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Comment by changoplatanero | Hacker News Reader

on my car you can disable the audible alerts for many of these features and i think you can disable the safety features entirely if you so desire

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Some manufacturers don’t allow this. My partner got a 22 Subaru forester and the audible alerts cannot be turned off without disabling the system altogether. although to be fair they are relative unobtrusive most of the time unless they are critical

This is a disturbing trend though. The car has in cabin cameras to identify the driver. So if I drive it I’m recognized and the seat is adjusted automatically. Handy, right? However, they also have “features” like gestures to adjust the climate control where you make a fist in the air to adjust the temperature up. This is remarkably easy to false trigger. There is no way to turn it off except via the dealer who assured us at delivery that it could be turned off (I was certain this feature would be stupid and annoying during test drive and was right). However, it’s still on a year later because none of their stupid techs can figure out how to turn it off. We almost want to return the car over this. It’s very frustrating to be driving down the highway and having a discussion and suddenly the heat is set to 80F because you talk with your hands. Absolutely moronic design

I get a lack of ability to disable alerts and controls for the stuff related to autonomous driving/lane assist/acc/etc; I’m sure that’s rife with legal liability and allowing the system to work without alerts has some lawyer on their team all freaked out. But hvac control schemes?? Seriously??

Is it a recent model year? If so, what make and model if you don't mind me asking?

Sadly, in this case, the DINGs when starting the engine are hardcoded. The blind spot and lane departure system can be turned off, but forcefully turns back on when you restart the engine.

Any reason you're hiding the make/model of the car?

It seemed unimportant during the writing of that admittedly hyperbolic post because I think I'm having the perfect median 2023 new car experience; other than that no reason, it's a Kia Ceed. I'm probably getting a beat up 2003 volkswagen next.

Go for the ‘03 VW. Other than the auto trans, the Mark 4 Golf/Jetta (97-‘06) is arguably the best car ever made, and the TDIs are as efficient as a prius. A reliable, fun to drive car that only costs a few grand!

and the TDIs are as efficient as a prius

Not exactly. Real MPG figures put the best TDI at ~60MPG or 200g CO2/mile. Prius is 65MPG or ~165g CO2/mile, ignoring CO2 from extraction, refining etc. You can't directly compare diesel and petrol by mpg.

Renewable diesel is widely available in the USA, especially in California (where it's over half of diesel sold), which has about 1/3rd the CO2 footprint of petroleum diesel.

Yes, the newer Prius models are indeed slightly more fuel efficient than a 20 year old TDI, but the TDI has a much lower cost of ownership, lower carbon footprint, and most importantly- is much more fun to drive.

Both of those numbers are basically rural highway hypermiling numbers, not realistic long term averages. Actual TDI hypermilers can even get over 80mpg, of course driving really unusually (https://www.kbb.com/car-news/vw-golf-tdi-sets-fuel-economy-r...). I think Prius hypermilers do get even more than that. Realistically you're only going to get around 40-50mpg in either of them in regular use. One thing I really like about the TDI, is the economy doesn't drop as much if you drive aggressively, which I like to do.

To be honest though, an old TDI is a hobbyist car, to get it to be reliable you need to learn all about tuning and maintaining one.

I own a 2001 Corolla in a country I don't even live in any more. I put it into storage just to be able to use it when I visit, because it's more reliable, more practical, and infinitely less infuriating than literally anything sold in the past 15 years. Car cost me under $3k, 310,000kms on the original manual transmission and no issues. Meanwhile, 3 year old Subaru's are requiring $10,000 transmission replacements because manufacturers still can't build CVTs that last more than 80,000kms, and won't sell you a manual any more.

lol, i have never understood the issue with toggles resetting on engine-off. like, what toggle EVER would you want that for?

It's probably meant for when the sensors malfunction and you want to drive it to the nearest approved repair shop.

I think the reason is that you come to rely on the safety features, and if somebody else drives your car and turns it off, you're more likely to get in an accident now that it doesn't DING you.

It must be for liability. It’s not for you. It’s to protect the automaker.

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