Learned to drive a stick shift. Prefer automatic now.

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I recall a momentary push button on the dash that turned on the brake lights without applying the brakes. Can any of you Brits tell me what that was all about?

That brake light button sounds pretty spiffy. :~)

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

It might have been something like that Chris. There was no label (or the label had fallen off), and the only visible result of pushing the button was the brake lights coming on. The machine was 4th or 5th hand, and the manual was long gone by the time I got my hands on it.

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And some cars have wings of various sorts mounted on the trunk lid, like the Mustang does frequently.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Here's one, out of the past. When I was a kid, a bunch of teen-agers
wheeled by in a jalopy; it was jammed-full of them, and a rumble-seat,
in the back, was opened to accommodate the overflow. A raccoon-tail
had been attached to the antenna, as well -- right out of a classic photo
(Again, this was in the 40's.).

Of course, it had running-boards, but don't recall anyone standing on them.
Amazing, the cops didn't catch them (at least, on that block).

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A raccoon-tail had been attached to the antenna, as well

Way back in 1965 Esso had an ad campaign for "put a tiger in your tank", and gave out free tigers tails. All us young lads had one on our aerials. Of course they were just cloth, not real ones.

Running boards, ah that was in the days when we had REAL cars :-)) My Morris 8 had them!

You can still have running boards.

A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to help give high performance and Racing cars extra handing characteristics at high speeds. They have become common on passenger vehicles as well, usually added primarily for styling purposes and have either little aerodynamic benefit or even make the aerodynamics worse. Spoilers on the rear of cars are sometimes called wings.

On My car they're standard equipment, since it's the sport version of the Ford Escort zx2, though mine is also a bit more special, the car's called a Hot Coupe, a model that was made for only 2 years, as opposed to the Cool Coupe which was also around for 2 years. I did add ford cruise control since the car was already pre-wired for that, replaced the stock paper air filter w/a K&N stock replacement air filter, changed out the plugs to iridium though Motorsport Platinum will be bought and installed in November, I also use Royal Purple 5w30 synthetic motor oil, a K&N oil filter and I changed the cd changer to an Alpine mp3 cd changer, though the head unit is stock and has a cassette player, no one looks twice at My car since the car stereo is not a din mount, though there is a faceplate where I could have a din stereo mounted, that would be a liability where I live at now since the car is parked under an unfenced car port, there is no garage here either, nor room for one.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

My parents' 77 Vega had the dimmer switch on the floor, as did my 78 Monza (same car, but Pontiac). The 79 Monte Carlo and Malibu both had it on the stalk: pull back on the turn signal arm, pull again to dim. Same on my Jeep and van. When I test drove the Trailblazer, I thought it was broken because pulling only caused the lights to go bright for as long as I pulled. The dealer told me to push it; it stays pushed until I pull it back for dim. One of my recent loaners had yet another variation on this: push and it would go bright, but it would also snap back to the normal position. Either push again or pull to go dim.

Foot-operated parking brakes are usually all the way to the left and closer to the driver than the other pedals, so they aren't easy to push unintentionally. They always have a hand release in my experience. Both of the 79s, and the 69 Buick, had them, and all also had cable rust and/or stretch.

Agree with the definition of boat fenders.

The Trailblazer (and the recent loaners) has a voltmeter with actual numbers on it. Like all the gauges, it drops to nothing when the ignition is off.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

That button sounds like a good idea. When I get tailgated
by other drivers, before I pull off the road I try to warn
the offending idiot by turning on my four way flashers
for a sec'......

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That button sounds like a good idea. When I get tailgated
by other drivers, before I pull off the road I try to warn
the offending idiot by turning on my four way flashers
for a sec'......

On most cars, if the switch is adjusted properly, the brake lights come on just before the brakes actually start to engage. So lightly depressing the brake pedal should allow you to flash the offender without actually applying the brakes.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Way back in 1965 Esso had an ad campaign for "put a tiger in your tank", and gave out free tigers tails. All us young lads had one on our aerials. Of course they were just cloth, not real ones.

They made a brief come back over here in the mid 1980s, and were sold as "Crushed Kitties". I remember the chief inspector where I worked took a very dim view of the one we added to the back door of a helicopter.

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One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

Mainly for gas mileage really, higher rpms use more gasoline, currently Mine is is unreliable and might be broken, I have My eyes on a replacement with about 50,000 miles, but to install will cost $105.00 an hour, so the install will happen when I have the leaky a/c investigated and maybe repaired, since both involve removal of the dash, Ford says My car is obsolete @ 15yrs old, though some parts are shared with the Focus, but I guess the Escort is mostly out of Focus.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

I would guess its for those days you get stuck in your driveway when it has snowed 20" and you spin the tires going back and forth trying to get out.
My KIA forte with an auto Tran. has traction control which I usualy leave on. But when Im stuck that thing wont let you go over a certain RPM. Thats when I turn it off and look at my TAC. Some times traction control will keep you from getting unstuck.

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[/quote]

Old James

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

I do look at the tachometer from time to time but one place where it is very useful is when you are using engine braking on a long down hill grade. Often high gear will not provide sufficient braking so you keep downshifting till you find a gear that will hold. On the motor home this was a real problem because it had an automatic transmission and anything over 2500RPMs could end the life of the engine. The weight resulted in a fine balancing act where you didn't take all day to get down the hill but you didn't damage the drivetrain or overheat the brakes.

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One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

I think use of tacho or speedo depends on how you drive. I prefer seeing the tacho. After a short while I will know how fast I am going and be able to keep within the speed limits ;-), ok know how much I am exceeding the limits.
This dashboard of all the cars I have owned had the best layout. The speedo was frequently covered by my right hand steering the car, my left hand would be flicking through the gears or changing the radio station etc.

On my Accord, with the radio at normal volume, the tach is the best way of telling when the auto transmission shifts. For the techno geeks, it also shows when the torque converter lockup kicks in and out. Like Vic said, that is all about gas mileage, if you know what the information means.

As a professional techno geek, I would like to see more instrumentation, like electrical, oil pressure, fuel pressure, etc. From time spent testing digital controls in other vehicles, I would love to be able to monitor bus traffic and see what the computers are doing at any time. However, 99% of the driving public today wouldn't get any real information from that sort of stuff. Those are the people the car companies design their product for.

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Tachometers are ok, when with a new car (manual transmission). After a few
miles, one gets the "feel" of it. For example, I don't like to go over
2500 rpm (3000, max) except when necessary, briefly. Otherwise, it's useful,
only in noisy road conditions when engine noise -- useful, sometimes, for
shifting -- can't be heard.

The usual highway rpm is anywhere from 1500-2000.

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One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

Oooh. I luv my gauges, including the tach! I actually transplanted a gauge cluster from a '90 Cierra with a 6 cylinder into my 4 banger, so I have the full gauge package now as opposed to the butt ugly stocker with a big sweep speedometer and nothing but idiot lights. I got uber lucky on ebay and found one from a car that had been wrecked with only 8,000 miles original on it.

I had to get a $100.00 adapter from Dakota Digital to massage the tach signal from the 4 banger to read correctly on the 6 cylinder tach. And change out the oil pressure sending unit which was just a switch for the idiot light and replace it with the one that has the transducer in it for the oil pressure gauge. Interestingly enough, the wiring harness included all of the wires to work with either version of engine. And the pinouts of the cluster connectors matched....I had to verify all of that with the factory manual before I dove into the conversion.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

The vehicle I learned on had the dimmer switch on the floor, the window washer pump on the floor (a rubber squeeze pump with a check valve). The parking brake was a pedal on the left. So, the left foot was a bit busier than usual with the parking brake, the clutch, the dimmer, and the windshield washer...

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