The automotive industry's relentless march toward digitization and cost-cutting has left many drivers yearning for simpler times. While manufacturers tout technological advancement, they've quietly removed features that served drivers reliably for decades. Here's an evidence-based examination of what needs to return to our cars, with particular emphasis on Kenya's unique driving conditions.
Physical Buttons and Knobs: The Safety Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
The replacement of tactile controls with touchscreens represents one of the most dangerous trends in modern automotive design. Research from Swedish automotive magazine Vi Bilägare conducted comprehensive testing that revealed drivers using touchscreens took up to four times longer to complete basic tasks compared to those using physical buttons.
In their highway-speed tests, completing four simple tasks—adjusting climate control, changing radio stations, resetting trip computers, and adjusting display brightness—took just 10 seconds in a 2005 Volvo V70 with traditional buttons. The worst-performing modern car, an MG Marvel R, required 44.6 seconds for the same tasks. During this time, traveling at 110 km/h, the vehicle covered over 1.3 kilometers with the driver's attention divided.
The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) took notice. From January 2026, manufacturers cannot achieve the highest safety ratings without providing physical controls for essential functions including indicators, hazard lights, windshield wipers, and the horn. This policy shift acknowledges what drivers have known all along: fumbling through touchscreen menus while navigating Nairobi's chaotic traffic or Kenya's pothole-riddled highways is fundamentally unsafe.
Consumer surveys support this backlash. Approximately 52% of drivers prefer a hybrid approach combining touchscreens with physical controls, while only a small minority favor touchscreen-only interfaces. Manufacturers like Hyundai have already reversed course, reintroducing physical buttons after customer feedback, while Tesla and Rivian continue their button-free crusade.
For Kenyan drivers navigating unpredictable road conditions—from sudden livestock crossings to unmarked speed bumps—the ability to adjust climate controls or change radio stations without looking away from the road isn't a luxury; it's a necessity for survival.
Cable Handbrakes: Reliability in the Real World
Electronic parking brakes have become ubiquitous, appearing in 92% of new cars sold in 2024. Manufacturers justify this shift by pointing to space savings, automated hill-start assist functions, and the elimination of cable maintenance. However, this transition overlooks critical real-world scenarios.
Traditional cable handbrakes offer several advantages that electronic systems cannot match. In emergency situations, a mechanical lever provides immediate, tactile feedback and can be modulated by the driver. Electronic parking brakes activated at speed trigger extreme braking action with stability control intervention, making them unsuitable for controlled emergency stops.
The reliability concern becomes acute when a vehicle's battery dies. Electronic parking brakes can remain locked, making the vehicle impossible to move or tow without complex manual release procedures—if such procedures even exist. In contrast, cable handbrakes operate independently of electrical systems, ensuring the vehicle remains moveable in all circumstances.
For Kenya specifically, where roadside assistance may be hours away and electrical system reliability can be compromised by rough conditions, this independence matters. Additionally, electronic parking brakes require specialized tools and knowledge for service. When they malfunction, DIY repairs are impossible, and replacement costs significantly exceed simple cable replacement.
While electronic systems do offer convenience features like automatic engagement and release, these benefits pale against the loss of mechanical simplicity and emergency functionality. The industry prioritizes manufacturing cost savings over driver autonomy and reliability.
Actual Spare Wheels: When Punctures Are Part of the Journey
Perhaps no feature removal impacts Kenyan drivers more acutely than the disappearance of spare tires. Today, only about 62% of new vehicles come with temporary spares, with 15% providing only sealant kits and 11% equipped with run-flat tires.
Tire repair kits, while compact and lightweight, have severe limitations. They only work on punctures in the tire tread area, with holes typically no larger than 4-5 millimeters. Sidewall damage, multiple punctures, or blowouts render the kit useless. Continental research indicates that while 95% of punctures are caused by objects up to 5mm in diameter, repair kits still fail to fix one in five flat tires.
The Kenyan context makes spare tires even more critical. As noted by tire experts and driving guides, "a flat tire is part of the adventure" when driving Kenya's roads. The combination of rough terrain, sharp debris, potholes, and long distances between service stations creates a perfect storm for tire failure.
Nairobi's roads have been described by motorists as resembling "farmlands," with one motorcycle rider stating tires frequently burst from the large potholes. The Kisumu-Busia highway has deteriorated so severely that public service drivers warn the route is eating through spare tires faster than they can be replaced. Rural roads classified as C and D are typically unpaved with eroded surfaces, while national park tracks become treacherous during rainy seasons.
In such conditions, a tire repair kit offers false security. Sidewall damage from pothole impacts cannot be sealed. Large punctures from sharp rocks exceed the kit's capability. And when you're 100 kilometers from the nearest town on a dirt road after heavy rains, the ability to mount a spare wheel and continue your journey isn't just convenient—it could be lifesaving.
The automotive industry's justification for eliminating spares centers on weight savings for fuel efficiency and trunk space for electric vehicle batteries. While these concerns have merit in developed markets with excellent road infrastructure and ubiquitous roadside assistance, they ignore the realities faced by drivers in markets like Kenya, where road conditions remain challenging and help is not always a phone call away.
Smaller Screens: Appropriate Technology
The screen size arms race in modern vehicles has reached absurd proportions, with some manufacturers installing displays exceeding 17 inches. These massive screens dominate dashboards, create visual distraction, and concentrate too many critical functions in a single interface.
Research confirms that screen size correlates with distraction time. Larger screens require drivers to look down at steeper angles—up to 56 degrees in some vehicles compared to 20 degrees for traditional controls. This dramatic head tilt increases the time drivers spend with eyes off the road and reduces peripheral awareness.
The issue compounds in bright sunlight, where screen glare becomes problematic, and in rough terrain, where vibration makes touchscreen targets harder to hit accurately. Smaller, dedicated screens for navigation combined with physical controls for everything else represent a more rational approach to automotive interface design.
Analog Dials: Information at a Glance
Digital instrument clusters have replaced traditional analog gauges in many modern vehicles. While offering customization and displaying more information, digital displays have a fundamental weakness: they require active reading rather than passive scanning.
Analog speedometers and tachometers use needle position and color-coded zones to convey information instantly. A driver's peripheral vision can detect a tachometer needle entering the red zone or a speedometer indicating excessive speed without directly focusing on the instrument. This was understood during World War II when military research documented the superiority of analog displays for moving vehicles.
Digital displays require the driver to read numbers, process the information, and determine if action is needed. This cognitive load, while small, adds up during extended driving and matters most in critical situations when split-second decisions are required.
Oil Dipsticks: The Right to Maintain Your Vehicle
The removal of engine oil dipsticks from modern vehicles represents a troubling shift toward forced dependence on dealership service. Manufacturers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and now Stellantis (in their Hurricane engines) have eliminated dipsticks in favor of electronic oil level sensors.
Manufacturers claim electronic monitoring provides more accurate readings and proactive alerts when oil levels drop. Mercedes-Benz representatives state the digital system "helps avert potential engine damage" through timely warnings. However, this ignores several critical issues.
Electronic oil sensors are notoriously unreliable. Drivers report inaccurate readings, with systems suggesting oil additions that result in overfilled sumps. Others check oil levels before and after adding a quart, finding the system registers far more oil than was actually added. These sensors operate in harsh conditions—submerged in hot oil, exposed to extreme temperatures—making them prone to failure.
When sensors malfunction, drivers have no backup method to verify actual oil levels. If the vehicle's infotainment screen fails, oil level information becomes completely inaccessible. Furthermore, checking oil level electronically only works under specific conditions—engine at operating temperature, vehicle on level ground, specific menu navigation—making quick checks impossible.
The 2025 Ram pickups exemplify this trend: all optional engines lack dipsticks, with only the base V6 retaining this basic feature. For Kenya, where vehicles often operate in dusty, harsh conditions far from dealerships, the inability to perform a simple oil level check represents a significant reliability concern.
Traditional dipsticks cost mere shillings to manufacture and never require replacement. They work regardless of battery condition or sensor function, provide visual feedback on oil condition (not just level), and allow drivers to maintain their vehicles independently. Their removal serves manufacturer interests—forcing more dealership visits—not driver needs.
Accessible Gearbox Oil Dipsticks: The Overlooked Maintenance Item
Transmission dipsticks have largely disappeared from modern vehicles, with manufacturers claiming transmissions are "sealed for life" and require no regular fluid checks. This represents wishful thinking more than engineering reality.
Transmissions do lose fluid through seals over time. They experience fluid degradation from heat and contamination. The ability to check transmission fluid level and condition allowed drivers to identify problems early, before catastrophic failure occurred.
Modern vehicles with CVTs or complex multi-speed automatics use highly specialized fluids. Without dipsticks, owners cannot verify fluid levels or condition without dealership diagnostic equipment. When transmission problems develop, the first indication is often complete failure rather than gradually degrading shift quality that a dipstick check would have revealed.
The argument that transmissions don't need checking because failures are rare ignores that many transmission failures result from low fluid levels that could have been detected and corrected with regular checks. For vehicles operating in harsh conditions—including Kenya's hot climate, dusty environment, and rough roads—the "sealed for life" concept may prove optimistic.
The Cost-Cutting Reality
While manufacturers frame these changes as technological advancement or design evolution, the underlying motivation is clear: cost reduction. Physical buttons require design, tooling, manufacturing, assembly, and testing. A touchscreen, once programmed, handles unlimited functions at minimal incremental cost. Spare tires add weight, packaging complexity, and expense. Electronic parking brakes eliminate mechanical linkages. Removing dipsticks saves a few shillings per vehicle across millions of units.
These savings accrue to manufacturers while transferring costs and risks to consumers through increased repair expenses, reduced owner maintenance ability, and compromised emergency capabilities.
What Drivers Actually Need
The evidence is clear: drivers want and need a return to automotive features that prioritize functionality, reliability, and user control. This doesn't mean rejecting all technological advancement. Rather, it means thoughtful implementation that enhances rather than replaces proven solutions.
The ideal modern vehicle would feature:
- Physical controls for all frequently-used functions (climate, audio volume, drive modes)
- A cable handbrake or at minimum, electronic parking brakes with manual mechanical release
- An actual spare tire, particularly for vehicles sold in markets with challenging road conditions
- Appropriately-sized screens that don't dominate the dashboard or require excessive visual attention
- Analog or hybrid instrument clusters that convey critical information at a glance
- Traditional dipsticks for engine oil and transmission fluid
- Design priorities that favor long-term reliability and owner maintenance over manufacturing cost savings
For Kenyan drivers facing potholes that "resemble farmlands," highways where "tires frequently burst," and rural roads that become impassable after rain, these aren't luxuries or nostalgia. They're practical necessities for safe, reliable motoring in real-world conditions.
The automotive industry should recognize that not all markets have the infrastructure, service density, and road quality that make current design trends viable. Until Kenya's roads match European standards—which is to say, probably never—vehicles need to be designed with robustness and driver autonomy as priorities, not afterthoughts.
Magaripoa.com is Kenya's premier automotive resource for practical advice on vehicle ownership, maintenance, and the realities of driving in East Africa. We believe drivers deserve cars built for their actual needs, not just manufacturer profit margins.
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