... on your car do you find either incredibly annoying, or really pleasing? Things that could just as easily have been done differently at no extra cost, but weren't.
My top three;
1) The intermittent speed wipers on my C5 that vary with the speed of the car, and so have to be switched off in light rain at high speed, otherwise they just scrape across a dry screen.
2) A clock that assumes that I will never want to know the time if the temperature is less than 4 degrees (when it is replaced by the ice alert).
3) On the positive side - on a car I hired recently: A radio that switches off when you take the key out, not when you switch the engine off. Truly excellent!
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Think this thread has come up before, but here's a quick one:
Good:
Arrow on the fuel gauge showing which side the fuel cap is on (MINI)
Bad:
Hiding the rear heater window demist control amongst the radio controls (C4)
Lee -- Do you have any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning?
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My new Golf MKV has too many nice little finishing touches to mention, really. However, (isn't there always one), there is an annoying feature in VAG cars and others, where designers insist on labelling their Aircon buttons as 'Econ' although there may be subtle differences in operation to warrant this.
On mine et.al, the 'Econ' switch is illuminated when the air conditioning is 'off' and vice versa. This is most annoying and sometimes confusing. I much preferred my last car, where, when the switch was illuminated with a (blue light)I knew the aircon was on.
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Land Rover - almost everything from when you put the key in the door lock.
BMW - can't think of anything at the moment, but I no doubt will in a minute - oh stupid intelligent indicators.
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Apologies to those of you who've heard me moaning about this before, but it is the wipers in my Berlingo that go on without me asking them.
If the front wiper is on, and I put the car into reverse, the rear wiper goes on automatically and there is nothing I can do to stop it.
More annoying is that if I squirt water on the windscreen, the wiper goes over the windscreen automatically, and there is, again, nothing I can do about it.
However, what really irritates me is the fact that the wiper goes over the filthy windscreen before the washer fluid is squirted onto it. Grrrr.
Does anyone know how easy it would be for an electrical whiz kid to disable such features?
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If this Berlingo is multiplexed ( depends how old it is ) then ask your Citroen dealer nicely if the rear wiper coming on when the front wipers are on & its put into reverse can be disabled in the BSI configuration set up.
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Just do as I do with my Scenic - switch my front wipers off before selecting reverse if I don't want my rear wiper on. But I need to say, that the majority of times, I would want my rear wiper on!
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I would think most cars have those Berlingo features these days.
Years ago on Cavaliers we had as company cars, you could disable the combined wash/wipe (which was a real nuisance as Cavaliers seemed very prone to washers freezing up) by snipping a link inside the wiper relay. Cars are so much more complicated now, I doubt it would be possible to figure out what to snip, even if you could take the relay apart.
Every time it went in for service though, they changed the relay, even if instructed not to.
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2004 Megane:
Like:
1. Keyless entry
2. Panoramic glass sunroof
3. Follow-me home lights
4. Mobile ash tray.
Don't like:
1. Changing those wretched front bulbs.
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Don't have a VW, but on all cars I have seen, ECON or ECO are fitted to vehicles with climate control, not basic air conditioning (simple cold air on or off), and are in fact 'ECOnomy' buttons to disable the compressor, such as when the vehicle is idling for long periods to drive external equipment etc....
It is the same in a building which has the more modern reversable aircon that heats or cools depending upon the requirement.
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'Arrow on the fuel gauge showing which side the fuel cap is on (MINI)'
Shakes head in amazement.
Never realised the Mini was aimed at the sort of people who need to have 'left' and 'right' painted on their wellies...
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>>On the positive side - on a car I hired recently: A radio that switches off when you take the key out, not when you switch the engine off. Truly excellent!>>
My VW Bora does this. However, you can switch it on again if necessary without the key having to be inserted.
A little know Bora (and presumably other VW models) touch is that the handle grips have a damped return movement, whilst being able to lock the vehicle, close any open windows and set the alarm from the boot lid as well as either of the front doors can save a little time.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Back in the days of semaphore direction indicators, at least one car I drove had bent the offside one against something so that the driver had to stick an arm out of the window and either pull it out of its slot or stuff it back in... never knocked my arm off while doing it either, bit of luck there. Any way that's what I call a little finishing touch.
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Rented a big Jeep thing in Canada last week. It had a badge that said "5.7" on the tailgate. Not something you'd want to own in the UK with an average of 10-12mpg but a few nice tricks.
The electric drivers seat would move back a few inches when you took the key out of the ignition.
The radio stayed on after turning off the engine until one of the doors was opened.
The headlights come on when the remote was "plipped" for entry and stay on for 30 seconds (adjustable) after exit.
Auto dipping headlights when someone came the other way (sensor above mirror). Never quite trusted it though!
On the negative side, the windscreen defrost was useless, the blower only covering a large oval in the centre of the windscreen. The suspension was scarily soft and rolled on any bend.
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Two nice features in the transit. one the standard radio can be switched on when the engine is off and the key is out the ignition.secondly unlike billpayers berlingo the screen wash operates seperatly from the wipers alowing you to soak the screen and remove dried on bird muck etc.
Bad feature is the arm rest that is slightly to short to alow comfortable gear changes when its down unlike the dash mounted sticks of the sprinter or master.
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My Almera has just spent its third night at home (yes, thanks, it slept very well). We have only done about 300 miles together, but so far, my likes and dislikes among small bits include:
Good: Interior light goes on when I press the button to unlock the door.
Bad: I can't figure out how to make it go on at other times (RTFM time again).
Good: map lights in the front.
Bad: no light in the rear seats.
Good: Rear parking sensor beeps settle into a solid screech far enough from an obstacle that I don't have to worry about the towbar hitting anything.
Bad: They are so cautious that they still leave 18" clear behind the towbar.
Good: popout cupholders located nice and low in the centre console.
Bad: cupholders slanted so far forward that I won't use them unless I lose the plot and decide to wash the CD player.
Good: lumbar support in drivers' seat appears to have some sort of gentle pulsating mechanism built into it.
Bad: I think I may be imagining this.
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Nice feature on my parents Toyota Yaris Verso :
The rear interior light has a handle on it which, when pulled on, comes out of its housing and doubles as a torch (so it must have rechargeable batteries in it).
Neat feature that they were not aware of - I was whiling away the time reading their handbook and spotted this one.
Saves the need for carrying a separate torch in the car for emergencies.
Chris Muriel, Manchester
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I did a road test on a Skoda Favorit that had the same thing - in 1989.
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On the Blaupunkt Travel Pilot DX-R4 radio/sat nav fitted to the Tourvan ( sounds magnificent - but an ergonomic disaster )
Good:
Different sound settings (bass, treble, loudness, balance. fade) can be set and memorised for each input (ie different for AM, FM, CD, Aux)
Bad: No steering wheel controls
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Mk3 golf hehehe
Good: Remote central locking (clap) front and rear electric windows, electric mirrors.
God, how technology has evolved since 1996..
To be fair quite a few gadgets are useless. I still don't see the point of automatic windscreen wipers....
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>>Different sound settings (bass, treble, loudness, balance. fade) can be set and memorised for each input (ie different for AM, FM, CD, Aux)>>
This is also a feature of my 1999 VW Bora's Blaupunkt Gamma setup, which can also record any RDS Traffic Infomration transmissions if necessary over a period of two hours if you are away from the vehicle.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Vauxhall Zafira diesel I hired last month.
Good: Really quick and responsive....
Bad:...but only if you press the 'Sport' button, which defaults to being 'off' each time you start the car.
Good: Comfortable ride....
Bad:...until you press the sport button, which firms up the suspension, when all you want it to do is make the car more responsive.
What's the point of that?
(I want go on about the Vauxhall indicators, suspect I wouldn't be the first)
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And I forgot another one:
Good: Car stereos that let you plug an mp3 player in
Bad: The ones that only support ipods.
We don't all have ipods you know! All we want is an 'aux' socket on the front, nothing fancy. Why is it so rare?
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"Follow-me home lights"
How do these work if you park at the side of your house?
_______
IanS
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"Follow-me home lights" How do these work if you park at the side of your house?
They walk round the corner with you silly!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Good:lights on the inside edge of the door when open,which when parked at night means other drivers can more easily see your door is open when your getting out.
Bad.automatic`wipers-Why?.i can see when its raining.I dont need a gizmo to turn the wipers on for me.
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Good: Illuminated ring around ingnition key slot.
Better: Keyless entry where you don't have to take the key (or anything else) out of your pocket.
Bad: Mk1 Megane where steering wheel invariably blocked view of "main beam on" indicator.
Worse: Intelligent indicators on Astra.
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turbo11-you say auto wipers are bad, but from a safety point of view I've had wash come up over the windscreen coming from a lorry going in the opposite direction, and the wipers were on a lot quicker than than I could have done. ok, only a second or so quicker, but in the circumstances. Only thing is the auto wipers do stay on sometimes for no apparent reason-can be a bit hit and miss.
anyway, I like electric folding door mirrors-a god send when parking.
and rear wipers that flick on if you select reverse with the front wipers going.
dual climate control-stops all manner of marital arguments!
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