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Yeah and today there's also many who don't make it when their car crumples up like an accordion. About the only good point I saw was shoulder belts, which have been in service since the 60's. Airbags are for those who don't want to wear their belts. Where you get your "unsafe steering wheels" is beyond me.
Have you been in an old, say, 40s/50s Mercury? yeah, the steering wheels are like 2.5' in diameter, with hard materials (including metal) and no airbags. Not only did you get a face full of non-airbagged steering wheel when you crashed, but you also got to have your nuts, thighs, ribs, shoulders smashed into oblivion, too.
And WTF do you mean "airbags are for those who dont want to wear their belts"? Like you have a choice? Airbags are meant to protect you in an impact, which they do very well.
Yeah and today there's also many who don't make it when their car crumples up like an accordion. About the only good point I saw was shoulder belts, which have been in service since the 60's. Airbags are for those who don't want to wear their belts. Where you get your "unsafe steering wheels" is beyond me.
Airbags work WITH the seatbelts to offer you maximum protection in a crash. Neither one is a substitute for the other. Cars are designed with "crumple zones" that give in order to absorb a majority of the crash energy instead of transferring that energy to the occupants. So, the accordian look can save your life.
Those "unsafe steering wheels" would often break loose from their mounts on the column and the column would find its way through the human body. Very messy.
Have you been in an old, say, 40s/50s Mercury? yeah, the steering wheels are like 2.5' in diameter, with hard materials (including metal) and no airbags. Not only did you get a face full of non-airbagged steering wheel when you crashed, but you also got to have your nuts, thighs, ribs, shoulders smashed into oblivion, too.
And WTF do you mean "airbags are for those who dont want to wear their belts"? Like you have a choice? Airbags are meant to protect you in an impact, which they do very well.
Look, I can do this, too! --->
Nope never been in a Merc.
I guess I wont mention how many times I've been in accidents in air bagless cars, guess I should be dead right?
Do you have a choice? Sure do. Click it or ticket.
I've also never seen a steering wheel come loose off the hub. Every steering wheel I've ever messed with had metal reinforcing inside of the plastic to prevent this.
Oh well, lets get back on topic, before Steve-O busts another spring. Where were we...oh yeah that's right, why there aren't more colors offered.
Well before we get back to keeping Steve-o from busting that spring:
I can attest to steering wheels breaking loose and ending up piercing someone's body because I saw it. I think you are perhaps not as old as some of us or you would remember those cars with the narrow bands of pot metal holding the wheel to the column.
A buddy of mine had a 56 Ford that he put a suicide knob on. The steering wheel broke loose when he was driving (a bit too fast) on a curvy highway. He came out OK, but the car was totaled.
On the street in front of where I went to junior high school a woman rear-ended a truck. I do not remember what the car was. She ended up with the steering column embedded in her chest and her daughter went through the windshield. Her head popped back when her body hit the dash. She was almost beheaded.
Another buddy was sitting in the middle front seat when a semi ran a red light and they went under it. The truck hit the car so hard you could read the lettering from the tire in the metal on the passenger door. No seat belt. The rear view mirror did a number on his skull. They had to wire it back together. He still (after 50 plus years) has a huge scar across the left side of his forehead. Now you can't sit in the center of a front seat can you? The kid riding shot gun? Dead, but I doubt he would have survived in a modern car, either. Even with the structural steel that they put in the doors for strength.
No shoulder belts, no lap belts, no airbags, no crumple zones. Just raw power with no chance of survival. Yeah, the good old days...
Sorry about dredging up an old topic, but I do not particularly like the brighter colors on cars. Red, yellow, green, etc. make them look like toy cars. There are also studies that show that drivers in red and yellow cars get more tickets. Mark that down to psychology.
For me at least, a car is, to borrow the words of someone on the thread, an appliance. Its overriding requirement is that it get me from point A to point B with the minimum of fuss. Everything else is secondary, and in the case of colors (beyond what is written in the post), tertiary.
I do not want a car that I need to take to a car wash every few days (think white, black and all the bright colors) just to avoid looking filthy. I prefer to spend my money on my groceries, thank you very much. I would pick functionality, economy and dependability over style / empty flashiness any day of the week. Styles change like fickle fashions. Hardheaded engineering considerations, not so much.
I would like the innovation to show up in what really matters in a car - its engine, drivetrain, shape (to minimize air drag), etc. An aerodynamic gold / silver / beige / tan electric car (preferably from Honda or Hyundai) with integrated solar panels and micro-wind turbines would be my ideal car. YMMV.
Sorry about dredging up an old topic, but I do not particularly like the brighter colors on cars. Red, yellow, green, etc. make them look like toy cars. There are also studies that show that drivers in red and yellow cars get more tickets. Mark that down to psychology.
For me at least, a car is, to borrow the words of someone on the thread, an appliance. Its overriding requirement is that it get me from point A to point B with the minimum of fuss. Everything else is secondary, and in the case of colors (beyond what is written in the post), tertiary.
I do not want a car that I need to take to a car wash every few days (think white, black and all the bright colors) just to avoid looking filthy. I prefer to spend my money on my groceries, thank you very much. I would pick functionality, economy and dependability over style / empty flashiness any day of the week. Styles change like fickle fashions. Hardheaded engineering considerations, not so much.
I would like the innovation to show up in what really matters in a car - its engine, drivetrain, shape (to minimize air drag), etc. An aerodynamic gold / silver / beige / tan electric car (preferably from Honda or Hyundai) with integrated solar panels and micro-wind turbines would be my ideal car. YMMV.
i disagree on some aspects, and agree on others,
a car is not an appliance to me, in fact i have no appliances, everything i use in my life must be individual, well designed, and look good. (hence the reason my car is german and my computer is a sony)
i agree that the utility of a car is important. car brands need to eliminate the ventports on the sides of cars that neither vent nor port... i'm looking at you escalade...
however people who care about style (which are few in this nation looking at the cars) should be able to special order colors for their cars without going to a second rate shop and getting a second rate job on their 60 grand mercedes!
i like your idea of solar panels built in, if you put the solar panels on a black roof and have the open sky system, i think that would be perfect in a car, useful and elegant,
however, wind turbines? i imagine a bike with 72 pinwheels coming off of it spinning as a little girl rides it. it is neither elegant, nor streamlined.
innovation is a must, i can't believe we're in 2010 and barely getting bluetooth standard in audi bmw and benz.
my car is a royal metallic blue, i love it, it turns heads when the same car in silver goes unnoticed, my next car will be fire engine red. i love color, heck i'm wearing an orange lacoste polo right now. (i know i'm crazy)
Cost of keeping all those different options on hand is a major reason. Today's manufacturers use "just in time" inventory generally where the part comes in at night and is installed the next day.
My family would always special order a car when I was growing up, and yes there were tons of choices.
I special ordered this, the interior had white bucket seats with everything else black:
I think this is all due to blending to not stand out in a crowd. Go to any city and look at common business dress. Every one is dressed in gray or black. Every last working slob is in gray or black.
No one stands out and they don't dare stand out, so the same thing goes for cars, every day cars that is.
I painted my drab gunmetal blue volvo a bright so called patriot blue, and it stands out. I apinted a bike I have in flag colors and it stands out. I painted a truck i have wood land military came and so it stands out. We had a Saab 900 that was marroon a bad fadded maroon and so i painted that cedar green and it stood out.
Anywhere we went strangers and friends if any were around would always comment or know we were around
Then by need of a rolling bed room, i bought a 86 Dodge conversion van and it is a moot blue, blending blue i call it, and for once in my life i don't want it to stand out.
If everyone had nice colors i would want them again. I have another bike a boring green, and the conflict of just choosing a color has become impossible. A month ago I sat eatting a sub-way sandwich watching colors go by of everything that drove by thinking about a color, and I can't come up with any idea. I am caught dead in not wanting to stand out, and a new color(s)
This is 8 colors if you count clear.
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Where were we...oh yeah that's right, why there aren't more colors offered.
