Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

TFW you see a Youtuber say "I might have to scrap it" about a car that contains parts you want, and before you even breathe, you're looking at the "Sent!" message in gmail.

BadIdeas++
Based on your bad ideas I wouldn't be surprised if you're an Aging Wheels patron and it's a new video Joe Public is yet to see. :p
 
Based on your bad ideas I wouldn't be surprised if you're an Aging Wheels patron and it's a new video Joe Public is yet to see. :p
I have been moved to Bad Ideas by exactly one Aging Wheels episode. I checked to see if it was still possible to buy a new Coda and road-trip it across the country.

As of the time I checked, yes. They still had some. There was also literally no possible way to get it to drive to the California state line, nevermind across the country.
 
A swedish car journalist coined the term “suffering from design” in the 80’s when cars started getting more complicated and small accidents got more and more expensive to repair.

I would say that my speedometer is suffering from design. Instead of making it easy to read (or skip the round clock altogether) some graphic designer went nuts with the gauge face so someone else had to intervene and put a digital readout at the bottom.

6E0B41B8-CFE2-4BDF-8A6E-57A37B115831.jpeg
 
Why over 60 does it change to steps of 20 rather than 10?

Saab used to that too, but at freeway speeds. I don’t know. I hadn’t noticed until you pointed it out. The analog speedo is such a mess that I always look at the digital readout.
 
Why over 60 does it change to steps of 20 rather than 10?

The logic behind it is that if you're traveling at higher speeds, more granular differences are rather unnecessary and it leaves more needle travel for the more common speeds where you would appreciate knowing you're doing 43 or 27, for instance. It's actually easier to implement on a digital gauge than on an analog one when you remember in analog you would have to make the speedometer needle switch between at at least two different speeds. seamlessly, at that.

Saab used to do something quite similar in their clusters, This is apparently a Saab 9-5

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EDIT: I do wonder about the skeumorphic analog faces on digital dashes sometimes. On the one hand, I like skeumorphic design, on the other, the reason I like analog clusters is that there are actual physical components moving about and telling me things. On the other, other hand, those have been controlled electronically for a while now. Finally, I really don't like most of the designs UX manufacturers have come around once untethered from the "analog gauge" paradigm
 
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Now imagine the center blank space area be filled with the opposite speed units. US cars as you probably know have KM/H in the inner part with MPH on the outer.

This is a concept I never understood because, imagine EU market cars with that but with KM/H on the outside? what they expect every person to visit the UK at some point? I can assure you many Americans will not visit Canada or Mexico to warrant that being useful. I can only claim of needing it once in 2012, but with the advent of digital speedos anyways, changing over the whole display is simpler.
 
Dad's 2015 Silverado only has one set of numbers on the gauge face. You switch whether it uses those as MPH or KMH. I've switched on him and set him loose on the world. He was not amused.


Edit: Guess it isn't required that it has both.


§ 393.82 Speedometer.
Each bus, truck, and truck-tractor must be equipped with a speedometer indicating vehicle speed in miles per hour and/or kilometers per hour. The speedometer must be accurate to within plus or minus 8 km/hr (5 mph) at a speed of 80 km/hr (50 mph).
[70 FR 48054, Aug. 15, 2005]
 
Yeah it’s funny that cars with mph speedometers also have km/h but never the other way around.
 
The way the Smart had an analogue speedo in MPH and a little digital readout in km/h was always interesting and a bit confusing. I’m guessing European cars had both in km/h but I’ve never researched it.

Edit: Looks like those cars didn’t have the digital readout at all.
 
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Yeah it’s funny that cars with mph speedometers also have km/h but never the other way around.

Well I wouldn't say never, you just have to be in the correct country:

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Presented before you is the dash panel of a Mexican Chevy Suburban, please note the speedometer nomenclature.
 
Imagining a little man sitting next to the engine with a bucket and a sauna ladle, throwing fuel on the engine. I guess some of it will catch fire, eventually.
A single double barrel feeding 8 cylinders, pretty much the case...
 
Just got back into driving more (new job and all that) but I haven’t really changed my carwashing schedule. I usually do it every 2-3 months because I didnt use to drive lots so it wasn’t needed. Especially since covid I’d struggle to do 1kms per month.

Now though I have done about 4,5k over the last month so it seemed a good time to wash it now and HOLY FUCK it was dirty. I’ve basically gone from dark grey to metallic silver. There’s something very satisfying about cleaning a car in a ‘cartoon’like way where it basically changes colour as you’re doing it
 
People on the grams (Tele, Insta) already know about it but I've bought the sheddiest car I've ever owned. This probably will be Someone Else's Problem soon so I'll just post it here instead of making a proper thread.


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZBnmtOIxCW/

600 Euros worth of 500,000km Mercedes. Already declared it off traffic use so it won't accumulate me any costs. :p
 
Why, then?
 
Oh thank goodness, for a moment I thought you were just going to be buying unjank shit from now on.
 
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