How about we leave the cars alone, and make getting driver’s license a more demanding affiar than that it currently is. In is country the only qualifcations you have are an eye and a heartbeat.
Start a thread on that issue, FoDaddy.
When airbags were installed in cars the insurance rate WENT UP for the same models
For me…Collision insurance went up…but liability insurance went down. Overall insurance was about the same.
I always though that Heather Locklear would be a great addition to any vehicle.
When all new cars are equipped with Traction Control, will we then find out where its limitations are? I now drive my 2nd vehicle with ABS brakes and thought that ABS was a good idea until I bought it for the first time. First a Subaru and now a KIA Sedona van exibit the same bad traits. Without exception, any time the ABS activated it was an unwanted intrusion. At all times the vehicle was decelerating nicely and would have stopped safely in the space available. So far, every time the ABS has kicked in the rate of deceleration has changed and the vehicle required more space to stop than I had planned for. I know ABS allows me to steer but this feature just assumes that there will always be an opening to steer into, Not necessarily so. On coming cars to my left, same direction vehicles or parked cars to the right. I just wanna stop without having to wrestle down some electro nanny. I am afraid that traction control will also read all of its inputs and make a suprise move that may be at variance with MY grand plan. To paraphrase President Bush, I should be the Decider, not another electro-nanny>
Features I’d like on a new vehicle are:
- Automatic check of fluid levels (oil, coolant, etc) when starting and a read out if the levels are satisfactory or not.
- Easy way to check air pressure in the spare tire. On my Tacoma I have to lower the spare from underneath the pickup to check it.
- Device to read speed limit signs and alert me. This would probably also require some sort of broadcast from the signs. Too often, especially on multi-lane roads, such signs are blocked by other vehicles.
As to other safety features, I’ve had a couple of accidents, one my fault and one debatable), that I probably escaped serious injury because I was wearing my seat-shoulder belt.
I saw the Dale Earnhardt accident. The car flipped over because the automatic spoiler popped up while the car was skidding backwards, lifting the car. An automatic safety device caused a death.
I have never had the traction control work right. Instead it goofs up:
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It goes off and applies the brakes every time I hit a pothole. This is the wrong thing to do.
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When climbing a hill in snow, instead of increasing traction, it stops the car. It will not let the car go forward.
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When starting at a traffic light in rain, it often triggers and brakes the car to a stop.
I would much rather have second gear start than the stupid traction control.
@Troubleshooter Not sure why you revived a 8 year old thread but for the average driver traction control and ABS are good things . Also tire pressure monitors can also be a benefit because some of the tires on vehicles can have low pressure but not look like it. I have no idea why you are having so much trouble driving your vehicle with these features.
Well let me make this abundantly clear, I didn’t bring that thread back from obolvion @VOLVO_V70.
But I will at this opportunity suggest that a great deal of automobile technology might not withstand an objective review if the law of diminishing returns were considered.
That’s not what happened, at all. Why say this?
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Aaaahhhh…That’s only one small part of traction control. And you can easily start in second if you want to.
The big winner for traction control is black ice. Happened to me twice in the past 10 years while driving on the highway with a vehicle equipped with traction control. I didn’t even know it was black ice until I notice traction control take over when I slowing down because of the accident a little ways up the road. The first time it happened…at least 40 vehicles were banged up in a 2 mile stretch., Traction control did a great job of keeping my vehicle in control and being able to slow down and stop. Vehicles were off the road all around me. Could I have maneuvered well enough without traction control? - Maybe. But traction control made it a lot easier.
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Let’s bring back ASHTRAYS in cars and trucks. In the last 3 years here 4 major forest fires were proven to have been caused by cigarettes thrown from moving vehicles. One such fire caused the evacuation of an entire town of 90,000 people. Billions in damage.
Personally I’ve seen several burning cigarettes being thrown from moving vehicles. No one wants to stamp out his butt on the truck’s new carpet. My Toyota had a removable ashtray which, as a non-smoker, I gave to one of the secretaries who still smoked but did not have a vehicle with an ashtray. No one is allowed to smoke in my or my wife’s car!!!
Almost every year during the summer the fire department is responding to a fire in the median on some highway because some idiot threw out their cigarette butt out the window while driving. Next time you’re waiting at a red light…look down at the curb…here in the Boston area you’ll see dozens of butts at almost every intersection.
What accident are you talking about? Earnhardt’s fatal accident didn’t involve his car getting airborne. Also what automatic spoilers are you speaking of? NASCAR racecars have fixed spoilers, they don’t move. The roof flaps only deploy when there’s negative air pressure around them. They require that to function, they are not spring loaded or anything. At any rate they were not involved in his death.
When you need to chew your way up a hill in snow, use the button to temporarily turn off the traction control. That’s what it’s there for.
If your traction control is kicking in when you accelerate in rain, you’re accelerating too fast for the conditions of the road and your tires, so don’t do that.
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It seems to me we could have less auto fatalities and improve gas mileage by dropping the interstate speed limit to 55 mph again. No, I’m not lobbying for this myself, but it would probably save more lives and fuel than the added tech. Especially since most people seem to drive with a 10 mph buffer built in. I get passed repeatedly while driving 75 on a 70 mph highway.
I don’t agree with the horsepower tax. Yes, there are kids that speed and drive recklessly in Mustangs and Challengers. But they’d do the same in a Prius. And I’ve noticed Corvette drivers seem to be very tame, for the most part. Probably because they’re older guys. It’s not the car, it’s the driver. And to be honest, I drove my junky, weak cars as hard as I would’ve driven a Mustang when I was a kid. I have also noticed some folks in luxury brands (Lexus, bmw, etc) seem to drive like they’re above the law and everyone else is in their way.
I fear added government intervention in anything, although it is needed at times. But it can be a slippery slope. I still want some freedom, and I don’t want electronic gizmos buzzing the steering wheel if I leave the center of the highway to avoid a spent retread.
I saw it happen! I thought it was amazing that the rear lifted up without anything pushing it up.
The rear end suddenly jumped up when the spoiler opened. it then slammed down hard. Only the rear end lifted off the ground.
I was wrong when I said the car flipped over. Memory fades a bit with time.
I am not accelerating too fast. I barely touched the gas. The plastic stop lines they put down are slippery in rain and often there are potholes or patches at the stop line.
I turn the traction control off and then the wheels spin.
My “environmental” city does not clear snow or ice. It puts down some kind of corn derivative at stop lines.
How do I start in second with a stock GM car? I had to modify my car to do that. GM cars after 97 don;t have second gear start. Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Kia, Honda, and Subaru can do it, but you have to move the lever at each stop. My brother has a Saab with a switch to use it.
Then this wasn’t the fatal crash. The ‘spoiler’ never opened.