any - modern cars | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 26 Aug 2015 22:43

any - modern cars - gordonbennet

Been having me ear bent by SWMBO, a lady fiend of hers visited today and drove her new Vauxhall (model unknown it was a big un) onto our steep lead in ramp.

When she went to leave she couldn't get it out, not unusual, its quite shocking how many drivers of both sexes can't do a hill start in reverse...quite why they don't reverse onto our drive i can't say but that's not the purpose of the post...so SWMBO as so often reversed the car out for her.

I haven't a clue if it had the parking brake of doom or not, but it apparently had some sort of stop start on it and my mrs is impressed...not.

She who must has just asked the question again...why?..quote ''all i want the thing to do is start and keep running, with a key not this push button rubbish''

Music to my shell likes, she's even more in her love with her venerable Outback because it just does everything she asks with no fuss simply.

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Wed 26 Aug 2015 22:50

any - modern cars - Trilogy

I usually reverse in our driveway, so I can drive stright out.

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Wed 26 Aug 2015 22:58

any - modern cars - gordonbennet

Beg pardon, it wasn't push button start, it did have a key, it was the stop/start stopping and starting that she does not want under any circumstances.

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Wed 26 Aug 2015 23:17

any - modern cars - Bolt

Beg pardon, it wasn't push button start, it did have a key, it was the stop/start stopping and starting that she does not want under any circumstances.

Question is, does thet stop start save enough fuel to warrant having/using it

I think its a waste of time but I seem to be the only person who thinks so (in family)

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Wed 26 Aug 2015 23:39

any - modern cars - RobJP

Pretty sure that every single car with auto stop/start ( you can switch it off wityh the press of a button. On BMW cars with it, the button is located just above the 'Start' button. However that only applies until you next lock/unlock the car again. A lot of dealers will also 'code' it off permanently for you, if asked. Though they aren't supposed to, I believe - something about it changing the exact setup of the car and the change to the CO2 figures.

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Wed 26 Aug 2015 23:57

any - modern cars - Bolt

Pretty sure that every single car with auto stop/start ( you can switch it off wityh the press of a button. On BMW cars with it, the button is located just above the 'Start' button. However that only applies until you next lock/unlock the car again. A lot of dealers will also 'code' it off permanently for you, if asked. Though they aren't supposed to, I believe - something about it changing the exact setup of the car and the change to the CO2 figures.

Not to mention using a better oil than usual to account for the extra starting cycles?

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Thu 27 Aug 2015 00:28

any - modern cars - RichT54

The feature that catches me out is when you stop at the lights and it stops the engine as expected, but after a while decides the climate control needs a bit of a boost and suddenly starts the engine all on it's own.

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Thu 27 Aug 2015 11:29

any - modern cars - FoxyJukebox

Good heavens--sounds like another silly automatic thing that can go wrong,can go wrong,can go wrong,can go wrong.......

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Thu 27 Aug 2015 22:13

any - modern cars - groaver

I do not think that the posters on here are alone.

I found this very interesting from the other side of the pond:

tinyurl.com/poevfs8

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 00:21

any - modern cars - Avant

Thanks for that, Groaver. Looking at it, I wondered what on earth an ' in-vehicle concierge service' is.

A little man in a peaked cap emerging from the glovebox?

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 18:07

any - modern cars - concrete

Could not agree more with the comments made. Why don't manufacturers work on the KISS principle? Keep It Simple, Stupid!!

They could probably shave lots of money off a car by offering less.

Who needs full connectivity(whatever that means) when a simple Bluetooth connection lets you answer and make calls hands free?

Who needs a sunroof? In Britain!! I have had two cars that came with sunroofs as standard and had nothing but trouble with them. They leak, you cannot drive at any speed with them open beacuse of the noise etc.

Who needs cruise control? Roads are far too busy for that.

The list goes on and on with kit we don't really need but it comes with the car. I certainly would not opt to pay for any of it given the choice.

As for elctronic parking brakes and stop/start, forget it.

This stop/start feature must knock hell out of the battery and starter for what? To save a few pence worth of fuel to keep the CO2 down. How daft is that.

Bah Humbug.

Concrete

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 18:32

any - modern cars - Engineer Andy

I suspect you end up using more CO2 making the fancy-pants extra powerful battery and related systems than you do by the likely small savings you make in Spring and early autumn when the A/C or heating isn't on, making the car keep starting when you're stationary to keep everything running.

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 23:45

any - modern cars - galileo

I suspect you end up using more CO2 making the fancy-pants extra powerful battery and related systems than you do by the likely small savings you make in Spring and early autumn when the A/C or heating isn't on, making the car keep starting when you're stationary to keep everything running.

Don't forget that all this nonsense is a result of unelected officials in Europe and treehugger lobby groups causing Governments to legislate on CO2 emissions based on the unrealistic EU emissions tests.

All these tweaks are to (theoretically) reduce CO2 emissions and scrape into a lower tax-band.

Considering that depreciation and insurance must be many times the cost of Tax, I wonder how effective it is in affecting car choice. As has been pointed out, if 'zero' emission cars become popular enough the Government will invent some other way to replace the revenue.

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 21:41

any - modern cars - Wackyracer

Could not agree more with the comments made. Why don't manufacturers work on the KISS principle? Keep It Simple, Stupid!!

They could probably shave lots of money off a car by offering less.

Who needs full connectivity(whatever that means) when a simple Bluetooth connection lets you answer and make calls hands free?

Who needs a sunroof? In Britain!! I have had two cars that came with sunroofs as standard and had nothing but trouble with them. They leak, you cannot drive at any speed with them open beacuse of the noise etc.

Yes I agree, I don't want any of those things.

Who needs cruise control? Roads are far too busy for that.

I like cruise control. It's something useful for driving.

This stop/start feature must knock hell out of the battery and starter for what? To save a few pence worth of fuel to keep the CO2 down. How daft is that.

Mercedes stop start does not use the starter to restart the engine apparently, It injects fuel into a cylinder and then ignites it.

I personally think that the tiny saving all these stop/start systems will give you will be easily drowned out by the repair costs when these systems go wrong.

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Fri 28 Aug 2015 23:55

any - modern cars - focussed

Sunroof - agreed -every one I have ever had has been a PITA -electric or manual.

Cruise - good useful feature on empty french DC's and motorways.

Connectivity - now that the French road safety "experts" have banned handsfree ea***ts and earbuds or anything with an in-ear earpiece, built- in handsfree is handy if I want to call OH to get the dinner on,and with the phone directory on the big screen it's dead easy.

edit( I really think the swear filter on this site needs a bit of a tweak)

I could even do it with voice commands if I could remember them, there is a huge list in the manual, if I get it wrong Fiona (that's Madame Honda's nickname 'cos she sounds like Fiona Bruce) says "Pardon?"- highly amusing - has us in stitches!

Stop/Start - a complete waste of time IMHO unless you are going to spend a lot of time in standing traffic.

Edited by focussed on 28/08/2015 at 23:58

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