I love that my Ford Focus' HVAC system is entirely disconnected from the rest, and fully button/dial controlled. I can turn off the infotainment screen radio thing and the HVAC unit still does its job. I love knowing that some software or hardware fault in the clumsy infotainment mess that every car maker ends up with won't get in the way of temperature control. We had a Citroen before, and "make it warmer" was multiple menus deep down the terrible touch screen swamp. It was obscene.
I actually wanted that Mazda, which takes the same idea to the max, but I couldn't justify the cost difference just for the buttons (it also looks way cooler than the Ford of course, but ok). The Ford strikes a decent balance IMO - besides the 100% buttonized HVAC, it has a touch screen for all the touchy navigationy carplay-y stuff, but eg volume control and map zoom have physical dials and play/pause/skip all have physical buttons too.
My wife and me disqualified most other brands purely for this reason. We'd open marketing sites and skip through the promo photos until we saw a picture of the dashboard. No buttons? Close tab. I love that apparently more brands are now figuring out that "ipad on wheels" designs drive people away.
I actually wanted that Mazda, which takes the same idea to the max, but I couldn't justify the cost difference just for the buttons (it also looks way cooler than the Ford of course, but ok). The Ford strikes a decent balance IMO - besides the 100% buttonized HVAC, it has a touch screen for all the touchy navigationy carplay-y stuff, but eg volume control and map zoom have physical dials and play/pause/skip all have physical buttons too.
My wife and me disqualified most other brands purely for this reason. We'd open marketing sites and skip through the promo photos until we saw a picture of the dashboard. No buttons? Close tab. I love that apparently more brands are now figuring out that "ipad on wheels" designs drive people away.