Most drivers today can barely tell what the gas gage is and what it displays. The morons who design dashboards think it more important to have a big bright electronic navigation screen and 50 gazillion watt speaker systems and all sorts of gewgaws and gimcracks that are redundant to operation of a vehicle. Mirrors dim themselves, heating systems regulate themselves, most drivers can barely tell what button controls what function without reading a 500 page owners manual. Had an '85 Ford where heat/ac controls were two slide levers and a fan switch. Then my next car, '92 Olds 98, had 20 tiny buttons and an electronic display panel for the same function controlled by 3 items on the Ford. Did the system on the Olds work better, no. And to change settings required you to look away from the road and try to figure out what button did what. Stupid designers dont know what a decent dashboard should look like so no wonder they put on idiot lights and that is why drivers get so used to not being able to read a gage.
I know what you mean! I was walking past a brand new Ford Fiesta the other day, and it must have had about 30 buttons on the centre console!
Our 1997 Ford Fiesta has 3 buttons:
Rear Window Demist
Rear Fog Lamp
Regulated Air (to reuse the air from the cabin rather than taking it from the outside intake).
Three buttons, and the new one has 30, and I bet there are only a few extra features, but 27 extra buttons...
Also, the new car radios are confusing too.
Going back again to our 1997 Ford Fiesta, it has the original Cassette/Radio, which has an ON/OFF button, a menu button with simple settings, a volume button, a rewind/fast forward/eject button, and that is about it!
The new radios these days have TOUCH SCREENS!
Honestly, a touch screen in a car.
A couple of years ago our Fiesta was in the garage, and we got a 2005 Ford KA courtesy car... It didn't even have a temperature gauge! Just a little light that pops on when you're overheating.
Yeah, that'll be useful when you have already blown your head gasket!
Sheesh.