These Car Features Will Destroy Reliability And Drain Your Wallet

Breaking down some of the most frustrating—and in some cases, genuinely troublesome—features found in today’s cars.

From touchscreen systems that replace simple controls to run-flat tires, oversized wheels, turbocharged engines, CVTs, and even subscription-based features, the video looks at how certain modern conveniences can create safety concerns, reliability issues, or costly long-term headaches. For shoppers trying to avoid unnecessary complications in their next vehicle, it’s a straightforward look at the features that may be more trouble than they’re worth.

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Transcript:

What are the worst modern car features and trends that can cost you a fortune? That’s what we’re going to find out.

Welcome to Car Help Corner, where we help you, the consumer, master the process of car buying and ownership. I’m going to share five common features and trends in modern cars that can cause major repair problems, headaches, and long-term expenses. These can not only ruin your ownership experience, but also surprise you with shocking, unexpected costs.

Let’s begin with the first trend that’s becoming increasingly common across the auto industry.

1. Touchscreens With No Physical Controls

More and more new cars are replacing physical controls with a single large touchscreen. On the surface, a big screen with a fancy user interface can seem modern and appealing, but there are serious drawbacks.

First, touchscreens can be frustrating to use. Simple tasks like adjusting the temperature or changing the fan speed can become multi-step processes buried in menus. That’s not just annoying—it can also be distracting and potentially dangerous to do while driving.

Second, there are long-term reliability and repair concerns. If the screen freezes, crashes, or goes black—which is common with any computer—there goes all your features. This can be especially serious in harsh winter climates. Imagine your screen dying on a cold day when you need the heater or defroster.

Repairing a glitchy screen isn’t always straightforward. If you’re lucky, a simple reboot or software update fixes it. If you’re not, you could be looking at a complicated, costly repair. These screens can easily cost thousands of dollars to replace, and diagnosis or repair is often difficult to do outside of a dealership.

Using a giant touchscreen to control everything has become a lazy, cost-effective solution for automakers to pack in features without adding proper buttons. But the long-term consequences fall on you.

To make your ownership experience more headache-free, look for cars that still use a combination of physical controls and a simple touchscreen that’s mainly used for media and secondary functions. Thankfully, plenty of automakers still do this.

And it doesn’t end there—there’s another, even bigger problem with touchscreens that we’ll come back to later.

2. Oversized Wheels, No Spare Tires, and Run-Flat Tires

Another increasingly common trend is new vehicles being fitted with very large wheels.

It used to be normal for cars to have 16–18-inch wheels. Now it’s common to see 19, 20, 21, even 22-inch wheels on everyday vehicles. That looks good on the showroom floor, but it brings several major problems.

Ride quality:

Extra-large wheels mean very thin tires. With less sidewall to absorb impacts, the suspension and chassis take more of the punishment from potholes and rough roads. That can make the ride noticeably harsher and more uncomfortable.

Cost of tires and rims:

Large-diameter tires are much more expensive to replace. If you bend or crack a rim by hitting a pothole or curb, those big alloy wheels are also very costly. This can dramatically increase the real-world cost of ownership.

No spare tire:

Because large wheels and tires take up so much space and add weight, many modern vehicles no longer include a spare tire at all. It either won’t fit under the trunk floor or is too expensive and heavy to package. That brings us to a related problem: run-flat tires.

Run-flat tires are designed to replace the need for a proper spare. If you puncture a run-flat, you can continue driving with little or no air pressure because the sidewalls are heavily reinforced. In theory, you can drive for several dozen miles—sometimes up to around 100 miles—until you reach a shop.

In practice, run-flat tires have a lot of drawbacks:

They tend to be noisier and ride more harshly because they’re so stiff.

They cost significantly more than normal tires—often close to double.

They often don’t last as long.

When they’re damaged or punctured, they frequently cannot be repaired, and you must replace the entire tire.

Because of all this, when you’re shopping for a new car, it’s wise to:

Choose reasonably sized wheels for better ride comfort and more affordable tires.

Look for a car that still comes with a proper spare tire.

Avoid run-flat tires if possible to sidestep high replacement costs and a harsher drive.

3. Extra-Large Panoramic Roofs and Fixed Glass Roofs

The next modern feature to watch out for is the extra-large panoramic roof.

Panoramic sunroofs and fixed glass roofs look fantastic and flood the cabin with light, but they bring just as many drawbacks as benefits.

On some vehicles, panoramic glass roofs have been known to shatter under certain conditions, which can obviously be a serious safety hazard if it happens while driving.

On models where the panoramic roof opens, there are additional concerns:

They can be more prone to jamming or breaking.

Drainage issues can lead to water leaks into the cabin.

These are problems that can happen with any sunroof, but with panoramic roofs, repairs tend to be significantly more challenging and expensive. It’s not unusual for repairs to cost several thousand dollars when things go wrong.

Even fixed glass roofs that don’t open come with issues. Many EVs now have full-length glass roofs with no proper sunshade. On hot summer days, that can cause the cabin to heat up badly and overwork the air conditioning system.

Because of this, it’s generally safest to:

Opt for a car with a conventional sunroof instead of a huge panoramic roof, or

If you do choose a vehicle with a large glass roof, make sure it has a proper, opaque sunshade, not just a tinted panel.

4. Complex Emissions and Fuel-Saving Technology

The next trend is the increasing use of complex emissions and fuel-saving technology. Depending on the vehicle and how it’s engineered, these systems can introduce serious long-term reliability concerns.

Common examples include:

Engine start-stop systems

Direct fuel injection

Cylinder deactivation

Turbocharged engines (especially very small ones)

CVT (continuously variable) transmissions

DCT (dual-clutch) transmissions

Each of these has potential drawbacks:

Direct injection can cause carbon buildup on intake valves, requiring expensive cleaning to prevent bigger engine problems.

Engine start-stop can put extra wear on starters, batteries, and other components, and can be annoying to live with.

Cylinder deactivation has caused serious engine problems and even failures on some models.

Small turbocharged engines (especially three-cylinders) can be more stressed, potentially shortening engine life and increasing out-of-warranty repairs.

CVT and DCT transmissions can suffer from their own reliability issues and premature failures, depending on the brand and design.

Are all of these technologies automatically bad and to be avoided in every case?

Absolutely not. In today’s market, avoiding all of them completely is nearly impossible. Some brands have done an excellent job engineering these systems so they are durable and trouble-free.

But in general, it’s safest to:

Avoid stacking too many of these technologies in one vehicle if you plan to keep it long-term.

Research the specific model and engine/transmission you’re considering to see whether any of these features are known failure points.

The more complex and experimental the drivetrain, the more cautious you should be if you care about long-term reliability.

5. Subscription-Based Features and “Rolling Computer” Headaches

The final item on this list might be the most troubling trend of all: subscription-based features and over-reliance on software.

More and more automakers are embedding critical functions and desirable features into the touchscreen or a phone app and locking them behind paywalls that require monthly or annual subscriptions.

This trend really took off with Tesla and has now spread across the industry under the umbrella of “connected services.”

For example, in many new vehicles you now have to pay extra on an ongoing basis to use:

Remote engine start

Digital key and app-based locking/unlocking

Built-in navigation and certain connected features

Some advanced driver-assist and convenience functions

Typically, these features are included as a free trial for a few months or a year on a brand-new car. After that, you need to pay if you want to keep using them. If you don’t pay, they simply stop working—even though the hardware is sitting in the car you already own.

This is one big reason why automakers love eliminating physical buttons and putting everything into screens: it gives them the ability to lock features behind software until you pay to unlock them.

It’s a way to keep charging you for features long after you’ve bought the vehicle.

As consumers, we should not support this. Cars are already expensive enough. The features in your car should belong to you, not be rented back to you via subscriptions.

On top of that, the shift to software-heavy “rolling computers” comes with major reliability and repair risks:

Software updates are becoming a new form of maintenance.

Many automakers simply don’t have the IT expertise to debug complex systems quickly.

Owners are often left waiting weeks or months for software fixes that hopefully resolve issues.

This is already becoming a common, industry-wide problem and causing enormous frustration.

A perfect example is Volvo’s EX90. When Volvo launched this new all-electric SUV loaded with cutting-edge software and tech, many of those features simply didn’t work properly:

New driver-assist and safety features, including its LiDAR system, often failed or didn’t function as advertised.

The digital key feature, meant to let you use your phone as a key, was unreliable or completely non-functional for some owners.

The central touchscreen—the control hub for nearly everything—was known to freeze or go black.

Bluetooth, navigation, media, and other core systems were plagued with glitches and error messages.

In many cases, these issues left the vehicles effectively unusable while owners kept making payments on $100,000 SUVs that didn’t work properly. Volvo was left scrambling, pushing out wave after wave of software updates trying to patch problems.

Some owners eventually took legal action. Volvo has now admitted the problems and says 2026 EX90s will get major software and hardware updates, including a new Nvidia-based core computer system, in an attempt to fix the mess.

But the bigger question is: how is this acceptable?

How have we reached a point where automakers can design and sell cars in such an unfinished state that early buyers end up acting as unpaid beta testers, dealing with constant headaches under warranty?

Automakers need to do much better. And consumers need to be smart with their money and not gamble on unproven technology and gimmicky software.

We need to show automakers that what we want are:

Reliable, well-designed cars

Features that work properly out of the box

No unnecessary gimmicks

No subscription paywalls for basic functionality

The good news is, many vehicles like that still exist. If we stick to buying those and avoid the worst offenders, automakers will eventually be forced to listen.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you’ve had any experiences—good or bad—with the features or technologies mentioned here, share your story in the comments.

If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like and subscribe.

And if you’re planning to purchase a vehicle and you live in Ontario, know that OMVIC is the vehicle sales regulator responsible for administering and enforcing the rules that dealerships must follow. To learn more about your consumer protection rights, visit omvic.ca.

If you need additional car-buying advice, recommendations, or help getting a great deal on your next new car purchase, make sure to visit carhelpcanada.com.

Thanks so much for watching, and see you next time.

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