# Stupidest product design you’ve experienced **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621 "2023-03-25T02:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/381 "2023-04-25T07:22:58Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > Anyway, instead of a shifter, this car has a little wheel you turn to change gears. The wheel doesn’t have any discernable stops you can feel as you turn it, so you have to look and see which letter is lit up to be sure you’re in the right gear. I get to drive Haval cars in my job sometime (shudder). They have the dinky little gearchange wheel. My favourite part is when manoeuvring while parking or getting out of a tight space, sometimes you have to stop and change gears (forward to reverse etc) while the wheels are turned - and if the steering wheel has been turned through 90 degrees, it covers the gear indicator on the dashboard so you can’t tell which gear is being selected. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/382 "2023-04-25T13:18:22Z")
You were driving a Bronco Sport, not a Bronco. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/383 "2023-04-25T16:06:54Z")
Thanks for the clarification! We will apparently be driving it for the foreseeable future, since this service department seems to be better at long-term parking than fixing cars. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/384 "2023-04-25T16:18:19Z")
FWIW, Ford’s branding on the Bronco is, IMHO, brain-damaged. Unless “Bronco” is a new division (like, Mercury), Bronco Sport makes no sense. It’s a different vehicle, based on a different platform. They should have called it the “Escape Sport.” The Bronco is built on the Ranger chassis. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/385 "2023-04-25T16:27:50Z")
Arguably confusing product names like that are a form of stupid product design itself. Along the same lines as the Bronco/Bronco Sport, for a while in the 1980s Ford had the LTD (midsize) and the LTD Crown Victoria (full sized). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/386 "2023-04-25T16:30:11Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > I get to drive Haval cars in my job sometime (shudder). They have the dinky little gearchange wheel. Avis gave us a Haval as our rental car when we were in St Martin a couple weeks ago. It _sucked._ Terrible car. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/387 "2023-04-25T18:31:08Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > FWIW, Ford’s branding on the Bronco is, IMHO, brain-damaged. They’re doing the same thing with the Mustang vs. Mustang Mach-E. Just completely different vehicles. Maybe they see their brands just being a collection of styling cues and design elements rather than being tied to either a platform or division. Arguably, that makes more sense than brands exposing boring internal corporate structure… ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/388 "2023-04-25T18:41:55Z")
The Ford Bronco discussion reminded me of another pet peeve I have with auto manufacturers. The different model names and/or numbers make absolutely no sense. As an example, here’s what we came across when shopping for a Toyota Highlander last year. The Highlander comes in these models: L LE XLE XSE Bronze Limited Platinum Other than the number of letters in each model, there’s absolutely no way to determine which model is better (more expensive) than another. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/389 "2023-04-25T20:03:13Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Other than the number of letters in each model, there’s absolutely no way to determine which model is better I hate this. Why do the marketing people think I’m going to bother to learn the meaning their made up words or letter jumbles? Some car companies do a reasonable job with tables showing the difference between trim levels, some require diving into the long descriptions to figure out the difference, but the worst are the ones that go through the effort of making a table, but make the table useless. Something like | | L | LE | XLE | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | V6 | X | X | X | | Leather | X | X | X | | sunroof | X | X | X | X=feature is standard or available as an option ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/390 "2023-04-25T21:45:22Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Maybe they see their brands just being a collection of styling cues and design elements rather than being tied to either a platform or division. Arguably, that makes more sense than brands exposing boring internal corporate structure… That is _exactly_ what is going on. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/391 "2023-04-25T21:53:44Z")
It seems like a weird historical artifact that it was ever otherwise. Big automakers collected brands to provide some product differentiation; they could have different grades of luxury/price to serve every market. Eventually they realized it was inefficient to build totally different platforms for each one; better to have unified platforms and only put leather seats in some of them. But they kept the brands. Now, especially with the EV transition, the brands are now transcending even the platform. Helps to maintain continuity even when the platform is changing. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/392 "2023-04-26T19:27:10Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > That’s why substantially all modern cars are equipped with a fully-auto position on the headlight selector. Put it in “auto” and they’ll be on or off as the sensors decide is necessary. Set that once when you buy the car and you’re done fiddling with headlights. I have a little convertible roadster. Turn the car on & the auto lights are on, which dims the dash lights. Turn the DRLs off & it annoyingly dings at your & not only puts a “Auto Lights Off” message on the DIC but it leaves it there, you need to manually clear it to get back to whatever you had it displaying. I almost always turn them off during the day because it’s impossible to see the radio when it’s dim & there’s sunlight shining down on it, which is pretty much the only time I use that car. Same car also has a ‘feature’ if you lock it via the fob that sets the alarm & it must be unlocked via the fob. If you unlock it with the key or just pull the lock up the alarm goes off. Shouldn’t unlocking with a key disable the alarm, too? > [@enipla](#): > > I think that may be the law. If your windshield wipers or on, so should your lights be. If my wipers are on intermittent does that mean I only need my parking lights on??? . Front only DRLs make it easier to see cars coming your way in the distance. Of course, if everyone stays on their side of the yellow line this isn’t all that important. When I’m driving behind someone either in fog or rain/road spray conditions it’s sometimes hard to see them if they don’t have _their_ lights on, & they’re in my lane & a collision hazard if I don’t see them & slow down. Therefore, I’d think that rear DRLs are more important than front ones but the gubmint doesn’t see it my way so only the fronts have to be on. . . Mine addition is that I have an Sansa MP3 player (half the places I listen to music have no reception so streaming is out). It’s mostly great, smaller & lighter than my phone, & I don’t fill up the phone’s memory with gigs of music. If I’m using it & put it on pause, it’ll time out after x minutes & turn off. When I plug it in to recharge, it turns on. Forget about that when you unplug it & it stays on & uses up the battery because the timeout feature doesn’t work when it turns itself on. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/393 "2023-04-26T20:09:12Z")
For everyone complaining about touch screens on car dashboards, I’ve got some holy-shit-yes fantastic news. > **[The Glorious Return of an Old-School Car Feature](https://slate.com/business/2023/04/cars-buttons-touchscreens-vw-porsche-nissan-hyundai.html)** > > Automakers are starting to admit that a new car technology didn’t work out. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/394 "2023-04-26T22:20:31Z")
wow that’s the best news I’ve read all day! ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/395 "2023-04-27T01:57:57Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Same car also has a ‘feature’ if you lock it via the fob that sets the alarm & it must be unlocked via the fob. If you unlock it with the key or just pull the lock up the alarm goes off. Shouldn’t unlocking with a key disable the alarm, too? My 2002 Acura had this same “feature” lock and then open the car (or even roll down the window) in the wrong sequence and the alarm would go off. The only way to silence it was to get out of the car, close the door, and lock/unlock it with the key! My 2017 Audi has no touch screens, but both the center-dash 8" screen and the dash display are LCD screens. This is great in that I can cast the radio, phone, nav, etc. onto the display right in front of me. The unfortunate design flaw is that there is a small knob on the center console that controls the volume of the media/radio, or _so it seems_. Shortly after buying the car, I was cruising down the freeway when suddenly the display and dash went off! So I had no feedback on the condition of the car, the speed, the RPMs, etc. In a panic (and expecting the engine to shut off any minute), took the next exit and pulled over. Shutting off the engine and restarting did nothing. I finally pulled out the manual and started flipping through it. I eventually found out that the volume knob, when pressed, turned the entire MMI system off. I had rested my forearm on it at some point. It still happens occasionally, generally from my passengers accidentally resting their arm on the center console, but now I know what to do (press the button again to turn it back on). ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/396 "2023-04-27T12:06:05Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > For everyone complaining about touch screens on car dashboards, I’ve got some holy-shit-yes fantastic news. YES!! Are they finally getting it? I have a 4Runner. But the touch screen is for music and GPS. That’s OK. I still turn on/off with a knob. And my ‘climate’ control is me and three big ass knobs that I don’t have to look at to adjust. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/397 "2023-04-27T14:12:38Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Years ago, Mapquest made the assumption that if you were not on a limited access highway, you could turn onto any street that crossed it. > > A street near me was on a bridge over railroad tracks with a street paralleling them and told you to turn onto the street below it, a fifty-foot drop. I can top that, literally …by about 750’! I currently have or have owned over a dozen different Garmin devices, from their handheld/hiking series (eTrex) to watches, to car navigation ( nüvi) to action cams & have used countless others, including aviation ones. Up until the time of the 2nd (?) [bike-balloon race](https://www.flickr.com/photos/74663312@N08/26847300400/), every Garmin that I had used had elevation in it; if you’re flying you _need_ to know how high you are, if you’re hiking, you want to know how much vertical you did, etc. It never dawned on me that the nüvi would be 2D only, it was designed to give you directions, not tell you how many feet your car drove up Mt. Washington or Pikes Peak or wherever as it’s not a lot of effort to depress the gas pedal. It you were over an intersection, it assumed your tires were on the road. I found a nüvi handlebar mount. Perfect, I thought as I didn’t know where we were going to land, only where i had to bike to. Enter the finish line address into the nüvi & let it navigate me there. We’re flying along at about 800’ & she tells me to, “Turn left” Look over the side of the basket - “Oh HELL’S no!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/398 "2023-04-28T11:21:15Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > And my ‘climate’ control is me and three big ass knobs that I don’t have to look at to adjust. [I’m not sure how you _could_ look, if you’re adjusting them with your ass.](https://xkcd.com/37/) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/399 "2023-04-28T13:17:03Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m not sure how you _could_ look, if you’re adjusting them with your ass. I’m very bendy. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/400 "2023-04-28T16:34:04Z")
I don’t like those ass-knobs, regardless of how big they are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=21)