Buttons you never press

[warch]

I was driving my youngest daughter somewhere this morning and she started asking me what some of the buttons on the dashboard do. It occurs to me that quite a few have either never been pressed or I have absolutely no idea what they're for. There's this in my Qashqai frinstance, what the hell is it for? Closer investigation revealed that it lights up when you press it, but has no other apparent function unless its a time delayed self destruct button. I was also mystified by some of the stereo buttons, does RPT Mix act as a random selection when you have a CD playing?

What mystery buttons does you car have?

[willswitchengage]

There's this mysterious stalk on the left of the steering wheel column that most of the drivers around here have failed to figure out the use of - still not sure what it does.

[tooSavvy]

21 minutes ago, willswitchengage said:

There's this mysterious stalk on the left of the steering wheel column that most of the drivers around here have failed to figure out the use of - still not sure what it does.

Yes... But when I drive different makes I endup with very clear windscreen.... 😵

[grogee]

Both our silver estates have electric folding mirrors. But neither operates automatically when the car is locked. And the ignition has to be on for them to move. 

Thus almost completely useless unless you need a couple of inches passing on a tight country lane. At which point they'll probably be seized from lack of use. 

Loads of cars have almost completely useless FM radio buttons like 'PTY', 'LOC', etc. I've read a lot about how they're supposed to work but they still haven't solved the fundamental issue, which is that all FM radio is totally shit.

Edit: FM radio content is shit. FM as a format is excellent

[GR8 PL8 M8]

I always forget that "power" buttons on automatics exist, and end up never pressing them, even when I could have used the extra oomph.

19 minutes ago, grogee said:

Both our silver estates have electric folding mirrors. But neither operates automatically when the car is locked. And the ignition has to be on for them to move. 

Thus almost completely useless unless you need a couple of inches passing on a tight country lane. At which point they'll probably be seized from lack of use.

I used to use the power folding mirrors on my Soarer regularly, just remember to press the button before turning the ignition off after parking up. The sonic mirror button on the other hand, I never pressed that, but that's because they were shit.

Another Soarer button (in fact these are all from the Soarer as I don't drive the Daewoo anywhere near fast enough to require moar power) was the heated seat button. I used and enjoyed them the first winter I had the car, but by the second I had forgotten that it was equipped with them, and only remembered when I was writing the sale advert!

[Mally]

I can start it, stop it, work the indicators and the electric roof.

Anything else I'd have to get the book out.

Edit , wipers I can also do them, but tend to push the stalk up instead of down.

[Sham]

I found a new button the other day. It's on the b pillar, low down and hidden by the driver's seat.

I had to look it up, and apparently if you open the door to get out, push the button and then lock the car it will set the alarm but disable interior scanning and the towaway protection. Which is nice.

Except I can do the same thing by pressing the lock button on the remote twice - making a hidden button somewhat useless - and I doubt it's been pressed in the 11 years the car has existed.

I do know what every other button does though, and have used them all at least once.

[Zelandeth]

This one was always good for getting a "...?" Sort of reaction from folks...

[AndyW201]

I never press the button for the folding mirrors on the Merc now. Not since I found out that when the offside mirror folds in, it messes with the wiring for the led side repeater in the mirror, and results in the offside repeater not working.

Both repeaters work now, so I leave well alone.

 

[grogee]

33 minutes ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

I always forget that "power" buttons on automatics exist, and end up never pressing them, even when I could have used the extra oomph.

I used to use the power folding mirrors on my Soarer regularly, just remember to press the button before turning the ignition off after parking up. The sonic mirror button on the other hand, I never pressed that, but that's because they were shit.

Another Soarer button (in fact these are all from the Soarer as I don't drive the Daewoo anywhere near fast enough to require moar power) was the heated seat button. I used and enjoyed them the first winter I had the car, but by the second I had forgotten that it was equipped with them, and only remembered when I was writing the sale advert!

Sonic mirror???

[captain_70s]

The button in Saabs that turns off all the dash lights except the speedo. Utterly pointless, especially as the dash lights can all be dimmed.

[grogee]

I was in my neighbour's RAV4 the other day and noticed it had a button called (something like) HIGH IDLE. It seemed to just raise the idle speed a bit. 

Is this an off-roader thing? How is it useful?

[Sham]

9 minutes ago, grogee said:

I was in my neighbour's RAV4 the other day and noticed it had a button called (something like) HIGH IDLE. It seemed to just raise the idle speed a bit. 

Is this an off-roader thing? How is it useful?

Allows the car to travel slowly with no throttle input, allows to you control car on the brakes and clutch on rough terrain.

[Popsicle]

I think its for wading to help stop the engine stalling. So unlikely to be needed in a Rav4 unless you've snorkeled it up for off road fun.

[dome]

Slightly off topic but I desperately wanted this button for my Audi.

 

[GR8 PL8 M8]

13 minutes ago, grogee said:

Sonic mirror???

The mirrors vibrate for a short period of time which is supposed to shake water droplets off. In reality it just makes a nasty noise. It's possible that "ultrasonic" is a more appropriate term, but I've always truncated it.

[High Jetter]

So HIGH IDLE is not for when you CBA after indulging in illegal substances then?

The 'Eco' mode button in Mrs J's Auris. Touched it once to turn off the stop-start and her moans about it stalling vanished.

[Rustybullethole]

Seat belt release button. Tell a lie I use it after mots. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

All the daft FM buttons on the Sony HU in the Fabia. I use BBC R2 and Radio Scotland sometimes, just press the preset buttons.

The Eco button doesn't get used in the Duster as it makes it rather gutless.

[sierraman]

Electric sunroof on an old car. Extra points if you try it before a rainstorm.

[warren t claim]

[Crackers]

4 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

Isn't that basically the manufacturer finding a massive bug in the car's hardware/software package and adding a button that just says "we know this'll probably shit itself repeatedly at some point, so here's a handy button to turn it off and on again because our R&D department ran out of cash after we screwed the first few of these together"?

[MrBiscuits]

15 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Isn't that basically the manufacturer finding a massive bug in the car's hardware/software package and adding a button that just says "we know this'll probably shit itself repeatedly at some point, so here's a handy button to turn it off and on again because our R&D department ran out of cash after we screwed the first few of these together"?

That's actually a clever little button - it let's the big battery boost the 12v if it goes flat, effectively the car can jump start itself.

Something Toyota omitted on their hybrids.

[Spiny Norman]

42 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Electric sunroof on an old car. Extra points if you try it before a rainstorm.

When I was driving my new* 27 year old Volvo home last month in the rain, I inadvertently hit the sunroof button while hitting random buttons to see what they all did. Not only did it open, but it closed again afterwards. I call that a WIN.

Buttons I never use?

I've never taken to AC in a car and in the unlikely event of anything I buy with it working it'll be broken by the time I sell it because I won't have switched it on the entire time I've owned the car.
 

[GeordieInExile]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

The button in Saabs that turns off all the dash lights except the speedo. Utterly pointless, especially as the dash lights can all be dimmed.

I used to use this all the time for late night driving!

I think I've used every single button in my 850. That's why I like it, everything has a reason to be there.

[Missy Charm]

Whenever I press one of my car's black controls,  which are labelled with black text on a black background, a small black light lights up to tell me that I've done it.  

On a serious note: the cabin air recirculator  button.  What's the point?  I have pressed the air conditioning button on occasion, as on Fords the system automatically comes on when setting the ventilation to demist so one is obliged to manually turn it off again.  That's now redundant on my car as the compressor has been disconnected.  

Also on Fords: nobody ever uses the steering column mounted remote controls for the radio.  To use them requires one to take one's hand off the wheel so, having done so, one may as well use the controls on the radio itself.  Pointless.

[Crackers]

10 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

I've never taken to AC in a car and in the unlikely event of anything I buy with it working it'll be broken by the time I sell it because I won't have switched it on the entire time I've owned the car.

Why not, may I ask? Unlike a lot of "features", A/C is one that actively improves interior conditions in pretty much any circumstance and can also have a safety benefit too.

[grogee]

1 hour ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

The mirrors vibrate for a short period of time which is supposed to shake water droplets off. In reality it just makes a nasty noise. It's possible that "ultrasonic" is a more appropriate term, but I've always truncated it.

That's barking, never heard of that. 

Cool (even though it doesn't work)

[Crackers]

Just now, Missy Charm said:

On a serious note: the cabin air recirculator  button.  What's the point?  I have pressed the air conditioning button on occasion, as on Fords the system automatically comes on when setting the ventilation to demist so one is obliged to manually turn it off again.  That's now redundant on my car as the compressor has been disconnected.  

Also on Fords: nobody ever uses the steering column mounted remote controls for the radio.  To use them requires one to take one's hand off the wheel so, having done so, one may as well use the controls on the radio itself.  Pointless.

Most of this isn't right, I'm afraid. The demist position switches the AC on automatically when selected, and then the AC will turn off automatically when demist is deselected. On the Mk1, the combined screen/feet option didn't engage the AC. Also, the recirculator button is useful if you drive through bonfire smoke or past a sewage plant. On the Mk1, it also gave the AC a turbo-mode which seemed to find an extra fan speed when recirc was combined with AC, full fan speed and lowest temperature setting.

I don't know what the column controls on your Mk2 look like but on the Mk1 they were very logically laid out and easy to reach with the fingertips, without leaving the wheel. I preferred them to most normal wheel-mounted controls as they are always in the same place and simply to use, they do everything you need: volume, source, and seek. 

[MikeR]

the divers window button , its disconnected since the mech went fubare on me ..

does a broken window winder fail the mot ?