Powered car boot lids are a rare oasis of calm in the modern world… or a complete waste of time

Let’s get the caveats out of the way first. I admit I am an impatient person. I can also see some benefits to electrically powered car boot lids. These include being able to operate the boot without getting your hands dirty from the grime on the tailgate; shorter people not having to jump up to close the tailgate on bigger cars; and the ability to open the boot with a keyfob or a kick under the rear bumper on cars with those features installed. 

Having recognised all that, I still hate powered boot lids. 

There are two main problems, in my eyes. The big one is the speed these things operate at. Any of us can, under normal circumstances, open a manual car boot in a second or two without trying. However, cars with powered tailgates can take upwards of five seconds. 

As I have found out, if you can’t be bothered waiting and try to help the tailgate on its ponderous upward glide with a little shove, it gets upset and stops completely. There’s rarely a DIY option to disengage the motors; on most cars your tailgate is powered and doesn’t want any of your help.

To add insult to injury, while you’re standing at the back of the car gazing into space for those three or four dead seconds, the tailgate will often sound a repetitive warning beep at you. This is just to let everyone know to stand well back while it’s doing its thing, and not to stick their arms or heads inside, but it does very little to ease my frustration.  

The absolute worst thing that can happen while the tailgate is closing is that you remember something important that’s inside the boot and needs to come out, or that’s outside the boot and has to go in. Do you ignore the boot’s warning siren and make a quick grab for your bobble hat under the descending slab, Indiana Jones style – at the risk of knocking the tailgate and sending the motors into spasm? Or do you wait for the boot to finish its closing action, then complete its re-opening action, as I’m sure the manufacturer would advise? It all adds up to more vital seconds swallowed forever by your car boot. 

Or is there another way to look at it? 

Are powered boot lids the answer to a question that nobody asked or have car manufacturers actually hit on a micro-method of freeing us from the relentless grind of modern life, with its constant demands on our time and attention? 

Those few seconds of ‘boot-time’ might actually be doing us the world of good. They are a fleeting but valuable chance to relax, switch off and consider the bigger questions. Does BMW or Mercedes have the better car back catalogue? Will Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner get married? Did I leave the iron on?

There are certainly advantages to the powered tailgate, and those few stolen seconds of boot-time may or may not be among them, depending on your point of view. But for me, this increasingly common feature is just another in the long line of things on modern cars that look better in the brochure than they do in the harsh glare of day-to-day life. 

Touchscreens, keyless start, lane-departure warning systems… don’t get me started. Just don’t spend your next chunk of boot-time fretting about any of it. That really would be a waste.

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