I think that when you are going to criticize something it is best to start by saying something positive about your subject first. The subject I have in mind is modern car design.
OK here's the positive remark. I really love reversing cameras in cars. The car I drive for work has one and it lets me know how close I can back up before hitting something behind me. It has a red line on the screen and I must be sure not to let this touch an object on the screen or the car will too. This allows me to get nice and close without causing damage.
Right, now onto criticism.
Why do I have to get into a car that has become an oven closed up in the sun? Even once the air-conditioner is turned on, it takes up to twenty minutes for the upholstery, glass and internal plastic to stop pulsing with heat.
I have long tried to devise a system for fixing this that would sell. The trouble is that no car needs add-ons attached to its exterior or interior, at least the number it would take to shade the car. Roof racks are the exception to this but they are designed to look modular and hug the roof.
The attachments for shading a whole car would have to be big, light and able to be rolled into place and later back into their holders. There would also need to be hooks attached around the car to hold the screens when they are rolled over the windows. Not only this, they would look bad, be easily damaged and pulling them over all the windows when you leave the car would be incredibly time consuming.
The answer therefore lies within. I thought of a roll screen that started on the dashboard and could be pulled over the front seat and hooked behind the rear seats. This would only protect the steering wheel and upholstery and they may still overheat. Internal roll up screens on each window and front and rear windscreens would, unless they were automated, also need time to put up and need attachments to hold them.
The answer lies with the car manufacturers.
I have asked myself why they don't come up with internal black or heat proof screens that slide up inside the power windows and front and back windscreens. These would be automatic, totally integrated within the car and not an eyesore.
Cost, I hear you scream, that's why. Well how about a vent or something?
It's a lot like cup holders and wheels on suitcases. These were such darned obvious inventions that no one bothered to make them. Obviously wheels on suitcases have nothing to do with cars, I'm just making the point that the obvious tends to get overlooked.
The manufacturers are too busy putting in hands-free phones, key-less entry, GPS and the Internet into cars to think about simple and effective improvements.
For example, windscreens; once these were more vertical and had a sun visor to protect passengers from the sun. There were quadrant windows that you could adjust to get a breeze directed straight at you.
Now you can roast like meat in the front of a car under the sloping windscreen. And isn't everyone concerned about skin cancer? Don't children at school have to put on hats before they go outside? But you can get a fabulous tan in the front seat of your car without even going to the beach. A car must look aerodynamic even if it kills you by allowing you to get malignant skin cancers.
Doors are another pain. If you park on a sideways slope or a hill, you have to hold them open or they'll slam on some part of your anatomy as you try to clamber out. Hasn't anyone thought of hydraulic doors that can stay open?
It's hard to believe how much money is spent on new designs when nothing innovative or sensible is added to new models.
It wouldn't matter if I bought a Mini or a Maserati, they are both just cars and don't have any of the features I would like to have added.
I like rear windscreen wipers that many cars do have and some clever cars have two sun visors so that one goes down in front of you and one at the side window so that, as the car turns, your eyes are shielded from the sun.
One amazingly stupid thing about cars that have power assisted brakes and steering is that, when they stall, the brakes drop to one third of their efficiency and steering becomes like driving a tank. This strikes me as being an enormous safety risk.
One last problem with modern cars is that the elderly and people with knee problems have trouble lifting their legs over the sill of the chassis as they get in. I don't know why it has to be higher than the floor.
It would be great, if possible, for the front passenger seat to be able to swivel so that the elderly and those with problem legs, could plonk their butts down first and then deal with their legs. It may not be possible but it's a nifty idea.
And how the about the boot/trunk? Although some people have managed to stuff bodies in these, getting heavy suitcases into them is always difficult. A handy little winch system would be well received. All right, that's probably pushing things a bit but it's a little dream of mine.
All this may be wishful thinking but, just as cup holders took a century to make their way into modern cars, so maybe some of my ideas will eventually be taken on. In the meantime, I don't care what I drive as long as it has four wheels, power windows, air-conditioning, goes forward at a reasonable speed and brakes as required. I do like an automatic these days as I've become lazy.
But what I want, what I really, really want is a heat proof car.
I'm amazed that a new car can cost over fifty thousand dollars and after a few years, be valued at less than five thousand. If it still works what is the difference? If you bought replacement parts for such a car and fully rebuilt it, it would cost more than a brand new Porche.
Imagine if your house devalued with age the way a car does? It provides the same shelter and the car does the same job. Life is nuts.
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