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Daughter complained her car stereo didn't work after being returned from bodyshop. Her boyfriend showed her how to press the 'on' button.
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Amusing, but there's a darker side to this, sorry for the pun.
Whilst I suspect that most of us on here would consider it good practice to "RTFM" and familiarise ourselves with the controls of a new car, how many other drivers do?
One of my pet hates is unnecessary use of rear fog lights; I'm willing to bet good money that most drivers wouldn't even make the connection between said lights being on and the "idiot light" that's glowing on the dash.
Clarkson once came up with the suggestion that the rear fogs should be linked via the ECU to govern maximum speed to 40 mph, his theory being that if you DO need rear fogs on that's the fastest you should be travelling.
Sorry to drift off-topic but I commend that idea to the house.
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I've a theory that many people switch on rear fogs mistakenly for HRW. They see a warning light and think the HRW's working.
Same daughter as above, borrowed my old Panda (with no rear wiper), and complained 'the HRW took ages to dry the outside of the glass, It's not as good as having a rear wiper'.
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Seconded
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Drink Lager, Talk Piffle,
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Looking at the number of older drivers who drive around with front fogs on when it isn't foggy, I go with the theory of just pressing buttons. They are not chavs who want to pretend they have a flash car so it must be they feel safer if they have all lights illuminated on the front of their car, regardless of legality. Press all buttons, pull all knobs and away they go.
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The UK doesn't know what fog is. I drove through real fog in Berlin on an Autobahn once and it was like having the windows painted white, visibility was a couple of metres even with glowing rear lights and traffic almost stopped completely. Scary and frankly very weird, I never saw anything like it back home but experienced it again a few months later in Krakow.
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youve never been on the m62 then BBD
the silence is eeiry to plain weird as if your ears havent popped and you are in cyberspace cos you cant hear see feel or use your nose,mm the m62 a corridor to lancy
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The UK doesn't know what fog is. I drove through real fog in Berlin on an Autobahn once and it was like having the windows painted white visibility was a couple of metres even with glowing rear lights and traffic almost stopped completely. Scary and frankly very weird I never saw anything like it back home but experienced it again a few months later in Krakow.
All UK fogs used to be like this - it's just that you aren't old enough to remember!
It used to be common for passengers to get out to lead the way, policemen on duty in London with lanterns guiding traffic, buses and lorries "clearing a way" through the swirl for a convoy of other vehicles.
Coughs, lung disease, lovely smell of burning coal in the air. Slimy soot on everything.
And proper bumpers so that if you did touch anything, it didn't matter.
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>> All UK fogs used to be like this - it's just that you aren't old enough to remember! It used to be common for passengers to get out to lead the way >>
In my yoof, we once walked alongside a friend's car from Twickenham to Wimbledon Palais and then walked home again afterwards because the fog was soooo thick!
Edited by drbe on 20/12/2007 at 09:20
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....... good practice to "RTFM" .........
Which definition do you mean? tinyurl.com/ytq5vx
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My SWMBO once ran out of petrol in her old Metro "waiting for the orange light to come on"
Until I informed her you dont have an orange light.....
But your car does was her plea. Bless.
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I ran out of petrol in our old Metro because the fuel gauge decided to stop working still showing the tank 1/4 full.
This was the same car which managed to drive itself backwards across a car park with nobody in it*. British Leyland, eh? Thankfully they went under.
*The start motor wouldn't catch, as happened from time to time. The cure was to put the car in gear and rock it a bit. Did it dozens of times, but on this occasion the engine fired and it drove backwards in a smooth curve until it crashed into another car.
Edited by Webmaster on 20/12/2007 at 18:33
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Many years ago my first wife arrived home to say " There's something wrong with the steering in my car........it just keeps on going in the same direction when you turn the wheel !.........Then it suddenly seems to get the message and turns really quickly." ( and...... no I hadn't nobbled it )
So I look outside.........about 3 inches of settled snow on the road ! Mmmm !
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This is off subject a bit but while we are on the subject of ladies and motoring funnies.
We were going on holiday once and she was map reading - I sensed we were getting lost and when I asked which road we were raking she told me it's ok I am taking you down the R7 and then onto the........... Hold on a minute there is no R7 - of course she was following the River Severn on the map.
(I was bad mouthing sat navs on another thread - maybe I need to reconsider).
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Not a lady and not very funny at the moment . . . .
My son left home in July to work away. I gave him a bottle (proper oil container) with a litre of Halfords semi synthetic in it.
He came home Friday night and yesterday mentioned that the cap had not been properly on the bottle of oil and that it had dripped on the carpet in the boot. It doesn't matter though, the drips disappeared. . . .
I asked how much was left in the bottle, "Just a drop" was the reply.
The oil had dissapeared through the carpet and into the spare wheel well! The piece of "felt" under his spare has soaked up nearly a litre of oil, some has soaked into the sidewalls of the spare tyre damaging the sidewall. I am surprised he did not smell it in the car.
Well it was nearly due for new tyres, but the spare (unused) would have meant we only needed to buy one, instead we needed two! At least it is a corsa 1.0 and they were not too expensive.
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To get back to the foglight issue. Can I congratulate the drivers on the M8 who found the switch thingy for their foglights this week and I look forward to their finding how to switch them off, probably next June.
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Talking about old Metros...
SWMBO took hers to a glass centre to replace a broken door mirror.
Assistant: What car is it? SWMBO: a Metro.
Assistant: Which model? SWMBO: brown.
Assistant: no, which particular model? SWMBO: the one with the yellow stripe.
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>>In my yoof we once walked alongside a friend's car from Twickenham to Wimbledon Palaisand then walked home again afterwards because the fog was soooo thick!
I once tried to walk home from Bromley South Station during a pea-souper, in the late fifties early sixties and despite knowing the route like the back of my hands (or so i thought), got lost within a quarter of a mile. Had to go up to someone's front door and ask where I was!!
I'd missed an important turning, because I could only see a few feet in front of me. I felt such a fool.
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In my yoof, we once walked alongside a friend's car from Twickenham to >>Wimbledon Palais and then walked home again afterwards because the fog was >>soooo thick!
I remember one occasion when I knew where my foglights were but it was so foggy I couldn't find the switch. ;-)
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In my yoof we once walked alongside a friend's car from Twickenham to Wimbledon Palais....
>>
In my yoof I used to walk / bike from Twickenham Bridge along the Great Chertsey road ( the A316) in the fog /smog to earn lots of pocket money guiding those poor lost souls in cars.
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Just shown girlfriend where the foglight switch is on her corsa, only had it since march!!!
Then explained why she didn't need them on driving from her mothers house to ours a few streets away.
But its foggy!!! she exclaimed.
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Going off on a slight tangent here, but car manufacturers have, over the years, proved to be brilliant at locating switches in ridiculous places, often invisible to the driver. Now that switches are at least illuminated we are still supposed to memorise or feel our way to important switches (e.g. foglights) without taking our eyes off the road. Fine if you can touch type - but for the rest of us ??
Weirdest dashboard switch ever - remember 1980s Leyland cars with the "brake circuit testing switch"? Presumably meant to be tested before, rather than during, a car journey... And the antiquated dashboard of an Austin Maxi, which was finally blessed with an (electric) screenwash switch (the heyday of ever-reliable Lucas electrics), mounted high on the walnut plinth, finally replacing the plunger in about 1980...
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Didn't the Citroen BX have a test button around the brake failure light or similar? I remember being given a lift in one years back, asking what a particular button did, and being told 'it tests that the light inside it comes on when you press it' :)
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Pretty standard in the aviation industry to have press to test buttons on warning lights. Mind you the Allegro never took off did it ?
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Such switches were standard fitting on a lot of HGV's a few years ago, specifically Volvo FL series and Iveco Cargos.
The check's still done, but nowadays by the ECU which flags up a fault on the dashboard.
This might be a bit much for the average car driver though! ;)
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I can imagine this being on many cars before putting a handbrake switch in was common.
The Escort Mk2, and probably others of the era, had a switch hidden from view under the footwell. Many owners probably didn't realise this and so on other cars where this was not hidden saw it as a "feature".
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Mike Farrow
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Maybe it's because we change our cars so often these days? Back in the mists of time when I was a kid, most people kept the same car for years unless they were either seriously wealthy or so skint that their old heap wouldn't last between MOT's.
Whatever the reason, we took the time to get to know our cars better. Switches were not illuminated then and as mfarrow rightly says were often put in silly places. Worth remembering also that there tended to be less of them!
One other reason why people today forget to put lights on BTW. In days gone by you always knew when it was getting dark 'cos you couldn't see your instruments. Nowadays the display's permanently lit. OK you've got "idiot lights" but now you know why they got that name!
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fog lights are an absolute pet hate of mine, i don't think the things should even exist
once got in a minicab and politely told the driver he had his rear fogs on.. and his reply?
"oh they're always on, stops people driving too close to me"
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Maybe it's because we change our cars so often these days?
More the point that modern cars have so many extras these days?
I remember that the first car I had where rear fog lights were fitted as standard was a Mk1 Astra and having hired one to drive up to Aberdeen I was approaching Montrose and put my lights on as it was getting dark and saw an orange warning light on the dash.
Pulled over and found that there was no handbook so dropped in at the main Vauxhall dealer conveniently located just as I arrived in the town - we ended up having to get one of the mechanics and a manual to realise that the previous person who hired the car had left the rear fog lights on!.....
Made me a lot more aware of what all those warning lights were for, though......
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The Accord has some electronic logic in the rear fog switch, and it shuts off when the headlights go out or the ignition is turned off. The front fogs, however, are located just above the bonnet release switch and are incredibly easy to accidentally turn on with your knee.
Several occasions I've looked down and spotted the tiny green light glowing away. By gum, if I ever meet Mr. Honda I'll be having strong words with him about it.
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The Accord has some electronic logic in the rear fog switch and it shuts off when the headlights go out or the ignition is turned off.
There's nothing electronic or logical about that. It's just the way it's wired up; in common with about 95% of other cars I'd guess.
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The Mazda6 fog lights are interesting in that you cannot leave the rear fog lights on when you turn off the ignition or the lights. The front fogs can be left on though.
It might be tricky for the authorities to spot though as on the Sport models the front fogs are in the main headlight unit and not lower down on the front bumper like on lower spec models - meaning the four lights in the cluster have one false one on S, TS and TS2 spec... odd design.
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It might be tricky for the authorities to spot though as on the Sport models the front fogs are in the main headlight unit and not lower down on the front bumper like on lower spec models - meaning the four lights in the cluster have one false one on S TS and TS2 spec... odd design.
But it saves a fortune in production costs & makes easy additional profits, when selling the option pack/trim level upgrade!
VB
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Let us know when you bump into Mr Honda, David. IIRC he died in 1993. ;-)
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