What improvements would you make?
Discussion
RobM77 said:
I'd also like someone to design a door ratchet mechanism that holds the door where you open it to, and not move it in a series of jerks, threatening the paintwork of the car next to you. The way doors work like this seems to have stayed the same for about 30 years.
Bindun. Mercedes, as I recall, on the 600 Grosser. It's hydraulic.boxedin said:
Guvernator said:
Ride suppleness. Baring a very few exceptions like Lotus, most modern cars are rubbish at this. Our roads are getting worse and yet manufactures insist on making cars feel every ripple\pothole\crack\fag-butt in the road, all in the name of "sportiness". It's gotten so bad even SUV type vehicles, the normal bastion of decent ride are at it. Smaller alloys, decent side profile and suspension which actually soaks up the worst our roads have to offer rather than transmitting it straight through to your filings. I'd sacrifice quite a bit of sportiness\handling finesse and lap time willy waving to bring back that old floating on air feeling that you used to get with a lot of older cars.
Trouble is once you're on mainland europe, your suspension is magically fixed!The recent new super-black surfaces are really quiet too.
Danattheopticians said:
BAN Audi from stupid indicator designs doing:
1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
In line with many pieces of s1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
t engineering at Audi, their indicator placement makes them virtually invisible against the headlights, so they're dangerous if the headlights stay on. It's just bad design.
Grayedout said:
Make sidelights only enabled when the ignition is OFF so can be used as parking lights only. If it's dark enough for sidelights then its dark enough for dipped beam which is an awful lot easier to see !!!
I often use my sidelights when it's late dawn. If ask why however I'd probably say, "I don't know" It's like using fast intermittent windscreen wipers when you have adjustable intermittent speeds. Is it too rainy for a standard intermittent and not rainy enough for on? I doubt it, but we like all these choices! Don't we? 
I'd like to see front fog lights automatically be disabled above 15/20mph. If you're driving in conditions faster than this with the fog lights actually making a difference to visibility, you're driving too fast for the conditions.
Also I'd like to see rear fog lights come on with a form of beeper, that beeps every 20 seconds or so. This way twunts wouldn't forget to turn them off all the damn time.
Lighting switch has two positions, OFF and ON
OFF = DRL's lit, dashboard unlit
ON = with the ignition off, sidelights on
ON = with the ignition on, dipped headlights on, dashboard lit. FIAT already do this on the 500/Panda/Ypsilon
A form of lane departure warning system which detects if you've been sat in an overtaking lane without overtaking for a set amount of time, alarms go off until you return to Lane 1.
Also I'd like to see rear fog lights come on with a form of beeper, that beeps every 20 seconds or so. This way twunts wouldn't forget to turn them off all the damn time.
Lighting switch has two positions, OFF and ON
OFF = DRL's lit, dashboard unlit
ON = with the ignition off, sidelights on
ON = with the ignition on, dipped headlights on, dashboard lit. FIAT already do this on the 500/Panda/Ypsilon
A form of lane departure warning system which detects if you've been sat in an overtaking lane without overtaking for a set amount of time, alarms go off until you return to Lane 1.
Europa1 said:
GPS system linked to hazard lights: if it detects the car is parked where it shouldn't be in a built up area, hazard lights are disabled.
Yea we get your annoyance, however you could have broken down and rolled to a place where you aren't allowed to park and you'd have no hazard lights either.The system would have to know if you are genuinely broken down or not then it would be good.
Trackers that are linked to small explosive devices.
Fog lights that can be turned off by other passing motorists.
Back to the days when cars could be pretty and unique by design, so by default make all pedestrians wear self inflating airbag trousers and coats.
Max weight for all 'cars' at 2 tonnes, anything over that needs a tacho.
Fog lights that can be turned off by other passing motorists.
Back to the days when cars could be pretty and unique by design, so by default make all pedestrians wear self inflating airbag trousers and coats.
Max weight for all 'cars' at 2 tonnes, anything over that needs a tacho.
Danattheopticians said:
BAN Audi from stupid indicator designs doing:
1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
Ah... saw this the other day and assumed the car had a headlamp fault. Odd, and yes, dangerous - who signed THAT off???1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
I'd love a decent-sized, easily cleaned rubbish bin somewhere in the dashboard/centre console. Boring, but I can't believe no-one's done it yet.
Edited by MikeT66 on Thursday 6th October 14:04
Whilst sitting in slow moving traffic on the A2 a while ago, and witnessing a line of cars attempting to merge from a slip road into lane 1 which was full of other cars that were moving slow, but sitting bumper to bumper, I thought about something - how about a warning buzzer (a bit like a seat-belt warning chime) that sounds all the while you are maintaining less than a 2 second gap to the car in front whilst moving.
Only way to disable it is to maintain a safe distance to the car in front. Checked as a mandatory MOT requirement. It seems to me that a huge amount of problems on our crowded motorways are actually caused by people sitting too close to each other rather than anything else.
Only way to disable it is to maintain a safe distance to the car in front. Checked as a mandatory MOT requirement. It seems to me that a huge amount of problems on our crowded motorways are actually caused by people sitting too close to each other rather than anything else.
MikeT66 said:
Danattheopticians said:
BAN Audi from stupid indicator designs doing:
1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
Ah... saw this the other day and assumed the car had a headlamp fault. Odd, and yes, dangerous - who signed THAT off???1) Sweeping motion - Serves no purpose and look totally and utterly pretentious!
2) Switching the headlight off on the side that is indicating. - Dangerous
vorsprung durch idiotic!
Even with only one headlight bulb operational, you generally maintain good forward visibility in the dark, so I'm not sure turning off one headlight for the few seconds that the indicator is on is going to be all that restrictive to the driver. I driven cars with only one working headlight before and given that the headlights "overlap" each other, it's not really a problem as long as you don't do it long term.
And from a third person perspective, although you have one headlight out, you now have a flashing yellow bulb in it's place, which is arguably more noticeable to other road users (especially in your peripheral vision).
I assume that the system is clever enough to not turn off the headlight if the bulb on the other side is blown?
I'd like to see a system that detects if you have a brake light (or any light, for that matter) that has blown. When you see the signal on the dash, you get say 24 hours to replace the bulb, or the car cannot be started. It would stop all the numptys driving round with 1 (or no) brake lights! Is it me or does it seem like at least 5% of all cars on the road have a missing brake lights these days?
Frankly, I'd want to get rid of over-assisted controls (especially steering and brakes) and the wafty suspension setups and almost total sound insulation from the drive train on many cars which completely insulate the driver from having any kind of clue about what road conditions they are driving in.
Lots of other things already said to agree with on the thread though. 2 tonne maximum for private cars is a great idea.
Lots of other things already said to agree with on the thread though. 2 tonne maximum for private cars is a great idea.
Moonhawk said:
If you could design any feature into all cars - what would it be. Not looking for hover cars or anything like that - but small, practical changes that could make a car safer, easier to use etc. Some of these features may be things you have seen on existing cars and which you think are a good idea. Others may be new ideas.
A few of mine:
2. Brake force indicating brake lights. A brake light bar that illuminates from the ends towards the middle as braking force increases. Would help you judge whether the brake lights that just came on in front of you were a gentle tap or dropping the anchors. I guess it could work on a similar principle to the animated turn signals that have started appearing on Audi's etc.
My X3 has this. Part of the brake light comes on under normal braking, all of it comes on and brighter when braking hard. A few of mine:
2. Brake force indicating brake lights. A brake light bar that illuminates from the ends towards the middle as braking force increases. Would help you judge whether the brake lights that just came on in front of you were a gentle tap or dropping the anchors. I guess it could work on a similar principle to the animated turn signals that have started appearing on Audi's etc.
I think BMW have offered for a long time - guessing others do too.
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