What are your 'weird' likes in cars?

[mercrocker]

Not many cars have them (unless they are broken) but I like indicators that don't self cancel and wipers that don't self-park.   Also partial to French interior lights where you can turn them on and off by the bezel.   The Cowley's interior light has a tiny chrome switch that was fitted to pre-war Morrises and never updated.  I like that as well.   I also enjoy cars where the minor controls were placed by putting a jumping jack in a box of switches.   You fumble like crazy for a month but after that its like being in a secret society.

 

I also have a penchant for door-furniture simplicity - hanging straps and cords or the brilliant Renault 4 design of a handle inside a hole which you also use to pull on.   Together with sliding windows it means a completely blank door card.   Fantastic!   I rode in a Bristol 410 once and loved the plaited cord door handles.  

 

Finally - tailored rear number plates like Rover used to do.  Nothing, but nothing, pisses me off more than seeing oblong plates on a Rover 75 bootlid....

[Hendry]

Electric Sunroofs on any car get my interest as so few cars made post 2000 have a sunroof fitted at all.

 

Ford keys, but only the chunkier non remote ones used on mk6 Escorts, mk4 Fiestas etc and remote ones from mk3 Mondeos,mk1 Focus etc and the blue keys from 2006 - 2013 Transits.

 

 

Mk5 Golf/Jetta colour coded door mirrors, the whole mirror unit excluding base plate is painted, whereas on most cars just a part of it is a painted cover, and on 90s Jap stuff with the base plate painted too it looks a bit DIY,same applies to Corsa B colour coded mirrors actually

 

 

Rear view mirrors on Vauxhalls like mk4/5 Astra, Vectra C, Corsa C/D which are wider than early 90s Vauxhall mirrors but still have the unique twist the bottom knob to dip/dim rather than move the tab back and forwards to dip/undip

 

And finally full size rear head rests which match the front seat head rests, almost all moderns have these ones which are thin upside down L shape ones which are only meant to be put up when the seat is occupied but they annoy the pedant in me, my mk5 Astra had matching front and rears like older stuff such as Sierras, Orions, mk3 Cavs, mk1 Mondeos, etc which look so much better.

[steve_earwig]

the little clear plastic domes with the red pin for Renault 18 GTS/GTX/GTD/Turbo door lock indicators (what is the correct term for these?). Loved the little red dot on the central locking button on Renaults of that era too.

 

 

I think the 16 TX's had them. I might be remembering that wrong though because my pa had a few 18s too. Instead of a big plastic pin you could push down/pull up to lock/unlock the door there was a similar mechanism that raised and lowered a small red plastic pin inside a clear plastic dome to indicate that the door was locked or unlocked.

[mat_the_cat]

Specifically fascinating is the little blank anonymous switch found between driver window and off-side rear on many models (safety cut-out) on BMWs, Mercs, Granadas, Hyundai Stellar GSL

 

Just to oblige!

 

 

Sadly the driver's switch disintegrated around 15 years back, so I had to replace it with a similar but not identical generic switch.

 

Not many cars have them (unless they are broken) but I like indicators that don't self cancel

 

I've deliberately removed the tab on my BX, so they don't self cancel - much better! I wonder if the preference is down to starting out on motorbikes?

 

One of my likes is proper mechanical switches, that you can feel which position they are in. None of these touch switches for me, that you have to purely rely on a light to know whether you've pressed it or not.

 

Another weird one is night-time illumination - I like *everything* to be lit up. Not brightly, but I love the gentle glow of rows of switches, dials etc

[mercrocker]

 

 

 

 

 

I've deliberately removed the tab on my BX, so they don't self cancel - much better! I wonder if the preference is down to starting out on motorbikes?

 

 

Might be!  None of my bikes had indicators though apart from an old step-thru.   I am pretty sure earlier Citroens never had self-cancelling although my GS was probably busted rather than designed without self-cancelling....I just like it not switching off mid-roundabout and I also use the Minor ones as reversing lights at night!

[DSdriver]

I like bizzare gadgets, like the built in dashboard parking timer in early Celica ST's, and the fact that early Rover Sterling column stalks were illuminated by fibre optics...

 

 

 I was surprised to find that the light around the ignition switch on my 1973 Citroen DS comes through an optic fibre cable from the instrument pod lights. They must have been trying out new technology on a minor application - most un-motor-manufacturer like.

[DSdriver]

Plain 3 spoke alloys

 

Nice and easy to clean, ideal for lazy gits like me who can't be asked to spend ages faffing around with a toothbrush and a bottle of acid.

[xtriple]

The choke control on sixties Jags, so precise and smooth like a Swiss watch!

[DS20]

 I was surprised to find that the light around the ignition switch on my 1973 Citroen DS comes through an optic fibre cable from the instrument pod lights. They must have been trying out new technology on a minor application - most un-motor-manufacturer like.

 

 

Am jealous of your illuminated ignition switch.  Mine (a 1974 car) doesn't have illumination at that point, and I am jealous.  

 

 

 

On second thoughts, it might well have had illumination at some stage, but is now broken.  Am still jealous  

[HH-R]

I prefer indicators that don't self cancel, though if they're well designed then the annoyance doesn't matter so much. Thought about smashing the tabs off in my own car because it doesn't let you indicate on approach to roundabouts, self cancels 3 or 4 times on the roundabout, then doesn't self cancel after you've indicated left to come off and straighten up and I'd had enough of it on Friday. Shite. Still, if I had taken it apart in annoyance, the whole lot would have been broken.

 

I like pov spec interiors too, no rev counter etc, though 80s cars do this better than newer stuff. e.g early 205 XE, lovely.

[twosmoke300]

Vectra c , worst indicators Eva !

[brickwall]

Flick switches as oppossed to push in plastic things.

[DSdriver]

Am jealous of your illuminated ignition switch.  Mine (a 1974 car) doesn't have illumination at that point, and I am jealous.  

 

 

 

On second thoughts, it might well have had illumination at some stage, but is now broken.  Am still jealous

Next time you have the speedo/revcounter pod out check for a loose cable with a plastic clip on the end. It should be clipped to the ignition switch but often gets left off because people don't realise what it is for.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Vectra c , worst indicators Eva !

BMW didn't think so,they copied them on the e60/e61. But then Vauxhall copied the stupid feckin idea from Jaguar on the early XJ40, even they saw it was a bad idea and binned it at the first facelift.

[catsinthewelder]

The current Citroen/Peugeot vans have bloody awful indicator switches that don't seem to have any 'off' between left and right.  The self cancelling works reasonably well but if you knock them on when dipping the headlights then you can easily indicate left right left right followed by swerving the van to self cancel the fuckers.  I'm frankly amazed that I haven't been pulled over and breathalysed.

[jakebullet]

Things for your left foot to do. Dip switch in series landy. Screenwash pump in poverty spec mk1 fiesta.

 

Also door handles that confuse people. Like the crapi ones that lift up.

[nisfan]

The clattering of a Renault 18 deisel, like spanners in a washing machine.

The squeeking of the mileommeter in the honda.... oh wait no that drives me insane.

[DSdriver]

...Also door handles that confuse people. Like the crapi ones that lift up.

 

And the DS interior door handles that novices have trouble with, and there was an Alfa 4 door where the exterior door handles were in a strange place.

We could almost make a complete thread of these.

[mercrocker]

How about those Commer vans with the little thumb grip under the push button/key hole - no handle.

[Six-cylinder]

My odd like is large rear glass hatch window such as the Renault Fuego and Jensen Interceptor.

 

 

 

[Cavcraft]

'What are your 'weird' likes in cars?'

 

 

[steve_earwig]

He said weird, not perverse

[supermellowman]

....Horizontal twin headlamps and a matt black grill (Series 1 Manta/Dino Coupe/Triumph 2.5PI)....

 

+1 on this. Growing up in the 70s, twin headlamps were usually, but not always, a sign of something a bit more special than the norm. Had to be from design though - twin headlamp conversions on early Range Rovers and the like (where they were added within the grille) never did it for me. 

 

 

Overdrive switches in the top of the gear lever (late MGBs, Triumphs etc). Always felt like a povvo James Bond reaching for the ejector seat button   

[doobietoo]

That when i select reverse in the Giffer Special with the front wipers on the rear wiper automatically wipes simple but effective

[Hendry]

That when i select reverse in the Giffer Special with the front wipers on the rear wiper automatically wipes simple but effective

Think the mk1 Renault Megane was the first car to do this, 'smart' wipers the feature is called.

[Richard]

The Mk3 Ford Granada did that, and I think the Rover 800 hatchbacks did too.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Think the mk1 Renault Megane was the first car to do this, 'smart' wipers the feature is called.

First time I encountered it was on a Mk3 Granada in 1986, rover 800 Fastbacks did it a couple of years later too.

 

 

I must learn to type quicker!

[eddyramrod]

My Tacuma does that too, which would be lovely if the blade swept the screen as it's supposed to!

[steve_earwig]

I think the 406 will do that, if I could be bothered to turn it on.

[Barry Cade]

Engines behind me,

Italian gauges which give approximate info, and a full tank coming off roundabouts

V8's and straight 5's

Unmarked aftermarket switches. You just have to.

Italian air horns

Strip Speedos

The smell of V Power in a hot shed

Pedals which beg you to heel and toe

light flywheels, zingy.

Webers which have a change of tone as the 2nd choke comes in.