Our Forester has three knobs that control air direction / speed / temperature. Knobs are much better than buttons, because you can adjust them without looking. At least, that’s the ideal situation.
Here’s the setting for airflow to the footwell:
Here’s what it looks like with airflow to the cabin:
The knob has no tactile position indicator. That greenish rectangle, located in one of seven symmetric dimples that camouflage its position, is barely visible in normal light, invisible with sunglasses, and not apparent to the touch.
Well, if conspicuous is what you want, I can fix that:
Fluorescent tape will fade quickly, but it’ll last until something better comes along. Perhaps a small pointer epoxied onto the knurled surface, extending around to the indicator?
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
6 responses to “Subaru Forester: Human Factors”
Looks like they “improved” the knobs. Ours (2012 model) have two lobes (looks like a theta), so you can be off 180 degrees until you look at the mark, but are fairly easy to spot. Of course, it’s similar to Julie’s ’98 Ranger, which also uses the 3 knob format, but in a different order.
On the gripping hand, the Ranger is down until I replace the heater blend door–apparently the blend door calibration procedure is carefully designed to stress the plastic door and eventually break it. I have the robust metal door replacement (heatertreater dot net) on hand, but need to get to the library to catch the swap video–as usual, Ford did things with two different sets of parts, and I’m not sure which one I have. Need to see the video to know. It’s not just Ford, with Jeep/Chrysler and some GM and other vehicles also sharing the design misfeature.
Of course the knobs are better: “New and completely round!”
At least they’re knurled…
That’s their way of telling you to get a new car. That you might interpret such a failure to mean getting a car from a different manufacturer never crosses their collective mind.
The number of parts that require dismantling the car before replacement continues to grow….
If I went the factory route, it would entail dismantling the A/C system in addition to the dash. Maybe a $20 part (at retail), but between the New! Improved! refrigerant and such, it would be $700+ to fix. Bah.
Hmm, the library broadband isn’t very broad. Might have to go somewhere else–McD’s would be an improvement. [sigh]
To be damned by faint praise …
I have a 2013 Impreza and have been shocked by day one by its UI failures like this!
So many “designed by engineers” cues: things work, and work consistently, but clearly the designs were finished when they were deemed adequate. Don’t even get me started on the audio system– maddening.
For all my kvetching over the small stuff, we like the Forester.
Consumer Reports says it’s highly reliable and crashworthy, which counted for a lot in our choice. Used to be, we liked Toyotas for those same reasons …