27 inches of “infotainment” is too much for this old-fashioned car guy
Call me an old-fashioned car guy. A romantic. Nostalgic. Call me what you will. Some things were just better “back in the day”.
And the older I get, the more of an expert I become on “back in the day.” To wit: In my driveway and garage are four vehicles that rolled off of assembly lines in 1952, 2000, 2003 and the “newest” addition was created in 2012.
Recently I was reading Car & Driver’s preview of the 2026 Genesis GV70, “one of our favorite compact luxury SUVs because it expertly balances performance, luxury, and curb appeal.”
Among the bells and whistles of the new arrival are a shift selector knob. And a 27-inch widescreen display that stretches across much of the dashboard and serves as both the digital gauge cluster and the central infotainment screen.
my Old-Fashioned Car Guy Opinion
A. As an old-fashioned car guy, I hate shift selector knobs. I want my right hand to grab onto a lever of some sort and shift with some an arm movement that involves hand, wrist and shoulder – and preferably at the same time my left foot pushes a pedal to engage and disengage a clutch.
B. 27 inches of widescreen infotainment? What? What could I possibly do with 27 inches of screen on/in my dash?
I get the digital gauges. Then I know there’s the phone/climate/navigation that all the new cars have. But what on earth else could possibly justify taking up 27 inches of dash?
I drive a fair number of rental cars in my travels, and I dread the first few minutes at the airport when I sit in the rented car and stare at the cockpit and the screen. The screen in a vehicle I am unfamiliar with and that I have to learn on the fly. I don’t feel comfortable or safe in those rental situations. There’s just too much happening on a screen I find hard to navigate, especially in traffic.
I much prefer cruising along in my “old-fashioned” vehicles and adjusting the rear view by hand, then reaching for the dash and turning up the radio and cranking the AC – by feel. My eyes never leave the road. My hand doesn’t fumble around. It knows right where the knobs are.
And I’m not old-fashioned. I’m analog.
Anyway, check out Car & Driver’s preview of the 2026 Genesis GV70 here.
