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by washingupliquid21 hours ago |
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upvoteby weaksauce20 hours ago|
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> Sadly marketing drones think everybody wants a Tesla-style "everything is a screen" design whereas a 1999 Toyota pretty much had it right.

they also had to redesign the door handle and people have gotten stuck in the cars because of that and died. not just one isolated incident... more than one case of the car door not working because it's electrical only and the backup physical release mechanism is under a door panel you need to pop off and reach inside to pull after you just got into an accident and are physically disoriented.

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upvoteby hnlmorg20 hours ago|
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What the fsck possessed manufacturers to come up with that stupid recessed door handle? I think I might actually hate that more than touch screen climate controls.
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upvoteby userbinator19 hours ago|
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Chasing very tiny fuel (or battery) efficiency gains.
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upvoteby Zak19 hours ago|
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Airplanes have had fully manual flush door/hatch handles for decades, and a handful of cars have imitated them. The electric retracting handles are pure gimmick.
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upvoteby ErroneousBosh17 hours ago|
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1990 Citroën AX Sport - https://assets.dyler.com/uploads/cars/406167/9080414/medium_...

Look at that door handle. Fully flush, NACA profile scoop in the bodywork to insert your finger behind the trailing edge of the door and flick the little lever up to unlatch it.

Give me that, please. I wish I'd never sold my 1991 Citroën AX GT, it was so quick and quiet. Hardly any wind noise, so it must have been very aerodynamic.

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upvoteby Zak16 hours ago|
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1969 Pontiac Grand Prix - maybe not actually aerodynamic, but it does have flush door handles:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/1969_Pon...

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upvoteby ErroneousBosh4 hours ago|
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Super clean. We need more cars that look like that, and I bet we can make them reasonably safe too.
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upvoteby ErroneousBosh17 hours ago|
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Apparently some engines now have a solenoid-operated shroud that pops up to surround the water pump impeller, so if the coolant is still warming up it doesn't circulate. This is supposed to reduce the parasitic load on the engine from the ancillaries.

I can't help but think that the water pump must require about 3 brake gerbil power to turn, and the weight of the solenoid, plunger, spring, shroud, and extra cabling - not to mention more seals to go hard and leak - probably takes more power to haul around.

I don't really care about a car's 0-60 time or fractions of a mile per gallon. If you want to save fuel, lighten your right foot.

I want the car to be simple enough to be reliable and repairable when it eventually does go wrong.

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upvoteby docjay30 minutes ago|
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I agree with everything you said, but I believe the pump shroud is for faster engine warmup, not saving a fraction of a horsepower. Cold engines run rich, producing more hydrocarbon emissions, and the cold startup phase emissions are heavily penalized. There’s also additional wear on the engine due to cold oil and looser tolerances, which affects nearly every aspect of the engine.
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upvoteby formerly_proven19 hours ago|
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c_w

(mostly design clout though)

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upvoteby ErroneousBosh17 hours ago|
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> Analog tach and speedo with idiot lights for critical alerts (there is literally an ISO standard for this) should be mandated by law. Substitute tach for a battery monitor in an EV.

You don't need a tacho. Some people add them in, like the Mini dashboard in the pic below, but they are absolutely not necessary. We managed fine without them for long enough.

https://treasuredcars.com/public/uploads/2019/10/22/mini_cla...

There you go, 1970 Mini, it's a 1275 version so it has an oil pressure gauge and an aftermarket rev counter.

Does your modern car actually *need* anything more exciting than that?

Compare these:

1982 Volvo, like I bought after I passed my driving test in the early 90s:

https://autopecas.norsider.pt/content/images/thumbs/136/1365...

2004 Range Rover P38A similar to the '97 I drive now although this is a NAS-spec cluster (like with the "unleaded fuel only" placard):

https://www.rangerovers.net/attachments/smartselect_20210517...

Notice something? Both have the fuel gauge, Volvo has a clock but posh models had a tacho, Rangie has a tacho, then both have the speedo, then the temperature gauge.

The Volvo has the idiot lights along the top, the Range Rover has them along the bottom - and in the middle a 20x2 LCD (which in that one looks a bit worse for wear) which shows the odometer, gear selection, and occasionally lies about fault conditions.

Doesn't it remind you a little of how aircraft have a standard "Six Pack" layout for the flight instruments?

We should do it this way.

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upvoteby jcgrillo2 hours ago|
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See also Mercedes W115 and W123 240D. Even the ones with a manual transmission had a clock where the tach would go. The speedometer had a series of dots at particular speeds that indicate the shift points for each gear (e.g. 1 dot for 1-2 shift, 2 dots for 2-3, 3 dots 3-4). I'm not sure whether a tach was even an option. The higher spec models had them, though.
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upvoteby ErroneousBosh1 hours ago|
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My W123 230TE definitely had a tach, and also the shift point dots, and a 3-speed thirstymatic.

I wish I still had it.

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