Electronic ignition, tubeless tyres, ABS, traction control, even cruise control, so far so good. Auto wipers, a mixed blessing. LED lights, well worth having. Auto headlights, well I was a bit sceptical at first but they seem to work OK on the last two cars I've had. Auto dipping headlights that only respond to oncoming lights of a pre set intensity? Not so good, as they take no account of pedestrians, cyclists or horses. I've set mine to manual. As soon as the ignition is on, lighting up like Xmas tree which seems to be out of your control. You can't just get in the car without lighting up the neighbourhood, not so good if you have an early morning start and want to get off to work unobtrusively, or come back after working unsocial hours. It's the feeling of lack of control that annoys me. Lane management and proximity management are fine if they're set up property so that you wouldn't notice them in normal driving but I've had warning lights when cornering moderately when there's been a crash barrier which I presume the system has interpreted as a car. On a couple of occasions when coming to a halt behind traffic with a foot on the brake the system has increased the braking force unnecessarily. Keyless starting. It seems that the fob transmits continually, not just when the button is pressed. Therefore the battery life is not great. Another unnecessary gimmick.
Then we come to the issue of electronic handbrakes. If ever there was something that was a solution to a problem that didn't exist, this is it. The selling point seems to be the fear of being stranded due to a broken handbrake cable. Well, pardon me! In 42 years of driving I've never had this situation. If I had, I would not be running about in circles with my hands in the air. I would probably just park in gear (which you are advised to do anyway if you have an electronic handbrake) until I could get it fixed. If I normally parked on a hill I might source a house brick to put in front of a wheel for added security.
After having a 2006 VW Passat for 7 years and having got through three brake calipers, on one occasion being stranded on my drive until my breakdown service came and disconnected it so I could get to my local garage with warning lights flashing, sirens blaring etc to get the third one replaced, I swore never to buy another car with an electronic handbrake. Meanwhile I bought a car with a conventional handbrake. This developed its own electronic issues once I'd got to 100,000 miles. Random warning lights, going into limp mode, no cause shown on diagnostics. It's ironic that modern technology allows you to maybe get 200,000 miles from the mechanical side of a car but the electronics start to suffer after a a few British winters.
Before cars had so much investment in electronic management systems my strategy of buying a fairly new car outright and keeping it for enough years to get my money's worth seemed to be effective. My last few cars have rather disproved that. Currently have a SEAT Ateca because Mrs T liked it. It has an...electronic handbrake! It's hard to find the type of car that we want without one. Despite assurances that they've sorted out the bugs I'm not convinced. Nowadays she drives more than I do so if she gets stuck somewhere it's down to the breakdown service now.
