What would be your dream vehicle?

No car payments.

 

Our 2010 Touring ticks those boxes.

That one too: cash sale.

still under 100k kms, found all the maintenance info, know my way around the car, think I know it’s pitfalls and how to avoid them, knock on wood.

 

What my 2019 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus is becoming.

Bob Wilson

 

gen4 prime with a flat deck

 

• 175 MPGe
• Can be charged in my garage
• Small enough to be able to park in small parking spaces on city streets or parking ramps.
• Large enough for groceries or other similar sized packages.
• 2 passenger minimum, 5 max.
• Blind-spot cameras
• Voice control
• Capable of automated driving
• Bi-directional charging (VTH)
• Max safety rating in every safety test.

Edit: After hearing some excellent ideas, I am adopting them ;-)

• HUD (I love a well implemented HUD with nav, upcoming turn & speed limit.
• And please, keep the buttons to a minimum, far too distracting. 90% of the commands during driving should be voice activated.

 

Oooh, that's an interesting way of posting the question, rather than just asking what current model would be someone's ideal car.

• It would have to be an SUV, partly because I need ground clearance when driving on dirt; partly because I spend a lot of time in a very hilly suburb where, if you have a sedan the doors will snag on the sidewalk (oooh, I said all of that in American); and partly because they're easier for my elderly in-laws to get in and out of than sedans.
  
• It would have to be smallish (by American standards), but with decent rear legroom and headroom. I definitely wouldn't want to go much bigger than my current X3.
  
• It would have to be lowish by SUV standards. I don't want to be climbing up to get in; I don't want an unnecessarily-high centre of gravity, and I don't want to be too high to see properly.
  
• AWD would be useful.
  
• A 360-degree camera system is a must for me. My current car has one, and I really miss it when I drive rentals that don't have them.
  
• I'd want an EV, with at least 500km of range, and at least 150kW charging.
  
• I'd like a nice range of colours to choose from. The Citroen C5 Aircross was launched in Australia recently: there's a very dark blue (almost black), and black, dark grey, medium grey, light grey, very light grey and white as the colour options. Honestly, it's like a Model T.
  
• A really good stereo.
  
• Nav with live traffic. I find this really useful in my current car.
  
• Adaptive cruise. My current car doesn't have it, and I like it when I get it in rentals.
  
• Switch-off-able lane guidance. I had an MG as a rental recently that just beeped at me all the time if I was on a road that was narrower than it liked.
  
• BUTTONS. Too many cars I've rented recently have distracting screen-based systems where you have to go into sub-menus to do things while you're driving - like changing the AC temperature or fan speed, demisting, changing drive mode, changing the radio volume, and other things that you do when you're on the move. I don't mind going through menus like that when I'm parked to make occasional adjustments, but things that you do regularly while you're driving should be easily accessible with buttons. Also, on the buttons front, FOUR BUTTONS FOR FOUR WINDOWS ON THE DRIVER'S DOOR. Yes, Volkswagen, I'm talking to you.
  
• Head-up display. I don't have one in my current car, but I really find them useful.
  
• Some sort of copy of Chrysler's minivan "Stow-n-Go" system that lets you fold the rear seats right into the floor to maximise cargo space when you need it, without actually having to take the seats out. But not a Chrysler.
  
• Leather or convincing-fake-leather seats, that are both breathable and wipe-clean.
  
• I'd like it to be quiet. Being an EV will help, but minimal road noise and wind noise too.
  
• Voice control.

I suppose the Genesis GV60 would cover a lot of that. Or the BMW iX1. But I'd also like it to be reasonably-priced.

 

I don't mind them, for the things that they should be for. Unless you have decent voice recognition (which my car does, but lots of rentals I've driven don't), it's useful for things where buttons would be difficult, like programming navigation, or scrolling through information - stuff you can do when the car isn't moving. Even then, though, they have to be good - they have to be well-designed and reliable (so not the VW ones). But for stuff that you need fast access to - the things I described earlier, like drive modes or demisting or air-con - while you're driving, I think they're dangerous.

 

I want a (1960s scale) family sedan, all electric with maybe 100 miles of range. Local hauls only.

Physical buttons for everything it has- and there won't be many because it doesn't have much. It's a car you'd spend up to 30 minutes a day in, and I'd want to be able to toss the keys to any family member or friend and not have to explain anything at all, because it's that simple.

No infotainment profiles, chilled seats or cruise controls- those are long trip features.

No spare tire- it's designed to use a very common tire size that every shop always has in stock, and it's a short-trip car so it will always be near a tire repair store. Still has a stamped well in the trunk to carry one for those inclined though.

And one weird, power-hungry thing: I want Citroën style hydropneumatic suspension.

 

For heat/vent controls? I’d much prefer sliders and dials, with hard stops at the ends and tactile detents at the intermediate selections, so you can use them and keep your eyes on the road. Like they used to be, before “improvements” happened.

 

For the purposes of this discussion, those are buttons.

 

In particular for vent mode, a single button, in a row of identical buttons, that you have to push multiple times while watching a scrolling LCD, does not keep me happy. So I differentiate.

 

Our 1929 Model A Ford had no environmental buttons:

• Heat - in the summer
• Cold - in the winter

Bob Wilson

 

What @Leadfoot J. McCoalroller said....

I meant it in the most generic and inaccurate way possible. Knobs, sliders, buttons, switches, etc. And yes, absolutely it's so you can use them and keep your eyes on the road.

I am a fully paid-up member of Rory Reid's Knob Gang.

 

Apparently Chrysler is introducing a system that alerts you to emergency vehicles. It ties in to the live traffic on your satnav, and will tell you when an emergency vehicle is approaching, and from what direction. I think that's a really good idea.

 

The VW ID.3 has mostly touchscreen, and then some touch-sensitive, non-tactile "buttons". Several times when trying to turn the aircon on or off, I accidentally turned on the hazard warning lights instead. It was stupid.

 

I find it really useful, especially for navigation. In the BMW, I just press the voice-prompt button on the steering wheel, and then say "Take me to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC" (or whatever address I want - it's not usually that one), and the navigation will take me there. It's quick and easy. It has no problem with my accent, which I was surprised by: voice-recognition systems in the 00s and early 10s really struggled with Northern English accents. I would want this system in my dream vehicle.

On the other hand, the Model 3 and Model Y that I've driven could not understand my accent at all. In a car with no buttons, where voice-recognition is the safest way to do most things (rather than exploring a huge screen while driving), this was a real problem. I spoke to the Tesla sales guy about it, and he said that Tesla's system just will not adapt to anything other than an American accent. He had a French accent, and just had to do everything through the screen.

It's pretty easy to stick to just the one language for a single purpose. I speak English to my kids, but generally speak Mandarin to Mandarin-speaking Chinese people, Cantonese to Cantonese-speaking Chinese people, German to German people, and French to French people. I rarely find myself accidentally speaking French to Chinese people, for example. It's easy enough to remember that my car is set to English, and then only speak English to my car. And you set the language of choice in the car.

It's not foolproof. I hired a Mini Countryman (which uses the BMW infotainment system) in Italy. I set the system to English, and it was fine for most things, but the navigation struggled with my horrible mispronunciation of Italian addresses. I would have to pull over and type in the address instead.