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I was at a gas station at dusk - getting dark. A nice elderly lady in a brand new fancy expensive sedan rolls window down and asks me for help. She can't figure out how to turn on the headlights of this brand new car that her husband just bought for her.
Tell her to scroll down to "See More". Like finding your Gmail Spam folder.
Believe it or not. I bought a used 90 Dodge Caravan and had to ask someone if they could guess where the switch was. And a friend came to pick me up in a rented Chev, and we had to phone the local Chev dealer how to open the trunk.
Remember when Ford had the inertia fuel pump shutoff, with the reset button under the trunk floormat, or someplace, different place in every model.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,042,910 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gungnir
Sure dude, rail against progress, while you drive your hand crank
starting manual advance, crash gearbox manual wipers and windowed,
un-airconditioned 1920s machine. Which you do right?
What time is spent looking down? Turn on the lights, its on a stalk on the
column, do gears? Its a one shot and paddles, and modes on the wheel,
wipers the other side stalk to the lights. I have to dig for my filler cap
release, but thats not an issue while moving, I don't open the filler cap
while moving.
And looking out the window? I have a HUD, stops me needing to glance at
the instrument cluster, which is far and away spending more time looking
at where I'm going than standard instruments, which are just a backup.
There's a lot of this in the thread
2010 Honda is only last month, in a historical context. And yes, my eyes stay on the road with those two stalks to either side of the steering wheel, along with (mostly) knobs for climate.
One modern thing I do like is stereo volume and mode rocker-buttons and cruise settings, on the steering wheel. Does keep my eyes out the windshield.
However, the more basic mechanical functions you electrify(steering) or replace with electronics(trans. shifting), the more likely it is you'll be up Schittz Creek when they decide to go on strike.
I consider the 2000s and up to 2012 to be the zenith of automotive engineering and design, and would not buy anything newer, once this Accord has seen it's days. I guess that's one benefit of living in a free country: I don't have to buy a car that steers for me, or flushes my toilet at home if I forget. I just don't want to see that common-sense stuff forced out by marketing dept. that think they know better, especially when such "progress" leads to injuries or deaths that land litigants in court.
A lot of what in this thread.. Ludditeism? I don't know if you were around back in the 1980s, but I can tell some tales that'll make you shudder! lol
Last edited by TheGrandK-Man; 12-26-2020 at 04:57 AM..
The light switch on a vehicle was a pull knob to the left of the steering wheel. Pull once for running lights. Pull twice for headlights. AND the switch was marked LIGHTS.
What is wrong with a column shift ? The column shift takes up less space then a floor shifter.
BRAGGING RIGHTS.
Do we need new obtuse designs - so that we can show our neighbors, our family, our co-workers - that we have something "cool" ???
Hogwash. Line up the designers, the market people, and the CEO's - and throw tomatoes at them.
......and the windshield wiper switch was right next to the lights, one click for "low", two clicks for "high". On the other side of the steering column was the heater controls, a slider switch to adjust the amount of heat , a second slider switch to select heat or defrost, and a rotary switch to control the fan speed. Next to that was the radio, with two rotary knobs, one for on/off/volume, and one to select the station.
ALL OF THESE CONTROLS WERE PRETTY MUCH UNIVERSAL, AS WELL AS ABLE TO BE OPERATED BY "FEEL", WITHOUT HAVING TO TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD!! And the owners manual was a thin book, of maybe 25-30 pages. My wife's latest car's manual is around 230 pages!!!!
Vehicles are like everything these days, like the new refrigerator that you can see what is in it with your cellphone, or the new stoves that you can turn on or off also with your cellphone. So it’s not just vehicles that are over engineered.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,042,910 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by easy62
Vehicles are like everything these days, like the new refrigerator that you can
see what is in it with your cellphone, or the new stoves that you can turn on or off
also with your cellphone. So it’s not just vehicles that are over engineered.
And I don't need any of that. And I'm 'only' fifty years old - at the high age end of the market that supposedly is demanding all this inter-connected nonsense
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,042,910 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by leadfoot4
......and the windshield wiper switch was right next to the lights, one click
for "low", two clicks for "high". On the other side of the steering column was
the heater controls, a slider switch to adjust the amount of heat , a second
slider switch to select heat or defrost, and a rotary switch to control the fan
speed. Next to that was the radio, with two rotary knobs, one for on/off/volume,
and one to select the station.
ALL OF THESE CONTROLS WERE PRETTY MUCH UNIVERSAL, AS WELL AS ABLE
TO BE OPERATED BY "FEEL", WITHOUT HAVING TO TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE
ROAD!! And the owners manual was a thin book, of maybe 25-30 pages. My
wife's latest car's manual is around 230 pages!!!!
Are you sure the wife's car came with a manual - or was it downloaded to a phone?
Last car I bought with a manual, there were about 20 pages of mandatory safety warnings, 10 pages about the car itself, and 200 pages on all the different radios that various models come with, and then an index where headlights are alphabetized under "External illumination".
Am I the only one who looked at the title of this thread and thought it was going to be a video of someone hitting the horn and washer fluid squirting out or something?
I just had one of those "Mechanical Failures" videos from Youtube flash through my mind when reading the title.
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