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Seems every stinkin' new car these days has a big intrusive center console. Auto makers think it's so cool, but I just find them too big and limiting my legroom.
Another peeve of mine is that headlamp assemblies these days are polycarbonate, which eventually looks like crap unless you manage to keep it out of the sun (something difficult to do in sunny Phoenix.) If they were made out of tempered glass, they'd stay clear and shiny. They don't care or give a cr%p.
1. Good point. I can't really truly complain about the console in my SuperCrew, but the captains chairs aren't nearly as comfortable/supportive as the bench seat in my SuperCab F150. I used to take the company Chevy HHR for lab runs at a past employer and that console was right up against my leg, too.
2. Cost. Plastics are cheap and it helps support Big Oil (throwing a bone to conspiracy types in here) and their diverse offerings of products made from petroleum rather than costly glass headlamps getting broken and probably having to be replaced under warranty.
Agreed. I like a bench seat myself. You can still get a bench seat with heated leather on full-size pickups. Center consoles do have pretty good storage though.
Hard seats are a consistent complain but nobody seems to listen. Reminds me of when Europeans were refusing to put cup holders in their cars destined for the US market because they knew better. Now, I am not talking about sofa beds but what is wrong with a little fluff?
"big intrusive center console" agreed!! There are a couple of models we like, but spouse does not like them because the front center console makes the front seat feel cramped.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The console exists because the buyers demanded them, so they thought "let's make them bigger" and now they are ridiculous and waste seat space. The polycarbonate lenses are cheap to manufacture and lightweight, they will not be going way. You have to either trade it in after 4-5 years or pay $200 each+ for replacements. The haze polishes up nicely with several products made for that purpose, but once the inside tarnishes, in most cases you can't get inside to buff it out.
My complaint is this move towards infotainment display that is the radio, navigation, heat/AC control, and anything else they can think to add. I like my stuff separate for a reason. Think of a stereo system. At one time you could buy it all in one unit. It had a turn table, CD player, dual cassette, AM/FM stereo, and at one time an 8 track player. What was wrong with that was if one part went bad you either chucked the whole thing and bought another or buy a component to replace the part of the all in one that broke. Turn table broke, either throw it out and buy another all in one or buy a turn table. But if you built up your system individually, you'd get a better system. Start with the receiver, add an amp, quality turn table, don't need to buy a CD player since that's also the DVD player, and if you still enjoy cassettes or 8 tracks then you could get those too. If one part of that system broke, you only replace that one component that broke. On a car, if the stereo head unit breaks, replace with a new head unit. If AC/heat control breaks, replace the control unit. Sat/nav should be a portable unit to take with you for whatever vehicle you choose to drive. Email, social networking web services, texting, etc should not be done while driving so leave that garbage out of the car.
Those soft overstuffed front seats in older American cars were fine for sofas, but not so good for cars and keeping you held in place in the right spot to be an effective driver. Sprawled out across a big old fluffy bench seat was bad for car control so they went away. Good riddance, I say. You want to sit on a living room sofa, stay home. I'm much more comfortbale in a firm seat with good lateral and thigh suport, but I'm not a lazy fatass, either.
I also much prefer a center console where all the controls are easily at hand, not spread across the dash where you have to lean forward to get to anything.
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