Simple things made difficult

[joewilliams]

I needed to jump start my car yesterday evening. This shouldn't be a daunting job - I've got jump leads, I've done it dozens of times before, I just need a donor car.

Car 1: Vauxhall Insignia. Battery completely covered by a plastic box. No amount of tugging or pulling would release the cover, and in the dark we couldn't see any visible clips. Not a problem, we've got plan B!

Car 2: Ford Focus. Battery also has a cover, with with a clearly visible handle that pops off to reveal... the negative terminal. There's another cover that needs pulling off to get to the positive terminal, but the battery is tucked so far under the bulkhead that it's impossible to get the crocodile clip onto the terminal. Arse.


I'm actually embarrassed to call the AA to give me a jump start, but that's what I've had to do.


Now, I know that a large enough proportion of the general public are more likely to shock themselves on an exposed battery than use it to jump start something, but why do things have to be so bloody difficult?

[dave7692]

Without being derogatory I tend to find that with modern cars the "cheaper" brands seem to be endlessly more complicated than more expensive ones.

For example the other day a mate and I decided to service our cars, my Golf was a routine job for the pair of us and took less than an hour to change the oil and swap out the filters.

However my mates Pug took us 4.5 hours! Simply because everything was so awkward and unintuitive to get to, to reach the air filter (located cabin side of the engine) we eventually had to remove the section of plastic between the windscreen and bonnet, which as you can imagine was quite a task.

Personally I'm sure its just a ploy to get more people to have work carried out at dealerships than do it themselves.

[Toaster Pilot]

dave7692 said:

Without being derogatory I tend to find that with modern cars the "cheaper" brands seem to be endlessly more complicated than more expensive ones.

For example the other day a mate and I decided to service our cars, my Golf was a routine job for the pair of us and took less than an hour to change the oil and swap out the filters.

How old is your Golf?

[dave7692]

Toaster Pilot said:

dave7692 said:

Without being derogatory I tend to find that with modern cars the "cheaper" brands seem to be endlessly more complicated than more expensive ones.

For example the other day a mate and I decided to service our cars, my Golf was a routine job for the pair of us and took less than an hour to change the oil and swap out the filters.

How old is your Golf?

MK5 06 plate, I know to some that takes the word "modern" a bit lightly however I meant it in relation to much older, simpler cars.

[Toaster Pilot]

Surprised they haven't gone down the route of "so complicated you need a dealer to do the simplest stuff" by that age, plenty of other manufacturers seem to have.

[freshmicropig]

Nothing like the good old days eh? A BGT just involves sending them in through the boot, removing the rear seats and unscrewing a panel in the floor. It's about that point that you realise the leads are 2ft too short.

[vtecyo]

Changing a headlight bulb on an every increasing number of cars.

Why make it so hard? I hear tales of having to take off front bumpers and wheel arch liners all for one bulb!

[Krikkit]

freshmicropig said:

Nothing like the good old days eh? A BGT just involves sending them in through the boot, removing the rear seats and unscrewing a panel in the floor. It's about that point that you realise the leads are 2ft too short.

Found this on a B before - even a roadster is a ballache having to pull all the crap off the interior shelf, unscrew the panel etc. Then the leads are still too short!