Too much car gadgetry?

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Date: 2002-05-31

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The 270 functions iDrive adjustments on the BMW 7451 raised a lot of eyebrows in the auto writing community, but not being able to adjust the radio on his Mercedes seems to be just about the last straw for test driver Jerry Flint.

While trying out the $75,000 Mercedes G Class (the civilian version of a military four-wheeler formerly sold here as the Gelaendewagen or overland vehicle) and an E Class sedan, Flint found he couldn't manually adjust the radio to his desired station, and the manual wasn't much help.

"Why should I have to study the owner's manual to do something as simple as finding a new radio station?" he asks in a recent article at Forbes.com. And it's just the tip of the electronic iceberg, he adds." Automakers around the world are all adding or trying to add electronic gadgets and services to their vehicles. Such features are often lumped under the name "telematics." But there are limits to the public's tolerance of them, says Flint, and he's sure that that radios that require six electronic steps to lock in a new station won't survive in the marketplace Read Jerry Flint's article

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