Chevy used to have a “Work Truck” option. Years ago, when i tried to be a car salesman (god help me it was the worst time of my life), we stocked a few on the lot.
No bedliner, power NOTHING besides brakes and steering, no radio, no floormats (one had a steel floor even…).
They never lasted long, and sold easy, because they were like $15k BRAND NEW.
And that’s another part of the problem. With all the bells and whistles, cars get more expensive and people who do not have the money, or young people getting their first cars have to either get old ones that may not be reliable, safe etc. because in most of the US there is no other reasonable option to cars.
Get a Jeep JK/Wrangler. I happily bump my way along without a care in the world (the plastic facia over the steel bumper doesn’t seem to mind taking moderate hits). For folks who are past the bump bump bump stage and are into ramming, new aftermarket steel bumpers are available for a couple of hundred bucks and up.
I have a Nissan Rogue, which has the proximity key. The ingenious designers at Nissan thought about your complaint and hid a key inside my fob. See Here.
My husband’s Audi has a proximity key without the hidden key feature. I know I will get a call one day that his battery has died and he is stranded.
On my Fiesta they were smart enough to put the button in the middle in that area of the dash in front of the shifter. I also have ambient lighting!
And from my very own boring conf call, I thank you for the effort!
My Prius has the ridiculous beep for when you are in reverse. Now, I understand the reverse beep for trucks, to alert the neighboring cars that it is moving backward, when it is possible that the driver can’t see 100% behind him. But, in the Prius, the damn thing only beeps inside the car. So, it essentially is warning me that I’m going backwards.
I have seen in my driving years, more times than I like to think about, people put their cars in reverse without realizing it.
Same here and our 2nd car has a smart key as well. I belong to message boards for both and have heard of people running into problems with this system approximately zero times. Our Rogue also has paddle shifters and I use them all the time in the winter.
I think auto headlights are dumb (not DRLs, though) as well as the touchscreen controls.
For those with problems with your seat belt alarm, you might want to consider putting stuff on the floor or in the trunk. I’m pretty sure if the car senses that someone is in the seat it will make the airbag deploy in an accident. That’s going to be one more thing to repair/replace. There are also seat belt blanks on Amazon if you want to stop the dinging.
I like the safety features.
Seat belts used to be an option. There was a lot of resistance to seat belts, but given their effectiveness, I’m glad that they are mandated, for it keeps the cost down for folks such as myself who would otherwise have to pay extra for them (economies of scale), and they keep my insurance rates and medical costs down by reducing injuries and saving lives.
Initially a few folks resisted day-time lights in Canada, but given that I’d rather see other vehicles than run into them, I’m all for day-time lights, and I prefer lower insurance rates and lower medical costs. Pity that occasionally a manufacturer will neglect to make it possible to turn them off when parked with the motor on, but that’s just an occasional poor implementation of an otherwise good thing.
The same benefits apply to ABS brakes, traction control and skid/stability control, which some folks resisted and continue to resist, but there again, I’d rather not be hit by someone who was slow to apply the brakes or who is skidding out, or do the same to someone if I make such a mistake, and I prefer the savings when it comes to economies of scale, insurance rates and medical costs.
Just a note about electronic stability controlfrom the US DOT NHTSA:
I don’t buy the argument that the cost of such safety features result in poor people (particularly young people) purchasing old, unreliable vehicles, for these folks would be purchasing old, unreliable vehicles anyway. At least by improving the safety features on new models, the old pieces of shit that kids will be buying a few years from now will be a lot safer that the old pieces of shit they are buying today. When weighing such safety benefits against the increased cost of the technology, I’d say get out there and earn a few dollars more so you can afford to drive something significantly more safe, rather than put me at risk and make me pay more for insurance and medical.
The dumbest feature one of my vehicles ever had was a rolling drum speedometerin which the numbers floated about like the numbers on a mechanical bathroom scale. As with a bathroom scale, the speedometer took time to settle down before you could read it, and once settled down, you had to discern specific numbers without reference (as compared to traditional dial speedometers – by analogy, compare taking a quick glance at a numerical display watch with taking a quick glance at a watch that has hands). Most features do something useful, or at least do not make something worse. This one made something worse.
I agree with the comments about the paddle shifters. I have it-never use it. As for A/C-I don’t like it, but since cars do not have wing windows anymore, it is impossible to ventilate the car. I loved wing windows-open it up a bit, and you have a nice airflow inside, with little noise. As for a sunroof-I have one-maybe I’ve opened it 3 times in 6 years. Utterly useless-and it limits your headroom.
ABS is great, so is stability/traction control ( even though those systems are sometimes designed badly, traction control you can’t disable can actually get you stuck in ice ). AWD rules, I think if the mfrs. were focused on safety, all cars would have it.
The “feature” I hate the most is power windows. Every car that’s not a complete base model has them, and they’re:
If you have an arm to turn the steering wheel with, you can roll down the window manually.
I have been able to successfully avoid the sunroof, even in a sports car, thank god. Paddle shifters? Heck, my car isn’t even offered with an automatic 
Man, I love my power windows. And the power sunroof. And heated seats.
I also have heated mirrors, which is a very subtle but very cool feature. The move electrically too, which is less useful.
One of the options for my vehicle is a hard roof. I quite like it in the winter. The panels over front seats can be removed without having to remove the roof racks, which is really nice for occasional warm days outside of the summer convertible roof season.
The standard convertible roof was not designed too well, for to flip it back (or even just to flip back the section over the front seats) requires removing the roof racks. I had to replace part of the convertible roof’s frame with a tent pole and a couple of sticks to make it possible to slide it back rather than flip it back. Pity the manufacturer didn’t think it trough more thoroughly and design the frame slightly differently.
My brother was doing some testing on touchscreens for work and one weekend he brought home a 2014 Dodge Ram 1500. Its ‘gearshift’ was a dial about 3 inches in diameter and you dialed Park, Reverse, etc.
On their website they call it a ‘rotary shifter’. I can’t tell if it’s standard equipment or not.
That rotary shiftermounted on the instrument panel combined with it’s gear change buttons on the steering wheel would be an option that I would want, for it would free up the space between my front seats.
I used to think like you did, and to add the annoyance of not being able to roll the windows up or down with the car shut off. But so far I’ve never had a problem with power windows, and it is nice once in a while to be able to roll up or down the other windows from the driver’s seat.
My uncle’s 1963 Chrysler station wagon had pushbutton gear selection. It was engine-vacuum activated, and worked perfectly for >290,000 miles.
