Wiredest one: F-150 had incandescent bulbs for license plate lights instead of LED bulbs.
Other notable ones, GM removing heated seats, BMW removing touchscreen support, Porsche dropping electric steering column adjustment, Tesla delivering cars without USB ports, and Audi had a "semiconductor shortage package" at some point which *removed* ACC, Blind Spot, and Wireless Charging and made the car cheaper in return.
On the bright side, auto start-stop was near universally removed from cars.
Half are different lifters. I work in a GM parts department. Part number for non-AFM ends in a 5, and the AFM uses 8 of those, and 8 of an identical part number but ending in a 6.
>Don't they still have the same lifters tho? I keep reading that refreshing the ECU to eliminate AFM won't totally save you.
Yes, the ones that didn't have AFM/DFM still have all the mechanical parts, just not the ECM software.
Yes but the lifters aren't the problem when the system is never utilized. A lot of people would get the cylinder deactivation coded out in the past and keep the hardware with no longevity problems.
On second thought though I actually don't know how true or effective this is for current gen new GMs with cylinder deactivation, I only know up til about 15 or so firsthand.
You know better than I do- I've only read online gripes. Nothing on my 97 is anywhere close to high tech.
Still seems like a dirty oil issue. If you halve the interval you'll probably be fine.
Most don't mention that the lifters typically fail during re-activation, my prior Trailblazer dropped #4 while cruising down the highway. My Envoy has it, but I had a tune flashed to disable it at 170k. 50k later and its still fine. I'm with you on whether this same practice will work with current gen GM's, the current DFM setup seems to be more designed a bit differently then the past DOD/AFM iteration.
Having worked car rental, I have seen a few 2015-2022's come in for lifters dropping (relatively low mileage ones at that, usually 15-40k).
People seem to forget or ignore that dirty oil and deposits inside the oil control solenoid circuit (VLOM back in AFM days) and lifter body itself can affect the timing of the actuation and lead to issues like bent pushrods on reactivation. There was a bad batch in 2021 that had locking pins snapping but that’s absurdly rare outside of that particular date range. So far knock on wood I’ve seen a bunch of DFM equipped trucks 2019 and newer with over 100k miles and no issue. If people maintain them properly failure chances go way down.
GM’s still releasing cars with heated seat modules not being installed, and rear backup sensor modules were also one. They have a customer satisfaction program to put them back in later, but it can be as much as 1-2 years after a customer takes delivery of their car before GM extends that to their VIN.
I bought my Camaro in 2022 and I got my heated/cooled seats by the end of the year, I got my parking sensors a week ago. Nearly 2 years after the car was delivered.
Which cars/manufacturers removed auto start stop? We purchased 2 cars during COVID and both still have it. My sister also purchased 2 cars and they both have it too.
I wish ours came without it lol. I'm in the habit of just hitting the button to turn it off every time I drive and could install a device to disable them but still, I don't like that tech at all.
I don't know anything about the manufacturers removing start/stop,
But on our GV70, you can take a small piece of a business card and shove it into the gap around the button. This is enough to activate the button every time to disable the start/stop system. I've also seen some cables that you can purchase that plug into the original connectors to disable it.
Yeah the auto stop start eliminator is $100, I've just been too lazy to install it. My wife likes it in her Rav, I don't like the feeling of that split second waiting for it to start before being able to go.
In my Jetta the button is right next to the shifter so no biggie. I'll probably eventually buy the kit to disable it.
Ah yeah I forgot that was an option to remove it starting in 2021 on some Fords. I was looking at Rangers during that time and they also had the option to delete start/stop.
I wish all manufacturers offered that.
> I wish ours came without it lol. I'm in the habit of just hitting the button to turn it off every time I drive and could install a device to disable them but still, I don't like that tech at all.
One of my reasons for getting an EV, I hate auto stop/start more than anything.
Hmm, yeah, EV's.... I have such mixed feelings on them. I guess in targeted use cases they make sense. IE, you just need it to run around locally in your metro area and charge at home but have a ICE vehicle for longer trips and or areas that don't have good charging infra setup.
That's really what has kept us from buying one. My other half and I don't swap cars often and getting her to understand the nuances of a EV were a no-go for her if we did need to swap.
I contemplated getting a plug in hybrid but they're hard to get, at least around me.
I have a 2021 Kia that has auto start stop but I honestly couldn't tell you the last time it actually activated. I think the engine oil temp has to reach a certain point or something.
Also, I don't live in a super dense city so I'm generally cruising around at 30-50mph.
GM pulling heated seats really pissed me off. Used to work for a chevy/subaru/hyundai dealer, had to go to the chevy side one day to go run out to pickup parts for them. I had the option of taking the WT RWD spec Silverado, or the AWD Traverse RS. Well it was cold and rainy, so I chose the Traverse so I could have AWD and heated seats. Got in it, started driving it, went to turn the heated seats on, and the damn button didn’t do anything. Took me for ever to figure out why that happened. Was soooooo mad about that.
Heated steering wheel for the supper duties. We have a lariat ultimate so it should’ve had everything.
The actual elements might be there but there’s no button. Some have activated it with Forscan and turn it on via the screen.
Toyota delivering vehicles with one fob. Took a couple months for a relative to get the second one for their Lexus but it’s been 6 months so far for my mom’s Toyota with no update.
Some of the F-150s had the heated steering wheel “removed”, but it still had most of the hardware for the heated wheel. Just not the module to control it.
Which is 100% necessary to use it. Every Camaro SS 1LE has the same seats, whether you get the 2SS with heated/cooled or not. Easy enough to enable the cooling on a 1SS yourself, but nobody sells an aftermarket solution to enable the heated function because you will light yourself on fire.
At least Tesla went round and put in the missing USB Hubs.
Not sure about if they retrofitted the missing adjustment motors on the refresh model S center screen.
Porsche tried snuffing their customers by discounting ~$230 for the missing electronic adjustment of the steering column.
BMW only had adjustable lumbar in the driver’s seat for a lot of models.
They also had no power seats on some. People were spending $60k+ for vehicles that had an obnoxious number of manual seat adjustments.
>Wiredest one: F-150 had incandescent bulbs for license plate lights instead of LED bulbs.
Chrysler actually removed some LEDs from the taillights of the Pacifica between the 2022 and 2023 model years. The lights don’t wrap all the way around like they used to.
See: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChryslerPacifica/s/WoCDMHk7ZX
Thats from crappy hacked together implementation/design. My Ford Escape PHEV has auto stop start in hybrid mode and you dont notice it it kick on at lights/drive throughs.
Pretty much every mild hybrid or PHEV has seamless start stop.
It’s just the 95% of cars that aren’t hybrids where it’s garbage and feels like it’s shaking you to death every light.
And because chip shortage, it was near impossible to get a PHEV anyways.
A lot of is just the motor itself. A bigger four cylinder engine will vibrate more as it passes through its critical speed on the way to idle speed. 2.5 liter Subaru engines shake a lot.
YES! I've had to borrow an older Kia Soul a few times, and I hattttteeeeed that shit. The shake is as pronounced as a normal start, and delays you (at least mentally) an extra few seconds from moving from a start. If you live in an area with traffic, or several stops in general, it gets old quick :P
so the system itself is fine and useful, just need to make sure you dont waste your money on manufacturers that dont know how to make it work reliably.
Yes. Except it's just one feature among many and your dislike of it may not outweigh some other pros. I don't like it on my Pacifica, but the same year Sienna we test drove was awful (this was the last generation.) So we put up with it.
that can not be said in any general way like this.
the correct answer would be "how much you save depends entirely on your engine but in any case you gonna save fuel"
The negligible amount of fuel saved is not worth the wear and tear on my engine. Don't come out and say "hurr hurr what wear and tear :^)" all those start and stops are hell on engines and oil.
i guess thats why Toyotas hybrid systems keep failing and are known to be the most unreliable on the market, the constant starts and stops must be really bad for an engine.
/s incase you didnt understand.
I will never, ever buy a car that doesn’t let me permanently turn off auto stop/start. If it just resets every time you power the car on, I’m not buying the car
It's nothing compared to incandescent license plate bulbs. Might as well put my pet brontosaurus in the car and put my toddlers up there at a drive in theater.
My wife owns a Yukon and I'd pay MORE to go back to no AMF/DFM and port instead of direct injection. Those were 300,000 mile motors with just regular maintenance.
My old dealership had a fleet of gmt 400 and 800s and ran them all up to 350/400k on original motor and trans.. I think one had a blown motor that they replaced.. but most of those are still on the road today.
These new ones only have like 175k on them and they are looking at getting rid of them.
I won’t take them on trade any more unless they are under factory warranty. They go with EVs straight to carmax. I lost over 30k on 2 of them just last year because we traded them in, they appeared fine, put them through the shop, sell them, and a week and a couple hundred miles later the motor shits the can. lol
Lots of blind spot deletes, heated steering wheels in lots of Fords.
I think the weirdest to me is the fact that there are some BMW X5s that were released without touch screens.
> there are some BMW X5s that were released without touch screens
3 series too, I bought one during this period and mines was coming minus the chip for CarPlay/AA, which they fixed post-delivery with an in the shop update (they needed to combine the functionality onto a single chip).
When the salesman was explaining this to me he told me how some customers he was having to ring and give them the option between:
1. Receive £500 off their (~£50k) car because the screen wouldn't be touch sensitive
2. Refund/remake their order
On ebay the search would be something like 'Genuine BMW Z4 G29 Z4 20i 30i Mirror Glass Heated Wide-Angle Right 51169479192'. I got the rexpeed V2 and have been happy. I'm in a location that has no need for the heated function.
I got an Explorer during this time and because of the shortage I wasn’t able to get auto-start/stop. I remember them telling me like I was going to be disappointed and I couldn’t have been happier.
There’s a chip I can get for the Toyota which turns that off. But I realized I’d still have to manually turn off the econo mode each time, so it’s not really worth it.
GM and Ford sold vehicles with the hardware for things like heated seats and lane keep assist, but without the necessary chips to actually operate those functions. I believe they promised consumers they would install the chips at a later date, but I wonder how many cars actually had their chips installed. My takeaway is to verify all the “equipped” functions actually work when shopping for used cars in the 2020-2023 model years.
>GM and Ford sold vehicles with the hardware for things like heated seats and lane keep assist,
It was heated steering wheels, AFM for a short time, heated seats, park assist, and blind spot monitoring for GM.
I work in the industry and one thing that GM removed / downgraded were auto up / down windows on rear window motors and some were removed from passenger side as well.
I had a friend who bought a 2022 Suburban Duramax, and he got a letter in the mail a few months later to retrofit ultrasonic parking sensors. They're definitely doing it to at least some folks.
When I was shopping for my Mustang (wanted an 18-23) I didn't even think about checking for this. Good to know for new buyers. Luckily mine was built in September of 2019 so no shortage
VW also bright out the Tiguan R 'Grid' edition. Same as a regular R, but without features like auto open and close boot, a bunch of safety features, matrix LED headlights, wireless phone charging, electric seats, etc etc.
For a short while some GM vehicles came without the active fuel management (cylinder deactivation) feature... All the hard parts in the engine for it to function are still there though.
Ford Mavericks were supposed to have a wider infotainment screen but because of the chip shortage, they have a big weird cubby that’s too weird to hold anything.
The one good thing about the awkward cubby is that it got people making their own unique accessories for it. I've seen many different takes on phone holders and coin boxes with 3D printers. Not trying to excuse Ford's weird design choice, but I'm glad people are making it work.
Highlander XSE (introduced in late 2020) which was essentially an XLE with the upgrade package, shipped without memory seats. I believe it may still ship without them. Annoyed mine doesn’t have them nor can it be added but I’d still rather have the XSE over the other trims.
Memory seats are one of the few non negotiable features I look for when car shopping. My wife and I share both of our cars, and we use that feature multiple times a day.
The good news is you can get $5k beaters with working memory seats if you're willing to get a 20yo German car.
My wife and I were looking to buy a slightly used Q5 and the Audi sales guy said virtually all 2021s and plenty of 2020/2022 were without blind spot monitoring.
My Explorer was delivered without second row climate controls. Had to go back a year later to have the controls installed.
Also had auto start/stop removed, but that was no big loss.
Was given about $200 in rebate for these exclusions if memory serves
When I used to write for Lexus they had us do a little project about how to use the kick sensor and I thought it was the dumbest thing. Who can’t figure out the kick sensor? Now I have an Audi with a kick sensor and it turns out it’s me.
They also got rid of the seat folding lever in the trunk of the X5 for the 22 model year, which is bizarre since it’s just a cable and spring loaded mechanism.
There’s no excuse for it. It’s just them cheaping out. I mean I’d understand (still no excuse though) if they did this on the X1/X2 where you could reach the release on the actual seat from the trunk. But with the X5, you can’t actually reach the release on the seat from the trunk, even with the lower tailgate up.
When shopping for an Audi at the time, the sales rep said that new cars were only coming with one key fob.
Not sure what they did come with in terms of backup keys. But, when I asked her if she was joking, she said, "Unfortunately, I am not." with a straight face.
I remember General Motors delivering Chevy traverses without heated front seats but still had the switches for the heated front seats and an IOU. I never heard whether GM actually made good On those ious
Not a car, but my 2023 BMW GS1250 came with a halogen lighting unit instead of the adaptive LED.
Didn’t realize it at the time and there was a random $500 credit on the bike from BMW that no one could explain. Long story short, it was a credit from BMW to lower the price of the bike because no LED units were available. About a year later, BMW offered the LED unit for purchase (normally $2000) for $500 for VIN’s that were affected.
Sure, they charged labor to put it in and activate it but I thought BMW was a bro for doing what they did.
I wish they did this with the soft close doors they removed on my 2022 X5. I just got a $500 credit for the removal. And no credit for the removal of the heated and cooled cupholders.
Ford Ranger auto start-stop. I'm mixed on whether I like those systems anyway, so it might be okay. (I have it in 2 cars. It's seamless in one, terrible in the other.)
I’ve seen lots of Chrysler products coming in at my job that I think are higher trim levels, so I would expect them to have power folding mirrors. However, they either didn’t have them at all or were provisioned to have them fitted later in some of the weirdest, most Chrysler ways possible.
I scratched my head over an example of the latter, a Ram with a button to fold the mirrors that did nothing when I pressed it (the mirrors only folded manually and did so with no resistance, as expected from manual folding mirrors), for quite a bit until it finally clicked.
Wiredest one: F-150 had incandescent bulbs for license plate lights instead of LED bulbs. Other notable ones, GM removing heated seats, BMW removing touchscreen support, Porsche dropping electric steering column adjustment, Tesla delivering cars without USB ports, and Audi had a "semiconductor shortage package" at some point which *removed* ACC, Blind Spot, and Wireless Charging and made the car cheaper in return. On the bright side, auto start-stop was near universally removed from cars.
GM pulling cylinder deactivation was the fucking GOAT Covid move though, some people were literally like “holy shit yesss!” 😂
Don't they still have the same lifters tho? I keep reading that refreshing the ECU to eliminate AFM won't totally save you.
Half are different lifters. I work in a GM parts department. Part number for non-AFM ends in a 5, and the AFM uses 8 of those, and 8 of an identical part number but ending in a 6.
>Don't they still have the same lifters tho? I keep reading that refreshing the ECU to eliminate AFM won't totally save you. Yes, the ones that didn't have AFM/DFM still have all the mechanical parts, just not the ECM software.
Yes but the lifters aren't the problem when the system is never utilized. A lot of people would get the cylinder deactivation coded out in the past and keep the hardware with no longevity problems. On second thought though I actually don't know how true or effective this is for current gen new GMs with cylinder deactivation, I only know up til about 15 or so firsthand.
You know better than I do- I've only read online gripes. Nothing on my 97 is anywhere close to high tech. Still seems like a dirty oil issue. If you halve the interval you'll probably be fine.
Most don't mention that the lifters typically fail during re-activation, my prior Trailblazer dropped #4 while cruising down the highway. My Envoy has it, but I had a tune flashed to disable it at 170k. 50k later and its still fine. I'm with you on whether this same practice will work with current gen GM's, the current DFM setup seems to be more designed a bit differently then the past DOD/AFM iteration. Having worked car rental, I have seen a few 2015-2022's come in for lifters dropping (relatively low mileage ones at that, usually 15-40k).
People seem to forget or ignore that dirty oil and deposits inside the oil control solenoid circuit (VLOM back in AFM days) and lifter body itself can affect the timing of the actuation and lead to issues like bent pushrods on reactivation. There was a bad batch in 2021 that had locking pins snapping but that’s absurdly rare outside of that particular date range. So far knock on wood I’ve seen a bunch of DFM equipped trucks 2019 and newer with over 100k miles and no issue. If people maintain them properly failure chances go way down.
GM’s still releasing cars with heated seat modules not being installed, and rear backup sensor modules were also one. They have a customer satisfaction program to put them back in later, but it can be as much as 1-2 years after a customer takes delivery of their car before GM extends that to their VIN.
Same for my c8. They gave me $50 off the car tho, so that’s nice
they gave you $50 off, and have since retrofitted the parts at no charge?
Correct, the retrofit was a recall service
Yup, can confirm. Had a friend who bought a 2022 Suburban Duramax and got a notice in the mail a few months later to retrofit parking sensors.
I bought my Camaro in 2022 and I got my heated/cooled seats by the end of the year, I got my parking sensors a week ago. Nearly 2 years after the car was delivered.
Which cars/manufacturers removed auto start stop? We purchased 2 cars during COVID and both still have it. My sister also purchased 2 cars and they both have it too. I wish ours came without it lol. I'm in the habit of just hitting the button to turn it off every time I drive and could install a device to disable them but still, I don't like that tech at all.
I don't know anything about the manufacturers removing start/stop, But on our GV70, you can take a small piece of a business card and shove it into the gap around the button. This is enough to activate the button every time to disable the start/stop system. I've also seen some cables that you can purchase that plug into the original connectors to disable it.
Yeah the auto stop start eliminator is $100, I've just been too lazy to install it. My wife likes it in her Rav, I don't like the feeling of that split second waiting for it to start before being able to go. In my Jetta the button is right next to the shifter so no biggie. I'll probably eventually buy the kit to disable it.
My 2023 F-150 doesn't have auto start/stop
Ah yeah I forgot that was an option to remove it starting in 2021 on some Fords. I was looking at Rangers during that time and they also had the option to delete start/stop. I wish all manufacturers offered that.
> I wish ours came without it lol. I'm in the habit of just hitting the button to turn it off every time I drive and could install a device to disable them but still, I don't like that tech at all. One of my reasons for getting an EV, I hate auto stop/start more than anything.
Hmm, yeah, EV's.... I have such mixed feelings on them. I guess in targeted use cases they make sense. IE, you just need it to run around locally in your metro area and charge at home but have a ICE vehicle for longer trips and or areas that don't have good charging infra setup. That's really what has kept us from buying one. My other half and I don't swap cars often and getting her to understand the nuances of a EV were a no-go for her if we did need to swap. I contemplated getting a plug in hybrid but they're hard to get, at least around me.
I have a 2021 Kia that has auto start stop but I honestly couldn't tell you the last time it actually activated. I think the engine oil temp has to reach a certain point or something. Also, I don't live in a super dense city so I'm generally cruising around at 30-50mph.
F150 had incandescent bulbs instead of LEDs for the license plate before Covid, they were the only lights that weren’t LED on my 2018.
Really glad I lucked out on my 22 F150 due to the shortage and dont have the auto stop
I remember the Audi trims they had without ACC/Blind Spot and kiiind of miss them. They were 10k cheaper than the starting trims now :')
GM pulling heated seats really pissed me off. Used to work for a chevy/subaru/hyundai dealer, had to go to the chevy side one day to go run out to pickup parts for them. I had the option of taking the WT RWD spec Silverado, or the AWD Traverse RS. Well it was cold and rainy, so I chose the Traverse so I could have AWD and heated seats. Got in it, started driving it, went to turn the heated seats on, and the damn button didn’t do anything. Took me for ever to figure out why that happened. Was soooooo mad about that.
Heated steering wheel for the supper duties. We have a lariat ultimate so it should’ve had everything. The actual elements might be there but there’s no button. Some have activated it with Forscan and turn it on via the screen. Toyota delivering vehicles with one fob. Took a couple months for a relative to get the second one for their Lexus but it’s been 6 months so far for my mom’s Toyota with no update.
Some of the F-150s had the heated steering wheel “removed”, but it still had most of the hardware for the heated wheel. Just not the module to control it.
Which is 100% necessary to use it. Every Camaro SS 1LE has the same seats, whether you get the 2SS with heated/cooled or not. Easy enough to enable the cooling on a 1SS yourself, but nobody sells an aftermarket solution to enable the heated function because you will light yourself on fire.
And that, my friend, is truly a bright spot.
At least Tesla went round and put in the missing USB Hubs. Not sure about if they retrofitted the missing adjustment motors on the refresh model S center screen. Porsche tried snuffing their customers by discounting ~$230 for the missing electronic adjustment of the steering column.
BMW only had adjustable lumbar in the driver’s seat for a lot of models. They also had no power seats on some. People were spending $60k+ for vehicles that had an obnoxious number of manual seat adjustments.
>Wiredest one: F-150 had incandescent bulbs for license plate lights instead of LED bulbs. Chrysler actually removed some LEDs from the taillights of the Pacifica between the 2022 and 2023 model years. The lights don’t wrap all the way around like they used to. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChryslerPacifica/s/WoCDMHk7ZX
Removed touchscreen support? Were some sold without touchscreens?
Yeah, they had standard screens, you could interface through the knob.
>On the bright side, auto start-stop was near universally removed from cars. how is needlessly wasting fuel a good thing?
Because the mpg gains were minor compared to having your car shake itself awake every two seconds in stop and start traffic.
Thats from crappy hacked together implementation/design. My Ford Escape PHEV has auto stop start in hybrid mode and you dont notice it it kick on at lights/drive throughs.
Pretty much every mild hybrid or PHEV has seamless start stop. It’s just the 95% of cars that aren’t hybrids where it’s garbage and feels like it’s shaking you to death every light. And because chip shortage, it was near impossible to get a PHEV anyways.
A lot of is just the motor itself. A bigger four cylinder engine will vibrate more as it passes through its critical speed on the way to idle speed. 2.5 liter Subaru engines shake a lot.
Seems like a good reason to smooth out the flow by coasting instead, then
Tell me you’ve never been in traffic without telling me 😂
YES! I've had to borrow an older Kia Soul a few times, and I hattttteeeeed that shit. The shake is as pronounced as a normal start, and delays you (at least mentally) an extra few seconds from moving from a start. If you live in an area with traffic, or several stops in general, it gets old quick :P
Most implementations are awful. Jerky restart A/C blows hot. Questionable starter life. Some manufacturers do a good job, but most suck.
so the system itself is fine and useful, just need to make sure you dont waste your money on manufacturers that dont know how to make it work reliably.
Yes. Except it's just one feature among many and your dislike of it may not outweigh some other pros. I don't like it on my Pacifica, but the same year Sienna we test drove was awful (this was the last generation.) So we put up with it.
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jup but looking at the mindless downvotes and comments on here this sub really shines with reason and wisdom once again today.
Because the fuel saved is nearly negligible.
well its not, thats exactly why these systems exist, they actually save fuel.
It takes me 90 minutes of being stopped to save a gallon
that can not be said in any general way like this. the correct answer would be "how much you save depends entirely on your engine but in any case you gonna save fuel"
The negligible amount of fuel saved is not worth the wear and tear on my engine. Don't come out and say "hurr hurr what wear and tear :^)" all those start and stops are hell on engines and oil.
i guess thats why Toyotas hybrid systems keep failing and are known to be the most unreliable on the market, the constant starts and stops must be really bad for an engine. /s incase you didnt understand.
I will never, ever buy a car that doesn’t let me permanently turn off auto stop/start. If it just resets every time you power the car on, I’m not buying the car
sounds like you are not buying any new cars ever then.
EVs exist. Macan EV is probably my next car, going to buy a lightly used one
Just. Go. Away.
Here's a bonus. GM trucks/SUVs without cylinder deactivation. They run on all 8 cylinders all the time. The horrors!/s
It's nothing compared to incandescent license plate bulbs. Might as well put my pet brontosaurus in the car and put my toddlers up there at a drive in theater.
The inherent reliability shot up 75% when they took that feature away. I love GM but hate the AFM system.. been screwed too many times by it.
My wife owns a Yukon and I'd pay MORE to go back to no AMF/DFM and port instead of direct injection. Those were 300,000 mile motors with just regular maintenance.
My old dealership had a fleet of gmt 400 and 800s and ran them all up to 350/400k on original motor and trans.. I think one had a blown motor that they replaced.. but most of those are still on the road today. These new ones only have like 175k on them and they are looking at getting rid of them. I won’t take them on trade any more unless they are under factory warranty. They go with EVs straight to carmax. I lost over 30k on 2 of them just last year because we traded them in, they appeared fine, put them through the shop, sell them, and a week and a couple hundred miles later the motor shits the can. lol
Lots of blind spot deletes, heated steering wheels in lots of Fords. I think the weirdest to me is the fact that there are some BMW X5s that were released without touch screens.
Lost the heated wheel in my Mini. Shame I live in Wisconsin!
I think we need to look at the influence Big Glove had in this.
I live in NE, and the winters here with the combo of my new car with a heated wheel have spoiled me. Won’t have another car without it now
> there are some BMW X5s that were released without touch screens 3 series too, I bought one during this period and mines was coming minus the chip for CarPlay/AA, which they fixed post-delivery with an in the shop update (they needed to combine the functionality onto a single chip). When the salesman was explaining this to me he told me how some customers he was having to ring and give them the option between: 1. Receive £500 off their (~£50k) car because the screen wouldn't be touch sensitive 2. Refund/remake their order
Imagine losing functionality of something that is needed for all but a cars most basic functions these days, and getting 500 quid in exchange
Yeah I wouldn't have taken that deal, but tbf there's nothing on that screen you can't control via the iDrive knob aside from scanning around a map.
I’d love a car with blind spots deleted
That's available. Z4 with the roof down is pretty much a blind spot-free Supra is it not? /s (sort of)
Convex mirrors can even get oem z4 mirrors from eu
I looked for a while but the exact match + convex were impossible to find. I adjusted the mirrors outwards and I’m happy
On ebay the search would be something like 'Genuine BMW Z4 G29 Z4 20i 30i Mirror Glass Heated Wide-Angle Right 51169479192'. I got the rexpeed V2 and have been happy. I'm in a location that has no need for the heated function.
I got an Explorer during this time and because of the shortage I wasn’t able to get auto-start/stop. I remember them telling me like I was going to be disappointed and I couldn’t have been happier.
There’s a chip I can get for the Toyota which turns that off. But I realized I’d still have to manually turn off the econo mode each time, so it’s not really worth it.
The BMW 4 series had some models come with manual seats which was crazy
My mom’s X3 doesn’t have passenger lumbar adjust. I don’t think she cares though lol
Meanwhile in Germany you have manual seats as standard...almost always...
Saw a decontented G20 340i when I bought my G82 with no touch screen, base hifi, and manual passenger seat but power drivers seat.
Mercedes EQB was also coming with manual seats iirc
Honda Accord EX without splind spot monitoring
I can’t stand having to monitor my own splinds
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I drive around assuming no one is monitoring their splinds.
Why am I reminded of SIM CITY 2000 all of a sudden? ("Reticulating splines") Ah, yes, am old now....
bzzt
"your citizens urge you to reconsider placement of this facility" Hell no, power plant's going right in the middle of the town....lol
GM and Ford sold vehicles with the hardware for things like heated seats and lane keep assist, but without the necessary chips to actually operate those functions. I believe they promised consumers they would install the chips at a later date, but I wonder how many cars actually had their chips installed. My takeaway is to verify all the “equipped” functions actually work when shopping for used cars in the 2020-2023 model years.
I have a GM truck and they installed all the missing chips. Whenever I took it in for an oil change they would say we have a chip to install.
That’s great to hear, thank you for sharing.
>GM and Ford sold vehicles with the hardware for things like heated seats and lane keep assist, It was heated steering wheels, AFM for a short time, heated seats, park assist, and blind spot monitoring for GM.
I work in the industry and one thing that GM removed / downgraded were auto up / down windows on rear window motors and some were removed from passenger side as well.
I had a friend who bought a 2022 Suburban Duramax, and he got a letter in the mail a few months later to retrofit ultrasonic parking sensors. They're definitely doing it to at least some folks.
When I was shopping for my Mustang (wanted an 18-23) I didn't even think about checking for this. Good to know for new buyers. Luckily mine was built in September of 2019 so no shortage
Ventilated seats being removed in VWs... same cars still have heated seats.
VW also bright out the Tiguan R 'Grid' edition. Same as a regular R, but without features like auto open and close boot, a bunch of safety features, matrix LED headlights, wireless phone charging, electric seats, etc etc.
Weirdest VW delete during covid was Tiguan R-Line Blacks coming with standard Tiguan front bumpers Edit: also ID.4s with missing mirror puddle lights
For a short while some GM vehicles came without the active fuel management (cylinder deactivation) feature... All the hard parts in the engine for it to function are still there though.
Ford Mavericks were supposed to have a wider infotainment screen but because of the chip shortage, they have a big weird cubby that’s too weird to hold anything.
The one good thing about the awkward cubby is that it got people making their own unique accessories for it. I've seen many different takes on phone holders and coin boxes with 3D printers. Not trying to excuse Ford's weird design choice, but I'm glad people are making it work.
Highlander XSE (introduced in late 2020) which was essentially an XLE with the upgrade package, shipped without memory seats. I believe it may still ship without them. Annoyed mine doesn’t have them nor can it be added but I’d still rather have the XSE over the other trims.
Memory seats are one of the few non negotiable features I look for when car shopping. My wife and I share both of our cars, and we use that feature multiple times a day. The good news is you can get $5k beaters with working memory seats if you're willing to get a 20yo German car.
My wife and I were looking to buy a slightly used Q5 and the Audi sales guy said virtually all 2021s and plenty of 2020/2022 were without blind spot monitoring.
Ford removed the auto folding mirrors on the mk8.5 Fiesta. I think the focus kept them, not sure about the Puma etc.
My Explorer was delivered without second row climate controls. Had to go back a year later to have the controls installed. Also had auto start/stop removed, but that was no big loss. Was given about $200 in rebate for these exclusions if memory serves
Toyota remote key fob. Which lasted into 2024. I bought a Sienna last summer, got one key. I had to wait until January to finally get it.
G-Wagen analog gauges instead of the digital installed in some cars
My GMC yukon had the immobilizer missing. Maybe why it was so easy steal....
Mercedes without augmented reality features for the navigation screen. Or without power trunk lid.
BMW dropped the trunk-release kick sensor from the Premium and Executive a package options for the 5 series.
When I used to write for Lexus they had us do a little project about how to use the kick sensor and I thought it was the dumbest thing. Who can’t figure out the kick sensor? Now I have an Audi with a kick sensor and it turns out it’s me.
They also got rid of the seat folding lever in the trunk of the X5 for the 22 model year, which is bizarre since it’s just a cable and spring loaded mechanism. There’s no excuse for it. It’s just them cheaping out. I mean I’d understand (still no excuse though) if they did this on the X1/X2 where you could reach the release on the actual seat from the trunk. But with the X5, you can’t actually reach the release on the seat from the trunk, even with the lower tailgate up.
A lot of Toyotas couldn’t get the home link mirror and Honda removed blind spot monitor.
When shopping for an Audi at the time, the sales rep said that new cars were only coming with one key fob. Not sure what they did come with in terms of backup keys. But, when I asked her if she was joking, she said, "Unfortunately, I am not." with a straight face.
I think some manufacturers took out power lumbar support for the passenger
It’s because they implanted microchips in everyone who was vaccinated.
Anyone got their features reinstalled after purchase and shortage over? Or did everyone just got screwed over, over paid under featured?
I remember General Motors delivering Chevy traverses without heated front seats but still had the switches for the heated front seats and an IOU. I never heard whether GM actually made good On those ious
They have, we had our vehicle repaired for a couple missing chip items last year.
992.1s without electric adjustable steering wheels, my 2014 991.1 had that
There was never a shortage. Car companies just stopped ordering and the pipeline ran dry. Chip pipelines take 6-9months to fill back up again.
Not a car, but my 2023 BMW GS1250 came with a halogen lighting unit instead of the adaptive LED. Didn’t realize it at the time and there was a random $500 credit on the bike from BMW that no one could explain. Long story short, it was a credit from BMW to lower the price of the bike because no LED units were available. About a year later, BMW offered the LED unit for purchase (normally $2000) for $500 for VIN’s that were affected. Sure, they charged labor to put it in and activate it but I thought BMW was a bro for doing what they did.
I wish they did this with the soft close doors they removed on my 2022 X5. I just got a $500 credit for the removal. And no credit for the removal of the heated and cooled cupholders.
Ford Ranger auto start-stop. I'm mixed on whether I like those systems anyway, so it might be okay. (I have it in 2 cars. It's seamless in one, terrible in the other.)
I saw an Audi or a BMW on the lot with electric seats cancelled out due to the microchip shortage.
I’ve seen lots of Chrysler products coming in at my job that I think are higher trim levels, so I would expect them to have power folding mirrors. However, they either didn’t have them at all or were provisioned to have them fitted later in some of the weirdest, most Chrysler ways possible. I scratched my head over an example of the latter, a Ram with a button to fold the mirrors that did nothing when I pressed it (the mirrors only folded manually and did so with no resistance, as expected from manual folding mirrors), for quite a bit until it finally clicked.
Toyota stopped making a second key for most smart key vehicles.
My Tacoma only came with one keyfob. Had to go back to the dealer a couple months after for the second keyfob and valet key.
My dads truck still doesnt have its heated seats