On 9/25/2015 8:23 AM, Muggles wrote:
yeah! If the seats in the front aren't comfortable for both myself and
hubby, it's a deal breaker for me.

SWMBO does most "solo" driving. I drive very infrequently. Most of my
time spent in the car is weekly shopping trips. In previous vehicle,
she hated passenger seat (comfort) so ended up driving most of the
time. New car has essentially "equivalent" seats in passenger and
driver spots.

If the controls are too complicated,
it's another deal breaker. I once drove some Ford new model and they
said you had to go to a class to learn how to operate all the bells and
whistles it had. DEAL BREAKER! I want to commute to work and around
town, not learn how to program an SUV. I don't need complicated in
order to commute.

As I design these sorts of things for a living, I'm not intimidated
by them. Rather, see them as learning experiences: why did they make
this design choice instead of some *other*?

I find very few "big" disagreements with their chosen implementation.
Most noteworthy is NOT being able to "backup" your settings to a
thumbdrive. Imagine what happens when you accidentally delete -- or
*lose* -- all the addresses, phone numbers, etc. that you've
meticulously "programmed" into the car/GPS! Likewise, in the
21st century, it doesn't seem too far fetched to let me *edit*
this sort of stuff on a PC in the comfort of my home -- instead
of trying to type stuff in on a touch panel seated in a hot
garage!

I addressed the "how to backup the OTHER settings" issue by creating
a "cheat sheet" that enumerates all the settings, their FACTORY DEFAULT
choices, lists of POSSIBLE choices and *my* choice (using bold and
italics to make the visual distinctions). I laminatated these and
stuffed them in a seat back pocket -- so I don't have to remember
where I "filed" them!

Give me comfortable seats, reliability, heat and AC,
a radio that plays local stations, maybe a CD player, I like power
steering, windows, and seats, and a light colored interior.

We found MANY seats to be very uncomfortable. The Lexus saleswoman
was chagrined that we spent a mere *minutes* at her dealership!
We'd sit in a vehicle, then get up, close the door and walk away -- in
search of another vehicle that *might* have more comfortable seats.
(we didn't find any, there!)

What's up with offering a black interior as the ONLY choice??

We encountered lots of black-on-black offerings. Totally ridiculous
in an environment where it's sunny 360+ days per year and over 100F
on anywhere between 60 and 100 of those days!

[We likewise lamented the sun/moonroof issue but typically had no choice
in that "option" for the sorts of vehicles in which we were interested.]