Good for you. If you don’t mind, please share what kind of nice car do you drive? Is it the like of S550, A8 L, 750I, Range Rover, or the Lamborghini or the Bugatti etc.?
Ugh… that was just one example. I wasn’t going to break down my trip minute-by-minute. On this trip, as we drove past a house that we saw was for sale, I’d use my smartphone to search the property and learn more about it. I also used it to check the weather forecast as we went along to see if the rain was coming in or going out - if the weather was going to improve, we might stick around an area for an extra 15 minutes and get out and walk around; it not, then we kept on going.
Technology is no good if you don’t use your imagination to make it useful to you. You need to think outside of the box.
Well yes brakes are helpful.
However, my car, which is a 2002, doesn’t have anti lock brakes!
I was shocked, as my older cars had them.
But I haven’t been in any accidents and I have excellent tires, so perhaps I don’t need them.
I hate the amount of electronics on cars now. It’s designed to force you to take the car in to the dealer.
Although when I did so in order to find out why my rear glass would not latch, they couldn’t find the trouble.
Charged me for looking at it though.
( I did fix it through trial and error and after searching on line for customers with similar problems)
My car is 10.5 years old now (but has plenty of electronics). The only thing I’ve taken it into the dealer for, repair-wise (not routine maintenance such as oil change/tire rotation, etc), was last fall when the fan on one of the AC vents went out.
We installed Nest thermostats in all three of our heating zones. They learn your patterns and adjust the room temperature accordingly. When we go on vacation, we lower the temperature – but we use the app on our phone to raise the temperature when we’re a few hours away. This way we don’t walk into a freezing cold house.
I try to keep up with new technology, the same way I like to know what latest social media kids are using and what song is the top summer hit. I’m not always successful at any of those, but I try. I don’t like being a fuddy duddy.
I agree that keeping up to date with communications technology is a must, especially as one ages. I am constantly amazed by the difference between my Mom and Dad–my Mom can barely place a phone call on her IPhone, while my Dad uses his iPhone and iPad for phone calls, FaceTime, email, and texts. He also does all his banking from his iPad and has several apps, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal among them. He is so much more connected to the outside world than my Mom, and it shows.
H and I have a rotating schedule for replacing phones, tablets, and laptops, so they don’t all become obsolete at once. It also allows us to learn new technology in a manageable and incremental way. In the future, when D wants to communicate with us using whatever cutting edge technology is current at the time, we’ll be ready for her.
I’m bad at keeping up with technology. There is absolutely nothing about a smart car that appeals to me. My car is only a 2010 and it doesn’t have auto locks or windows.
I get a new phone every 2 years when my plan renews but I’m not going to actively seek out the newest. Actually I hate the newest, big phones.
My laptop is several years old though I did recently get a chromebook because I needed something much lighter to carry around.
Other than my phone, laptop, and internet I can’t think of a technology invented or popularized in my lifetime that I couldn’t live without.
I’ve read that the GPS on phones is preferred to an auto installation, as it is easier to keep it updated.
Teriwitt, you are fortunate. My last car also had electronic problems( the moon roof stopped working) and aside from checking fuses, it’s hard to tell where there is a short.
Perhaps I shouldn’t let my H drive it. He has killed every watch he has ever had. I don’t know what he does, they just stop working.
The son of Tim Nixon, chief tech officer of General Motors Onstar system, uses his iPhone.
http://www.dailytech.com/Drivers+Who+Needs+Costly+Embedded+Navigation+Systems+When+We+Have+Mobile+Apps/article31969.htm
Re: post 20…there are plenty of nice cars beyond the list DadII posted.
@“Dad II” what do you really want to know in this thread? Are you expecting folks to tell you to scrimp and save on the latest technology? If that is your choice, fine, and you will probably survive. Just like you will be fine NOT driving the cars in post 20.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
That would be correct; this isn’t Instagram. 
" If you don’t mind, please share what kind of nice car do you drive? "
-One Lexus and one Audi A4. " the Lamborghini or the Bugatti" are way way beyond our income, we will not get any loans for these cars. As I said, we are NOT high earners, so Lexus and Audi are nice for us, they will not satisfy a high earner taste like yours.
You may want to look into lower cost plans that do not have a phone subsidy built into their costs (and therefore have no two year lock-in). You can keep using your old phone on the lower cost plan instead of either getting a new phone that you may not want or paying for a phone subsidy that you do not use.
I drive an Acura; H’s navigation system is in his Subaru; D2’s navigation system is in a Honda.
Nothing like the cars you mentioned.
I got my Acura when I was still working, and spent a LOT of time in the car everyday, going from patient’s house to patient’s house, across a six-county area. The screens on the navigation systems are much bigger than the ones on the smart phones, but we have used the GPS on smart phones when we rent cars while traveling. There is just no comparison, sight-wise, with the car navigation systems and smart phone navigation systems, for me. Without even looking at my car’s system, I can zoom the map in and out. Can’t do that with a smart phone GPS - the screens are too sensitive, and you have to use two fingers to zoom in/out, or hit the + or - button just at the precise spot.
Other features… bluetooth technology - I can place phone calls, answer my phone, change radio stations, adjust volume, etc., all without my hands leaving the steering wheel… just like adjusting cruise control, windshield wipers, and headlights.
I got a new a Honda just last year and I’m in my 20’s and even for me it is quite difficult to understand all these new buttons and features that my car has. I believe some of these features are for safety protections and I know some people who actually enjoy that learning curve. But I prefer to stay simple and smooth without those fancy buttons in my car.
Things that new cars have that are really nice. GPS, Bluetooth and back up cameras. All very helpful. We don’t have cars new enough for the back up camera but when we buy new cars, I know they will be on the list.
But then we are spendthrifts 
29 - ?? Some photos insert automatically! Why would CC do that?!
My Subaru has a Bluetooth something something that one can apparently link one’s phone to. I haven’t done it because the manual is impenetrable. But that’s okay because someone told me that if I set it up successfully the radio turns off when the phone rings so you can talk to whomever is calling. Oh no, I’m much more interested in music than in talking on the phone. Speaking of which, the best technology in my car is satellite radio.
…my GPS is staying in the glove compartment, it has been there for many years, probably something old…my H’s car has built in, but at least hw is up to using it. I do not like to drive enough to use it, so I cannot remember how, I just drvie to and from work, I am lucky if I remember how to use my cell, which is also in a car. Sometime I do not know how to turn on one of our TVs, I definitely have no idea about at least one of them, big screen in a basement, we never use it. So forget the rest of these. If my work laptop does not behave, we have Service Center for it…I do not need to know that either.
Lexus & Audis are nice cars. ( my mom had one of each, after my dad died, who had always insisted on Volkswagens)
The car she owned when she died however, was a Volvo.
I don’t make or answer phone calls while I am driving, too distracting, but my steering wheel does have the controls for the radio/cd player on the back, so I don’t even need to move my hands.
I use the spoken turn by turn feature on the phone, if I need directions, so I don’t need to look at the map.
A back up camera would really be nice, although they are available aftermarket. I have a Jeep, and I do not know why owners of little tiny cars that are low to the ground, insist on pulling up so tight to my back end, that I can’t see them in the mirrors, or even if I turn around?
If I could have any car for style points, and I couldn’t afford a Tesla, I like the 220SE. Although I guess if I could afford that, I could also afford a S model.
My wife’s (relatively) new Lexus has a couple of safety features that she likes a lot. One is a backup camera (which is really only important because the view out the rear is so lousy), and the other is a light that flashes in the side view mirror when there is a car in the blind spot. That one is really quite nice.
I bought a used car with GPS, and I have found that I use it much more than I expected. It’s too expensive to update, so sometimes it tells me that I am driving across the countryside.