At least you had a volume knob. Last week I drove a new Renault Clio via local carsharing, and it had a touchscreen, where you had to click a button on the screen to pop up a slider next to it, where you could change the volume. It had like 5 buttons on the steering wheel, some of them even looked like they could be used for controlling the volume, but no, they were for cruise control or whatever, the only way to change the volume was via the touchscreen with two taps.
We had a Civic with that kind of weird slidy up/down volume control, total garbage.
A knob for volume control has been the standard for car audio since there was car audio. If you’re going to change that, why not put the clutch pedal all the way on the right?
I looked it up as as I typed it sounded too stupid to me. It was a 2024 Clio. It doesn’t have a knob, but it has a separate control rod below the steering wheel on the bottom right side, and that has volume buttons. According to the car sharing app I drove it for 15 minutes, and I remember I was looking for that and couldn’t find it. Is it possible it’s not a standard feature, and they didn’t have it in that car? Or it just placed so badly that you can’t see it from the drivers position?
I’d say it was placed badly. These days when I rent a car I always read the owners manual. At least the sections that explain the infotainment system, steering wheel, and stalks, which always have a huge number of buttons and dials with inscrutable graphic labels that don’t explain what they do. Yet ironically despite all these physical controls plenty of important controls are not accessible physically.
It’s short range car rental, and they have a lot of different models from different manufacturers, so you can’t even know which one you will ride next tine. Open the app, see where is the closest car and what it’s type. Book the car than you have 30 minutes to reach the car and start your trip. That’s not enough time to look up manuals.
It is invisible from the driver’s seating position. And it looks like a complete afterthought. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was an option that not all Clios have.
Control rod? Like an extra stalk off the side? Totally possible for that to be invisible from the driver’s position, either from being behind a steering wheel spoke, or by blending in to the rest of the car, while being a thing you would not even be looking for, especially for something like volume controls.
It’s also possible, being a “rental” car, that it had as few options as possible, including not having that control.
Yeah, I don’t know what is the correct English term for that thingies. As it was a rental car maybe the seat was not at the perfect height, I usually just move the the seat back and forth, you don’t start to change it vertically just for a 15 minute ride.
At least you had a volume knob. Last week I drove a new Renault Clio via local carsharing, and it had a touchscreen, where you had to click a button on the screen to pop up a slider next to it, where you could change the volume. It had like 5 buttons on the steering wheel, some of them even looked like they could be used for controlling the volume, but no, they were for cruise control or whatever, the only way to change the volume was via the touchscreen with two taps.
We had a Civic with that kind of weird slidy up/down volume control, total garbage.
A knob for volume control has been the standard for car audio since there was car audio. If you’re going to change that, why not put the clutch pedal all the way on the right?
I looked it up as as I typed it sounded too stupid to me. It was a 2024 Clio. It doesn’t have a knob, but it has a separate control rod below the steering wheel on the bottom right side, and that has volume buttons. According to the car sharing app I drove it for 15 minutes, and I remember I was looking for that and couldn’t find it. Is it possible it’s not a standard feature, and they didn’t have it in that car? Or it just placed so badly that you can’t see it from the drivers position?
I’d say it was placed badly. These days when I rent a car I always read the owners manual. At least the sections that explain the infotainment system, steering wheel, and stalks, which always have a huge number of buttons and dials with inscrutable graphic labels that don’t explain what they do. Yet ironically despite all these physical controls plenty of important controls are not accessible physically.
It’s short range car rental, and they have a lot of different models from different manufacturers, so you can’t even know which one you will ride next tine. Open the app, see where is the closest car and what it’s type. Book the car than you have 30 minutes to reach the car and start your trip. That’s not enough time to look up manuals.
Ah here it is (timestamped):
https://youtu.be/V8xarINsqDg?t=245
It is invisible from the driver’s seating position. And it looks like a complete afterthought. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was an option that not all Clios have.
Control rod? Like an extra stalk off the side? Totally possible for that to be invisible from the driver’s position, either from being behind a steering wheel spoke, or by blending in to the rest of the car, while being a thing you would not even be looking for, especially for something like volume controls.
It’s also possible, being a “rental” car, that it had as few options as possible, including not having that control.
Yeah, I don’t know what is the correct English term for that thingies. As it was a rental car maybe the seat was not at the perfect height, I usually just move the the seat back and forth, you don’t start to change it vertically just for a 15 minute ride.
Have you driven a clutch?
whoosh