Edmunds CarPool

10. Death of the Control Dial: This one is pretty simple: When you're interacting with a vehicle feature that offers a range of desired effect you need a control that quickly and easily offers a range of response. For the young 'uns in the crowd, we used to have these controls, and they were called D-I-A-L-S. Ah, they were glorious things indeed. Need a little more volume? Turn the dial a little. Need a lot? Turn it a lot. Need to tune the radio across a large number of frequencies? Turn the dial quickly. Need to fine-tune the frequency? Turn it slowly. I know it sounds like engineering gone mad to the uninitiated, but trust me folks, those crazy dial thingies actually worked!!

9. One-Touch, All-or-Nothing Windows: I really like one-touch windows and enjoy the benefits every time I enter the Edmunds.com offices and have to scramble for my access card. At least I can hit the window button once and start rifling for the card while it goes down. However, when I want the window only partially down it can be a real challenge in certain cars. The buttons' detent between "one-touch" and "only-while-I'm-touching" is often imperceptible, so you end up jabbing at the button to get the window to stop its up or down movement, and it usually stops where you don't want it to.

8. Stupid Car Locks: An oldie but a goodie, I continue to despise cars that lock when I don't want them to, yet won't unlock when I do. Bonus points for all the cars that won't unlock more than the driver's door with the first press of the unlock button. I've gotten in the habit of pounding away on the unlock button on the keyfob as I approach my latest test vehicle just to make sure all doors are actually unlocked when I get there. Yes, I know the reason for this design, and I still hate it.

7. Keyless Start: I wrote an entire column on this topic a few months ago, so I'll just hit the highlights here: breaking the physical connection between a key and a car creates the potential for more problems than it solves. If you haven't experienced one of those problems yet...just wait. Bonus annoyance points if a car has keyless start when it doesn't have keyless entry. There goes the whole, "I don't like having to deal with keys" argument for keyless start, making this possibly the stupidest technology circumstance possible in today's automotive world.

6. Push-Button Start: I remember when this was cool on cars like the Honda S2000. It was an enigma back then, and it suggested the car was exotic and "race inspired." Now it's on Toyota Camrys, so the "exotic" element has effectively been nuked. Instead, it's become either an unnecessary two-step process to start a car if it has a key (insert key and then push a button), or a potentially problematic one-step process if the car has keyless start (see above). Ironic, because my Ford GT has push-button start. But that car is exotic and race inspired. Also, the key still has to be in the ignition to start it (so no misplacing it and driving off), and twisting the key will always, instantly kill the engine (ergo no runaway Ford GT stories). So, basically, push-button start can still be cool and trouble free. But it rarely is these days.

5. Shift-Brake Interlock: Another gift from the safey nannies, born of the Audi "unintended acceleration" (also known as "idiot driver") situation. When I first encountered this, on a mid-90s GM van, I was astounded. "I can't shift from park unless my foot is on the brake?!" I'd grown up consistently removing my foot from (but still covering) the brake when shifting my old muscle cars into a forward or reverse gear. Why? Because all automatic cars have a certain amount of "creep" built in and I liked the idea of letting the car move slightly forward or back when first putting it in gear to reduce some of the driveline shock that happens if you're hard on the brake. So much for trying to be as easy on your car as possible (this is when having some mechanical knowledge can be frustrating when you drive modern cars).

4. Stubborn Stability Control: This feature becomes mandatory on all 2012 vehicles sold in the U.S., though many already have it. Like ABS it has the potential to save thousands of lives every year (this is a good thing, BTW). Also like ABS, there are times when you are better off without it. For ABS, it's when you're off-roading. For stability control, it's when you're off-roading, on a race track, testing a vehicle in the slalom or on a skidpad, or even just trying to enjoy yourself on Mulholland (depending on how aggressively the stability control is tuned). On some cars you can fully defeat it (that's good), but on too many you can't (cough-Toyota-cough). This is particularly annoying when the cars without a stability control "off" switch have the most aggressive stability control tuning (cough-Toyota-cough-again-cough).

3. No Manual Option: Dual-clutch, electrohydraulic transmissions are more advanced than traditional manual transmissions. Dual-clutch, electrohydraulic transmissions shift faster than traditional manual transmissions. Dual-clutch, electrohydraulic transmissions are easier to drive in real-world conditions than traditional manual transmissions. And, last but not least, I STILL WANT THE OPTION OF A TRADITIONAL MANUAL TRANSMISSION! Honestly, I may not even choose the manual, depending on the car and my planned use of it, but I still want the option. Anyone who has experienced a perfect heel-and-toe downshift knows what I mean. Those who haven't...I'm sorry... BTW, Ferrari will not be offering a traditional manual transmission on the new 458. That faint groan you just heard was Enzo rolling over in his grave.

2. No-Use-While-Driving Features: A little hint for the engineers (and lawyers) working in the industry -- if you put an electronic feature on a vehicle you better figure out how to make it work safely while the vehicle is in motion. This includes not only navigation programming and placing phone calls but also pairing a hands-free phone or audio device. I might have let this slide a couple years ago, but voice recognition is too advanced these days to not allow drivers to speak any command necessary (destination address, bluetooth pairing code, etc.). This is where Ford is going to score big with SYNC and MyFord Touch in the coming years. Any OEM that doesn't figure this out, like now, is going to be left behind.

1. Lane Departure Warning: This is a tough one, because in theory I like it. We've all seen the deplorable state of lane placement and discipline as we drive around, so letting people know when they are drifting sounds good. But then I consider how lazy people already are in terms of driving focus, and this will likely make it worse. Also, with driver distraction on the rise this seems like a band-aid (rather than a solution) to the problem. How about this instead: Everyone out there just focus on staying in your lane.

I should mention that I'm not a total luddite when it comes to modern automotive technology. Quite the contrary in fact. Automatic headlights? iPod integration? Smart cruise control? I love 'em all, and plenty of other new-fangled features, too. As with so many things, it's not necessarily the idea that blows, it's the execution.