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Posted

Why are modern front wheel drive cars so overladden with traction control gizmos? I totally get that in an M3, 911 or even a wee MX-5 you might need traction control to keep the rear end in check in slippery conditions but does a 115bhp 1.6 Focus really need traction control? For that matter does my 170bhp A6 need it? My A6 is hopeless around corners even though it's the *sporty s-line with massive tyres.

I was driving down to my Dads the other day on a decent country road with no traffic so I thought I'd turn it off to see what happens. The car was totally different, less under steer, no bogging down when trying to accelerate out of corners and some actual feel through the steering wheel. In all about 110% better than with traction control switched on but all the time it's flashing a big stupid warning at me as if counting down to the car exploding.

I was watching 5th gear the other day and on the new focus you can't turn the traction contol off. Can someone explain the advantage of it to me in a FWD car other than making it impossible to pull away quickly from a roundabout in the wet? There's was a gazillion fwd escorts and cavaliers with just as much power that managed it for years with out exploding.

 

 

* rock hard ride

Posted

If the car is heavy, it takes more traction to make it accelerate or change direction. Cars are now much heavier than when Cavaliers roamed the earth, they need much more help.

 

You may have noticed that safety is a key feature of cars today, traction control is a safety feature, I’m not buying a car without that safety feature, the car had better have the safety feature. Even if it makes the handling (a safety feature) worse.

Posted

As with a lot of things on modern cars it just seems to have gone too far. Too heavy, to many computers, to many gadgets that go wrong. I understand why they're there for the 99% of the general public that doesn't really give a frig if it handles and just care that it looks purdy and they've got a 21 speaker stereo but it annoys me that under all that stuff is actually a good handling car that's quite hard to get at. Maybe I just don't like being told what to do even by my car, that's why I always pay my council tax 3 days late, which is enough to annoy them but not enough that they'll make me pay it all at once. I'm off to sit in my tinfoil hat for a while.

Posted

My C4 is a foul modern car that weighs 1270kg with an empty tank. It hath no electronic safety features other than ABS. As we have found, this is a useful extra when twats in overladen 405 Estates pull out in front of you on the A14. Even the power steering is hydraulic as opposed to super light electric motor EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEURRRRRPPPPP.

Posted
  cort16 said:
I was watching 5th gear the other day and on the new focus you can't turn the traction contol off.

 

Not a surprise. The ESP can't be switched off in a lot of cars. Where there is an off button, it merely dulls the system's sensitivity, still cutting in if it decides it's needed. Some cars can completely disable the system with a combination of button or pedal presses, although it still turns itself back on next time the car is started. The off buttons have already started disappearing. I would be surprised if any cars have an ESP off button in five years.

 

ESP will be mandatory on all new cars sold in the EU (and Australia) from November this year.

Posted
  Peter said:

ESP will be mandatory on all new cars sold in the EU (and Australia) from November this year.

 

I don't understand why FWD cars need ESP. They all have massive tyres and run negative scrub radius. If you have ABS you can't even get the fucking things out of shape by braking sharply into a bend.

 

The only thing I'd make mandatory safety wise is ABS. Then again if you have a younger generation subsequently getting into older cars, you'll have carnage on the road because they'll have learn to stamp on the pedal if you need to stop quickly, and will know fuck all about middle pedal modulation.

 

My first three cars didn't have ABS, and my fourth current daily does. It has definitely made me a lazier driver in my modern, but driving my older stuff in absence quickly sharpens me back up.

Posted

So basically you can push the limits of grip further and corner in a more stable manner than an older car. But when it does go wrong, it will go very badly indeed due to the extra speed and momentum

Posted
  cort16 said:
Maybe I just don't like being told what to do even by my car, that's why I always pay my council tax 3 days late, which is enough to annoy them but not enough that they'll make me pay it all at once. I'm off to sit in my tinfoil hat for a while.

 

That is Orsome... made me lol lots :D

Posted

Even in the old model Focus, you have to go into the menu to disable the traction control. Which means you can't do it whilst driving, because the menu is only accessible whilst stationary. This is in a 90bhp 1.6TDCI, which really doesn't need it.

Oh, and my mate's Avensis has a button to turn it off, but then it turns back on over 20mph....?! So perhaps the only reason they let you turn it off is so you can pull away in the snow or something?

Posted

My dad's Avensis has a traction control button which I turn off out of spite, if you're too much of a dumbass to drive an ordinary diesel saloon without it, you might as well be chopped up and fed to your mother.

Posted

I triggered the traction control only once when I used to drive my dad's cars - I pulled out onto an empty road and one of the wheels slipped on a wet manhole cover.

 

The dashboard lit up so excitedly you'd think I was spinning across a motorway on the roof.

Posted

I bloody wish my Audi had traction control. Whenever I try to pull out from a T-Junction with any degree of vitriol I just get lots and lots of peurile wheelspin.

Guest Len H
Posted

Top 'shite tip:

 

Use your feet and reactions as traction control devices.

Posted

Surely the Autoshite way is to have such a pitifully low-powered variant of your chosen vehicle that it doesn't need it? A 1.4 Mk3 Cavalier for example.

Posted
  Len H said:
Top 'shite tip:

 

Use your feet and reactions as traction control devices.

 

 

I'll jot this bit of insight down for posterity.

Posted

I have to press the stupid button for 5 seconds or so before it comes off on the Audi. You should be able to go to the dealership, sign an idiot retraction form they then give you a code, which disables all the ESP ABC traction control nonsense but keeps on ABS and airbags.

Posted

Then you'd have to tell your insurance, and they wouldn't insure you because you would be seen as an "unsafe" driver.

Posted

A customer today ramming a kitchen unit into his car (think it was a newish Megane?) - which was that shit he had to leave it running as it wouldn't let you start it if the hatch was open... :roll:

 

Not great for picking up pallets or sofas etc. :mrgreen:

Posted

Wonder what'll happen in a few years time when all these ESP equipped cars are shod with Stomils or some other budget hoops... No one will ever get anywhere.

Posted
  TiffX19 said:
Wonder what'll happen in a few years time when all these ESP equipped cars are shod with Stomils or some other budget hoops... No one will ever get anywhere.

 

Or when all the driver aids become MOT testable items.

Posted
  warren t claim said:

Or when all the driver aids become MOT testable items.

 

I give it until the end of next month, by which time we'll have roadside thought police, pre-emptively pulling us because we were considering exceeding 70.

Posted
  RoadworkUK said:
  warren t claim said:

Or when all the driver aids become MOT testable items.

 

I give it until the end of next month, by which time we'll have roadside thought police, pre-emptively pulling us because we were considering exceeding 70.

 

ESP will become testable in next year's MOT revisions.

Posted
  Peter said:

 

ESP will become testable in next year's MOT revisions.

 

Does that mean a diagnostic test or just a check that the light comes on when you press the button?

Posted
  RoadworkUK said:
  Peter said:

 

ESP will become testable in next year's MOT revisions.

 

Does that mean a diagnostic test or just a check that the light comes on when you press the button?

 

The tester has to hold up a series of cards, marked with circles, squares, stars, wavy lines and such like. If the car doesn't guess at least 50% of them correctly it's a fail.

Posted

Something that's really getting my goat at the moment is the spazztards on ebay writing about how their 17" supermegafantasic alloys are 'wrapped in' P7000's or the like. Its just a total chav way of writing it...I'd love to see an advert for something with steels wrapped in STOWMILLZ or TRYANGEL though..

Posted
  RoadworkUK said:
  Peter said:
ESP will become testable in next year's MOT revisions.

 

Does that mean a diagnostic test or just a check that the light comes on when you press the button?

 

Draft changes on VOSA's website somewhere, but it's check light, button where applicable, wiring, missing components, 'inappropriate repair'.

Posted

Ordered a left hand Bendix brake caliper for the R14 last week it arrived yesterday. Took the car into the garage today to have it fitted.

 

The guy at the garage rings up and says it is the wrong side (right hand side). I ring the supplier, he insists he has sent the left side especially after I quote the number on the caliper (431320/00). Apparently the '320' bit means it is left hand, '319' would mean it is right hand!! I am getting very confused.

 

After several phone calls and sending him a picture of what he sent I have just ordered 431319 which is apparently right hand, anyway should fit as it is the opposite side to the original (I hope). Luckily they are only £21 each plus about £7.50 shipping.

 

I am still confused and now have an headache!! :(

Posted

'Sold' the idiot sister's freelander to a mong on ebay tonight. No phone number and not replying to emails... well until I change to a different account and ask what the reserve is on the car he's selling. Reply in 3 minutes.

 

Spacker probably planning on selling his shed, and then maybe thinking about paying for the freeloader. If he doesn't see something else, quick check shows he's 'bought' three freelanders this week already.

 

Top tips on offloading a 'slightly tired' idiot owned freelander welcome...

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