It's the little things

[legless]

xyyman said:

coppice said:

I may be the only person alive who has never once used a cupholder ....

Not quite, but its an exclusive club!

I'll join the club here. Never once have I ever felt the need to have a drink to hand while driving. I might take a few swigs from a bottle of water on a break during a long journey, but that's it.

[dontlookdown]

xyyman said:

coppice said:

I may be the only person alive who has never once used a cupholder ....

Not quite, but its an exclusive club!

Another member. I don't drink and drive;)

[cobra kid]

TheOctaneAddict said:

My VW Scirocco had a bottle opener in the center console.

My MK5 Golf was the same. Lovely little touch.

[67Dino]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just shows, you can’t please everyone! Agree they are over engineered compared to say, an Audi A4, where they just put two neat cylindrical holes under the ventilation controls, but then the Audi has room which the 991 doesn’t.

On other cars I’ve had with tight dashboard space they’ve put the cup holders in the centre console well behind the left hand, requiring you to lean forward and perform an awkward contortion of the wrist to get your cup, which is difficult and risky. So the 991 solution may be complicated, but brilliantly puts the cup exactly where you’d like it, minimising the chance of spills.

As for those who never use a cup holder, I can only assume you either do less motorway miles than me, or consume less caffeine. Wouldn’t be without them.

Edited by 67Dino on Tuesday 2nd May 08:02

[coppice]

I do plenty of long trips but stop every couple of hours. If I need a drink I'll have one then , but it is rarely coffee as one decent cup a day does for me . It is odd how half the country now affects to be addicted to coffee and caffeine related muck like Red Bull . I miss the days when all you needed for a long trip was a pack of Marlboro Reds ...

[vikingaero]

shed driver said:

Sometimes little automotive touches really stick in the mind. For example, late 1980s Nissan Bluebirds had twin trip meters. They are very common now, but back then it was quite uncommon, if not unique in family cars.



SD.

Just by looking at the picture, you can see the visibility available. Everything clear and laid out sensibly instead of within a menu in a menu on the infotainment. You sense the ultra light and precise gearbox, the possibly over-assisted steering and light clutch, brakes ans accelerator. And you know that windy window will be light and work in a linear fashion.

[TopTrump]

coppice said:

I do plenty of long trips but stop every couple of hours. If I need a drink I'll have one then , but it is rarely coffee as one decent cup a day does for me . It is odd how half the country now affects to be addicted to coffee and caffeine related muck like Red Bull . I miss the days when all you needed for a long trip was a pack of Marlboro Reds ...

Nowadays it's Golds?

[legless]

67Dino said:

As for those who never use a cup holder, I can only assume you either do less motorway miles than me, or consume less caffeine. Wouldn’t be without them.

That'll be it. I don't drink tea or coffee at all (which my colleagues seem to find mildly horrifying). Because I don't drink it though, I never need it.

[DodgyGeezer]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

same as the R171 SLK then....

[cpszx]

Leithen said:

Yep. The original Touareg had the twin sun visors too. Low sun, gently winding road - no need to swivel a single sun visor from windscreen to side window.

Also has some other useful little features, some mentioned on thread already: the middle visor over the mirror; the rechargeable pocket torch; glasses holder in the roof console; separately opening tailgate glass to gain access to boot space (although possibly security weak point); a little button to turn off the lighting on the steering wheel controls at night.

And a really annoying pop out cup holder in the top of center armrest which isn't very easy to fold back when you are driving if you open it by mistake.

[Rich Boy Spanner]

2007 Toyota Corolla Verso that I bought new and kept because it has never let me down and is so handy to have The useful touch is glass. Lots of it, After driving something more modern the visibility is fantastic, no need for reversing cameras when you can actually see out of the car.

[Leithen]

Monkeylegend said:

My mid 80's Saab 900 Turbo had the ignition on the floor between the front seats and you had to put the car in reverse gear to remove the key.

It felt very natural to get in the car with the key in your let hand and put it into the ignition.

Great missed tv/film opportunity of a hot-wired Saab escaping from the bad/good guys backwards.

[dontlookdown]

Monkeylegend said:

My mid 80's Saab 900 Turbo had the ignition on the floor between the front seats and you had to put the car in reverse gear to remove the key.

It felt very natural to get in the car with the key in your let hand and put it into the ignition.

I had one of your car's rather less impressive successors, a GM era Saab 900 from the mid 90s. It was a bit of a lemon - broke down regularly, used a lot of petrol and was dull dull dull to drive. But I always liked that the key was next to the handbrake, v sensible place to put it once you got used to it.

That and v comfy seats were the car's only redeeming features however. I usually keep my cars for ages but I got rid of that one after only a year or so.

[RicksAlfas]

The mpg readout on my Volvo changes to gph when it is idling.

[LuS1fer]

coppice said:

I may be the only person alive who has never once used a cupholder ....

Nor me. Neither have I ever felt the need to drink any beverage while driving.

[Monkeylegend]

dontlookdown said:

Monkeylegend said:

My mid 80's Saab 900 Turbo had the ignition on the floor between the front seats and you had to put the car in reverse gear to remove the key.

It felt very natural to get in the car with the key in your let hand and put it into the ignition.

I had one of your car's rather less impressive successors, a GM era Saab 900 from the mid 90s. It was a bit of a lemon - broke down regularly, used a lot of petrol and was dull dull dull to drive. But I always liked that the key was next to the handbrake, v sensible place to put it once you got used to it.

That and v comfy seats were the car's only redeeming features however. I usually keep my cars for ages but I got rid of that one after only a year or so.

I had an 8v turbo and later a 16v turbo, both black, and both had excessive turbo lag which you had to quickly adjust to, but were well built, reliable ,and like yours. very comfortable seats, probably the best of any car I have had.

The 8v was a fully expensed company car so fuel consumption wasn't an issue. The 16v struggled to reach 30mpg on a run but I loved them both. I often wish I had kept the 16v car.

I did test drive the GM version when my 8v was up for replacement but found it was very disappointing compared to the earlier cars and ended up with a Golf VR6 instead.

[hungry_hog]

LuS1fer said:

Nor me. Neither have I ever felt the need to drink any beverage while driving.

Used them once for bubble tea as park of Chinese take out.
Were too small!

I don't understand people driving to buy coffee either in takeaway cups. It must be colder than the South Pole by the time they get it home, or they drink it in the car and decorate it with coffee at the next roundabout.
They're the same people that drive to the gym and park 3 nanometres from the entrance as they can't be bothered to walk....

Edited by hungry_hog on Tuesday 2nd May 22:53

[R53rider]

Monkeylegend said:

My mid 80's Saab 900 Turbo had the ignition on the floor between the front seats and you had to put the car in reverse gear to remove the key.

It felt very natural to get in the car with the key in your let hand and put it into the ignition.

I had one of those. Ugly, booted 2 door. But I loved it.
I went up the back of someone, really, really hard. No, it wasn't my fault!! Can't remember what it was but it was wrecked. The SAAB tank? Barely a mark. I was on a long 200 mile journey. So just carried on. When I got to my destination I found that ...... the key wouldn't come out!
Transpired that the impact had been so severe that the shock had caused the key to get jammed in the ignition barrel. The main dealer had to take half the interior apart to get at it and sort it. It was a company car so I wasn't too bothered.

[SimonS1]

legless said:

Skoda are masters of things like this. Just thinking of my last Superb, it had the following little touches, all of which made.life easier and showed some proper thought had been put into how the car would actually be used:

- Umbrellas inside the front doors
- Parking ticket clip on the windscreen
- Ice scraper inside the fuel flap
- The interior lamp in the boot could be unclipped and became a rechargable LED torch
- Velcro-bottomed pieces of foldable plastic clipped into the edges of the boot that could be used on the boot carpet to stop boxes sliding around
- Variable height boot floor for either comfort or large loads
- If the sunroof was left open while parked on a hot day, it would close if it started to rain

I drive a lot of Volkswagen Group cars for my job, and the Skodas are the only ones that feel like they've been designed by people who actually use them.

Another one from Skoda - on my Dad's Octavia Estate there are release levers for the folding rear seats positioned just inside the tailgate. So if you have a long load you can fold one or both down without having to stretch across the boot or walk round to the rear door.

[oldagepensioner]

My Xsara Picasso had 2 opening positions for the tailgate for outdoors and multistory car parks and 2 for the bonnet depending on how much access you need.