Car makers are always coming up with new features in the name of making our driving time more comfortable, convenient or safe but sometimes the result is the opposite.
Yep, as car reviewers there's a list of well known, very annoying features that we could really do without.
So here's a quick collection of the most annoying new car features... and please feel free to add your own to this never ending list.
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Glass roofs
Massive glass roofs look amazing in a car dealer's showroom but on the road during an Australian summer they make you feel like a rotisserie chicken - not to mention the dangers of sun exposure in this part of the world. Thankfully some roofs have retractable shades and some have decently thick ones to cut down the light and heat.
The Tesla Model Y has an expansive fixed glass roof and no screen to shield its occupants from that furnace in the sky.
Safety alerts
This sounds super irresponsible to anybody who hasn't experienced the nightmarish intrusiveness of modern safety alerts that are supposedly designed to reduce speeding and distraction, but trust us..
We're talking about speed warning alarms, which activate at 2km/h over the posted speed limit (often falsely), distraction alerts that are triggered by the driver looking out for pedestrians and overly aggressive lane keeping assistance that feels like a sudden arm wrestle. The systems in our opinion become potentially a safety issue in themselves.
Kia and Hyundai have been criticised in the past especially for over zealous safety alert systems, but pretty much every new car now has them - some worse than others.
Door handles
Do you know how many people used to say, "I wish my car's door handles weren't so easy to use, I want something that's awkward and confusing to operate, something so flimsy it feels like it might snap off in my hand"? I'll tell you - nobody.
With the advent of electric vehicles came door handles that retracted flush with the car's body to improve aerodynamics and in turn energy efficiency, which is all very good but it came at the price of functionality. Is it really necessary - I mean you can't tell me regular door handles create that much drag?
Possibly the worst door handles I've ever encountered are on the Cadillac Optic. They're as thin as a pencil and make opening the Cadillac super heavy doors ridiculously difficult.
Camera wing mirrors
Another case of re-inventing something that wasn't broken, the camera wing mirror is more a case of car designers saying "look at what we can do" rather than actually improving upon the simplicity and effectiveness of a piece of shiny glass.
Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and Gensis GV60 can be had with camera mirrors - yeah, no thanks!
Can't wait for my bathroom mirror to be replaced by a camera and a screen.
Power tailgate
Anyone that's needed to get something from the boot in a hurry because it's raining but had to stand there getting soaked waiting for the electric tailgate to slowly open, will tell you that it would have been quicker to open it themselves. And as for the gesture tailgates that require a swoosh with your foot top open - they seem to work about 50 per cent of the time.
An all-time low for me and gesture tailgates was when I was trying to take a Christmas tree out from the boot of a Mazda CX-70 and somehow my moving foot told it to start shutting without me realising it until it closed down on me. The car basically ate me alive.
Voice assistants
Car companies have tried to integrate digital assistants into their cars to carry out functions such as opening the windows or lowering the cabin temperature.
The problem is getting the voice assistant to listen to you, understand you or even do anything is almost impossible which is a lot like being the parent of a teenager.
Touch screens that do everything
Myself and the rest of the motoring media are to blame for encouraging car companies to do away with easy-to-use buttons and dials and move all the functions to a screen that forces the driver to step through three pages of a menu just to turn the climate control down.
Yes, for years we praised cabins with "minimalist interiors" and "cleanly designed, button-less dash boards". Well careful what you wish for, because now all I want is a knob for the stereo volume.
The Geely EX5 has a very cleanly designed button-less dash, which isn't a good thing after all.
Little musical greetings
Some cars play little musical greetings when you sit down in the driver's seat. I find these as enjoyable to listen to as those birthday cards that play songs.
Steering wheel that aren't round
As with door handles and wing mirrors, steering wheels never needed re-inventing but again and again car companies try to do so. Peugeot, Subaru and Geely have dabbled with not-round steering wheels but the worst we've seen is possibly the yoke in the new Lexus RZ550e F Sport. Seriously car companies - stop it.
Puncture repair
Ok there's so many more features I loathe but let's end on a really good one - tyre puncture repair kits. These usually involve a small compressor and canister of goo which is used to fill a flat tyre sealing the puncture and have you on your way.
Sounds great, but it isn't. I've been on the side of the road in the bush with a puncture and used the repair kit only to watch all the good squirt out through the hole in my tyre sealing nothing but my opinions on how useless these devices can be.