Mk4 auto lights

[PaulDn]

I find mine no problem and it’s not too sensitive. It won’t alarm on twisty roads or occasional going over white line, such as overtaking parked cars in towns. It alarms with a gentle rumble which is not intrusive 

[MX5_8ARY]

@PaulDn

I find mine no problem and it’s not too sensitive. It won’t alarm on twisty roads or occasional going over white line, such as overtaking parked cars in towns. It alarms with a gentle rumble which is not intrusive 

^^ ditto that 

 

 

 

 

[RichardFX]

@NickD

In an attempt to make the lack of “the safety pack” less of a negative, it is my experience that the more self operating gadgets a car has, the more dangerous it becomes.

Auto operating lights have for a long time been the bain of any foggy morning. Those lights that turn on when light levels drop. But guaranteed the car that threatens to T Bone you at a rural junction will be the silver Mercedes that appears out of the fog with no light on because, “well the car does it automatically!”

I have lost count of the number of rain sensing wipers that will let the screen do an impression of a water fall without turning on but switch themselves on full when a fly hits the glass, smearing everything to make the screen opaque.

I have worked on manufacture events when they have been demonstrating “City Brake” where the cars is supposed to stop automatically if a pedestrian is detected. They used inflatable “people” and the cars smashed them to pieces blowing out the valves the impact was so great. So they wrapped the “people” in high vis tape because “the car is not seeing them.” More dead, blow up, people. 

These were production cars with the technology being demonstrated to sales staff, not prototypes. These “safe, don’t bother, the car will do it for you” cars are on the roads now, not in the future. 

Do you really want your lights going from full to dip beam automatically. In certain circumstances it must be like a disco, going up and down, but do you really want the car taking the decision for you as to when to reduce your depth of vision, such as a twisty country lane and a static fixed light. Surely even the least energetic can still operate a column switch without feeling deprived?

 

We are looking at replacing the shopping trolley and SWMBO is adamant she does not want ANY automatic features, in fact she wants the same as she has already; but alas it is 20 years old and will be uneconomic to put through the next MOT (major service, cam and aux belts, front brakes, exhaust, some tyres, oil leak, possible minor cosmetic surgery, etc). 

Specifically she has said NO to; keyless entry, auto door locking, auto dip, auto wash/wipers, auto parking brake, auto emergency brake, alloy wheels with silly thin tyres, any form of voice control, cruise control, lane warnings, any form of buzzers beeps or bells except a reversing sensor, no touch screen on the radio - knobs please.  There were a couple of other things, but you get the idea.

This is after we have hired a few cars with some or all of these features, all of which had some kind of problem.

The worst of which was when an elderly friend was trapped in the back of a Renault because it locked itself and we could not open it because the key was in the ignition and she could not reach it or the front door handles and the windows would not open.  SHWMBO quite reasonably says, “What happens if there is an accident, or the computer or battery fails? How do I get out?” 

The Megane had by far the worst “Smart” brakes, chuck you through the windscreen if you breathed on the pedal, but faded to nothing, zero, during an emergency stop on the Motorway, and useless parking brake.

Until we had the MX5 Climate Control (which works amazingly well) she was opposed to that as well after the hired Audi A4 misted all the windows one humid summer evening and we had to pull over for five minutes while it sorted itself out.

So (many thanks to IanF) I will be asking the various manufacturers at Goodwood if they have a rust-resistant Dumb car for sale, and not a whizzy modern Clever car!

 

[kr67]

I drove for a living for many years, often in vans with no back windows and no sensors. I have owned 20 cars, virtually all without parking sensors or rear view cameras. I had never reversed into a stationary object until 4 years ago. My two most recent family cars have had front and rear sensors and reversing cameras. And guess what? I’ve managed to reverse into stationary objects (a tree and a metal post) in each of them. I’m convinced that having more safety gadgets makes you lazy and less vigilant. My rear bumper repair bills are my proof.