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lotofwind said..
Most of us now days start our car and set temp. control using our mobile phone, so by the time the house is locked up the car motor has warmed up and the temp. control has the interior a cozy 22. Then Alexa says hello and asks what I would like to listen to today?

How is this going to work when you leave home? Will your mum tell Alexa what to do?

Seriously though, how many cars are remote start? I doubt its that many. I remember when Turbo timers were 'bad' yet here we are with remote start cars, although I guess security is a bit better than a turbo timer.

Lever shift auto, No need to use the clutch up or down


Almost as good as my ZX12r

Hate how people just accept that boring new technology that takes away real experiences and rewarding skills is just inevitable.
Its only inevitable because you're believing the sales pitch and taking the easy non thinking route.
Drivers are getting worse with all the new tech.
they cant even reverse while looking out the back of a car anymore.

Yes I agree, pushing in a clutch peddle is a very real experience and rewarding skill and means you must be a better driver.
Just think its funny people thinking it takes an amazing feat of skill and knowledge to push a peddle in. lol

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lotofwind said..
Yes I agree, pushing in a clutch peddle is a very real experience and rewarding skill and means you must be a better driver.
Just think its funny people thinking it takes an amazing feat of skill and knowledge to push a peddle in. lol

Agreed. Just last week someone was going on about using a phone to start their car and getting something to choose their music. Both technologies they had nothing to do with and wouldn't know where to start with trying to figure out how they work.

It's like the millennials these days seem to take credit for stuff that they didn't even invent and just consume. How lazy is that!

To your point about 'better driver', I think driving a manual does make you a better driver. Somehow the requirement to think about the car doing something maintains focus a bit better.... better than looking at facebook or instagram on your phone at least.

wow, you should work for 60 minutes lol, I dont think anyone has said they are claiming credit for the invention of the tech????

Oh wait, are you saying you are claiming credit for the clutch, lol.
Oh dear, you are sucking me into your heavy weather style storys.

Maybe if you put your phone in the glove box you wont be tempted to do your facebooking and intagramming while you are driving, then you can drive an auto.

Bloody modern cars, totally controlled by computer! Mine had a communication error with the brakes yesterday and speed limited to 30km/hr. Luckily I was only 100m from home at the time, and after turning off and restarting it came good. But I've gone from loving the car to being very suspicious of it.
And of course the brakes are 80% front and back, just a stray glitch and you're stuffed, I would have freaked last week in the middle of no where, on back roads returning from Albany

^^^^If there was an issue with your brakes that modern tech your scared and suspicious of could have save your life,
In the olden day cars you would have been doing 110kms on the highway with faulty breaks and not even known, tilll.......aaahhhh

What did the mechanic say was the problem?

I've driven old style old cars since 1962, and a few have had brake problems, but there's always been early warning signs, and as the driver I can make decisions about the best way to proceed. The computer gives you no choice, whether it is right or wrong. There was also no warning that the brakes were suspect

There is no evidence what the problem was, a stray cosmic ray getting into the computer possibly.
It was interesting to read that NASA uses ancient apple hardware in it's mars probes because it has beefed up radiation screening. Down here we rely on the atmosphere to do most of the work.

The computer giving you no choice is a very good thing because it takes away the "as a driver i can make a decision" , cause too many say " yeah she'll be right, I will get it checked out in a few weeks when I have a bit more coin in the bank, cant afford it this week",
and they keep on driving a dangerous vehicle out on the road putting others in danger.

Going into safe mode didnt put you out at all, turn off and back on to let computer reset and re-evaluate the issue, if no fault found you carry on. If fault found you crawl to the mechanic safely in limp mode and get it repaired which could have saved your life and that of others.

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lotofwind said..
The computer giving you no choice is a very good thing because it takes away the "as a driver i can make a decision" , cause too many say " yeah she'll be right, I will get it checked out in a few weeks when I have a bit more coin in the bank, cant afford it this week",
and they keep on driving a dangerous vehicle out on the road putting others in danger.

Its very unlikely that there is actually a brake fault there. It seems that a lot of times the comms between the various sensors and modules are the problem and not actually a brake problem. Brakes are pretty simple and usually have a fail-safe mode so that they still physically work even if the ABS actuator doesn't.

It is extremely rare for brakes to suddenly 'not work' and in a modern car very unlikely.

If it were an actual problem, you would expect the fault to happen again straight away, but it seems with a lot of these faults, 'switch it off and then on again' cures it. Don't ask me how systems can be built like this, but my guess is that they are pessimistic when it comes to a single lost message and therefore flag a fault when it may have been just a glitch.

I have a car where it has had a transmission comms fault and flashes a warning light up on the dash. The previous owner had it happen to him too. When I turned it off and then on again the fault cleared. There is no physical problem, just the TCM thinking there was for a second and then limiting itself in case it caused further damage. It didn't stop me being nervous for the next few hundred kms though, and it has never happened since.

I had a mate that had a Holden Vectra and the number of CAN bus related faults he got with that car drove him mad.

I think that it would have been your mates fault............... for buying a Vectra lol

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lotofwind said..
The computer giving you no choice is a very good thing because it takes away the "as a driver i can make a decision" , cause too >>>

I don't care what you do to every body else, I just want to be in control of my own life, not some dictatorial computer.

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decrepit said..

lotofwind said..
The computer giving you no choice is a very good thing because it takes away the "as a driver i can make a decision" , cause too >>>

I don't care what you do to every body else, I just want to be in control of my own life, not some dictatorial computer.

Thats great, you are probably a responsible driver and fix your car on the day it has an issue, before driving around all day first cause you need to do the shopping or pick up the grand kids etc, that could cause an accident or death.
But many will drive around for weeks/months before fixing, modern cars aren't perfect, but can stop a lot of that from happening and causing an accident or damaging the car/motor, and are waaaaay safer than cars from the 1900's.

If young people are as stupid and irresponsible as all the over 50 senior citizens are saying, a dictatorial computer slowing them down to 30kms an hour if the car may be dangerous is a damn good thing.

Not everyone is as responsible as you, and stop driving on the spot and get a tow to the mechanic or drive there doing 30kms an hour,, unfortunately.

The computer in your car isn't controlling your life, like you say, just controlling bits of your car trying to keep you, other road users and your car safe.

Loto you probably mean well, but you're lecturing the wrong person

Oh, ok, I misunderstood you, I thought you were complaining about the safety in modern cars
Glad you agree on the computer safety in cars thing, good stuff.

OK Loto so how about when the computer fault restricts the ambulance or police car to 30kph?
Not an option to just send a different one in most of Australia
I know of people stranded when a flash 4WD refused to drive on a corrugated road as it said the bumps were too much. 'crusiers and patrols had no issue and this other big $90K fourby refused to go. They could have died out there.

As usual you just want to have a crack at old things or old people as you're a troll with nothing to add of any value. Get some new material

So I was pondering this thread for quite some time when my CVT exploded on Sunday and I sat on the highway for 3hrs waiting for a tow.
It was recently rebuilt so they will be paying for it not me so no biggie.
But a manual would likely have allowed me to get somewhere as I could choose another gear in many cases. Still, a major fail like clutch is still not going to move.

I have just purchased a new entry level vehicle and wanted a manual
It is almost impossible to find one even though they are advertised
In the end I settled for a 7 speed automatic DSG box car.
The auto box is nice to have in city driving and find it still fun and responsive to drive if I have the car in sports mode
in ECO or NORMAL it's continually trying to be in a too high gear
If I'm in a situation when I want to be in control of the gears I can push the gear selector to the side and it becomes a 7 speed sequential box. This is fun in the twisties and find it a bit more like a motorbike with a quick shifter.
But really pushing hard on twisty roads is not what I purchased the car for or is really legal

Mark your concerns about computer errors in Ambulance's and Police is really quite unfounded
They are very rare in new modern vehicles Police Cars are Ambulance's are renewed regularly and most are less than 5 years old. The electrical/computer faults in most modern cars really only show themselves when the cars are about 10 years old. Range Rovers are particularly notorious for this

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>>>>The electrical/computer faults in most modern cars really only show themselves when the cars are about 10 years old. Range Rovers are particularly notorious for this

My commodore is only 2 years old with 57k on the clock. I don't think it was a "fault" just one of those stray gltches that get computers confused. The computer is in charge of everything, brakes, steering, motor, gearbox and heaps of annoying "beeps".
I thought I had got used to the lane assist, giving a little tug on the steering, when I changed lanes, without indicating. But driving on a narrow country road with only a centre line was bad. I think it took the gravel/bush edge as the outside line and kept wanting to push me onto the gravel verge, fortunately lane assist can be turned off, but you have to take eyes off the road and lean towards the passenger side to do it. But it's default is on, so if you stop, you have to remember to turn it on again.
My biggest beef is with the "limited to 30km/hr" thing. The computer only had a checksum error in it's brake communication, so it didn't know there was a brake problem, only that it didn't know there wasn't. I can think of lots of situations wear suddenly limiting the vehicle to 30km/hr could be dangerous. On one of our typical narrow windy country roads, you could easily have somebody doing 110 come round a corner to find you directly in front. Even on a long straight freeway, when it's busy a vehicle going that slow would be a big traffic hazard.

There was no explanation for the sudden slow down, if there'd been a warning that the brake check system had a problem, it's easy enough to make sure brakes are working, and drive accordingly, just in case. Yes Lotto I know some people have no idea. But forcing them to go that slow, when there's probably not a problem, doesn't improve safety.

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lotofwind said..
Yes I agree, pushing in a clutch peddle is a very real experience and rewarding skill and means you must be a better driver.
Just think its funny people thinking it takes an amazing feat of skill and knowledge to push a peddle in. lol

There is more to it than pushing in a peddle.
I guess you dont know how to drive a manual.
I think I learnt a lot about driving safely when i was young and bulletproof, by hooning about on dirt roads and back streets.
Seems now we just get told to slow down and buy cars that think for us.

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decrepit said..
My commodore is only 2 years old with 57k on the clock. I don't think it was a "fault" just one of those stray gltches that get computers confused.

My Fairmont is only 37 years old with 250k on the clock. The 3 speed auto is as smooth a silk and the only glitch it gets is when the computer nut behind the wheel causes it to go over the speed limit.

Yes decrep thats what I meant even though IanR says it does not ever happen

My current manual. Lots more fun but has its drawbacks

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Mark _australia said..
So I was pondering this thread for quite some time when my CVT exploded on Sunday and I sat on the highway for 3hrs waiting for a tow.
It was recently rebuilt so they will be paying for it not me so no biggie.
But a manual would likely have allowed me to get somewhere as I could choose another gear in many cases. Still, a major fail like clutch is still not going to move.

Even with no clutch you can drive a manual to a shop or home or to a safe place. You need to get it to speed to engage second gear then you can change gears without clutch if needed.

Many years ago three of my friends pushed my Ford Sierra with a broken clutch cable to a speed enough to engage second. That hardest part was for them to get in the car (this happened at 7 am, after a long nigh). I don't know if you can do that with new cars due to all the electronics, though.

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WillyWind said.. >>>> You need to get it to speed to engage second gear then you can change gears without clutch if needed.

Many years ago three of my friends pushed my Ford Sierra with a broken clutch cable to a speed enough to engage second. That hardest part was for them to get in the car (this happened at 7 am, after a long nigh). I don't know if you can do that with new cars due to all the electronics, though.

I only tried changing without clutch once and blew the gearbox up.
Didn't quite get the revs matched, there was the smallest of "snicks" then a bang. I certainly wouldn't advise anybody to try it unless an absolute emergency

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decrepit said..

WillyWind said.. >>>> You need to get it to speed to engage second gear then you can change gears without clutch if needed.

Many years ago three of my friends pushed my Ford Sierra with a broken clutch cable to a speed enough to engage second. That hardest part was for them to get in the car (this happened at 7 am, after a long nigh). I don't know if you can do that with new cars due to all the electronics, though.

I only tried changing without clutch once and blew the gearbox up.
Didn't quite get the revs matched, there was the smallest of "snicks" then a bang. I certainly wouldn't advise anybody to try it unless an absolute emergency

Agreed. You need to be very careful otherwise it could be very costly.

I Drove an old holden for about 3 months without a clutch , Start it in first gear and get the revs right .Back in the day a gearbox from the wrecker was the price of a carton of beer and a saturday afternoon to change over.

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WillyWind said..

Mark _australia said..
So I was pondering this thread for quite some time when my CVT exploded on Sunday and I sat on the highway for 3hrs waiting for a tow.
It was recently rebuilt so they will be paying for it not me so no biggie.
But a manual would likely have allowed me to get somewhere as I could choose another gear in many cases. Still, a major fail like clutch is still not going to move.

Even with no clutch you can drive a manual to a shop or home or to a safe place. You need to get it to speed to engage second gear then you can change gears without clutch if needed.

Many years ago three of my friends pushed my Ford Sierra with a broken clutch cable to a speed enough to engage second. That hardest part was for them to get in the car (this happened at 7 am, after a long nigh). I don't know if you can do that with new cars due to all the electronics, though.

My Mitsi Challenger used to blow the union hose to the slave cylinder often so I'm familiar with no clutch. Could get it started and drive off in first, could never get it into second or higher no matter what I did with revs - so not always. Trust me, 100km up the highway I reallllllly tried.

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Mark _australia said..>>>>>could never get it into second or higher no matter what I did with revs - so not always. Trust me, 100km up the highway I reallllllly tried.

So what did you do, I bet you couldn't get it back into first either, stop and restart in first? Wouldn't start in second downhill?