If you have been reading about Geezers in Geezerville for a while, then you know I touched upon the topic of a new car. I’m going to delve into that a bit deeper now. I just watched an episode of Motor Week (it’s in its 500th year I think). The announcer was talking about the pop-up displays found on a new 2024 car. The display was large, at 14 inches. That’s bigger than my iPad display. It’s a touch activated screen, so all the driver has to is touch an icon and something will happen. This particular car had several different screens…so you touch one icon, and that leads to another screen with yet again more icons and yet another…until you get to where you want to go. Are geezers going to remember all those icons? AND, where do you find out about all those icons. The person showing off the dashboard display said it was “easy.” I’m really leery of easy.
My friend Jeanne wanted to buy a new car. At the time, she was 92 and computer challenged. I told her to keep her old car as she knew how it worked but she insisted she wanted a new car. I took her to the Buick dealership in town (she only drove Buicks) and I put her behind the driver’s seat. Jeanne is a short lady and she could not reach the pedals…so she had to find the lever to adjust the pedals and the lever to adjust the steering wheel, and finally she got the seat adjusted, and she said the car fit her like a glove. We got that hurdle cleared with a lot of laughing (and just a few (*&() words) and I tried to show her the dashboard. She pushed the button to turn on the car and the dashboard came alive. Red, yellow, blue and green icons popped up and she did not know where to look. The sales person tried to explain the icons to her, but she just wanted to know what a “normal” dashboard looked like. The sales person then said, you can design it any way you want. This was making something that should have been easy, very difficult. I did some more talking about the wonders of her older car and she slowly agreed with me. She was not ready to make a dozen decisions before leaving the garage. She still has her old car which she drives about 12 miles a week. Good choice. If you are not ready to learn a whole new way of thinking, stick with your old vehicle as you KNOW it.
It’s not just new cars…it’s new everything. Yes, we are old. Yes, we are geezers, but some of the new stuff is not quite as intuitive as the “folks” tell you it is going to be. Have you seen an Insta-pot? It replaced the old fashioned pressure cooker, crock pot, and dutch oven into one device. It works great. It’s HUGE and HEAVY but it cooks well. I have to ask, if you have a pressure cooker, crock pot and dutch oven, and you know how to use them, do you really need a modern heavy pot that does it all? From sad experience, I’ve discovered that devices that are too clever never work as well as a dedicated device. To that end, I gave my insta-pot away to a friend who loves it a lot. I’m keeping my tried and true old devices.
I’m not anti-new. I have a sous-vide machine. I love it. I seal up a Tri-tip roast, immerse it in my sous-vide machine and several hours later, the Tri-tip is finished to perfection and I did not have to clean a dirty oven or pot. Who would not like that. The sous-vide is simple and effective and efficient. In addition, if I’m entertaining, I can put the sous-vide on before my guests arrive and I still have a cooktop and oven to use for the rest of the meal.
But I digress. New cars need to be simple, effective and efficient too. They have to be intuitive. They have to work with geezer fingers and geezer brains. In addition, there has to be a paper copy of all the screens, so we can study them so we know what to do when something happens and we don’t have a clue. Have you seen the list of warning icons on a modern car?
,This image is copied from https://facts.net/car-dashboard-symbols/. It explains the 50 most common icons found on modern cars. That’s a lot of information in a tiny space. Now add the touch screen display and you have a few more icons to remember. Each brand of vehicle will have a different touch screen display. The problem becomes monumental when you are a geezer. Some of us are able to deal with all the bells and whistles. Some of us are not. We are not bewildered because they are high tech, but by the shear number of bells and whistles. Is there a way we can pare them down to something manageable? Is there a way to get a book to explain all of them. I bought a 2012 vehicle and read in the mini-manual that a full sized manual was available for free…all I had to do was go online and order it. I ordered it and a few weeks later the manual arrived. It is 1-inch thick, filled with micro-printed instructions on onion-skin paper, and it is useful. My 2023 truck did not offer such a book. I would like it.
So geezers, be aware. A new car is thing of beauty. It’s going to be fun to drive. It’s going to be filled with hi-tech stuff. It is smarter than the average under-grad. If you can deal with that, buy the vehicle and have a grand time. Remember, we’re in this together.
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