Car design quirks that do/did your head in

[captain_cal]

Doesn't the Boxster have jump points in the cabin, so you can at least give it enough juice to actuate the electric boot/bonnet latches? My 944 has a positive jump point in the engine bay, which is very useful as the battery is buried in the boot, similarly underneath an electric tailgate latch..

[RoverFolkUs]

I've got another irk. 

Modern Vauxhall/GM with their lazy main beam/dip switch 

Select main beam and there's a half second delay before it switches. And the same when selecting dipped from main.

Really frustrating, you press the lever, think it's not done anything so press it again, then it flashes, then you want to select dipped and it's not instant so you flick the switch again and again in a fit of confusion and end up flashing oncoming motorists 

[Barry Cade]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

The boxster i had at least - an early one- had a partly cable but also electrical boot (front end) release. So If the battery went flat, the release wouldnt allow you to access the battery. 

Ultimately you can do some dismantling to get the latch to release , but still. Whats wrong with it being purely mechanical, given that a dead battery becomes inaccessible?

The boxster has a little jump lead connection down at the drivers A post to get power in to pop the "bonnet" to get to the battery..

[Barry Cade]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I had a similar problem when the battery went flat on my Passat - doors are deadlocked and cannot be opened with the key or even by pulling the interior handles. Only way in is via the boot, then you have to try and use a bent rod pushed up between the seat back and the (metal) parcel shelf to try and release the latch (ideally with someone looking from outside to guide you) then a crawl through the car to pull the bonnet release - then out the way you came as the doors still don't open until you've put jump leads on.

There are locks on the seat back releases to prevent access this way but thankfully I've never used them!

Only other way that's just occured to me would be to trickle charge it via the accessory socket in the boot that's always live.

Either use an airbag then a long hook to pull the bonnet release, or crawl underneath and put the jump pack on the starter live. I loved lockouts!. 

There are usually 2 fuse positions on VAG accessory sockets,, most are only ign live unless you choose them not to be.

[SiC]

11 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

The boxster has a little jump lead connection down at the drivers A post to get power in to pop the "bonnet" to get to the battery..

Only on later ones. Earlier ones you had to make a harness up to plug into the fusebox and feed power directly into the central locking circuit. Same with the earlier 996 911. Porsche has a dealer technical note floating somewhere around saying how to do it. I had to do this on my earlier 2000 Boxster as it didn't have the red pull out tab in the fusebox. 

These earlier ones had a mechanical bonnet release though. The controls are locked out when the doors are locked. So the power to the central locking is to allow that control lock out to be disabled. Basically it's a solenoid that pushes a bit of plastic over the release controls to lock them. Many remove this solenoid to prevent it happening again. After all, you need to unlock and open the door to gain access to the controls anyway as they're on the sill. 

Later Boxsters and Caymans have that red pull out tab as you say. I had to do it on my mum's Cayman. The alarms always go off too and the loudest things ever when the car is in a garage!

[chaseracer]

On 31/12/2023 at 11:50, Alusilber said:

...a solid metal gearknob (gets cold in winter and hot in summer}

Domestic Management's DS3 has this, plus the same metallic abomination on the steering wheel.

[davidfowler2000]

While looking for replacements for the V70, I have been looking at VW Golfs again. Mk7 and 7.5 to be specific. One thing that stands out amoungst all of them is that even on remarkably high spec ones like FAITHER_df2k's latest effort that has: heated seats, navigation, electric adjust / fold / heat mirrors, adaptive cruise, bluetooth phone and audio, USB connectivity, LED headlights, android auto, apple carplay, quite a nicely powerful engine (1.4TSI).... and some other bits and pieces - FULL MANUAL heating and climate controls.

FAITHER's car is a Match spec. Even the next trim level up, the GT, seems to come as standard with MANUAL heating and climate. Even my GT from 2009 had semi auto climate - the fan and direction were manual but the temperature was automatic.

Seeing I have pretty much accepted I'm getting another Golf I have set my target to find one in the right spec I want with auto climate. I ain't spending £10K+ on a car in 2024 to have manual HVAC.

[Noel Tidybeard]

wow even a bASe civic 8,9 & 10 have climate

[Metal Guru]

On 06/01/2024 at 13:25, Zelandeth said:

I quite liked Renault's solution to the sun visors not meeting in the middle.

I mean they could have just moulded the visors to fill that gap...but let's not bring logic into this.

My Subaru has that but has bigger gaps than shown there and is pretty useless. I suspect they expected people to put a big rally sticker across the top of the windscreen anyway. 

[Metal Guru]

On 06/01/2024 at 23:14, Barry Cade said:

Either use an airbag then a long hook to pull the bonnet release, or crawl underneath and put the jump pack on the starter live. I loved lockouts!. 

There are usually 2 fuse positions on VAG accessory sockets,, most are only ign live unless you choose them not to be.

We had a Passat (2012 2.0TDi SE). It had a  plastic manual key hidden in the key fob for the purpose of opening the doors when the battery was flat. You would have to be very careful not to snap it off in the lock.

[Urko]

The coolant temp gauge on R75/MGZT is a BMW design that deliberately operates in a non-linear way.  It means that rather seeing a gradually (or even quickly) rising temperature, it jumps from the middle to the high end and by the time it does that you're already in the shit.  It seems utterly crazy to me to have a dial to show a representation of coolant temp where the majority of the scale is never used. 

[horriblemercedes]

15 minutes ago, Urko said:

The coolant temp gauge on R75/MGZT is a BMW design that deliberately operates in a non-linear way.  It means that rather seeing a gradually (or even quickly) rising temperature, it jumps from the middle to the high end and by the time it does that you're already in the shit.  It seems utterly crazy to me to have a dial to show a representation of coolant temp where the majority of the scale is never used. 

The reasoning is so that people don't panic as it fluctuates I think, but it does seem silly to me. It might as well just be a warning light for overheating and not have a gauge at all.

 

mk3 Mazda MX-5 'oil pressure' gauge. It doesn't measure oil pressure at all - it is a non-calibrated scale that reacts only to RPM and coolant temperature.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, horriblemercedes said:

The reasoning is so that people don't panic as it fluctuates I think, but it does seem silly to me. It might as well just be a warning light for overheating and not have a gauge at all

Most people wouldn't notice the gauge sitting in the red anyway, unless a big pointy finger on a spring popped out of the dash and a klaxon went off.

Then having noticed it, they'd have no idea what to do with the information.

My Renault would vary the temperature from 1/2 to just below the red (a change of 10 degrees), the fan cutting in just as the needle was about to broach the warning zone. It would do that if sat in traffic on a warm day. As soon as you'd start driving again it would go back down to the middle. The Pontiac creeps slowly because it's such a large engine (physically, there is a lot of iron and a lot of water to heat and cool) so I'm sure most modern cars with tiny engines and a thermos flask full of coolant in would have the temperature gauge wagging like a metronome in traffic and people would simply freak out.

Also 5psi of oil pressure on a hot engine isn't usually a worry but there's no point in showing the actual pressure, given that it will drop at a steady speed as you drive as the oil heats up.

People think the magical electronics negate the laws of physics.

 

Phil

[chaseracer]

On 07/01/2024 at 12:16, davidfowler2000 said:

While looking for replacements for the V70...

WHIT...??!?

[Alusilber]

On 07/01/2024 at 12:16, davidfowler2000 said:

While looking for replacements for the V70, I have been looking at VW Golfs again. Mk7 and 7.5 to be specific. One thing that stands out amoungst all of them is that even on remarkably high spec ones like FAITHER_df2k's latest effort that has: heated seats, navigation, electric adjust / fold / heat mirrors, adaptive cruise, bluetooth phone and audio, USB connectivity, LED headlights, android auto, apple carplay, quite a nicely powerful engine (1.4TSI).... and some other bits and pieces - FULL MANUAL heating and climate controls.

FAITHER's car is a Match spec. Even the next trim level up, the GT, seems to come as standard with MANUAL heating and climate. Even my GT from 2009 had semi auto climate - the fan and direction were manual but the temperature was automatic.

Seeing I have pretty much accepted I'm getting another Golf I have set my target to find one in the right spec I want with auto climate. I ain't spending £10K+ on a car in 2024 to have manual HVAC.

I think what you're going to need is a Match Edition (or GT Edition, or R-Line Edition...) - basically the Mk7.5 runout models they built around October-December 2019, which have various extra toys (including 2Zone climate control) as standard. It'll be a lot more than £10k though...

[davidfowler2000]

2 hours ago, Alusilber said:

I think what you're going to need is a Match Edition (or GT Edition, or R-Line Edition...) - basically the Mk7.5 runout models they built around October-December 2019, which have various extra toys (including 2Zone climate control) as standard. It'll be a lot more than £10k though...

There are a decent amount of 1.6TDI Match and GTs with auto climate and toasty seats. I'm probably more leaning toward the 2.0TDI though in a GT spec and you can either have them auto climate or toasty seats or just manual hvac. It's all a bit odd.

[Asimo]

7 minutes ago, davidfowler2000 said:

There are a decent amount of 1.6TDI Match and GTs with auto climate and toasty seats. I'm probably more leaning toward the 2.0TDI though in a GT spec and you can either have them auto climate or toasty seats or just manual hvac. It's all a bit odd.

This is getting a bit Daily Mail “motoring”.

Get back to your roots! Cars are for the avoidance of walking, not a substitute for tart’s parlours!

[rattlecan]

On 27/12/2023 at 21:18, wesacosa said:

Instruments that light up without you turning the headlights on, brilliant for letting you drive at night having forgotten to turn your lights on

 

Also what’s this nonsense with newer cars which seem to have front driving lights on but no rear lights lit. Seem to see loads on motorways in fog say, so it’s ok to run up their backend coz you can’t see them

[S2000]

My BMW does not tell me how far I have travelled on a tank of fuel, it has no trip just an ever decreasing range…..

catches to lower the rear seats have embossed pictures in white which reflect in the rear window, god bless sharpies!

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, rattlecan said:

Also what’s this nonsense with newer cars which seem to have front driving lights on but no rear lights lit. Seem to see loads on motorways in fog say, so it’s ok to run up their backend coz you can’t see them

Daytime running lights, been law on new vehicles for about a decade now

[rattlecan]

35 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Daytime running lights, been law on new vehicles for about a decade now

Oh yeh I know what they are, what I’m saying is it’s a shit idea 😀

[davidfowler2000]

6 hours ago, rattlecan said:

Also what’s this nonsense with newer cars which seem to have front driving lights on but no rear lights lit. Seem to see loads on motorways in fog say, so it’s ok to run up their backend coz you can’t see them

Daytime running lights but contruction and use regulations forbid DRLs with active tail lamps. It's <insert word not allowed on Autoshite>

[martc]

22 minutes ago, davidfowler2000 said:

Daytime running lights but contruction and use regulations forbid DRLs with active tail lamps. It's <insert word not allowed on Autoshite>

I'm not sure what you mean by 'active tail lights' but my current e208 and the Ionic before it have their rear lights on when the front day time lights are on. There are a few others that do this as well.

[davidfowler2000]

They may have changed things or it may be classed differently. It's all a load of bollocks. But aye I agree with all the above. Do away with DRLs and do away with permanently illuminated dashboards and just do what the Swedes do and have permanent dipped headlights. Problem solved - you get permanently illuminated cars and you do away with all the idiots driving about with just DRLs with no tail lamps or no exterior lights at all because their dash is constantly lit.

[ETCHY]

Our little Kia is an Automatic, on every other Auto I've had the selector gate showing PRN D etc when lit at night shows  a different colour or some indication of what gear you've selected, ours doesn't it's all just lit the same nowt indicates it.

I mean yes it's on the little LCD screen in the instrument cluster but it fucks me off utterly that I had it show a different colour on a 1988 Renault 5 but not on a 2017 Kia !