What’s Your Car’s Worst Design Flaw?
Living with your car day in, day out, there are bound to be a few nits to pick. What are yours?
Spend enough time in any car and you'll find something to complain about. Of course, the amount of time needed to get cranky will vary from car to car. But even if you're driving a McLaren F1, I bet you'll be annoyed by some aspect (lack of cupholders?) eventually. Now we want to hear about your car complaints—what's the worst design flaw you've found with your car?
I have a complaint by proxy from our News Editor Adam Ismail, who hates the lack of vertical cargo space in his GR Corolla caused by the relocation of the battery. "Kind of killing the 'hatch' part of hot hatch," he mentioned to me. And now that I'm thinking about it, I do recall being disappointed that our hard-shell kennel wouldn't fit through the Corolla's back door while we were testing it for dog-worthiness.
The Corolla feels a lot smaller in person than it does in pictures. It may offer more space than a GR86 sports car and have a hatch, but there's no mistaking that it's a compact vehicle once you open the doors.
Another personal-car design complaint I have is against the cup holder placement in the BMW F31 wagon I just bought. My gigantic coffee cup fits, but only barely, and the HVAC controls pop out just a tiny bit too far for me to easily get my steel-insulated cup in and out. Well, actually, now that I've read that sentence back I might have to admit it's a pretty deep nitpick. Never mind—my '17 BMW is faultless to me right now.
I bet my tune will change soon, though. I've only put a couple hundred miles on my new-used Bimmer, less distance than I usually do with road-test cars. Those of you who have had your cars for months, on the other hand, I bet you'll have some niche grievances that this group of car nerds will appreciate.
