This is my first vehicle with the Hands Free rear hatch opening . I saw it work when buying this Subaru Outback . I kept failing to do it all the time . I would hold my hand in front of the emblem and sometimes it would open and other times it would just make noise and not open. What I was doing wrong was putting my hand by the emblem and holding it there . I finally realized I should remove my hand as soon as heard a beep and step back a little.
It is a nice feature and like a lot of the new things that this thing has I really enjoy them.
Seems there is an endless list of features that a chunk of iron laminations, copper wiring and some mechanical bits can provide. Heavy bits that in total add up to quite a bit of weight since motors cannot be made without iron rotors.
This is a significant reason cars keep getting heavier and heavier.
Good for you, I guess. I’d rather just have a lock cylinder on the rear hatch and front passenger door, without all the bells-and-whistles. Hearing about silly features such as this makes a 1990’s car look better than ever before!
2 of these silly features have already proven to be worthwhile . The Blind spot saved me from moving to the right when some clown was passing traffic on the right shoulder at a high speed.
The reverse auto braking stopped my friends car when some one raced though the Walmart parking lot as he was backing up.
And no 1990 vehicles do not look that good anymore.
over spring break we rented a Mitsubishi that had something similar. Drove it for a week.
Got spoiled by it.
Got home and the wife Rav doesn;t have that feature and i stood there a couple times looking like a fool trying to wave my hand to open the rear hatch.
My current car has the “kick to open” feature for the rear hatch. When your hands are both occupied with bags/boxes, it’s nice to be able to simply pass your foot underneath the rear bumper in order to open the hatch. It’s especially nice when it’s raining or snowing.
Well, I certainly don’t need convincing. Even models which I never really cared for back in the day now make me smile when I see one. For example, earlier this week, I stopped at a QT to put fuel in my work truck, and at an adjacent pump was a lady with a well-preserved early 1990’s Chevrolet Lumina, in white. I never really wanted one back in the day (a Lumina, not a woman), but that car looked great today.
Similarly, I recently saw a well-preserved early 1990’s Chevrolet Cavalier, in fire engine red, and I couldn’t help but think what a sharp and attractive car. When these were new, practically no one wanted them, but the design really aged well.
And the same could be said of many models which were unappreciated in their day, but now have become classics. I remember when people looked at the Dodge Shadow, Ford Probe, Ford Escort, Geo Prizm, Toyota Paseo, Chevrolet Corsica, Chevrolet Beretta as throwaway economy cars, but now I realize that these were great cars. Every time I see one–and from time-to-time I do, it makes me smile.
Absolutely ! I feel the same way. It takes time for our brain to adapt to new designs. My friend says I’ll eventually appreciate the new Lexus IS which I currently despise
Here’s your chance! A guy in Ohio is selling his 1993 Cadillac, with only 125k miles on it. He states that he has already “replaced far too many parts to list them all”.
He wants “$6k and not a penny less”.
I worked on ALL those cars when they were still fairly new back in the 90’s, used them as well as many many more as rental cars, my option hasn’t changed on them much… And believe it or not the Escort MPFI 1.9’s was the best out of all of them on that list… and Probes about the worst…
Just out of curiosity . . . do you happen to remember if those Escorts with the MPFI 1.9 easily passed tailpipe smog inspections?
The reason I’m asking is because the 1990s Geo Prizm, which was essentially a rebadged Toyota Corolla, was very often on the verge of failing tailpipe emissions tests, no matter how well maintained they were. To be specific, I remember the HC was always at the upper allowable limit, no matter what you did. I consider that to have been a major weakness of those Corollas from that time period
I remember doing a lot of plugs, wires and cap & rotors (if applicable) and filters back then when we 1st got the cars (mostly auction cars) and would rent them about a year and then sale them…
Don’t remember having to many problems with our emissions testing with the Escorts… But I do remember removing small vacuum hoses and retarding timing to get some vehicles in general to pass, we never had a 4 gas tester so it was do what we do and hope it passed… A bottle of CRC Guaranteed to Pass played a part in some of them, but they were normally abused higher mileage vehicles…
Describes my Corolla, and you are right, passing HC emissions has always been a definite struggle. Do you have any theories why? I’ve always been curious about the cause, as the engine seems to run near-to perfect. I’m thinking there are two reasons related to the basic engine design.
The speed-density method to calculate the mixture, there’s no MAF, uses only an MAP.
Batch firing of all 4 injectors. The injector firing not timed for each cylinder, so the gasoline puddles in the intake manifold before getting eventually sucked in. .
