New Stuff on Vehicles likes/dislikes

[dingbat]

I have a tennis ball on a string that the Admiral pulls up to. when the ball hits the window, stop

The collision avoidance display comes on when you pull in the garage.

At that point she has a 12” display centered on the fridge with distance bars (yellow into red) and audio feedback. All she has to do is pull in until the system starts beeping (yellow bars) and stop….lol

 

[dingbat]

@tpenfield you forgot to include BMW electronics.....

Son in law and daughter #3 have an I8 roadster and a X6. Daughter #2 VW Tiguan is worst

 

[Pmt133]

I'll add a like... auto tinting mirrors. My 19 only does the rear view but the 03 does the rear view and side mirrors. It's a dumb feature but does correct for the ahole in the jeep deciding that his light bars and pods are DOT legal for road use on high.... obviously I also don't mind the manual flip mirror as well. Just more of a convenience than anything.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Speaking of mirrors. I like power folding mirrors. Super handy on trucks with trailering mirrors.

 

[Scott Danforth]

The collision avoidance display comes on when you pull in the garage.

At that point she has a 12” display centered on the fridge with distance bars (yellow into red) and audio feedback. All she has to do is pull in until the system starts beeping (yellow bars) and stop….lol

and how is that working...... empirical testing shows the tennis ball works better for the Admiral.

 

[kd4pbs]

Parking area was very large, at least a quarter mile in both directions, pole was in one corner, he was not headed toward the pole but the traction control steered him right into it ! Lucky for him his wife was recording it and they hired an attorney and went after the mfgr. They agreed to fix his vehicle, and disconnected his traction control. First thing I do us turn mine off when I start my car..,.

That's just a one-in-a-million thing right there - wow! I'd love to see that video.
Good thing that's the exception and not the norm.
Even professional racers utilize the traction control on the car if it has it.

 

[tphoyt]

and how is that working...... empirical testing shows the tennis ball works better for the Admiral.

My grand farther used the tennis ball trick for my grandmother. She had to stuff a 72 caddy into a single car garage. There was just enough room.

 

[Pmt133]

That's just a one-in-a-million thing right there - wow! I'd love to see that video.
Good thing that's the exception and not the norm.
Even professional racers utilize the traction control on the car if it has it.

Traction control in a 1 of 1 million dollar car with tuning and R&D in it for the sake of going as fast as possible is very different than what us norms get. I find it very intrusive and outside of a few special vehicles, most of the time when you disable it it comes back on above a certain speed anyway. Typically I've already corrected by the time the TC has a chance to think and it ends up putting me in a worse situation than if it hadn't been there at all...

for example an oil slick on an on ramp. Had recovered the truck in a controlled slide and straighten out... then the TC light on the dash comes on. Can hear the brakes pulse and all balance on the chassis is disrupted and slides hard left over curb into the median... luckily wasn't going fast but still knocked the front end out of alignment. I could see if I had braked or pushed the gas but I was out of it. Wheels straight rolling in a straight line. Odd.

 

[kd4pbs]

Traction control in a 1 of 1 million dollar car with tuning and R&D in it for the sake of going as fast as possible is very different than what us norms get.

I'm talking about racers that race normal everyday production cars.
Saw a wonderful video recently showing a professional driver running a Corvette around the Nürburgring. TC was blinking the whole way around, handily contributing to better braking, faster corners, and efficient WOT follow-throughs.
My experience with TC on a racetrack with a RWD production car (an amateur racing club - not professionally) was that I could focus less on precise throttle control and more on everything else.
Don't get me wrong - I learned to drive before all this mess was available. I'm just aware that there are good reasons to have some of it. That computer can think much faster than all of us, when it's put together properly. A well-built TC system is an assistant and doesn't take total control.
That being written, I had an assistant that bought a brand new Tundra that has the collision avoidance crap built in. I rode with him some, and was shocked at the annoying, blaring beeping it would do. Even with it, he ended up rear-ending someone a year or so later. My guess is he got so accustomed to letting the vehicle think for him that he stopped doing it himself.

 

[aspeck]

Speaking of mirrors. I like power folding mirrors. Super handy on trucks with trailering mirrors.

Until they quit working ... but after 2 years of not working, mine started to work last week ... go figure???? I did nothing to fix them ...

 

[Scott Danforth]

My experience with traction control and yaw control is that it cuts power when I need it most...... at least a half dozen times it nearly killed me..... applying brakes in the middle of a double roundabout because I entered it at 40mph vs 15 and there was a bit of understeer or because there is a bit of wheel spin to cross a busy state road and the ECM cuts power and applies brakes

so for the past 4 years the first thing I do after I start the car is put it in competition mode with ESC off. No ABS, No traction limiting, No Yaw control, No Stability control. Just mash the go pedal to go.

I can live with a bit of wheel spin, I can live with going sideways thru a roundabout. I can not live with the brakes being applied by a car programmed by someone who didnt grow up doing donuts in a snow covered parkinglot, or drag-racing on ice or asphalt or autocrossing on ice with no sleep from the night before.

 

[redneck joe]

Tennis ball is low tech. Low tech is best.

 

[Mc Tool]

Yep Tennis ball , or the piece of wood on the floor to nudge tire up against .
Ha years ago I had to go to fix a big chest freezer , as I came round the back of the car shed in my service vehicle I saw the concrete block wall was all pushed out from the inside . Inside the shed was a large ford car with obvious frontal damage and an impact damaged freezer that was pushed part way thru the wall . The old tart had stepped ( quite firmly ) on the wrong pedal and shot forward into the freezer .......... Husband comes out , huge grin on his face as he points out where the rear wheels had done a massive burn out .... right thru the flooring and into the concrete underneath. Apparently she still had it floored when he got to the scene.

 

[airshot]

Tried the board bolted to the floor.......not a good idea, not only did the wife drive right over it, when the car was not inside, I often tripped over that darn board !

 

[alldodge]

My 21folding mirrors still worked when traded, new 25 has folding power extending. Think I'm going to like the extending, been many times I hook up the boat and start driving the do the Homer Simpson because 21 had manual extend

 

[Mc Tool]

Tried the board bolted to the floor.......not a good idea, not only did the wife drive right over it, when the car was not inside, I often tripped over that darn board !

yeah thats part why we went for the tennis ball ( actually a Bart Simpson doll hanging by its neck ). I guess it depends a bit on each individual problem wife . Impact parkers

 

[dingbat]

and how is that working...... empirical testing shows the tennis ball works better for the Admiral.

She’s probably 90% at this point.
Got her stopping at the yellow instead of the red bar now