I’m in the market for a new car. I test drove a Mercedes-Benz ML 350 today. It’s a good car, stable, handles well, accelerates competently and all. Except one major flaw. The navigation system is positioned in such a way you need to look DOWN to see it, taking your eyes off the road, which makes it dangerous to use. Who made THAT design decision? Maybe the vaunted German engineering doesn’t extend to German UI. Hint to Mercedes-Benz: Every customer dead is a customer lost. Customer death, not good.
I also test drove the Lexus 450h, a lovely hybrid car. Beautifully smooth ride, lovely interior and all. Perfect. Except somebody decided to replace a perfectly good touch-screen navigation system with a lousy joystick-based system. Huh? Who made THAT design decision? And, oh, for $50,000, there is no power-folding side-mirrors. Nope, nobody driving a Lexus should ever be expected to drive into tight spaces like, I don’t know, a garage.
For $50,000, you’d think you can get the car you want. But noooooo… I think I might just stick to my old car.