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I had a ball-joint splliter that the supplier changed several times because it bent. Those land- crab suspension ball-joints were sturdy things.
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In the past I have given 'guest lectures' to university students following Engineering and Engineering/Industrial Design courses. I have used (stolen?) examples from this website:
www.baddesigns.com/
Sometimes a bad design from the customer's perspective is a good design from the manufacturers perspective in that it keeps cost low enough that the product sells well, and is just good good enough to make it through the warranty period before failing. Then the customer has to go out and buy another. Some car batteries and exhaust systems spring to mind...
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My 99 Mondeo has the standard headlamp switch.
The bad design is both in its operation and its location.
It is easy to operate it by my knee, in error, when exiting the car.
This turns the switch to the " parking lights position" and of so the "lights left on" warning is not activated.
To switch on the rear fog lights you have first switch on the front fog ( sports?") lights DOH! WHY!
Pathetic hinges on the cover of the sun visor vanity mirrors.
Only a total new unit is available ( £75+ last time I enquired). Two now required.
Cruise control that is NOT deactivated by the hand brake.
So many Fords have the hazzard warning button on the top the steering column !
Why? Why? It is a safety device that is awkward for the driver to operate and almost impossible for the passenger to reach.
Mk1 Focus
There is a small strip of rubber attached by spire clips to the top of the headlamps to act as a seal against the bonnet.
Can I obtain a spare? Sorry sir, it is all integral with the headlamp unit so you would have to buy the whole unit.
My old 1600E
They upped the power and the width of the wheels but not the steering.
The steering box did not last. The bolts that held the box to the chassis pulled out so a reinforcing plate was needed to spread the load.
A plastic pipe from the clutch pedal to the slave cylinder was routed very very close to the exhaust. Eventually it touched and burned.
Fiat UNO
Coming to a halt at night and turning the ignition off it turned off ALL the lights.
A wonderful safety feature
Rear exhaust boxes that have a double bend in the rear most pipe ( thus thining it) and then a hanger is attached to the pipe not the box.
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"Fiat UNO Coming to a halt at night and turning the ignition off it turned off ALL the lights."
I think all FIATs are like that. On our Seicento there is a little button in the area around where the ignition is. Press this before taking key out turns on the parking lights. It's in the manual but not obvious.
Then again on VW's you put the indicator in the left/right position for parking lights on that side of the car. In a Ford you turn the light switch to P(ark).
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FIATS....there is a little button in the area around where the ignition is. Press this before taking key out turns on the parking lights.
Yes the UNO had this and I like the positive action to select parking lights ( unlike Ford) but IIRC, for some obscure reasoning, it also switched on the dash light.
I do like the Ford idea of switching off dips when the ignition is turned off.
IMO the indicator stalk should be on the right.
Toyota put them on the left for the UK market. It was nice to find them on the right when I hired a Toyota in South Africa.
Boot lights or glove compartment lights that only work if the side lights are on.
There are timers /dimmers for other lights so no excuses. My Mondeo has timers for front and rear screen heaters.
As has been discussed before. very, very few saloons have rear wipers.
Very few have double sunvisors.
Both these are safety related.
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An example of bad design (web design this time) would be: www.baddesigns.com/ :-)
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There many factors.
(1) The incompetence of some designers. At one time designers had to work their way up the drawing office from the bottom. They started off as detail draughtsmen, producing drawings to the designer's instructions. They learned the custom and practice of the design of standard and frequently used parts, and (most importantly) a sense of proportion. With the advent of computer aided design some designers start off straight from university with no previous industrial experience and with no sense of proportion. Because it is possible to magnify small areas of a design, any feature can be drawn in great detail but be poorly proportioned when seen in the flesh. A drawing board and pencil prevented impracticably small dimensions.
(2) Empowerment of the designer before they are ready for it. In the days of drawing boards drawings were checked in minute detail by a supervisor before prototypes were made. Nowadays prototypes can be made by transferring the drawing onto a CD without the drawing even having dimensions indicated on it and without it being checked by anyone else! The CD goes into a machine at one end and prototype components come out (sometimes in large quantities and at great expense) at the other end. Sometimes the expense of producing the prototypes is too great to allow the design to be modified after testing, and the design has to be accepted as the final design despite having flaws.
(3) Simultaneous engineering. Manufacturing facilities are set up before the design has been fully tested and approved, and this makes modifications too expensive to be implemented.
(4) Changes in the structure of the company, introduced in the name of cost saving, resulting in the reduction of supervision in design, development, and production planning departments.
(5) The employment of unskilled and semi-skilled production operatives.
Etc etc.
--
L\'escargot.
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