I had a new fiesta Popular plus in 1982 ( next up from base) that had a bare metal handbrake handle, terrible below freezing in winter, your hand used to stick to it.
Fitted a plastic handle sleeve. How much would that have been if fitted as standard? 20p?
Current Punto Van, fitted black alloy mesh behind the radiator grill following stone hits on the radiator. cost? can`t remember, but think around £18?, a rip off in a nice (well known tuning company) packet.
Surely less than £5 to fit on the production line?
Regards
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Fitted to my VAG car - a car clock. A proper round analogue car clock. A clock which shows the right time all the time, visible to all occupants and one which doesn't revert to irrelevances like outside temperature when it thinks I should know.
What a stupid pointless gimmick a trip computer is. A car is a means of getting somewhere and time is usually a very important parameter. It matters, even if you are not in a hurry. The clock is therefore the most important instrument in any car.
(You may have gathered the fitted digital clock within the tachometer really irritates me).
659.
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659, count your blessings :-)
Having had the wonderful VAG trip computer for 5 years, the one in the new Mondeo is a bit pathetic, frankly. Especially when you consider the tiny incremental cost of making it better.
For a start, it doesn't show instantaneous MPG, only the average. Worse still, it only stores ONE set of figures, not two, so if you want to get an average for a given journey, you have to reset the computer and lose ALL your previous data.
Which is just not good enough if you're an obsessive like me ....
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Talking about clocks..
My Punto has a digital clock but its an un-adjustable 24hr display. Now maybe everyone in Italy does military service, but when I look at it and it PM, I`m usually lost.
Why fit a display like that on a car that can`t be altered to a 12hr display? Its not as though there isn`t the major reminder of day and night going on as seen through the windscreen. ;)
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I'm the other way around to Oilrag. I have a clock on the instrument panel that can only be 12-hour, which I dislike. The top of the range model had the facility to change it to 24 hour, but not my model. At least there's another clock in the centre display that I can set to 24-hour.
Something my Octavia already has and costs pennies, but would benefit many other cars, is a small plastic clip on the inside of the windscreen next to the A-pillar for holding parking tickets.
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A cover on the hole in front of the gear lever, so that it's a useful place to store stuff instead of a dust collecting hole. You get that if you're a smoker, but if you're not, your sweet wrappers and car park tickets are there for all to see!
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A current copy of the Highway Code (£2.50ish) for the glove compartment and a browse when parked up etc.
Vehicle would appreciate a considerate approach to hazards etc without harsh braking, acceleration etc.
........and you still have £2.50 left to but the Duchess some flowers for Mammy's Day the morrow.
dvd
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A wastepaper basket of decent size with a lid but easily removable for emptying, either in a door pocket or beside central console (on passenger side of course unless the car is very roomy).
It has sometimes occurred to me that properly promoted, a well-designed aftermarket equivalent could make some money for an enterprising type.
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£5? two days worth of bus fares for the missus, leaving me in peace with my best mate Radio 4.
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A decent sun visor on my '53 Almera. I've never had such a useless one. It leaves gaps everywhere.
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Something that fixes the rattle inside the driver's door on my Accord. It seems to be just the right intensity to really wind me up. It was a recall item but was never done, and I can't imagine the local Honda dealer being too impressed if I took it in 8 years late for a recall item. :)
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SEAT - light on dash for cruise control, side light, head light as all are sadly missing. Oh and as mentioned above a clock.
SKODA - black seat covers instead of beige that show up every little stain, water droplet etc.
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Things sadly missing in my 2004 Astra DTi estate. Changing it next month, let's see if the new Focus is any better...
Storage!
One (just ONE!) decent oddments storage bin. Anywhere, don't care where. Rooflining, a door, beneath a front passenger seat. Only ze French seem to bother with this detail. All I get in my Astra is a measly two-tier glovebox (lower tier permanently in darkness), a flappy drawer thing by my knee to store a packet of fags or whatever and some pathetic little door pockets humorously moulded into "cup holders".
A decent locking mechanism for a glovebox. Is that SO difficult in this day and age? We reps with estate cars need somewhere to lock things away; there's nowhere else in the whole car!
Electrics!
If I reverse in the rain, I want the rear wiper to come on and stay on properly; the Montego estate managed that little trick 20 years ago! Intelligent central locking: 99% of the time I only want to open the driver's door. A nice collection of sockets (USB, 230v, 12v, iPod.)
What else?
Sunvisors all round. Yes, including one that properly covers the top of the driver's door. Trying to swivel the main one round is downright awkward and it never does the job properly. 30 seconds later the sun's in my eyes again.
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some pathetic little door pockets humorously moulded into "cup holders".
If you think the door pockets are poor in the Astra, then you're going to be even more disappointed with the focus.
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Craig, first the Mondeo was wonderful, now in a couple of posts you seem to long after your old Passat, nicer inside, better trip computer.
It's a bit like getting married, brilliant at first, but the newness wears off after a while.
Edited by quizman on 02/03/2008 at 11:35
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A clock that actually keeps the correct time would be nice in wifeys Focus....
How come I can buy a 99p digital watch off the market and it keeps perfect time, yet the clock in a £10k+ car loses 10 minutes a month.
Queue response from lazy Ford dealer: "oh yeah, thats a known problem". (this model has been in production for 4 years now!!!)
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Same question - when my firm bought new phones at around £600.00 each you can;'t get them to store speedials.....?
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some petrol!! Fuel gauge US on Scirroco & Ran out at 0630 this morning 500Yds from house Bah!
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£4.99's worth of change, hidden away. My car would alaways be worth that much more than the valuation & I'd never be numismatically challenged in the local P&D.
Edited by woodbines on 02/03/2008 at 10:58
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Alter the electrics of my 03/03 Focus so that (a) you could have the rear foglights on without the front foglights being on and (b) you could turn of the heater blower off without the heater defaulting to recirculated air mode.
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For about £3 the other week I bought a pair of microfibre glass cleaning cloths from Tesco. One is white, which I use on the inside, the other brown for outside. Each also has a nylon mesh back, which is pretty effective at removing squashed flies.
Every vehicle should have some of these. My drive to work is south-eastward and at this time of year (and in the autumn) I'm often slowed to a crawl by a few drivers who can't see into the rising sun through their filthy windscreens. (I had a brief and unpleasant ride in my father-in-law's car the other day and was appalled by the state of the glass in an otherwise well-kept Focus.)
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For about £3 the other week I bought a pair of microfibre glass cleaning cloths
Eugh! I just can't stand the way microfibre cloths stick to my rough fingers/hands. Unless, of course, you wear a pair of Marigolds!
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Alter the electrics of my 03/03 Focus so that (a) you could have the rear foglights on without the front foglights being on
Would have thought that if the fog is bad enough that you need rear fogs then it makes no difference if the front ones are on or not...
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a bottle of screen wash 79p , two new wiper blades (£1.25 each wilco's) and a new car smell air freshener 99p , makes you feel like your in a new car for about a week...then reality kicks in
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>Unless, of course, you wear a pair of Marigolds!
So much more stylish than string-backs! I bet Lud is out shopping for his already.
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>Unless of course you wear a pair of Marigolds! So much more stylish than string-backs! I bet Lud is out shopping for his already. LOL
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What are 'Marigolds'?
My own driving gloves live under the sink and are a bright yellow colour, somewhat discoloured as I share them with the winsome young Brazilian who cleans the stairs etc once a week. I doubt if they cost a quid. I don't really wear them for driving, just to terrorise the populace as the mere sight of them can clear a busy street in seconds.
'Aaaargh! Run! It's YELLOWHAND!'
Never worn stringbacks. Wouldn't be seen dead in them, or in most kinds of hat.
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As I mentioned once before, I don't trust anyone to drive properly (in a car which has a roof) wearing a hat. I am prepared to add the caveat that this rule of thumb is excepted for those who have a uniform requirement. :-)
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I have to confess to doing it this winter -- albeit in a fleece hat.
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A car wash including pre-rinse, soap, foam, polish & drying for less than £5.
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>>I don't trust anyone to drive properly (in a car which has a roof) wearing a hat.
I find others give me a wider berth.
The bottle-bottom spectacles, hunched forward driving stance and pipe clenched in the side if the mouth seem to help as well ;>)
Edited by bathtub tom on 02/03/2008 at 18:00
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I'll suggest that Mrs P takes that one up.
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Never worn stringbacks. Wouldn't be seen dead in them or in most kinds of hat.
Bought some pretty soon after buying my first car, a '61 beetle. After its engine rebuild, the heater distribution only ever went to the floor. At 19 I really felt as it I'd come of age, stringbacks, briar pipe, flat cap and the Webasto folded back to the rear window whatever the temperature. The thought of it makes me cringe now.
The venerable stringbacks lasted until last year's village scarecrow competition when they were sprayed silver and became a Cyberman's hands.
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