After a late night photo shoot, I was heading home across downtown LA. This was the first night I had gotten to drive our G8.
I'm really liking this car. It shows a lot of promise that American cars are and can be great. The enigine is reverberating off the tunnel walls and I'm having great ol' time. Though I'm normally not a fan, I was in the mood for some George Thoroghgood and the Destroyers or Lynard Skynard as I blasted down the dark empty streets.
As I'm unfamiliar with the car and driving at night, I briefly looked down at the stereo as I'm driving. It has a nice volume knob, but it doesn't have a tuning knob. The dial opposite of the volume is a Menu control. It's a pet peeve of mine to not have a tuning knob. Instead you have to toggle the Track switch.
I find the lack of a tuning knob very irritating. Sure, if I was an owner I'd get used to it, but that doesn't mean I'd give a pass to a feature I think sucks.
Scott Jacobs, Senior Photographer
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modern radios still feature tuning knobs? geuss i'm way to used to aftermarket, but heck its the digital tuning age, knobs are so analog
"It shows a lot of promise that American cars are and can be great."? - I guess American cars can be great if we just re-badge cars from other countries (Holden)...
Okay - semi-kidding here as an owner of a Mustang GT, Explorer, and F-250. But really, it's just a sampling of great cars that can come over here and should, like now this recent Holden/Pontiac, Opel, and soon Ford Focus and Fiesta. Can't wait.
No matter how much you wish it, this is NOT an American car.
Tuning knobs are like, so, analog, dude. Welcome to the '90's. ;)
I guess if you're in a new car every few days it could be an inconvenience, but beyond owners "getting used to it", I suspect most people would hardly ever use it if there was one. As long as there are source, seek, and volume buttons on the steering wheel, I'm good.
I'll second those comments. tuning knob > tracks switch
*George Thorogood and Lynyrd Skynyrd
Sorry, I know how annoying it is to be corrected buy I couldn't let that go...
but...lol
When I first saw the picture, I thought the post was going to be about how you grabbed the climate control knob when you meant to adjust to volume of the radio or vice-versa..
I would much rather have a tuning knob. Its pretty much a moot point in your every day driving, but when you're road tripping through a new place, your passenger is asleep, and you need to find a new station, track buttons just don't cut it.
My car has a tuning knob in my WRX. I hate it. The problem with mine is that even though it's a knob, it doesn't act like a knob, it acts like a button. If I turn it a quarter turn the left, it's like pushing the "back" button, if I push it a quarter turn to the right, it's like the "forward" button. If it acted like a real knob I'd like it more...
"when you're road tripping through a new place, your passenger is asleep, and you need to find a new station, track buttons just don't cut it."
Really? You want to manually search through every single possible frequency, reaching out your right arm for five minutes, one tiny adjustment at a time, instead of using the seek buttons on the steering wheel?
I agree that's a little annoying - although you really only use that control once in a while unless you travel long distances a lot. I thought the preset buttons were much more annoying because they are so tiny. If I bought the car, I'd use the steering wheel controls almost exclusively.