Our automobile insurance company is renting for Tinka a 2023 BMW X1 SUV while her car is repaired .
I've been driving it the last couple of weeks to give Barney (our 2010 Ford Escape) a break.
This car is annoying AF!
1) Eco stop/start have to be manually disabled by a complex menu sequence every single time you start the car.
2) Graphic speedometer/tach is supposed to look cool, but it's actually annoying to look at and uninformative at quick glance. The information that is there, is tiny, and there are large areas of dashboard real estate which are directly in view but which show no information.
3) Master volume control requires careful, measured, medium pressure: too soft and it doesn't change, too hard and it switches into mute.
4) Cargo cover makes it difficult to insert luggage.
5) Loud BEEP BEEP if you walk away from the car like to drop a piece of mail in the mailbox but leave the car running.
6) Loud BEEP BEEP every time you get near the car and open the door to enter.
7) manual FM radio frequency selector is annoying digital tabs
8) FM radio dashboard displays annoying billboard advertisement for ambulance chasing lawyers.
9) long delay – – literally like 1.5 seconds – – from standstill, before engine engages, and you actually move forward
10) To go forward you pull the tiny vestigial shift lever towards you (reverse); to go in reverse, you push the lever forward (as to drive forward) -- opposite of what is intuitive.
11) When there is a warning signal about some system malfunction, like tire pressure, you have to go through four layers of menus to get to the display you need to see tire pressure.
If you exit the car -- even if you keep the car running -- the display disappears. So if you want to see if you have corrected the problem you have to go through the same four menus every time to get back to the display you need.
12) The top of the dashboard slopes down in every section, so that no matter what you throw up there it instantly slides onto the floor and between the numerous slots underneath the seats.
13) The car has some automatic brake feature. If you are driving normally downhill, and you slow to a stop, if you take your foot off the break the car does not continue down on idle. Some brake automatically has been applied. You have to press the gas to overcome the braking action to continue on your way even down a hill.
14) Every single time you turn the car on you have to "okay" (acknowledge with a tap on the touchscreen) that you won't use the control system while driving.
15) I am not even itemizing separately the annoying menu-driven touchscreens with all new cars instead of physical knobs, switches and dials. It goes without saying that you have to go through a menu and press precisely a series of tabs just to get the air conditioning working or to get FM radio playing.
