Worst Buttons Of All Time.

After accidentally bumping the button on the radio in my Fit that is nice enough to clear ALL of my radio presets and randomly select new ones for me, it got me wondering what other cars have buttons that are worthy of a kick to the plums for whatever shiny happy person thought it would be a good idea.

My list so far:

1.) Delete ALL radio presets button (Honda Fit)

2.) Void warranty button (Nissan GTR)

does this count? BMW I-Drive

I'd like to present the best button of all time.

The Funk button.

Followed by creative usage of the "Fresh" button.

any parking brake button

My 94 & 95 T-Birds each have a spring-loadeded button in the console to open the gas door. Pressed it once and after I let go the button flew out hard enough to hit the headliner.

Pretty much every interior button on my 05 CTS-V shed paint like my cats shed hair.

I think start buttons are pretty stupid when turning keys worked so well for so long.

N Sperlo wrote: I think start buttons are pretty stupid when turning keys worked so well for so long.

The really stupid thing about the start buttons (at least the few I have seen) is they they aren't even "start" buttons, they just activate the starter buttons (e.g. you let go too quick and the car doesn't start). You would think with the fancy electronic interactions the button would be "do what you have to do to make the car run" (obviously you would want a fail point)

Not car-related, but I once had a computer keyboard with a "Sleep" button, directly above the up-arrow key, back in the days of Windows 98 when you couldn't reassign the buttons.

My peeve is around cruise control buttons. Why the heck is there a master on/off button? If I hit the set or resume buttons, let's consider that action as turning cruise on.

Also, cruise control without a "cancel" button. On my E150, I can either tap the brake or turn the whole stupid system off (thus losing my ability to later resume).

Oh, and it's a switch, not a button, but the battery drain switch on subarus. I think it just turns the marker lights on with no chime or other indicator, making sure that on a bright day, your battery will be totally dead by the time you leave work. Not a bad idea, bit it's way too easy to hit accidentally.

the "Economy" button with the little green leaf that lights up on the Dodge Caravans I always get stuck with renting on business trips (similar button shown)

Yeah, that's a great idea. Let's not ask people to pay attention to how they're driving. Lets not ask them to "look ahead" or "use less of the skinny pedal". Instead lets give them a false sense of hope and smugness in the form of a button on our dash! Cuz, you know... thinking about what the hell you're doing to achieve your goals (assuming "better fuel economy" is someone's goal) is just too damned difficult to ask of the general population.

< /rant >

sorry...

wae wrote: Oh, and it's a switch, not a button, but the battery drain switch on subarus. I think it just turns the marker lights on with no chime or other indicator, making sure that on a bright day, your battery will be totally dead by the time you leave work. Not a bad idea, bit it's way too easy to hit accidentally.

I HATE that switch.

Hungary Bill wrote: the "Economy" button with the little green leaf that lights up on the Dodge Caravans I always get stuck with renting on business trips (similar button shown)

I've also rented a few mini-vans with these, and can never detect a difference with this switch on or off. What do these "Econ" buttons actually do? Do they change tranny shift points, ecu maps, or what?

My personal "most disliked button" is any button/switch in a Pontiac Sunfire:

They make the entire car look like a Fisher-Price kids toy on wheels...

They're supposed to change the "upshift" to a lower RPM in an effort to save gas.

I had to look it up though. I could never tell the difference.

wae wrote: Oh, and it's a switch, not a button, but the battery drain switch on subarus. I think it just turns the marker lights on with no chime or other indicator, making sure that on a bright day, your battery will be totally dead by the time you leave work. Not a bad idea, bit it's way too easy to hit accidentally.

3.) Battery drain switch (Subaru)

Although BMW I-Drive gets an honorable mention, and the work productivity ending keyboard button stands alone in the exhibition class.

how about the "extra" button that saab's used to have?

mad_machine wrote: how about the "extra" button that saab's used to have?

I don't know. That sounds like a pretty fun button to me...Even if it does absolutely nothing.

Driven5 wrote: After accidentally bumping the button on the radio in my Fit that is nice enough to clear ALL of my radio presets and randomly select new ones for me, it got me wondering what other cars have buttons that are worthy of a kick to the plums for whatever shiny happy person thought it would be a good idea. My list so far: 1.) Delete ALL radio presets button (Honda Fit) 2.) Void warranty button (Nissan GTR)

My Pioneer headsets all had #1. I think they called it Best Stations Memory or something. The idea is, you're travelling through a city and you don't know what the stations are, so you hit the button and it slams all of the strongest stations into the presets for you.

Will wrote: Pretty much every interior button on my 05 CTS-V shed paint like my cats shed hair.

My truck (and probably all GM's from the era) has this. By now you can only operate the HVAC if you have the buttons memorized. My wife LOVES it.

Knurled wrote: My Pioneer headsets all had #1. I think they called it Best Stations Memory or something. The idea is, you're travelling through a city and you don't know what the stations are, so you hit the button and it slams all of the strongest stations into the presets for you.

Yeah that's the idea behind it...But anybody with half a brain would ensure this 'feature' is integrated such that it can only be engaged intentionally, by the few people who would be willing to use it, on the rare occasions they might actually have any reason to do so.

The stock head units in Miatas (and probably most Mazdas) have done that for the past quarter century. It's called "Auto-M". Press and hold for about three seconds until it beeps, then it'll pull out the six strongest stations. You cycle through them by poking the Auto-M again.

It's great if you're on a road trip.

Keith Tanner wrote: Press and hold for about three seconds until it beeps

Too bad the team at Honda didn't get that memo.

edwardh80 wrote:

Hungary Bill wrote: the "Economy" button with the little green leaf that lights up on the Dodge Caravans I always get stuck with renting on business trips (similar button shown)

I've also rented a few mini-vans with these, and can never detect a difference with this switch on or off. What do these "Econ" buttons actually do? Do they change tranny shift points, ecu maps, or what? My personal "most disliked button" is any button/switch in a Pontiac Sunfire: They make the entire car look like a Fisher-Price kids toy on wheels...

Fisher price toys are awesome

I can tell you that the PANIC! button on the keyfob on our Grand Cherokee now has a piece of electrical tape protecting it from accidental activation. Following pocket misfires, of course. I've never felt I had to encourage my vehicles to panic.

Datsun1500 wrote: On the 90-92 accords hitting the button again would reset back to yours.

So that begs the question as to whether I'm incompetent or just an idiot? I know I tried without success to get the stations back the first time this happened..But of course it just works that simply this time!

Thanks for taking the wind out of my sails!

The first generation Vipers have two buttons under the radio, in front of the shifter. One of them is for the fog lights. Cleverly, it illuminates when the fog lights are on. The switch next to it, according to the owner's manual, does nothing and does not illuminate. (Apparently, it was for rear fog lights that apparently went into all of the non-U.S. cars.)

The remote fob for the same car has the big Chrysler star logo on the back and three buttons on the front (just the generic Chrysler fob). One button says "Lock", another says "Unlock", and a third has a picture of a trunk opening on a sedan. The lock and unlock buttons do not lock the doors at all (they are manual locking which is odd for a car with no exterior door handles), they simply arm and disarm the alarm. The trunk-pop button, according to the owner's manual, does nothing.

That car is full of Easter eggs.