berger and see his 56 Caribbean.

The Fates work in mysterious ways!

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I could argue that point, ad nauseum. Suffice it to say that I've been deep enough into my 98 Monte Carlo and my dad's 03 Impala to conclude that the body structures - save for notching to create energy-dispersing, crumple zones - aren't much better than a mid-70s Chevy Nova.

Dave and BH:

I never updated the GPS on my CTS's navigation system either; but I never especially liked it in the first place. I generally rely on my wife's GPS on her Droid phone to guide us when we get lost, which is generally rare. Unlike cars' systems which get out of date not long after you acquire them with the car and require expensive updates (something like $75 for the Cadillac), the cell phone's system is reliable and I don't have to screw around with it when I'm driving.

Cadillac's CUE system is an utter mess. It consists of a bunch of loopy icons that often don't make sense unless you are trained in the system. Just to find a radio station is at least a 3- or 4-step process ... all while you are trying to negotiate through traffic. It seems like auto manufacturers are bent on making something akin to text messaging the wave of the future for interacting with your car.

I know I sound like an old fart or a Luddite; but in reality, I am very adept at using a computer and enjoy and utilize them immensely. In fact, I am an IT professional. But this does not mean that I believe that multitasking while driving is a good or safe idea.

Picture yourself barreling down I-95 surrounded by cars and trucks doing 75 mph, all the while shifting your eyes from the road to your dashboard monitor and moving your index finger over the screen and tapping it in order to listen to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California." Then you feel your tire hitting one of those Botts' Dots and hear the Honda to your right honk. Now picture about 70 percent of the drivers all around you engaging in similar activities.

Kind of makes you want to pull off at the next off-ramp, doesn't it?