I never used the remote on my 1995 854T, the key worked just fine. Besides, I needed the key to start the car anyway.
I have an 08 MB with keyless start. Handy? Yes. I put the remote in my jacket pocket and leave it there. Grab the door handle, any one, and the car unlocks all doors, then I just get in and push the start button. When I leave the car, I push a small button on the door handle and the car locks. I have never used the spare key hidden in the remote. On the other hand, a small key without all of the electronics would do me quite nicely.

The newer cars also have rain sensling wipers. I HATE them. They are even worse than the Volvo wipers that have a 7 second interval for mist/light rain control. It was freezing drizzle last week, so I turned on the wipers to clear some of the ice/slush that accumulated. The 'smart' wipers wouldn't slow down because the rain sensor was coverd with a thin sheet of ice! The defroster couldn't warm the glass behind the rearview mirror because of all of the plastic over the inside of the windshield. What a bunch of crap!! Driving down the road and manually turning the wiper on/off because the engineers needed something to do to justify their existance. I have always like the older Japanese cars that had an interval switch that varied from 1 sec to 120 secs.

Another small nit: Have you seen the wipers on the Ford Escort? They not only work for left or right hand drive cars, they clean off the ENTIRE windshield! Now that is engineering!!

Klaus
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There is no present time, just the past and future