More about unwanted features

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This follows on from my post about annoying features in my car… The one thing I can’t resolve in our now-shared car, is that with this car, you can’t open the boot (trunk) just by lifting the catch in the ‘old-fashioned’ way – you have to either put the key in the lock, or pull a little lever by the driver’s seat. Boy, do I HATE this feature! The number of times I have got to the car with my arms full of shopping bags and the key safely in my pocket, to then find I can’t open the boot without putting the bags down on the wet ground or else trying to balance them all on my leg while standing on one foot, and reaching into my right pocket with my left hand, or some other stupid contortion. This morning I took a trailer-load of branches and my friend’s metal bed-frame to the recycling centre. I hopped out of the car, removed the tarpaulin and bungee cords that I had used to cover the trailer, and went to toss them into the boot – of course I couldn’t open it without walking back round to the driver’s door to pull the little lever. I unloaded the trailer, then drove a bit further to the metal skip. There I hopped out again to get the bed frame out of the back, and of course I had forgotten and had to go back to the driver’s door to pull the little lever yet again! Later on today I took a lady to a doctor’s appointment. I went round and opened the passenger door to help her in, then I had to walk all the way round to the driver’s door to pull the little lever before I could put her folding walker into the boot. This whole thing just drives me round the twist, can you tell? I suppose I should cultivate the habit of just automatically pulling the lever every single time I get out, but then I’d be bound to do it when it wasn’t needed and I would forget to close it again before driving off. Now this is bad enough, but I can foresee a time when this car (which is already 11 years old and quite high mileage) will need to be replaced. And meanwhile car manufacturers seem to be adding more and more annoying features to their vehicles. So not only do we have to have the petrol/ diesel/ electric decision with all the complicated factors that entails, but I now have an ever-lengthening list of features I definitely do NOT want: NO reversing warning noises NO airbags that can't be turned off NO seatbelt alarms NO keyless entry (thieves have got really good at stealing these – and you can’t even check you’ve locked the doors because as soon as you approach the car with the keys it will unlock!) NO stupid remote-controlled doors that you physically can’t open or close by hand NO child locks I’m sure there must be more features I definitely don’t want, I just haven’t found out what they are yet, thankfully. Do you like these kind of features or do you have a ‘do-not-wish list’ as well? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.