Buttons once proliferated in our vehicles. The 1980s saw cars like the Pontiac 6000 go nuts with controls plastered everywhere, and Mercedes-Benz applied a similar design ethos to the S-Class in the 1990s. More buttons meant more features which meant you had more money. Then, the world turned, touchscreens arrived, and suddenly, buttons were disappearing like wedding guests after the open bar dries up. So today, I ask you—what button do you wish your car had?
Now, you could take this question to mean what feature your car had. You can choose to answer the question that way. Personally, I’d like it if my car could do the James Bond thing where it deploys an oil slick to throw off enemies in pursuit. I think we’d all enjoy having that button on the dash.
Really, though, I’m thinking about this in more mundane terms. What regular feature should your car have a button for, but it doesn’t?
For me, the answer is simple. I have a 2007 BMW 320D with a wonderful climate control system. I set it to 22 degrees, and every time I get in the car, it cools me down beautifully. Sometimes, though, I don’t want to feel the air blowing in my face. The annoying thing is that the climate control system doesn’t have a simple off button. To turn it off, I have to hit the fan speed button four or five times to turn it off completely. I wish I could just shut it off with a single button press.
For my girlfriend’s car, I wish it had a button for cruise control. Her 2007 Toyota Yaris is a competent city car, but it has a terrible accelerator that’s at entirely the wrong spot to interface properly with my right foot. If it just had cruise control, it would be ten times better.
Those with more modern cars likely have bigger problems than I do. Tesla famously put shifter controls on the touchscreen in some models, a decision so maddening I still can’t believe they did it. Indeed, the company’s vehicles are so lacking in physical controls that aftermarket button pads have become a popular aftermarket item. Meanwhile, Volkswagen infuriated the world when it implemented a touch-sensitive interface for climate controls in certain models. Last year, the German automaker admitted its folly, and that it would return to using physical buttons for HVAC controls in future.
I don’t want to come out as some sort of button evangelist. Some controls are fine to stick on a touchscreen, like navigation, for example. I also don’t like the way that modern cars cram over 30 buttons into the steering wheel alone.
As it stands, though, some features simply must have their own button, and it should be that way across every car. You should be able to shut off the sound system with a single button, and the same goes for the climate control. Just about any feature that you would conceivably want to adjust while driving should have its own physical control. That’s my ethos.
But now, it’s over to you. What button is sorely lacking from your own car?
Image credits: GM, Lewin Day
I’d like a ‘Ride Engineered’ button, like the dashboard badge that Ford used to use, but a button, so that I can engineer my ride on demand.
Definitely not Red Buttons, that guy was just annoying. Maybe peyote buttons.
I always enjoy reading the “eject passenger” and “machine gun” comments, but seriously, these are the buttons I’d like:
-An engine stop/start button that remembers where it’s position was the last time I drove my 6-speed Jeep.
-a favorite artist/song button on my wife’s G70 (so it tells me when either is on and I can switch to that station)
-a button that cools the seats in my Jeep. That black interior gets really hot in the summer with the top down.
-for that matter, a power top button in my Jeep would be really nice.
These are all 1st world problems.
Lewin – if you don’t want air blowing in your face, why don’t you just push the center button on the left as that turns off the dash vents with one touch?
I would like a button that causes my kids to stop fighting in the car.
What about a button that releases a mechanical arm to blindly slap at knees in the backseat?
A lower version of the Dope Slap?
Rig up the central lock switch to not just unlock the rear doors, but open them too
One set of buttons my Prius has that I now wish all my vehicles had is HVAC on the steering wheel. Yeah, I know, there are too many buttons on the steering wheel as it is, but I use these more than any others except the volume buttons. I will give up any other steering wheel control for them. I also appreciated that the Cruze I rented years ago had the heated steering wheel control on the wheel itself.
Basically, if it’s related to my comfort I want the controls as close to hand as possible.
Interesting! I can imagine getting used to that.
The flippant answer involves James Bond, either the ejection seat or the machine guns. The real answer is I drive older cars with 3 knob HVAC so the only button I miss is a power off for the infotainment on the Mazda. There’s a mute by pressing the volume knob but I’d like an actual off.
As the parent of a 5-year-old who often struggles with buckling herself into her carseat, I’d kill for a button that tells my Honda’s overly aggressive seatbelt tensioners to just RELAX for one damn minute.
The Stonecutter’s tunnel boulder opener obviously.
An Eject Passanger button like 007’s Aston
A single button that de-fogs my window in the morning, without me having to figure out the right amount of air, heat, cold, etc that is the magic combination of fog-away
I’m not a fan of touchscreen climate controls, but the two hard buttons my car has are for the front and rear defoggers (well… They’re these odd clicky capacitive ones actually, but they’re not on the screen)
Really nice when I get into the car to be able to just tap those two buttons and the car goes on full defog mode without any further faffing.
Our Audi has a half-hidden cruise control stalk below the turn signal stalk and I hate it. The steering wheel buttons on our Lincoln Corsair are, imho, perfect.
Huh – I’m the opposite. I LOVE the old Toyota cruise control dongle more than wheel buttons.
I felt there was a little bit of a learning curve with the extra stalk, but once you’re used to it, it worked great. My Seat had the same setup (also a VW Group car).
PTY CAT
An easily accessible deployment button for the Trunk Monkey would be nice.
I can’t switch the radio off without turning the touchscreen off which is a pain when you want Google Maps on. Have to turn the volume to zero. Aside from the fan silliness (which should be a knob not a button) the E90 has the perfect HVAC controls. Max defrost above heated rear window. One button for air distributed to windscreen that doesn’t create max defrost, one for vents, one for floor. In height order, not side by side. All can be mixed and matched.
Physical rear HVAC controls up front. Thankfully my GMC Acadia has physical front HVAC controls, but the rear control is buried in the multimedia system. Also, it is on by default when I start the car, and the blower is loud. It’s far more of a process than it should be to turn off the rear zone from the front, especially since I’m the only person in the car about 90% of the time.
Speaking of HVAC, I miss the 25/75 split option for the defrost/floor setting. Modern electric control systems only have one setting: 50/50 split. The 25/75 split favoring the floor I always felt was the ideal spot after the car has warmed up. Gotta keep the toes warm, and heat rises! Only need a little continual movement to keep the windshield clear, also.
Not exactly a button but an old fashioned mechanical lever or pedal to set the parking brake rather than the automatic one on my rav. It always feels a second or two slow.
Wife wanted an RDX, with the reviews saying “it has a lot of buttons” but I love buttons, and we both really enjoyed that car.
Now we have a Tesla 3, so you would think it would be a nightmare, but honestly, the only thing I wish it had was a normal wiper control. They can’t seem to perfect the auto wipers, so its often a point to go to the touch screen to make changes to the wiper setting.
Otherwise, I haven’t missed any buttons in the 3, but don’t think I could do the new Highland with no stalks, that’s a bridge to far for me.
I’ve got a 2014 Sportwagen, and literally everything has a button. The only thing I ever use the little touchscreen for is pausing my music, since there’s no button for that. Although it would be so nice to be able to turn that screen off without turning off the whole stereo.
I had a 2019 Seat Ibiza, which was the same generation of VW Group design. Honestly that car had the perfect mix of buttons and touchscreen. The Seat also had the roller wheel on the steering wheel for volume, not buttons like VWs, so you could click the wheel to mute/pause the audio.
Now drive a Polestar 2 and I definitely prefer the Seat setup with buttons, although the rest of the Polestar is a long way ahead!
I want buttons like Speed Racer had in the Mach 5.
I’d like a button to turn on the AC and another for the radio.
But when I think about it, I may have to install AC and a radio before…
My WRX has a sattelite radio. The steering wheel buttons navigate to the next preset up or down. I want another set of buttons that go to the next channel up or down.
It’s the little things.
isn’t it press and hold
That lets you scan on FM. I haven’t tried it and the manual is vague about what that does for satellite. I’ll try, thanks.
I have a current model Volvo S60 T8 Recharge.
The majority of the controls are on the touch screen but the UI is well designed and being a Volvo it even works with gloves!
With that said, the one thing I wish had a physical dial would be the temperature control. In the design as it is you have to tap on the temperature displayed then either hit up/down arrows or slide the slider with the touch screen.
It’s not the biggest deal in the world because I generally can keep it set at 72F and never change it, but in the rare case I do, it’s annoying.
On a semi-related tangent, I wish more cars had the cruise control stalk like Mercedes vs buttons on the wheel.
I forgot one: the South African anti carjacker flamethrower. Since deploying it would probably melt the skirts, I’m pretty sure I have achieved enough self control to responsibly have such equipment now.
I drive a Toyobaru, I need a Turbo Boost button.