Here are some car design trends that have seem to have taken over the auto industry that I wish would go away.
- Use of piano black in the interior. These show fingerprints and dust very prominently and are also prone to being scratched and showing those scratches. Use matte black or wood instead.
- Use of shiny chrome in the interior. This reflects light and in some situations can be downright uncomfortable for the driver. Use brushed aluminum instead.
- Ever larger wheels. 16" or 17" wheels on a sedan of any size should be good enough. On an SUV 18" or 19" should be the most needed. Larger wheels have tires with smaller sidewalls and make the ride uncomfortable especially given the pothole-ridden roads we have nowadays. Bigger wheels and tires weigh more (lower mpg and slower acceleration), and they cost more to replace. It's insane that we now have cars with 18" or 19" wheels and SUVs with 20" to 22" wheels.
- Excessive use of screens and touchscreens. It's OK to have one small one for navigation and infotainment, but why put things like climate control in there? Why have a complicated digital dash controlled by complicated steering wheel controls when a simple one will get the job done? Would really appreciate physical controls for the climate control. Most of these screens have flicker, sometimes excessive flicker.
- Uncomfortable seats with poor padding. Many newer cars seem to have extra firm seats with worse seat comfort than the corresponding previous generation. It almost mandates using a separate seat cushion to get adequate comfort during long drives.
- Use of run flat tires. These are noisier to begin with and get even noisier and harder as they age. This makes them very uncomfortable especially on bad roads. They are also heavier so getting rid of the spare doesn't save much weight, if any once you have all the extra weight of run flat tires. Finally, they are more expensive to replace and it greatly reduces the number of choices available. I really wish they'd stick with regular tires and a compact or full size spare.
- White LED headlights. The color temperature of most headlights nowadays is too high and will tend to cause fatigue and lead of difficulty falling asleep after one has been driving at night. A warmer color temperature that matches regular halogen headlights would be better.
- Plastic trim around wheel wells. For some reason car makers decided to stop painting these and expose black plastic which fades and looks horrible over time.
