I've just been looking at the Auris on Toyota's web site. No, I don't know why either, but I noticed that it features "push start". I had a car with that about 30 years ago. Several in fact!
JH
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haha, I think it means a button you press, rather than actually pushing the car to turn the engine :D
In fact push starting can wreck the cat on modern cars. I remember my dad having to push start his Lada a lot.
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It will only wreck the catalyser if the ignition is in a poor state, leading to a lot of raw fuel soaking the cat and then burning after the engine starts, cooking the catalyser matrix. Provided there's a decent spark and the engine starts instantly in the modern manner, it shouldn't do any harm.
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I've just been looking at the Auris on Toyota's web site. No, I don't know why either, but I noticed that it features "push start". I had a car with that about 30 years ago. Several in fact! JH
Push start - give them a few years and we will get a STARTING HANDLE as well!!
I never owned a starting handle car but my brother had one - Riley 1.5 - handy when the battery was a bit flat after standing a few days or it was really cold.
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Went off starting handles when I managed to puncture the rad of my Morris Minor, in sub-zero temps. But it kept going until the sills went.....
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Had a good three or four starting handles. Rolls-Royce ones could be two or three components that clipped together beautifully, all splined with those small ball clips... what modernist utilitarians call 'over-engineered'.
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Years ago I could always get a car started with a handle, even with an almost flat battery.
(Morris 8 Series E; MG Magnette ZB)
Would be a bit tricky to fit on a modern transverse engine though!
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I believe the early minis had a starting handle that went in the wheel arch. Don't know if you removed a wheel to use handle or turned wheel on full lock.
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Just to get back on the subject of start button. Test drove a car recently that had start button and cartridge type key. Bit of a faf in my opinion. If you forget to close the window when leaving the car, procedure was put key cartridge in slot, press start button, raise window, press start button to release key cartridge then re lock car, what happened to the electric windows working when door was open but keys out of ignition?
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Electric windows working without the key but door open got removed by many manufacturers years ago as a child safety feature.
It would be far simpler if the car just had total closure so the windows & sunroof shut when it was locked with the remote / card.
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Doc,
I also had a Series E Morris Eight (my first car!) in 1958- I used the starting handle quite a lot! I remember my father's advice about tucking your thumb in when using the handle so you wouldn't get it dislocated if the engine kicked back..
Happy days..Not! I remember also the foot operated dip switch, trafficators and the rear-hinged passenger doors, a la Mazda 8.
P.
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1958? National speed limit = how fast can you go. Long before my time, but I would have enjoyed those empty roads with a proper NSL, the rest of life in the 50s and 60s must have been awful, except for the swinging bit in London if you had money.
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But actually Micky, a fiver was a fiver in those days, not less than the price of a packet of fags...
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As a courtesy/hire car had a Renault Megane (I think!) with the key fob you stuck in the dash and push button start.
So think to myself on wanting to stop and exit - remove the key fob and it will stop.... but it didn't! Had to press the start/stop button.
So how far could it have been driven without the key in the car at all????
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My series one had the best of both worlds - a starting handle and a pull start knob. Classicly cushty.
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So did my beloved first car - a 14-year-old Austin A50. First time every time, but it was quite fun to use the handle on a cold morning to save the battery - the compression ratio was so low that it took very little effort and half a swing.. It had a corkscrew-like end which meant that when the engine started it threw the handle out - so no risk of broken bones.
Compression ratios are so high nowadays that I don't think you could start a modern engine on the handle, especially a diesel.
What was your Series One, PU?
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Yes I believe so it was a 1960 1098 one with the one piece screen and the separate indicator/side lights and meet in the middle wipers, 30 hp of rwd fun.
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I think I've solved it, PU - Morris Minor 1000.
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