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In RHD cars it should be on the left. Interesting spelling in an otherwise professional second hand car parts website, it spelt stalks "storks".
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Perhaps before long cars will come with controls that can be personalised, like computers. There would be an array of stalks, buttons, etc and you could program their functions. Different users of the same car could have completly different setups.
Not just indicators of course, but washer, flasher, speed of wipers, number of settings, gear layout, steering ratio, windscreen tint.
All the dials etc would just be representations on a screen, so you could set it on "minimalist", with just a speedometer and an array of warning lights, or "British traditional" with a row of classic gauges for temp, oil pressure, tachometer, etc.
Now that images can be displayed on flat or moving surfaces, even the car's colour scheme could be programable.
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Perhaps before long cars will come with controls that can be personalised,
[snip]All the dials etc would just be representations on a screen, so you could set it on "minimalist", with just a speedometer and an array of warning lights, or "British traditional"
Going of on a bit of a tangent: When reading that, I immediately thought of "British traditional" as being a setting which would cause the car to rust at high speed, while the brilliant engineering innovations packed up because they were never fully developed ... and the crippling faults only stopped the car on a dark and wet night in the middle of nowhere.
It could be great for manufacturers keen to avoid warranty claims. "Nah luv, the car broke because you put it in Brit mode ... if you wanted it to keep on working, you should have set it to Japanese"
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When the technology is as good as that, Cliff, we can dispense with the cars and congestion and just get beamed to wherever we want.
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When the technology is as good as that, Cliff, we can dispense with the cars and congestion and just get beamed to wherever we want.
To be fair its not that far away, the concept Capri (can't remember its proper name) from Ford has an LCD display where the dials usually are, this can be configured how the driver wants it. i.e. one big rev counter with a small speed indicator or lots of indicators for temp pressure etc.
If you think about it the amount of computers controling all the electronics in the car an LCD is not much of an increase in complexity.
Personaly I think it would be great to be able to lay out the dash the way you want it.
(Glass-Tech)
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In RHD cars it should be on the left.
I cannot agree. Oh joy at getting into a car that you can change gear, steer and still have control of indicators, unless it is a French car well know for doing their own thing.
We have been lumbered with continentals controls because of the dreaded bean counters.
>>Is the stalk-on-the-outside preference just something which suits men with big hands?
NO. I have small hands and a car with heavy non PAS.
All three cars I regularly drive have the "standard" set up and I have suffered this for years so it is grab another gear and let then guess where I am going.
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We have been lumbered with continentals controls because of the dreaded bean counters.
Not sure about that, why is it Hyundai/Kia Suzuki have them on the right (if anyone wanted to save money it would be them).
Why do we need stalks anyway, there must be an alternative ?
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Carl_a, isn't that because in their home-markets these cars are RHD, and *they* still fit the indicator stalk on the 'correct' side?
You don't see LHD cars with the indicator stalk on the right, do you?
IIRC, most or all British cars in the 60s, and in to the early 70s had their indicator stalk on the right. It seemed like it was only because of cost savings in making the same columns for British and continental markets (e.g. RHD Fords being made in Europe), plus the greater number of european-brand cars bought here (as the public tired of BL's quality) that we surrendered ourselves to having the stalk on the left.
Manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan only switched over to giving us the stalk on the left in about the early 90s, probably as a nicety to us: By that stage it was "The poor lambs don't know any better."
I manage with either arrangement - one has to, but I do prefer being able to indicate whilst grabbing another gear at exactly the *same* time, should I choose to.
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"Carl_a, isn't that because in their home-markets these cars are RHD, and *they* still fit the indicator stalk on the 'correct' side?"
Tunacat, South Korea is LHD so that can't be the reason.
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>> In RHD cars it should be on the left. >> I cannot agree. Oh joy at getting into a car that you can change gear, steer and still have control of indicators, unless it is a French car well know for doing their own thing.
Henry, thanks for the reply -- hope you don't mind me pushing you for more explanation, while I try to understand this.
Are you saying that with your left hand on the gearlever and the right on the steering wheel, you can operate the r/h indicator stalk safely?
I find that I can only contemplate that if my hand happens to be in exactly the right place on the wheel, which may not be the case if I am effectively steering with one hand. Since I have only one hand on the wheel, I can't shuffle it around to the appropriate position as I could if I had both hands on the wheel.
And then even if I do have my hand in the right place, I have to stretch my fingers out to reach the stalk, loosening my (one-handed) grip on the wheel. I haven't yet found a car where I can operate the stalk with a small movement of just one finger -- that's why I was wondering if this was some sort of trick reserved for those with long and muscular fingers! Can you do this and still retain a reasonable grip on the steering wheel?
(I don't think we're gpoing to agree on French cars, but that's another discussion...)
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Are you saying that with your left hand on the gearlever and the right on the steering wheel, you can operate the r/h indicator stalk safely?
I have always operated all such stalks with just fingertips.
I have small hands (like Jenson Button) and do not find it a problem on most cars. In normal driving I do not grip the wheel tightly but with hands in the 10 to 2 position rest my thumbs ready to grip the wheel if required. I do however have a problem with trendy fat steering wheels like the Focus Ghia. I do not find the wheel comfortable when I need to grip it. The remote radio controls really are a stretch and I am sure the intention is to operate them with finger tips.
I think the difference maybe that you grip the wheel all the time while I do not.
tunacat sums things up well for me.
The Citroen reference was to non cancelling indicators which used to be fitted but they too have adopted the norm (just like having to fit a brake pedal on their wonderful DS models)
Other buttons on the higher spec cars are designed to be operated by finger tips.
The most iffy button position on my Sierra is the hazard flasher which instead of being in the middle of the dash it is on the steering column so you need to put your hand through the wheel or wrap it behind the wheel. Drivers airbags have removed the horn from the steering wheel or as in the UNO from the end of the stalk.
As I have metioned elswhere the Focus has a illogical headlamp flashing function which is a pain.
I accept that standardisation is safer even if the indicators are on the left.
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Either that, or angrily washing your screen when a driver cuts you up on the motorway.
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Left or right I'm not to bothered, but if you having just changed to being a two car family I find it preferrable if both cars have the indicator stalk on the same side. When they are on different sides I keep finding myself using the windscreen wipers to let people know I'm changing lanes or turning.
Either that or angrily washing your screen when someone cuts you up on the motorway.
...is how it should have read.
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