Luddites unite!

[tron]

I know when to turn on my wipers and my lights.
I do not understand why mirrors need to auto dip and despite having them, do not understand the need for electrically moved seats. Dual mass flywheels do not improve a motor car, nor do 35 section tyres on British roads. Even the "convenience" of one touch windows is not of any real advantage and cooled seats with built in massage? Touch screen systems that require you to be a programmer in order to go out and buy a pint of milk? Am I now under trained to use a blxxdy motor car, a machine I could operate at eight years old?
If I am, Why? In what way does it benefit the road user to deskill the life saving aspects of lookout and control in favour of reskilling to use the 650Watt stereo now available in Ford Fiestas?
(To the ghosts of Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen: how could your company have sunk so low?)

 

[MancMike]

I love all that stuff.



... but then again I am a programmer.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

I know when to turn on my wipers and my lights.
I do not understand why mirrors need to auto dip and despite having them, do not understand the need for electrically moved seats. Dual mass flywheels do not improve a motor car, nor do 35 section tyres on British roads. Even the "convenience" of one touch windows is not of any real advantage and cooled seats with built in massage? Touch screen systems that require you to be a programmer in order to go out and buy a pint of milk? Am I now under trained to use a blxxdy motor car, a machine I could operate at eight years old?
If I am, Why? In what way does it benefit the road user to deskill the life saving aspects of lookout and control in favour of reskilling to use the 650Watt stereo now available in Ford Fiestas?
(To the ghosts of Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen: how could your company have sunk so low?)

Are you OK?

 

[Mattns]

On a similar note, I often ponder on how many cars go to the grave with unused functions such as electric rear windows, that little dial that might move the headlights up and down, traction control off button? Recently drove the 2017 Insignia, it now boasts both coolant temperature and engine oil temperature meters, took me a long time to realize that it wasn't just a repeat temperature gauge as every time I bothered to look they both showed the same value, it wasn't until I took a closer look (wearing my reading glasses) that I noticed a tiny difference in the symbol for temperature!
Paid up member of the Luddites!

 

[Delayed Steve]

Well duel mass flywheel save you from being vibrated to death by diesel or three cylinder engines.
All the other stuff I agree with.. I've got stuff on my car I've never used and never will ..

 

[Steveml63]

Well duel mass flywheel save you from being vibrated to death by diesel or three cylinder engines.
All the other stuff I agree with.. I've got stuff on my car I've never used and never will ..

.....but expensive when they go wrong - which they seem to do often, on certain car brands!!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

 

[tron]

Three cylinder engines are smooth and the old four pot 2.5 Citroen Diesel never vibrated me to death.

 

[poormansporsche]

My transit did 40k on original dmf and did a smf conversion for half the price of a dmf now on 150k and still going strong with no more noticeable vibration!!!!

 

[grober]

Welcome to motoring for the mobile phone generation. Characterised by increased demands on how to interact with the technology coupled to a necessary ignorance of the basic engineeering processes behind it, such is its complexity. I'm not saying its a good or bad thing- just the way it is.

 

[fabes]

Has tron been sipping the leaded again?

PS you cannot deny us Aircon though.....

 

[zipdip]

Well I miss the starting handle,cannot get the hang of these new key less go things,in some seriousness I can understand what Tron is on about,somebody last week said are you thinking of selling your car,and I said maybe, everything works on it except me,but afterwards I thought well there is quiet a lot of buttons I never push,all that has happened is that car makers have gone right past the basic needs of a engine that works well and electrics that are safe and well made, to a level where the cars have got so complicated and the pressure of buying parts cheaper have rendered the good engine and electrics useless as other things go wrong,still the automated electric car is on the horizon and all I ask is not to be run over as I walk having given up driving.

 

[st13phil]

Dual Mass Flywheels are used to damp torsional vibration through the drivetrain as a result of engines developing higher torque at lower rpm and thus running higher gearing than in days gone by. Having less larger cylinders and/or running heavy turbocharging means that at low engine speed there is a much longer interval between each power pulse than there would be otherwise.

Swapping from a DMF to a SMF is probably un-noticeable at higher engine speeds, but under high load at low engine speed the difference should be quite pronounced. Logically, the increased torsional vibration could also lead to premature crank failure.

 

[PobodY]

I don't think there's a button I haven't pressed or a dial I haven't adjusted on my car. - Once the seat was adjusted, the position was saved; I don't need to do that again.

 

[poormansporsche]

Swapping from a DMF to a SMF is probably un-noticeable at higher engine speeds, but under high load at low engine speed the difference should be quite pronounced. Logically, the increased torsional vibration could also lead to premature crank failure.

The tin worm is going to kill my van long before crank failure!!

Although saying that I did have a engine mount shear in half resulting in the engine falling out!!

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Based on some other threads, it seems that the amount of toys, gadgets and doo-dads, how they work and appeal to a given individual, are the main determining factors in choosing a car these days. I confess that the gadget quotient influenced me to a certain degree in that I wanted the fancy stereo and big screen for the floaty iPad thing.

I do get the OPs gist though, we don't need any of these fripperies. A warning light to tell you it's too hot, got no oil pressure or no fuel and a radio loud enough to cover the noise of the engine should do it.

 

[moonloops]

I know when to turn on my wipers and my lights.
I do not understand why mirrors need to auto dip and despite having them, do not understand the need for electrically moved seats. Dual mass flywheels do not improve a motor car, nor do 35 section tyres on British roads. Even the "convenience" of one touch windows is not of any real advantage and cooled seats with built in massage? Touch screen systems that require you to be a programmer in order to go out and buy a pint of milk? Am I now under trained to use a blxxdy motor car, a machine I could operate at eight years old?
If I am, Why? In what way does it benefit the road user to deskill the life saving aspects of lookout and control in favour of reskilling to use the 650Watt stereo now available in Ford Fiestas?
(To the ghosts of Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen: how could your company have sunk so low?)

Why don't you just buy a horse?

 

[markjay]

Why don't you just buy a horse?

Because he is not on benefits.

 

[Peter103]

Dual mass flywheel, never knew I had one of those, now I'm worried in case it fails.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

[219]

I know when to turn on my wipers and my lights.
I do not understand why mirrors need to auto dip and despite having them, do not understand the need for electrically moved seats. Dual mass flywheels do not improve a motor car, nor do 35 section tyres on British roads. Even the "convenience" of one touch windows is not of any real advantage and cooled seats with built in massage? Touch screen systems that require you to be a programmer in order to go out and buy a pint of milk? Am I now under trained to use a blxxdy motor car, a machine I could operate at eight years old?
If I am, Why? In what way does it benefit the road user to deskill the life saving aspects of lookout and control in favour of reskilling to use the 650Watt stereo now available in Ford Fiestas?
(To the ghosts of Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen: how could your company have sunk so low?)

I do agree with a lot of that .

Automatic lights just contributes to the brain dead failing to THINK and turn on lights during the day when visibility reduces ; then there are the morons with DRL's who drive at night with the back end completely unlit .

If rain is falling on my screen , I can turn the wipers on .

I've had electric window lifters fail on a few cars , but never manual ones ; still handy though to lower other than the drivers window for ventilation .

Electric seat adjustment is a convenience , but not essential , but if it has memory then handy for resetting my preferred position after her lady ship has moved it .

Instruments which tell me I have sufficient fuel , oil pressure and coolant temp is normal are all I really need ; if something else is wrong it will manifest in the way the car runs ; and my cars don't go into 'limp mode' over a minor problem .

I also don't have stupid electronic keys which go wrong and cost a fortune to replace , nor do I have alarms which go off in the middle of the night , or flatten my battery if I don't use the car for a week or two .

I used to work in the hi-fi industry , but wasn't a big fan of B&O even if they did package Philips internals in nice boxes .