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Showing results for tags 'rx350'.
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...both cars got me VERY FRUSTRATED with where auto digital technology is going...... So, my lady's lease is up on her RX350 and she still tolerates me enough to be invited along to go test riding with her. We took the Q5 and the new RX350 out this weekend. Both are within a grand of each other, but Lexus might give her a slightly better lease for being a return customer, so price not the issue. The newer Lexus grew an inch everywhere and so I wanted her to consider the Audi because it is smaller than the RX350 and because I thought her current one was kind of big to begin with. BUT this is my frustration; it is on the same topic that I've been complaining about to her whenever I get in her car. And that is that these high tech cars actually make driving more cumbersome, they actually make you less attentive to the road. I can operate all the controls on my cheapo GM car way faster than on her car while doing the exact same thing. For example, changing the climate controls on her Lexus can involve up to five hits on the touch screen, which involves reaching to the dash up to five times; whereas on my car I can practically do it without looking. Additionally, the same thing with the GPS; which I was cursing last weekend on a trip to Toronto with her; if I had my cheapo Garmin I surely would have been 5 minutes faster finding our address. So NOW we go to the new Q5 and the RX350 and here is my big beef...on both these cars they have this mouse control stick on the right hand console near the gear shift. It has buttons around the mouse to click your selections. To operate the environment controls and GPS (and much more) you have to move the mouse controller and make your selections using the surrounding buttons, and that involves watching the mouse track along on the screen to various menu options. So your eyes are off the road even more than before!!! PLUS, you have to train yourself on all this. That means that anybody getting into the car cannot quickly operate something. We did a lot of internet surfing on these cars before hand. Auto reviewers say that these digital systems are the most intuitive yet. I say TO HECK with them. My biggest beef about this new technology is how UNintuitive it is. So when I hopped into both these cars I didn't let the sales guys show me how they worked. I wanted to see if I could do it as a total stranger to the system, and let me tell you I'd have to sit there for 5 minutes just to access the GPS or change the temperature....absolutely stupid. The only answer that the sales guys had for my frustration was that these systems can do everything with voice commands. Well, so what, that is the same voice system on her car now and she could never get it working because it would never recognize her commands from one day to the next. PLUS even if the car got trained on her voice, then it would be totally useless for the next guy that got in it...like me. I'm so flippin exasperated about this; I'm surprized that the auto consumer hasn't given more negative feedback about this. Has anyone had any experience with these systems? You can all forget about the you're "getting too much like an old fart, Swifty" replies...cuz I'm smart and I know it...just ask Tuckett.
