Things I'd like to see on all cars:
1-foglights that turn off automatically after 10 minutes.
2-ditto indicators
3-seatbelts you cant trap in doors
4-light sensitive horns that deactivate during hours of darkness
5-speed governers you can set easily yourself
6-an extra button on your key remote that closes all the windows and sunroof
7-windscreen washers that give a spray, not a jet
8-door speakers that arent obscured by passengers legs etc
9-some way of demisting the side windows that actually work
10-front seats that you genuinely can fold flat
Anyone care to add to the list?
WTM
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1/ A roof designed so that a pint of water wasn't deposited on your thigh the first time you opened a window after setting off in the rain.
2/ Cubbyholes that didn't fling their contents all over the car everytime you took a corner.
3/ A simple clock with a big hand and a little hand, not one of those digital jobs that needed half an hour with the manual when the clocks go forward or back.
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1 - if we can put men on the moon, we can surely get foglights that know when it's foggy and only work then?
4 - add a volume control to the stereo that limits the racket during darkness too
5 - great idea, should be standard
6 - just two buttons - one opens the doors, the other secures the car - locks, windows, sroof, alarm, follow home headlamps
and
11 - adjustable driving position to accomodate tall people without wrecking their knees and ankles on long journeys
12 - A sign in the back window that illumiates "Keep your distance" to tailgaters, automatically. If they fail to pull back then squirt them with oil, or a death ray
13 - A radio with simple controls and not a guy fawkes display - not really needed when listening to Terry in the morning
14 - Integrated speed limit display - not an actual limiter but a box that tells you the limit on the road you are currently driving.
15 - A "Serenity now!" button that disperses a cloud of calm over cars in a 25m radius to dispel the frustrations of modern driving to all around
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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Items 4 to 7 are standard equipment on most current Citroen C4 and C5 models.
The washer jets are especially good - they spray the whole of the screen with a high pressure fan jet which cleans far better than a normal jet. I bought a couple of Xsara jets (same design) from the parts counter with a view to fitting them to a Focus but it couldn't easily be done, especially with the Focus having heated washer jets.
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Cruise control on small cars, seems only the French do it at the moment.
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I'd tend to go the other way, things I don't want in a car.
Useless incomprehensible miniscule buttons with dual purposes for things that take 10 mins wading through a 534 page manual (if you can find that part of it which is English) and I'd start with the radio. After 2 years I still haven't worked how to set the clock on it.
Definitely no digital gauges. Look cheap and nasty. I'll thank you to supply me proper dials with needles on them. Not so many either, I'm supposed to looking at the road not a bunch of pesky flickering voloured lights.
Space saver spare tyres. If I blow a tyre I want a proper one to replace it, not something that looks like it came from a junkyard and has objectionable children in other cars pointing at me telling me there's something wrong with my wheel.
Far fewer electronics. As we all know if something goes wrong the first thing to let you down will always be the technology. That's why I never fly Airbuses. Fly-by-wire? No way. I don't need an alarm, who takes any notice of them anyway. They're just a nuisance when they go off. I'll stick to my trusty Autotaser steering wheel lock with its 50,000 cattle prod volts.
Lights telling me I need a service. I KNOW that, I already made a note of it in my Filofax, you dummy.
Anything else that irritates rather than enhances the motoring experience.
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Further to G's post I like the idea of an al electronic display but configurable by the user to replicate dials (as few or as many as wanted) or altrntivley just the speed and any alarm condition accompanied by an audio alert. Motoring eqivalent of the glass cockpit.
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Bromptonaut,
I too can't see why this could not be done. With LCD and computer technology being so cheap at the moment, programmable dash dials and indicators can only be a few years away. Most new cars have all the dials controlled electronically now anyway.
I agree though that digital "bar-chart" dials like in the new Fiesta look cheap. Not enough incremental steps, especially on the fuel gauge.
--------------
Mike Farrow
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To add to Growler's list:
I do not want windscreen washers linked to the wipers. No matter how much screenwash you have in the bottle and despite heated jets, the washers will still sometimes freeze in winter (usually on the motorway). I want to see that the washers still operate without risking the smeared salty opaque mess that you get when they have frozen.
(Not a problem in your neck of the woods, Growler!)
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Items 4 to 7 are standard equipment on most current Citroen C4 and C5 models.
Sorry? The Citroen has a horn that won't work during the hours of darkness? Are you sure you don't just have a loose wire? ;)
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Are you sure you don't just have aloose wire? ;)
Or even a bad connection in the car instead? 8-)
WTM
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*groan*
I think it's traditional on here to offer to get your coat after a joke that bad! ;)
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42" Plasma screen with Sky Sports
Unlimited access to the high end of the Sky Channels (know what I mean?)
A nice looking and intelligent girl in the front passenger seat to stroke the back of my head and map read realllllllly well at the same time!
Air freshener that smells of cognac and fine cuban cigars.
Rose tinted windscreen
Radio transmitter that makes all the lights green in my favour as I approach
A Ray that de-activates safety cameras as I zoom past.
Well......Carlsberg doesn't make cars, but if it did, they'd all be this way!
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Indicators, people actually use them do they?
Having spray windscreen washers probably wouldn't work very well when it's windy. My rear jet isn't spray or a jet at the moment, it's more of a dribble lol.
I like cars which aren't fully of electronics, air bags, and a stereo with millions of speakers. Instead I'd like a car which is lightweight, economical, small, and fast! I can't understand why some people want to put half their living room in their cars.
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How's about scrapping the normal instrumentation for a "heads up" display.
How cool would that be!
Leon
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I?d like rear facing, high level, high intensity head lamps to dazzle all those idiots that tailgate with their badly aligned headlamps. Or a rear mounted Heckler and Koch MP5, whichever is the more pc.
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Citroen are doing that as well, on the new C6 I believe.
Well, they are the innovators!
I stand to be corrected.
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I'd like to buy a car from a manufacturer who realised that because the windows opened he didn't need to install an expensive trouble prone breeding ground for bacteria as standard equipment.
It should still be available as an option for Big Girls Blouses, however.
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Something that will stop SWMBO talking virtually non-stop; she even raises her voice to compensate if I turn Radio2 up....:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Something that will stop SWMBO talking virtually non-stop
I'll have a car with a gadget that enables men to listen ... ;-)
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D'oh - pushed the wrong button and deleted my post. Take 2...
My ideal situation would be to have a custom shaped LCD screen mounted in the instrument bezel. You can lay it out how you want, customise the dials, change the sizes, colours etc and when something does go wrong, you have a nice big display to explain the problem.
RE Airbus: Don't forget that any modern plane is fly by wire, it's just that Airbus (the so called "electric jet?") have done it properly by getting rid of the cumbersome yoke and using a sidestick. Do you really think the yoke in the Boeings is really still connected to cables and pulleys? ;-)
Reminds me of an ATC communication I read in a newspaper article highlighting funny ones:
ATC: Airbus 1234, turn left heading 140 degrees.
Airbus: Long pause
ATC: Airbus 1234, turn left immediately to 120 degrees.
Airbus: Erm, sorry, the airplane won't let us turn left at the moment.
ATC: Well, could you put the airplane on the radio, then?
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I'd like a proper accurate fuel gauge. Not one that doesn't move for 300 miles then shoots down in 30.
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"A nice looking and intelligent girl in the front passenger seat to stroke the back of my head and map read realllllllly well at the same time!"
Oh for gods sake, what kind of far fetched pipe dream is that?
Be serious.
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> How's about scrapping the normal instrumentation for a "heads up" display.
>How cool would that be!
Like Chevrolet and Cadillac already do?
Kevin...
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Like some of the suggestions here. I think I would like wheels that retract like Dr. Emmet Browns delorean in back to the future. not to fly (dream on....) but just to frustrate the clampers.
WTM
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In addition to the essential squirt of oil for tailgaters someone here has already mentioned, I would like a similar system added to the sides and front of the car so when the old dear or flat cap decides they are going to drift into my lane or pull out in front of me without looking in either direction they would receive a good squirt of something nasty ... or better still some sort of large arm which reaches out and pushes them back to where they came from!!
Oh and a radio where I dont have to press every single button several times just to change to the next station or track on my CD.
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