[blackasta]

My pet peeves:

Small cars becoming bigger & wider in dimension - while our road / lane / garage dimensions remain the same.

Lack of usable bumper (in reality bumper covers) space which can absorb some low speed impacts without touching the metal parts

Focus on bling (DRL / chrome / touch screen) while giving actual usable features (rear wash wipe / adjustable headrests) lesser priority

[Superleggera]

Very nice topic. My takes would be,

1. Family Look : One of the very unfortunate thing happened in Auto Industry. Previously there used to be an excitement when ever a new car is released. Its gone now. We can easily guess how the car is going to look like - Example, Amaze is a baby Accord, Jetta is a baby Passat and Verna and Elantra are baby Sonatas.

2. Sub 4 meters : Enough said about this. Entire Indian roads are filled with this ugly ducklings. One of my foreigner friend asked my openly - why are the Indian cars looking so disproportionate and ugly - how can people even buy this?

3. Premium offering Tag: May be this is specific to India. Every manufacturer want to name themselves as premium, where in their premium offerings India are less than the standard ones sold in developed countries.

4. Decals : A diminishing trend though. Have seen "ABS" etc on swift, engraved by manufacturer. Its a basic safety feature which should have been there in all cars and use that as a show off ? I felt it very cheap

[Sherlocked]

For me, it would be the build quality.

I can understand lighter body weight helps the car in performance as well as efficiency but Maruti has exploited this to a new low.

Light build or flimsy exterior panels can be tolerated in a car from the Kwid, Eon or the Alto segment but then carrying on this trend to premium hatchbacks isn't justified IMO. Baleno and Swift which costs nearly 8- 9 lakhs has such delicate sheet metel which can get deformed by whatever is thrown at it.

Thankfully, we still have manufacturers like Tata and Hyundai who understand that they have certain quality standards to adhere to and don't blindly follow the fuel efficiency numbers but whats more worrisome is that Marutis inspite of being the most delicate, sells the highest and it will only be a matter of time that other manufacturers will copy each and every ingredient of Maruti's famous recipe which might also include the build quality.

[giri1.8]

In the quest for the title of "fully loaded" car makers seem to ignore the long term reliability and things like suspension, steering are made mass market friendly, even when no one complains about it(new swift is an example).

Last thing would be how the engine is turned to meet emission norms, most of the new engines, especially petrol ones, feel very strained or "tight" if that is a word I can use to describe it. Even the old Maruti 800 feels peppy compared to modern 1.2L engines. Wish they had other ways to meet emission norms.

[swissknife]

Though cars are becoming faster, the brakes have not been given the importance it needs. Disc brakes all round should be a standard.

Though the same make model is sold in a different country with, say, all round disc brakes, paddle shifters etc., which are OEM (imported) and directly implementable, warranty claims post such "changes" aren't honoured by OEMS. Maintaining cars with extremely high electro mechanical technologies, without warranty, is a nightmare. One can understand that warranty could be void if non-standard fitments are made, but when they are standard fitments, without any change in other markets, it does seem unreasonable.

Many a time, minor inclusions such as a boot lamp are omitted.

[ram.iyer95]

Most of the points that came to my mind have already been put forward very well here. Here goes my two cents:

Lack of adjustable head restraints in most of the small cars, in some cases available only in the top-end variants. This is one cost-cutting measure that has absolutely no logic associated with it. I sometimes wonder who comes up with such ideas. For anyone with above-average height, the fixed head rests on the rear bench, especially the short ones found in many B-Segment cars, are such a pain during long journeys that the neck would start aching due to lack of proper support. Manufacturers just provide two lame humps on the seatback and call them headrests. I mean, how much money do they really save by omitting such a convenient feature?

What's even more surprising is that, most of the cars from the last decade, even the smaller ones, had them, for example, the old Wagon-R, Santro, Chevy Spark, etc to name a few.

Now, even supposedly "premium" cars like the Honda City, MSIL's Ciaz, Hyundai Elite i20, etc do not have adjustable head rests in their lower variants. In my frank opinion, carmakers should not provide two, but three proper adjustable headrests on the rear bench (like the Etios), considering that most families travel with three seated there.

I really wish that the government, just like it has taken measures to make airbags, ABS, rear parking sensors, etc to be made as standard features, do the same for adjustable headrests as well. But if wishes were horses!

[Akshay2010]

I hate push button start. It just takes away the joy of cranking your engine.
Key ignition has its own pleasures, you connect more with the vehicles. There is a particular time duration and pressure needed to start the engine. Push button takes away all these joys in the name of comfort.

[Th!ru]

Would like to add 2 things. Beige interiors and chrome plating every possible area on top end variants.

[Jeroen]

My biggest gripe(s) these days are twofold:

To me modern cars all look alike. Every small saloon look like the next one. Every SUV looks like the next one. There is really very little differentiation to them.

They all seem to be following the same design rules, applying the same trendy stuff. Very few design stand out from the crowd.

Second, but that is more an owner choice; these days take a random look at 50 cars anywhere on any road, the majority of cars will be white, grey or black. Car owners are very boring when it comes to colours these days

Jeroen

[hemanth.anand]

Here are few things I hate:

1. Humongous Front Grilles. I had last shown my disliking towards that in the Santro Thread
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4480501 (The next-gen Hyundai Santro)

2. Chrome plastering. All the new Honda cars have that disgusting solid chrome bar at the front

3. Touchscreens-In short, very distracting

4. Confusing variants- In the end customer has to compromise on on or the other thing.

5. Sub 4m sedans-Ugly ducklings IMO although the current crop of these cars are much better.

Very Bright DRLs, Unnecessary creases all over the body, Launching the vehicle to stay ahead even before they can meet the demand, these are other things that I'm not a big fan of

[Guna]

Nice thread!
Here are my personal dislikes:

1. Modern cars are designed 'outside in', to get sleek, aerodynamic shape. This results in poor visibility all around with high set dashboard, thick pillars, quarter windows, raising window/shoulder line which results in almost non existent rear windscreen and poor headroom at the rear.
2. Floating screens: They don't look well integrated, suffer from glare and they are potential safety hazard.
3. Bumpers are getting blended on to the grill in the front and the rear hatch, do not do the job of absorbing minor accidental impact.

[sidpunjabi]

What I really dislike is that the Indian variant of nearly any car gets underpowered engines and/or lacks certain safety equipment that is otherwise found in the International variant of the same car.

I know that most people in India don't share the same enthusiasm as an average Bhp-ian and hence such cars may have marginal demand. However, I don't know why manufacturers in India don't list the international car as a separate variant and deliver it (maybe on a per order basis to better handle inventory) to enthusiasts who are willing to pay for the extra cost.

[vikramvicky1984]

Two trends:

1 Non-existent bumpers even in 4m+ cars- do not provide much protection to pedestrians and also mean hefty bills for minor impacts- boot is almost always gone.

2 Kinks in headlamps/tail lamps at corners which is the first thing to hit and crack: they come expensive as the lights are all integrated now. One reason that they provide additional safety but is it really so much. Fragile stuff should be concealed no?

I am afraid these can be attributed to some smart MBA chaps who hope to mint money from spares.

Another one but may not be so important:
Lack of geometric shapes anywhere - body, lights, glasses. Most cars today have weird shapes of everything- nothing in round, square, rectangle diamond etc. . I think the last one to have them was the Pajero SFX.

[myavu]

All Beige Color Interior trim like 2018 New Figo Aspire TDCi. Love the car otherwise but cannot buy with beige color interiors. There should always be an all black interior option at least on order.


On the contrary Freestyle is available only with dark interior but missed on wider 195/55 tyres and less mileage when considering both are having same weight and thinner tyres for Freestyle.


Cheers!

[jpcoolguy]

My main gripe is the lack of rear bumper in cars nowadays and I drive one and know the pain to maintain the car.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Second, but that is more an owner choice; these days take a random look at 50 cars anywhere on any road, the majority of cars will be white, grey or black. Car owners are very boring when it comes to colours these days
Jeroen

Black? Here in India, most of the new car launches have omitted Black color entirely from their line-up and has introduced the candy/funky colors like Orange, Green, etc.