[perfectritone]

I thought I was buying something more dependable. Now I have to deal with the issues listed and more.

1. Carseat in the back triggers the seat belt unbuckled beeping that never ends.

2. Collision avoidance slams on the brakes when grass is leaning into the road, especially while reversing (a common occurrence in rural areas).

3. Battery dies when doors or trunk is left open due to the car running its computer.

4. Less control over lighting. All the interior lights turn on after turning the car off and opening a door.

5. "Infotainment" that looks like it was made in the early aughts and has no customizability. Why pay for a screen you can do next to nothing with. I can't even replace it to get a real equalizer for audio.

[BanazirGalbasi]

> 3. Battery dies when doors or trunk is left open due to the car running its computer.

This happens with less-smart cars as well. I've heard countless stories of batteries dying on picnics or camping trips because car doors were left open or lights were left on. The computer is just one more thing to drain the battery, but leaving your doors open has been a bad idea for a long time now.

[steve_adams_86]

I have to guess you’re driving a Toyota because this is identical to my experience driving mine.

The actual driving experience is awesome. It’s a great vehicle that I’d rate highly based purely on the most basic function of the vehicle. The rest is pretty awful compared to what it could be, I think.

The battery dying due to the trunk being open… I bring a booster everywhere, even on short drives, because the battery could die for such stupid reasons. My wife stops to listen to the radio and look at the city on a local mountain? Dead. Washing the car and leave a door open for vacuuming? Dead. One of the kids turns on the computer without us realizing? Yeah, totally dead. I’ve boosted this car more than a dozen times now. We don’t do anything that wasn’t totally fine with past vehicles.

Oh well. It runs. It gets us to point b 99% of the time. I wish the infotainment unit wasn’t so abysmally bad, but I’ve never had such an easy time driving in bad conditions or hauling things. I love that.

[freetime2]

Have you replaced your battery? Because letting your battery drain fully even once can damage it. And if you’ve needed to boost it more than a dozen times, then it almost certainly sounds like it is time to replace.

https://vehicleanswers.com/does-draining-a-car-battery-damag...

[steve_adams_86]

Definitely, I’m on my 3rd battery now. My family doesn’t realize/understand that draining causes damage so they aren’t as careful as they could be, otherwise we’d likely still be on the 2nd.

[LAC-Tech]

God damn it I left my lights on the other night, and I just got a new battery recently too. Oh well.

[Toutouxc]

The battery thing doesn't sound normal. My car keeps the 12V plugs powered all the time, even parked and locked. Last winter, not driving very often, I noticed one day that the whole car was covered in snow except for a small round spot on the windshield. Turned out I'd left a camera plugged in, recording, for three days straight, generating enough heat to warm the windshield. The car did show a "voltage getting low" warning, but started just fine, I went on a little drive to let it charge and it's been fine since. My car is a humble 2018 Škoda (VW tech basically) still on the original battery, and it does the intelligent charging routine where it only charges when engine-braking and lets the voltage drop often, so it's one abused battery.

[steve_adams_86]

Wow, that’s interesting. Even with a brand new battery mine will have issues with rapid draining. I know the alternator is working, so it isn’t that. Maybe others are right that there’s a phantom drain somewhere. A camera recording would kill my battery in under an hour, I’m almost certain. The radio will do it in around 30m.

[screamingninja]

> The battery dying due to the trunk being open… I bring a booster everywhere, even on short drives, because the battery could die for such stupid reasons. My wife stops to listen to the radio and look at the city on a local mountain? Dead. Washing the car and leave a door open for vacuuming? Dead. One of the kids turns on the computer without us realizing? Yeah, totally dead. I’ve boosted this car more than a dozen times now. We don’t do anything that wasn’t totally fine with past vehicles.

That does not sound normal. AGM batteries are designed to have enough capacity to power car computer and other demanding circuits, but the car would typically intervene before your battery goes dead. Either the battery is bad or there is a phantom drain in some circuit. Get it checked out!

[steve_adams_86]

I believe there’s more to it as well, but the mechanic ran diagnostics and said this is fairly typical for the model (it’s a highlander).

[numpad0]

Don't most Toyota cars use 2DIN form factor for nav? They should be able to be easily pulled out and replaced.

[steve_adams_86]

Do you mean in order to replace the infotainment unit? That would be incredible.

[numpad0]

Yes, a lot of cars here in Japan has aftermarket head units thanks to widely adopted 2DIN de facto standards. It's getting trickier as manufacturers copy Tesla more aggressively but if your car has a non-integrated A/C panel, separate from the main touchscreen, chances are the screen can be swapped out for something.

[steve_adams_86]

Yeah, AC is totally separate. This is good news. 2DIN will even carry over the camera data? I had no idea it could be that easy. I wonder if I could get CarPlay in this thing. Thanks for mentioning this!