Pointless Car Features

[seth]

Imagine every car on the road not having ABS, traction control, etc. - everyone on Autoshite would probably get by OK, only to eventually be hit by someone who needed such things.

 

Imagine the 1980s or earlier when everyone drove autoshite yet the human race survived.

[ashmicro]

Imagine every car on the road not having ABS, traction control, etc. - everyone on Autoshite would probably get by OK, only to eventually be hit by someone who needed such things.

 

Imagine the 1980s or earlier when everyone drove autoshite yet the human race survived.

 

 

Good point. When I started driving in 1990, my car was a 1982 Samba LE, and many of my mates had 1970's cars. With one exception, we're all still here, and the dead chap only became so cos he was off his tits on speed, crashed through a humpbrack bridge and drowned in the river underneath. A couple of years later, I had an 87 Escort (as did quite a few mates), and we started to get better cars generally. Still, not one had power steering, never mind everything else.

 

Binhoker of this parish may remember "Sunday Night Drag Racing" at the Fort Road beside the power station. Only one person ever crashed there - a local hotel owner's son, who had taken Daddy's 911 Turbo without permission. 911s don't like being crashed into oak trees.

[Negative Creep]

My MR2 has 4 positions on the light stalk - off, a line, sides and dipped. I couldn't work out what the second position does, it does turn any of the lights on or even raise the headlamps. So I looked in the manual and sure enough "this position has no function". Only thing I can think of is marker lights for other markets but other than that I have no idea why it's there.

 

I haven't flicked through the full 8 pages of this thread so forgive me if this has already been responded to.

 

The position that has no function is there to allow replacement of headlight bulbs. Leaving the stalk in this position allows the pop-up headlights to be left in the up position with all other lights switched off. Simple really.

 

 

Tried this today and you are indeed correct. Oddly if you have the sidelights on then flash full beam the lights stay up as well.

 

 

Oh well, turned out to be a good thread anyway!

[MrDuke]

Imagine every car on the road not having ABS, traction control, etc. - everyone on Autoshite would probably get by OK, only to eventually be hit by someone who needed such things.

 

Imagine the 1980s or earlier when everyone drove autoshite yet the human race survived.

 

The thing is, there are now a huge number of people on the road who have never driven anything made before 2000, meaning that their own driving 'skills' are probably non-existent. If you were to put them into an average mid-70s or 80s car, as FA suggests, they would be barely able to negotiate their own suburban cul-de-sac. A moot point of course, but true nonetheless.

[Jon]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

It's a difficult one, that, since I'd be inclined to agree with you Mr Duke. However, ask me to pilot an 1899 Horsey Horseless or similar and I'd no doubt have the same issues!

[seth]

The thing is, there are now a huge number of people on the road who have never driven anything made before 2000, meaning that their own driving 'skills' are probably non-existent. If you were to put them into an average mid-70s or 80s car, as FA suggests, they would be barely able to negotiate their own suburban cul-de-sac. A moot point of course, but true nonetheless.

 

I'm not so sure. Everyone seems to manage to learn how to work the latest phone/games machine/ these days. I'm sure they'd pick up on the delicate use of a choke knob without too much difficulty. In normal driving I see no-one pushing their car to the limit such that the modern electronic gizmos are called upon to keep them on the road. Most people just pootle along and would be perfectly capable of pootling along in autoshite. When they follow each other too close they will still crash even in their modern cars with their ABS and traction control, like the five I saw who had piled into one another on the North Circular on Saturday evening. The modern technologies are conveniences and have nothing to do with the root requirement of traveling from A to B.

[martc]

Those amber coloured pieces of plastic/bulbs on all 4 corners of BMW's/Audis. What are they for?

[autohausdolby]

The AX bins are designed to hold a bottle of vin blanc and some brie. FACT.

 

I heard them referred to as Perrier holders whilst en France. While on our 16 day AXathon around North Africa they were epic! You'd be surprised how many 2 litre bottles of water you get through in the Sahara