Good little design features

[R9UKE]

Of course, far too clever a feature to have a french origin. But... I do think it's restricted to the Exclusive models!

[Pete-M]

follow-me-home headlamps; this is the first car I've ever had with them.

 

Rangie, Jag and Jeep all have that. First car I had with it was that 827. On the Jag you can light up the headlights on the remote, sounds useless, but if you're walking back to the car at night in a gravel / mud car park it's an ace idea. It's also useful when parking in slightly dodgy areas.

 

I quite like the keypad entry systems some Yank stuff is fitted with. Enter a five digit code on the keypad and the car unlocks. If you hold certain button combinations afterward you can unlock all the doors instead of just the drivers one, or pop the boot. Can lock the car with it too.

 

Another thing that makes me smile is when manufacturers supply tool kits. On the X300 XJs there's a little green baize lined tool kit on the inner wing (which is missing from mine, I really must buy one for it). Rover P5Bs have an ace tool kit stashed in a secret little tray at the bottom of the centre console.

 

Oh, while on about Rovers.

 

P6s, they're full of ace little design features. The wheel for the front 1/4 lights and the funky little mechanism on the rear ones. The mega-fast window winders. The switch gear that is all different shapes and illuminated. The little bits of felt to stop rattles in loads of places, like behind dials. The twin gloveboxes. The fresh air vent above the steering column. The little swiveling map reading light. The infinately adjustable wiper intermittent.

 

Rover P5 switchgear is brilliant too. All clustered around the main instruments along with a proper ignition key.

 

TWO sunvisors. Pull one down and if you twist it to shade the top of the side window, there's another one behind it to save you having to keep switching the visor position! Genius.

 

The Jeep has little extending bits on the sunvisor that slide out behind the mirror. They're well cool.

[Negative Creep]

I had a 1988 Mazda 323 which had a light around the driver's door lock. I liked that.

 

 

My Bluebird has one of them. I tihnk that belongs in the "bizarre design features" thread

[Des]

Fusebox on a Mitsubishi I had many years ago with a slide switch and an LED for checking the fuses, had a reclining rear seat and a perfectly positioned and sized coffee mug stand on the engine disguised as a heatshield.

Any car where the spare can be removed without having to empty the boot.

The long channels on Rangey inner wings for storing leftover screws / washers / spanners.

Pull down windows on black cabs.

[Cavcraft]

The 'double glazed' design on some XMs which meant occupants of the car weren't subject to cold air blasts whilst the boot was open.

[eddyramrod]

Agreed, Tayne!

[MrDuke]

I think it was Fatha_Duke's Honda Accord which had the big rubber 'nozzle' membrane around the filler cap, which caught all the drips of petrol when you pulled the nozzle out. Simple but brilliant.

[Pete-M]

*Not to mention a V8 diesel about 20 years before it actually happened.

**All that brightwork on the P5 was polished stainless steel rather than chromed mild steel.

 

The P6 brightwork was stainless too.

 

The 'iceberg' V8 diesel would have been great, if they'd made it run on petrol. Oh, hang on....

[scooters]

The 'double glazed' design on some XMs which meant occupants of the car weren't subject to cold air blasts whilst the boot was open.

 

 

Gr8 design that ....shame about the pisspoor window regulators though!

 

The Turbo plus on the 940 sport edition combined with unvolvo suspension and a LSD made it GR8 4 Q car shenannigans like bullying 5 series drivers.

 

Double Six 6lt V12 GR9 4 sitting in outside lane of M74 ideally driving uphill whilst sticking at 72mph until u pick up an A4 repmobile..wait till he flashes and floor it.....very childish

[ashmicro]

Have we had the interior light on the underside of a Lada bonnet? That, and a decent supplied toolkit were a suspicious philosophy. I still have the gigantic stirrup pump for the tyres, and a tyre pressure gauge in KPa and Cyrillic.

[M'coli]

I'd forgotten Ladas had a bonnet light! My 1986 Cav GLi had one too, but the 1987 GLi didn't.

It reminds me: the Herald has a window in the boot for the numberplate light to shine through.

[R9UKE]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the oh-so-huge registration illumination units on the K10 Micra.

 

They doubled up as both a handy way to open the boot, and a rather effective rear parking sensor.

 

[ashmicro]

Merc W203 when fitted with front fogs. If your front indicator bulb goes, the car will flash the corresponding front fog at a low current, making the lamp appear orange (ish). The MFD tells you the bulb is out, too, and "Substitue light in use". Genius.

[Pete-M]

Merc W203 when fitted with front fogs. If your front indicator bulb goes, the car will flash the corresponding front fog at a low current, making the lamp appear orange (ish). The MFD tells you the bulb is out, too, and "Substitute light in use". Genius.

 

I love this kind of stuff. To me it's a sign that there are still people in the motor industry who care.

[rml2345]

The wonderful bonnet hinge design on the Volvo 740/940/850 that lets it stay up on it's own. Also the ability to make it vertical which is GR8 4 access. The 740 has and under bonnet light too!

[eddyramrod]

The wonderful bonnet hinge design on the Volvo 740/940/850 that lets it stay up on it's own.

 

I'm sure you can guess what I say about that... Yes, Detroit had been doing it for years before Volvo picked up the idea. As it happens I think it's brilliant, no prop to get in your way, or to rattle about when the little clip breaks (3.50 on ebay ).

[tonedepear]

Old Merc bonnets with the hinge that will sit vertically so you can get at stuff.

 

I forget which car it was now, but one of mine had an illuminated drivers door lock, which would light up if you pulled the door handle when it was locked. So if it was dark and you couldn't see, you just find the big handle and give it a tug and then the lock lights up so you can get your key in without fumbling about like a dick for ages. It'll come to me eventually.

 

Edit: It's doing my head in now. I'm sure* I didn't dream it, but can't think what car it was.

 

*fairly sure

[Volksy]

Volvo 480's did that.

[tonedepear]

Volvo 480's did that.

 

Maybe it was the S40 then? That'd make sense.

[kinkersaab]

nah not s40. I think my Honda legend did it also??

[eddyramrod]

I forget which car it was now, but one of mine had an illuminated drivers door lock,

 

We did this one a page or two back, with reference to my 1979 Cadillac. I'd say it's likely yours was something smaller and younger though?

[tonedepear]

I forget which car it was now, but one of mine had an illuminated drivers door lock,

 

We did this one a page or two back, with reference to my 1979 Cadillac. I'd say it's likely yours was something smaller and younger though?

 

Aye, it was yours that reminded me - what I remembered being impressed by was that it lit up if you pulled the main door handle, which is easily grabbable in the dark. Dead clever.

 

I've narrowed it down to probably a Mazda6.

[tonedepear]

I also liked, on my mk3 Gowf (and presumably many other VWs before/since) the 'compete closure" thing where if you'd forgotten to put the windows up when getting out the car, you just hold the key in the 'lock' position on the drivers door and they all shut themselves. Dead useful timesaver compared to having to get in, ignition back on, put all windows up, then get back out and lock it again. Pleasing. IMVHO they were quite well designed little motors tbh, with their super cool intermittent wipers, and that. If they were waterproof, the window regs were made properly, the petrol engines didn't gunk up their throttle bodies every 1k miles, and the heater fans were any good they'd be a properly good car.

[Guest]

Volvo 480's did that.

 

My 480 did that. The seatbelt clip release buttons also illuminated.

 

As for bonnets with super strong hinges, my Amazon has those. No need for a prop. Mind you, the bonnet is fucking massive. And heavy. Make one of those out of fibreglass and you can take 10lb off the weight of the nose. Amazons also have stainless steel brightwork, bar the bumpers which are chrome plated steel and SHAT. It also has trailing arm suspension at the back - which surprised a couple of dickhead PH rallyists who clambered under it when I went for a coffee, and were adamant it had 'cart springs at the back, fucking pieces of shit'. Wot mate, like your Mk1 Escort?

 

Mind you, they fucked up the bonnet lock - When you shut the [hollow] bonnet, it goes BANG really loudly when the latch takes. I thought it might just be my car being my car, but several of the Amazons in the museum in Gothenburg did the same thing.

[theorganist]

The wonderful bonnet hinge design on the Volvo 740/940/850 that lets it stay up on it's own.

 

The Maxi bonnets also stay up on their own.

 

The Renault 14 dashboard is very well laid out. All the switch gear and heating contrals are either side of the binnacle within easy reach without you having to stretch as are the column stalks (although the arrangement for the lights is a bit weird and takes some getting used to).

[Pete-M]

I also liked, on my mk3 Gowf (and presumably many other VWs before/since) the 'compete closure" thing where if you'd forgotten to put the windows up when getting out the car, you just hold the key in the 'lock' position on the drivers door and they all shut themselves. Dead useful timesaver compared to having to get in, ignition back on, put all windows up, then get back out and lock it again. Pleasing .

 

First time I saw that was on an early Peugeot 604. Mega-Funky for 1977.

[Volksy]

Vw's Skodas etc also do the complete opener, by holding the key on unlock, gr9 for red hot days.

[dollywobbler]

Here's one I'd forgotten all about, talking of 'total closure.' Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3. Pretty sure that you could operate the electric windows if you'd opened a door, so you didn't have to piss about putting the key in the ignition. Why did this not catch on?! Perhaps I'm just too used to driving around in old chod, but I always seem to forget to close electric windows before turning the engine off. I do remember (stupidly!) testing the fact that Mk3 Cav windows will stop if they detect something in the way. Like my fingers...(I knew about the feature before I tried it, but still! I was 10 at the time...)

[RoadworkUK]

This one isn't really a feature, more of a thing.

 

MK 1 Mondeo, Ghia X.

 

Just below the centre vents is a strip of electroluminescent LCDs, clock on the left, trip computer on the right. Between them is the LED for the immobiliser / alarm. That LED is concealed behind a little round bit of LCD of its own. If anyone owns a Ghia X, unlock the car and sit inside, watching the LED. It goes out after the engine is started, but a few seconds after that, it becomes obscured when the LCD darkens. It goes from being an unlit LED behind a clear piece of plastic, to no LED at all. It disappears.

 

Now, I don't know if this was even deliberate. But I like to think there's a designer somewhere who put that "feature" in as his personal signature. That it's a little easter egg that he put in that Ford never knew about. It doesn't achieve anything at all, but it's definitely cool.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I also liked, on my mk3 Gowf (and presumably many other VWs before/since) the 'compete closure" thing where if you'd forgotten to put the windows up when getting out the car, you just hold the key in the 'lock' position on the drivers door and they all shut themselves. Dead useful timesaver compared to having to get in, ignition back on, put all windows up, then get back out and lock it again. Pleasing. IMVHO they were quite well designed little motors tbh, with their super cool intermittent wipers, and that. If they were waterproof, the window regs were made properly, the petrol engines didn't gunk up their throttle bodies every 1k miles, and the heater fans were any good they'd be a properly good car.

 

On later Golfs with rain sensitive wipers, you can screw around with VAGCOM and have it automatically close the windows if it starts raining while the car's unattended.