Presets

The presets on my 5 year old Jeep's radio are horizontal strips that can be expanded to cover the display screen from edge to edge. They show 3 pieces of information.

If I press the "presets" button once it shows the channel names, press it again and it shows the artist names, press it a third time and it shows the song titles. So it's possible to see, for example, 4 song titles at once. If there's a song I like better than what's playing I can just hit the appropriate preset. It's a great feature.

Recently I had a chance to play with the radio in a new car in a Jeep showroom and found that it doesn't seem to have that feature. The presets are small buttons at the top of the display screen with no info other than the channel.

How do other car's presets work? The next time I shop for a new car this is something I'll consider. Thanks.

It has been my experience that almost every radio after the first generation was retired in the early 2,000's has shown everything at the same time:
Category - Channel Number - Channel Name - Artist Field - Title Field
The aftermarket Xpress series has a split-screen mode which allows one to look at the channel they are hearing on the left side of the screen plus three others on the right side.
Your tale of woe is both surprising and disappointing; today's sophists DEMAND sophistication.

ai4i, thanks for the reply!

An update: a friend of mine has a recent GM vehicle where the SAT radio has a mode where you can cycle through the channel/artist/song display using an onscreen button called, "view."

But the difference is that the "view" button is only available when viewing the entire list of 100+ channels, not just the presets like on my Jeep. Needless to say this is confusing - and dangerous - because it would require lots of scrolling while driving.

As you say, it's surprising and disappointing that the makers of these units can't stick with an interface that's as good as it can be.