Who was the genius that thought <insert car part or technology here> was a good idea?

thedguy said:
Also FWD and any V engine. FWD is bad enough, but to stick a heavy/bulky v engine up front is just beyond stupid. Sadly it's not about to end anytime soon.

The combination of front discs and rear drums. I find it hard to believe that combining the 2 systems is cheaper than manufacturing one or the other. This day and age I find it hard to believe that any passenger car has a use for drum brakes, be it cost or lack of performance.
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The van I drive has all of those. It makes perfect sense, though, because a minivan doesn't need to be able to powerslide or have crisp turn-in, but it does need as much interior space as possible and a flat floor, which FWD provides, and given its overall size, I'm glad it has a V6.

The rear drums are a bit of a cost-cutting letdown, but given the fact that there won't be a lot of weight over the back wheels most of the time, drums are probably good enough.
 
Daytime running lights. I mean, why? Are people so blind that they need lights on in the daytime
 
WellsieTRD said:
Daytime running lights. I mean, why? Are people so blind that they need lights on in the daytime
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When daytime lights became obligatory for Motorbikes over here (I think it was 15 Years ago), the rate of accidents caused by other motorists, not seeing the Motorbikes went down a lot. They?ve used to argue a lot about it when it was made, but very soon everyone saw the positive effect and now no one who drives a Motorbike would even think about changing that law back ...

It?s not about "I?ll turn the lights on so I can see better" it?s "I?ll turn the lights on so others see me better". That makes perfect sense and in countries where it is already law for Cars, it is said to have a very positive effect on Accident-numbers.
 
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I like daytime running lights and I wish more cars on the road had them. It seems everytime I'm driving around when there's low visibility I have a dark vehicle behind me who refuses to turn his lights on. That makes me work too hard to have to keep track of him when he almost inevitably tries to get around me. <_<

Austere said:
I'd love to know what happend to the opening front quarter window. They're really handy and I don't know why cars today don't have them.
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I love those things too. They give you a nice refreshing blast of air that actually hits you unlike normal windows which just send the air to the back of the car.
 
For bikes its ok to have daytime running lights I see the point in that, but not on cars. As for low visibility conditions, whats wrong with just turning the lights on and off as needed?
 
efoolution said:
When daytime lights became obligatory for Motorbikes over here (I think it was 15 Years ago), the rate of accidents caused by other motorists, not seeing the Motorbikes went down a lot. They?ve used to argue a lot about it when it was made, but very soon everyone saw the positive effect and now no one who drives a Motorbike would even think about changing that law back ...

It?s not about "I?ll turn the lights on so I can see better" it?s "I?ll turn the lights on so others see me better". That makes perfect sense and in countries where it is already law for Cars, it is said to have a very positive effect on Accident-numbers.
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And before someone chimes in with the "DRL are only useful in countries near the poles like Finland and Norway!" I'll let you know that even in countries with very bright sunlight, glare can be such that cars are harder to see when their headlights are off. Plus there are the nuts who only turn on their parking lights at night. :roll:
 
KaJuN said:
The third is something I unfortunately experienced first hand: the mid-80's digital dashboard craze. They're fine for more upper-level cars like the Corvette. Not such a good idea on the econobox LeBaron K-car. The only display that worked reliably was the trip computer. Someone better have gotten sacked for that one.
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I know what you mean. My car has the worst dials ever conceived by man. It uses these stupid LEDs, and half of the LEDs don't work. To make it worse, they have a mind of it's own. One minute, the fuel gauge shows a blinking red LED, basically shouting at me that I need fuel. 2 minutes later, it's as if nothing was were wrong - "What? You don't need any fuel! What are you on about!?"

My personal hate - large FWD cars.

As I see it, large cars need to be RWD. These days, because cars weight more than Jupiter, you need meaningful amounts of power. Now these things on a normal RWD car are fine. But when you give a heavy, large FWD car enough power to actually get it to a meaningful speed, you basically have to slap Galileo in the face and fight the laws of physics. There's FWD sedans these days that have close to 300HP/200kW, and I tell you what, I bet you those Traction Control systems have very hard lives indeed.

Besides the point, the only real advantage is to save a bit of money, because it's cheaper to make FWD cars. So the only real reason we have big FWD cars is because the company is a bit tight. Fantastic.
 
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WellsieTRD said:
For bikes its ok to have daytime running lights I see the point in that, but not on cars. As for low visibility conditions, whats wrong with just turning the lights on and off as needed?
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In Florida, it is law that you have your lights on during low visibility conditions (i.e. rain, fog, etc). However, a lot of people don't follow this, and I've driven in more than one rain storm that washed out my visibility of the car 10 feet in front of me.

While it is nice to have those lights on automatically, my beef with them is this:
Said Florida drivers don't actually turn their lights on, they leave the day time lights on, not realizing that their tail lights are not on. Which means, that in said storm, I really can't see where the person in front of me is, because said idiot wouldn't even have the smarts/common courtesy to turn on his hazards to let me know that I'm about to rear end him on I-95.

So, to me, day time lights are a mixed blessing. They're nice, but promote unneeded laziness.



And to the white-wall haters:
1932-packard-limo.jpg
 
IceBone said:
DLR turns the back lights on as well.
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All the cars that I've seen with the DLR only have the head lamps on. My roommate's car has DLR and they only turn on the head lamps. When I worked at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the cars with DLR only had the head lamps on, and not the tail lights. Granted, some of those cars (including my roommate's) have the lights that automatically turn on when it gets dark, but most of the time when it rains, its not dark enough to turn them on.
 
That's just a stupid american legislation then. All the cars in all the european countries i've been to have all lights on with DLR.
 
I dont get the bonging when opening the door you talk about. Here they only bong if you left your lights on and you open the door which of course is handy (if you are blind :blink:), but bonging whenever you open the door would be hugely annoying.

How do people manage to lock their keys in their car? Sure, if it's old and still has pins you push down you may do it with ease but with modern cars and remotes I wonder how one manages to do such a thing.
 
chaos386 said:
And before someone chimes in with the "DRL are only useful in countries near the poles like Finland and Norway!" I'll let you know that even in countries with very bright sunlight, glare can be such that cars are harder to see when their headlights are off. Plus there are the nuts who only turn on their parking lights at night. :roll:
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Many canyon roads in California also have signs that say you have to drive through them with the headlights on regardless of time of day. Ortega Highway is one that comes to mind.
 
Whitewall tires don't just look good on cars, too:

cherry%20bobber.JPG


triumph_bobber8.jpg


8)
 
FATMOUSE said:
leaf springs, yo, like what the fuck

and pushrods? pfft
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What about the Corvette?


Who was the retard that came up with the idea to use flimsy little plastic clips to hold every piece of trim on a car?
 
73GMCSprint said:
Who was the retard that came up with the idea to use flimsy little plastic clips to hold every piece of trim on a car?
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That reminds me. GM also used flimsy little metal clip/nut things for the bolts on the front subframes of 2nd gen F-Bodies. These little clips are inside the floorpan, but not actually attached to it. As if replacing body mounts wasn't a big enough pain in the ass.

IceBone said:
The accountant.
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Indeed. They take a perfectly good and/or reliable design and say, "Now what can we skimp on? Let's redesign this great suspension for a little more interior space. Since we're nominating whole groups of individuals, I'd also like to nominate the UAW.
 
Here's two things off the top of my head, both came off the same car. The 88 Buick Park Avenue we had. It was loaded with all kinds of technology that either never worked right or only worked part of the time, and it all was prone to break.

The keyless entry was one of them. It had a little keypad on the door that would let you open that door or all the doors. And then there was the trunk latch. It was electric, so you couldn't just give it a good slam to get the fucker closed, you had to lower it down and give it a push so it would lock and then get dragged the rest of the way down. That thing broke I don't know how many times while we had the car.
 
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