It was only Mrs B and the other car!
Barrie
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Airbags, yeah, missed them. The others I thought of were traction control and sports mode.
A lot of aids deployed on that Merc though.
automatic choke, have we had that? my first car had one you had to pull out yourself.
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One touch window open/close, cruise control another. 
Barrie
Blimey, there piling up now, got almost as many as the new Citroen C4 which has a full HD camera 
that takes photos as well as no less than twenty other driver assistant aids. (well according to the bumph ) thatās what made me think of the topic.
No one said reversing sensors ( or did they ) and 
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SWMBO wondered why her woody mini-traveller tended to chug and use a lot of petrol. I could not find anything wrong with it. So having driven it round the block for ten minutes myself to find nothing wrong, I parked it, went back into the house, and I asked her to drive me round the block.
She pulled the choke out, started it and drove off.
āSee? I told you itās chugging.ā
āWhy did you use the choke?ā
āIt wonāt start without it.ā
āDo you ever push it back in again?ā
āDo you have to?ā
Ten years later when she had a nice shiny Mk1 Cavalier with a freshly rebuilt engine, she came back into the house on the first chilly morning and asked āWhereās the choke? It wonāt start.ā
My fault; Iād forgotten to tell her to dab the accelerator pedal enough to allow the automatic choke to engage before trying to start the engine. (Those with keen hearing could hear the flap clunk into place.)
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Ah the old automatic choke, a nice bit of old new technology. How about this for a new bit of tech.
Apples new carKey function, enable you to unlock and start your car using your i phone. And send digital keys to friends and family via message. BMW will be the first brand to offer it. 
We hired a Pug 3008 a couple of years ago (not by choice, I had asked for an Audi A4 or Mondeo) and it was a pig to drive with dreadful visibility especially to the sides and rear, and it desperately needed the hi-tech all around visibility on the big screen in the console.
When parking or low speed manoeuvring the computer remembered all it had seen from the various cameras, and produced a detailed overhead view of the car and the surroundings showing exactly where the car and its wheels were relative to all the things on the road, to within an inch, amazing. But the car would have been impossible to keep dent-free without it.
Ah well, yet another reason Iāll not be buying either of those.
Why are they so keen to make stuff so easy to steal?
To sell more replacements?
To make it more obsolescent even sooner?
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The data useage is minimal actually via something like Waze that I use. I often wondered how much it would use until I tried it. Iāve only got 1GB data plan with my phone, not even half way through it this month, the month renews 15th July. I only use it mind to get me there the last few miles to my destination but tested it out on a long journey throughout that, still good.
The music apps are also good, you can set to play offline so no data used, need a subscription to Amazon which we have via Prime and Spotify Iām just testing out their free offline music for 3 months, no data used but when you do itās small. Android Auto uses minuscule amount of data to play through that.
Glad Mrs B is ok, nasty shunt that.
Youāll have to hand over the keys to your NC now Barrie for her, or is it an hire car for now. 
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Hi Barrie. Glad Mrs. B is OK, please give her my best wishes.
Roger
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I think perhaps in my driving career the big jumps forward for me with cars and driving aids would be power steering, and ABS. I can recall the first cars I had with both and how much difference they made. The first one with ABS I had was the last one I had without power steering as it happened. Power steering however is the best thing ever, I will happily drive an MX-5 without ABS but without PAS, nahā¦
Back in the day things like central locking, electric windows, basic air con, remote adjustable mirrors (even manual ones) were such amazing innovations. Pretty much all taken for granted these days. We get more and more innovation with every generation of cars but I donāt think the impact of those is anything like it used to be now. And a lot of it seems like gadgets for the sake of gadgets, does anyone really need to unlock a car with their phone?
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PAS is a PITA on many cars . In its favour it is light, and that lightness also enables high gearing . Against - it lacks feel and feedback . My old MG Midget had more steering feel than any car Iāve driven with PAS and while some hydraulic systems were good , everything is now EPAS - and nearly all are hopeless !
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Martin, I think youāre right there, Iāve all on using the phone as a phone, let alone using it to open the car! 
Barrie
Thanks Mick, sheās a bit achy now and getting stiff. Our doctor said, if you were to slow mo her accident, she would be surprised how much movement there would have been! Regarding the car, fortunately, sheās working from home the rest of this week and then she has 3 weeks off!! Hopefully NC use will be limited 
also might get another car in that time if the insurance get their finger out!
Barrie
Roger! Thanks mate I passed on your wishes, Dawn (Mrs B) has asked me to pass on her thanks!
Barrie
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Funny you should mention this.
Our Sport was in for itās MOT 4 days ago and I was handed the keys to one of the businesses old FIAT oiler Puntosā¦which I now know has leccy PAS.
Except, being of the Fix It Again Tony stable, it decided to unleccy itself just especially for my wife & I on a left hand mid bendā¦with a Marshalls lorry coming towards us.
If Iād not been doing gym work-outs for 5 years, Iād not have had the upper body power to heave the P.O.S. back into the curve. Had SWMBO been drivingā¦
Apparentlyā¦" it does this now and then"
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B----y heck Rob, thatās awful! If that had been me with my arthritic neck and shouldersā¦
Anyway glad youāre both OK!
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Wonderful arenāt they? Found In A Tip is my take on FIAT! Having said that, the youngest lad totally abused his 1.4 8v Punto EVO to within an inch of its life! It kept going despite his best efforts! 
Barrie
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