Blind Alleys in Car Design

[Timewaster]

But what is the point?! I have never ever thought

"I like my car, but I really hate having to twist the key when I want it to go - If only there were a solution!"

 

How about sun visors that bloody work, or wipers that clear more than 50% of the screen, or screens that don't mist up..

You know, USEFULL inventions instead of crap like automatic lights or rain sensing wipers.

 

And another thing - bloody thermostatic heating! a stupid solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Set 20 degrees, Get blasted with cold air untill the engine warms up......

Engine is warm, blasted with nuclear hot air until car reaches 20 degrees...

Fan is still on, blasted with cold air until car dips to 18 degrees...

Blasted with nuclear hot air untill car reaches 20 degrees..

And so on.

 

Sorry. Ranted on a bit there.

[406V6]

Front hinged bonnets.

I was about to say suicide rear doors (hinged on the rear door) but they've made a comeback !

starting handle

Gauges like an ammeter and oil pressure

Column gear change

Three speed manual gear box. Probably 4 speeds have gone now as well

Chrome bumpers

Wing mirrors

Opening quarter light windows

Spoilers on mainstream cars

The electrically heated front screen is almost a blind alley as it has barely appeared outside Ford group cars.

 

Glad to see that digital dashboards have pretty much gone. I had a GTE years ago and hated the dash.

[fiatdaft]

Digital dashes are very common,column gear's are coming back (new x5)

[dollywobbler]

But what is the point?! I have never ever thought

"I like my car, but I really hate having to twist the key when I want it to go - If only there were a solution!"

 

How about sun visors that bloody work, or wipers that clear more than 50% of the screen, or screens that don't mist up..

You know, USEFULL inventions instead of crap like automatic lights or rain sensing wipers.

 

And another thing - bloody thermostatic heating! a stupid solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Set 20 degrees, Get blasted with cold air untill the engine warms up......

Engine is warm, blasted with nuclear hot air until car reaches 20 degrees...

Fan is still on, blasted with cold air until car dips to 18 degrees...

Blasted with nuclear hot air untill car reaches 20 degrees..

And so on.

 

Sorry. Ranted on a bit there.

 

Buy my Rover. I was very impressed that unless you ask for Demist, it resolutely refuses to put the fans up until the engine is actually warm enough to provide some warm air. Someone's actually thought about that.

 

I'm very much saddened that a handbrake operated by a lever could end up being a blind alley. Electronic ones are just ridiculous. It's like replacing your front door with a switch. When pressed, an old man with Alzheimers comes out of a little hut, and spends half an hour trying to open the door with an electric corkscrew. Progress. Pah.

[Pete-M]

But what is the point?! I have never ever thought

"I like my car, but I really hate having to twist the key when I want it to go - If only there were a solution!"

 

How about sun visors that bloody work, or wipers that clear more than 50% of the screen, or screens that don't mist up..

You know, USEFULL inventions instead of crap like automatic lights or rain sensing wipers.

 

And another thing - bloody thermostatic heating! a stupid solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Set 20 degrees, Get blasted with cold air untill the engine warms up......

Engine is warm, blasted with nuclear hot air until car reaches 20 degrees...

Fan is still on, blasted with cold air until car dips to 18 degrees...

Blasted with nuclear hot air untill car reaches 20 degrees..

And so on.

 

Sorry. Ranted on a bit there.

 

Hmm. Audi and a few others do good sun visors. Often with a little one in the middle above the mirror. My Jeep has little extending bits that slide out of the side of the visor behind the mirror which doesn't work quite as well.

 

Wipers I don't find much of a problem with. Unless they're single like on the X300. They're shit, single wipers.

 

Don't want the screen to mist up? Turn the aircon on. That stops misty windows near instantly. It's a dehumidifiying system as well, y'know.

 

As for thermostatic heating controls, what car are you on about? I don't touch the heaters in my car other than to hit the demist function in winter. Rest of the time I have 'em set to "FULL AUTO, 21°C" and that's that for pretty much the whole year.. I don't get the hot / cold blast thing. Only car I had that did that was my old Volvo 850 T5, if I opened the window the bloody thing would go nuts trying to compensate for the change of temperature in the car. Neither the Jag nor the Jeep spin the heater fan up when set to auto until the coolant has warmed up a bit. They both give me the blast of cold air if it's hot out, but I like that. It makes getting in a nice cool car a bonus.

 

If you run climate systems in economy mode or with broken / discharged aircon they're pointless.

[martc]

back to blind alleys, what about gearbox in sump designs? Stuff like transverse A series and PSA suitcase engines where the engine oil also lubricates a gearbox housed directly below the crank.... Are there any current designs using this system?

 

Most "modern" four stroke motorbike engines share their oil between engine and gearbox; although the cogs are behind the engine rather than underneath and so strictly speaking the gears are not in the sump.

[Guest]

Sometimes even the big car manufacturers can get it wrong. Ford spent millions on the two stroke engine for the KA and Fiesta only for it to be canned at the last minute due to emission regs. Audi thought that it's Procon 10 safety system would be the way forward but the general public preferred airbags. Lotus had it's active ride suspension working well until they binned the idea.

 

What others are there?

 

That engine was two stroke triple thing designed by Yamaha. Someone I know has one under his work bench. Can't say how it escaped captivity. We were going to chuck a Capri box on it and stick it in an Anglia!

[Guest]

sd1 where the dash was teh same either side for ease of rhd/lhd

 

no other makers did that........

 

Ford Anglia 105E *COUGH*

One side glove box t'other speedo assembly/igntion/light switch etc - two screws in each - swappable. Simple as that.

Heater contols in middle.

[R9UKE]

But what is the point?! I have never ever thought

"I like my car, but I really hate having to twist the key when I want it to go - If only there were a solution!"

 

How about sun visors that bloody work, or wipers that clear more than 50% of the screen, or screens that don't mist up..

You know, USEFULL inventions instead of crap like automatic lights or rain sensing wipers.

 

And another thing - bloody thermostatic heating! a stupid solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Set 20 degrees, Get blasted with cold air untill the engine warms up......

Engine is warm, blasted with nuclear hot air until car reaches 20 degrees...

Fan is still on, blasted with cold air until car dips to 18 degrees...

Blasted with nuclear hot air untill car reaches 20 degrees..

And so on.

 

Sorry. Ranted on a bit there.

 

I HAVE to argue this. The Mégane has them all and they're all bloody excellent

 

Keyless start. You really appreciate it when carrying loads of stuff, just pull the handle and it opens without having to drop everything and search yourself for the keys. Also means you're not carrying your keys around when going to or from the car. I'm a bastard for setting stuff down somewhere and forgetting about it... never happens with this, keys are always in my pocket. Ironically, Renault changed the design of the Laguna key card to fit on your keys when they brought in keyless start!

 

Auto lights. Great safety feature. Prevention of muppets driving around with no lights on. Granted, auto wipers are much more of a gimmick, but work well!

 

I presume you mean Automatic climate control? The issues you brought up are precisely what the system prevents. Mine is at 21 degrees and AUTO all the time. Get in on a freezing morning and it doesn't start blowing until it knows the air will be warm. The system is really discrete and works so well that I can't remember the last time I touched the climate control. There's an interior temperature sensor, pollution sensor and a sunlight sensor. Perhaps the ones you've experienced weren't quite so sophisticated?

 

I'd give you the Meggy for a week to live with this stuff if I could, and I can guarantee you'd appreciate them, even if there's no real need for them

[gricer]

As well as the afore-mentioned Land Rover there's the Morris Minor and Mini. I get where you're aiming at, as the speedo binnacle on the SD1 just swaps with the glovebox or something. I reckon other cars have done similar though, just can't think of any!

 

 

Most large Renaults - Espace, Scenic, Laguna etc

[barefoot]

Dead Ends;

 

The Oldsmobile Toranado had 'a 2" wide silent chain-drive called Hy-Vo' - now you don't see stuff like that on your Kia's.

[Shep Shepherd]

^^ The system was also used by Cadillac on its Eldorado model

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Digital dashes are very common,column gear's are coming back (new x5)

 

Column shifts arrived with the E65 7 Series 10 years ago.

 

Other crap design:

 

Electronic handbrakes

Starter buttons

Modern auto shifters - WTF?

i-Drive. WTF!!! x 10.

Headlights that stretch nearly back to the screen pillars.

 

 

The way forwards is simply designed and constructed using proper quality materials that will last 10-20 years. That's modern cars fucked then.

[AnthonyG]

Large American domestic cars, from the Taurus/Impalas to the Caddys and Lincolns, have always had column change since the 1930s. They never got into floor shifters except for 'sporty' and small cars, manual or auto.

[Craig the Princess]

Rocker switch indicator controls - see Citroens

Indicator stalks on the correct side - see british tat and Jap stuff until the early 90s.

[Pete-M]

Rocker switch indicator controls - see Citroens

Indicator stalks on the correct side - see british tat and Jap stuff until the early 90s.

 

Kias and some Mitsubishis still have the indicators on the correct side.

[Timewaster]

Rant.

 

 

As for thermostatic heating controls, what car are you on about? I don't touch the heaters in my car other than to hit the demist function in winter. Rest of the time I have 'em set to "FULL AUTO, 21°C" and that's that for pretty much the whole year.. I don't get the hot / cold blast thing. Only car I had that did that was my old Volvo 850 T5, if I opened the window the bloody thing would go nuts trying to compensate for the change of temperature in the car. Neither the Jag nor the Jeep spin the heater fan up when set to auto until the coolant has warmed up a bit. They both give me the blast of cold air if it's hot out, but I like that. It makes getting in a nice cool car a bonus.

 

If you run climate systems in economy mode or with broken / discharged aircon they're pointless.

 

At the moment, '07 Iveco Daily. Only 3 heat settings available. Very cold, cold, and Very hot fllowed by cold. Utterly hopeless!

I had a '92 405 with climate control but no aircon, again utterly hopeless and eventually packed in altogether, so I replaced the controls with basic ones. 100% improvement.

Broken / discharged aircon? This IS Autoshite!

[Cheggers]

Back to the topic of Blind Alleys rather than just "modern stuff I don't like"...

 

Brake "mushrooms" instead of pedals (yes, Citroen, I'm looking at you).

[fiatdaft]

Digital dashes are very common,column gear's are coming back (new x5)

 

Column shifts arrived with the E65 7 Series 10 years ago.

 

Other crap design:

 

Electronic handbrakes

Starter buttons

Modern auto shifters - WTF?

i-Drive. WTF!!! x 10.

Headlights that stretch nearly back to the screen pillars.

 

 

The way forwards is simply designed and constructed using proper quality materials that will last 10-20 years. That's modern cars fucked then.

 

I forgot about the seven series!

[Timewaster]

Back to the topic of Blind Alleys rather than just "modern stuff I don't like"...

 

Appologies for steering off topic..

 

Rear panel filler caps. Presumably a crash safety thing, but would mean you could use either side of the pump more easily.

[M'coli]

Window wipers powered by inlet vacuum...the mind boggles.

Transverse leaf springs - although no doubt someone will be along to tell me otherwise.

 

There are a lot of things that have been suggested that aren't really blind alleys - like starting handles which have been replaced with motors or 3- and 4-speed gearboxes, as they've just been superceded by 4- 5- and 6-speed jobs - or things that have gone out of fashion, like sunrooofs (thankew, I hate the bloody things) and keep-fit windows. They are just a flavour of the times, but the real blind alleys are things like the Wankel engine, or the hot bulb ignition, the pre-selector gearbox, floor mounted dip switches etc..

 

I was going to add the parallel twin engine, but Fiat have only gone and brought it back - next thing you know, Citroen'll be making flat-twin engines with inboard brakes again!

[RoadworkUK]

Transverse leaf springs - although no doubt someone will be along to tell me otherwise.

 

 

.....and here he comes. I believe the Corvette still uses them.

[fiatdaft]

The corvette uses a transverse rear leaf still.

[fiatdaft]

bugger 2 mins slow!

 

I think the merc sprinter has aswell.

[dollywobbler]

Smarts did have transverse leaf until 2001. Here's a thought. Is independent rear suspension set to be a blind alley? Quite a few cars (Honda Civic most notably) seem to have reverted to a 'dead' axle instead, presumably because it's pretty much as good and cheaper.

[pompei]

Rear engine Fiats - 500, 600, 850 have transverse leaf springs at the front. I'm told the idea is that there is a degree of twist that acts as an anti roll bar. None of those cars can go particularly fast in standard form but with modifications they can fly - the tuners generally keep the spring arrangement, only lowered using reverse eyes on the spring ends.

 

Some heavily modified 500's have recently been fitted with independent front springs but I'm not sure how successful it has been.

[fiatdaft]

The 127,128,strada , regata mk1 ibiza,malaga and rhonda had one at the back.

[John F]

Does anything (new) still have pop-up headlights, or have they been legislated into the dustbin of history?

[dollywobbler]

Does anything (new) still have pop-up headlights, or have they been legislated into the dustbin of history?

 

Good call. I guess cars like the Calibra, with their thin sliver of headlamp, made pop-ups rather unecessary anyway.

[R9UKE]

Plus it was another thing to go wrong.