I have now owned my Audi for 9 months, and only this week have I discovered that it has heated wing mirrors. They run off the same switch as the heated rear window (which doesn't work terribly well, so I don't normally bother with it). I suppose I should have read the handbook when I bought the car - I wonder what other hidden toys it has?
Not as bad as my mother, who drove her new diesel Escort for six months before discovering that, unlike her previous 1100 Escort, it had a five speed gearbox...
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You know some folks don't realise their cars have indicators fitted.
Should I stop them and show them how they work, I'm sure they'd appreciate the info?
Stu.
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I want to get one of those car-fitted radars, which allow you to drive through fog at 120km/h, when everybody else is doing 50km/h, as they can't see more than a few hundred meters...
I think they come as standard on certain cars, but i can't find them as after-market accessories.
Can anybody please advise?
:)
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I think you will find them fitted as standard on BMWs and Mercs!
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Only on the silver ones, I'm told.
And it only operates when the lights are turned off.
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> And it only operates when the lights are turned off.
Ah, so *that's* when BMW drivers turn their fog lamps off - when it's actually foggy!
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A few years back, an ex-boss of mine in his 50s rolled up to an outside event 125 miles from the office in his new Cavalier picked up that morning from the company car office. Asked how it was, he said 'great' although it was going to take some time to get used to the 'new' two-speed gearbox. It should have had five, of course, but since the only two that were selectable were not too badly spaced, he had convinced himself that it must be his unfamiliarity with the car on his drive through Central London and up the M40!
I suppose we shouldn't really be surprised at anything we come across on the roads.
David Millar
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Had a customer once with a Sunbeam Rapier (Fastback model), fitted with four speed box with overdrive on 3rd and 4th, selected by a stalk on the steering column. I was testing the car one day with the owner in the passengre seat and tested the overdrive by selecting and deselecting it using the stalk. He asked me how I had deselected it - he had always assumed that the only way out of overdrive was to come down to 2nd gear, when it deselcted automatically. No wonder he had been having trouble on moderate hills for the last 12 years !
On another ocassion an amateur racing driver who I was helping at a circuit, could not understand how his recently re-built M1B McLaren Can-Am sports car
was now slower than the previuos season, when it had been rather tired. Had to remind him that it now had a 5 speed box, replacing the 4 speed it originally had !
Regards, Adam
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I am not sure whether my Pug 405 has heated mirrors.
There is no separate switch and I have never noticed them working with the rear demister.
The wires are there and connected, found that out a couple of weeks ago changing a mirror, the connector is down inside the door so you have to take the door to pieces to unplug and reconnect it !
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My mondeo has heated washer jets but I'm not sure what activates them either?
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Well just to be different, my astra (mk2) has a seperate button for the heated mirrors.
Trouble is, the button just looks like an LED above the electric mirror control. I'll bet loads of people dont even know its there!
Similarly, you'd be amazed at the number of people that cant work out how to turn on the interior light in vauxhalls - pull the headlight switch!
Mark.
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I had a similar problem with a neighbour's Vauxhall, she couldn't get the interior light off.
I had to resort to removing the bulb until she found the instruction manual the next morning!
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Something I posted yonks ago but it is relevant here.
It was on a thread where folks were listing main dealer mistakes and David Lacey was being very diplomatic, so I posted the following to show that while dealers can be dummies at times its nothing compared to the great unwashed public.
"David L is being very diplomatic about his customers very much to his credit, so I would like to fire off a couple on his behalf.
VW dealer service desk. Me sitting there waiting for car to be ready.
First customer:
Lady (sorry girls I hope I'm not a MCP) complaining that in repairing the car they had adjusted the pedals so she could not reach them, obviously she was 5'2" and the techy was 6'+, I am sure its happened elsewhere.
Literally the very next customer:
Irate because on his newish car all the radio speakers on the offside had stopped working. Of course he had adjusted the balance control all the way to the left.
Unfortunately this person is a consultant at the local hospital, soooo scary!
and we share the roads with these people!
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Bloke turned up at the auctions once in a rented Xantia on stilts. Complained that it lacked Citroen's magic carpet ride. When asked if he'd fiddled with the slider control between the seats he told us he thought it was for the heater.
HJ
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There is another variation on this theme chaps.
Firstly, my MB lists a vast amount of items in the handbook that the car does not have fitted, and it is difficult to know what the standard spec is in some cases.
Secondly, the translation from German is poor, and the emphasis on statements often plain misleading. Ambiguity is also a frustration.
Swotting up on the handbook at 471 pages, takes on an artform.
Mus'nt grumble, its nice to own.
Regards,
Julian
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Has LAC discovered that his Lada has a heated rear windscreen to keep his hands warm when he's pushing it?
;o)
(c) Jasper Carrott, 1972
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Chris,
The above was very cruel. Keep a dignified silence and we win.....
Alvin
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*we* Alvin, what's all this *we* stuff.
Where's the hidden benefit in that, free weeks holiday in a Whitley Bay garage?
David
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My F-150 truck has a nice fat manual (book not transmission) of some 270 pages. If we discount the fact that more than half of these are in French (not so concise as English, it is interesting to note that some 46 pages are taken up with the stereo, radio, clock, automatic traffic news system (not a lot of good in the Philippines), cassette, CD etc etc. Just looking at it makes me tired and I really hate those buttons with dual functions, you know, the ones which set both the clock and the fade/balance, because you never get whichever function you want when you want. Further chapters cover page after page of nanny stuff (driving angles off road, airbags and safety belts.
Exactly two sentences are given over to how to break the vehicle in when new. Half a page goes on oil changes, and no less than a whole page on the electric adjustable pedals (yes I have just discovered those as well) and how it is important not to store anything under the seat in case it slides under the pedals. Doh!
To cap it all this book is printed on(naturally) recycled paper, which has the texture of that Izal loo paper we used to have in Grandma's house, and which is coming ungummed and shedding pages already.
Now my confession. The head and sidelights come on automatically at night, and turn off about 30 seconds after you lock the truck, so you can get to the safety of your house before something strikes I guess. Anyway, guess who took the truck back to Ford and complained there was something wrong with the light switch...............
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Mmmmm.
Like me complaining that the aircon didn't work - I was trying to turn it on with the traction-on-ice button... (both feature snowflakes!)
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ian (cape town) wrote:
> Like me complaining that the aircon didn't work - I was
> trying to turn it on with the traction-on-ice button... (both
> feature snowflakes!)
And we have almost identical buttons for the rear fog-light and the front 'extra driving lights', for which I haven't yet found a use.
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I seem to remember that some years ago a lady drove a rental Ford Granada from Nottingham to London and complained to the rental company that it was very slow and noisy, made a crunching noise when she put it in gear and she had to fill it up with petrol twice on the way down. The lady had only ever driven an automatic and had driven all the way in first gear.
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Apologies for not motoring related but there was a progamme about a garden centre on TV some time ago and a chap said some woman returned a Grow Bag for a refund after 3 months because 'nothing's happened'. When he asked her what she'd put in it she said 'How do you mean?'
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Blooming Heck -- my BMW has foglamps......I never spotted them, when do I use them ?, what are they for ? damn should have read the Manual.
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I forgot the CUPHOLDERS! Six of the beggars, and two in front have a removable rubber insert with a pull-flap attached. I find thhne inserts are there to be taken out so that the holder can accommodate giant size cups from MacDonalds etc.
Printed on the inserts are messages saying beware of using these for hot drinks, they may spill and scald someone (only in America...)
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