What Does This Button Do and Why Don't More Cars Have It?
CARS.COM — At a casual glance, you may not even see this button that Honda put in the 2017 Civic, and that’s part of its beauty. You don’t need to look down to use this simple feature – or to wonder why more cars don’t make it this easy.
Related: 2017 Honda CR-V: Small Multimedia Change Leads to Big Win
The simple tab button tucked behind the top of the screen on the driver’s side lets you quickly change the brightness of the multimedia system’s 7-inch touchscreen. Want the bright day screen, need the more subdued night screen or just want to fade to black? Tap the button.
It came particularly in handy in the early morning or at dusk, as well as when going from bright sunlight into and then out of darkness such as in a Civic hatchback recently for the mile-and-a-half Fort McHenry tunnel that takes I-95 under the Baltimore harbor. There is no waiting for an automatic sensor to catch up, no hunt-and-peck for a touch or button control that you must look down to use.
And when you don’t need the information — say on a long night run — you can turn the screen off to keep your eyes better adjusted to the road. With a single press, you can get it back if you need it.
Meanwhile, each time you press to cycle to day or night, the system also briefly brings up the big touchscreen brightness control for that screen in case you just want to make a quick adjustment.
It’s a little thing, but attention to such details can make your daily driver just a bit more satisfying. It’s also an unusually simple, easy-to-use feature for Honda, whose multimedia systems generally offer tiny touch controls and complicated menus that Cars.com editors have found frustrating in several models.
It’s ironic thus to have to note that for the updated version of the system in the redone 2017 Honda CR-V (which brings back an honest volume knob that you can use without looking), the automaker changed this easy display tab to one of those maddeningly tiny touch controls that require your eyes off the road.
One step forward, one step back.
