We have owned Toyota small trucks (4cyl) since they first became available. Now we are stuck with a 2009 Tacoma due to our stupidity and Toyota “recall” of the 2000 It never occurred to me that Toyota would now make intermittent wipers an option. Have other auto makers joined the descent into cheapening vehicles?
Some are going the route you describe, others are loading even the least expensive cars with every all sorts of convenience options.
It pays to read the label the fine print before you buy.
I don’t understand. Did Toyota recall the 2000 and replace it with a 2009? Please explain a little further.
I just chuckled and didn’t ask.
It pays to read the label the fine print before you buy.
…or look at the switch.
What’s so bad about intermittent wipers? Are they giving you trouble?
Check it out; the control may be all in the stalk and you might be able to replace it and get somewhere. The parts department may be easier to deal with than the sales department. We’re talking creativity here and we all know I’m full of it.
Even my 1950 Chevrolet pick-up truck had intermittent wipers as standard equipment. These wipers were vacuum operated and worked intermittently–when one let up on the accelerator pedal.
History repeats itself. I well remember the recession back in the late 1950’s. In 1957, Studebaker stripped down the Champion model and sold it as a Scotsman. A radio wasn’t even on the option list–if you wanted a radio, you went to an aftermarket source. The car sold well enough to keep Studebaker’s doors open while they developed the compact Lark. I can live without a lot of the former options that have become standard including power windows, power mirrors, intermittent wipers, etc.
I think he’s saying that his new truck DOESN’T have them. At least not at the trim level he got.
Intermittent wipers should be standard equipment. I’m amazed they’re not.
Even my 1950 Chevrolet pick-up truck had intermittent wipers as standard equipment.
1950…I don’t think so. Wasn’t invented until the mid 60’s.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-02-25-obit-kearns_x.htm
Mike . . . he’s being “tongue in cheek” here . . . suggesting that the vacuum based wipers work “intermittently”. Did you ever drive a vehicle with a vacuum accessory? You may be too young, but what happens is the device (wiper or whatever) changes speed depending upon engine vacuum. Rocketman
I wish it ALL was optional.
Let ME pick if I want -or not- ABS, chip keys, air bags, intermitent or delay wipers, leather/cloth/vinyl seats, carpet/vinyl floor covering, power brakes, tilt steering, power steering, manual/power windows, munual/power door locks, remote entry fob, electric/manual seats, power mirrors, radio/cd/cassette, a/c, h/d susspension ( if I wanted my pickup to ride like a car…I’d buy a stinkin car ), etc.etc.etc.
Do you realize how little a vehicle could cost, today, if they’d stop force feeding us these options as “standard” and let us choose ?
Simply not feasible. The amount of equipment available today is staggering. If you let everyone pick what they wanted a al carte production would crawl to a near standstill. It’s a good idea and lot of people, including myself would love it. But in the real world it would never work.
Rocketman. . .I drove a Jeep that had another way of operating the wiper intermittently on the passenger side. It had a hand crank. The passenger determined the interval where the wiper operated. The driver side did have a vacuum wiper moter, however.
Most of the cars I owned earlier in my life had vacuum wipers. I consider electric wipers as a luxury option. My Dad once had a 1940 Chrysler with electric wipers. I had a 1968 AMC Javelin (bottom of the line) that had vacuum wipers.
Triedag: I had a friend who owned a 1970? or so AMC Rebel . . . with vacuum wipers . . . never owned one myself. I also drove several “dump” trucks . . . or 1940-50-60 era . . . early ones had vacuum wipers. I likes you suggestion of the"intermittent" wipers. Rocketman
Do you realize how little a vehicle could cost, today, if they’d stop force feeding us these options as “standard” and let us choose ?
Sorry…just the opposite…it would cost us MORE to let us choose. What you’re saying is that each and every car then would have to be custom built on the assembly line. It’s far cheaper to add AC to every car then to only add it to say 30 cars.
And lets not forget that MOST people don’t ORDER their vehicles. MOST buy off the lot. GOOD dealers know what vehicles/options sell. You could spend DAYS trying to find the car you want with the EXACT SET OF OPTIONS.
So why not buy a TATA? Is that basic enough? Rocketman
But they used to do it just fine. They could do it again.
I remember the 76 Gremlin, 78 Cordoba, & 78 Grand Marquis had odd combinations of options like manual windows but power seats. There was a build spec sheet that preceded the vehicle down the line and options were installed from secondary side lines as the vehicle proceded through.
They need to slow down the massive quantities of product glutting the market anyway AND we’d soon find out just how badly the buying public actually wants this stuff.
Yes, dealers need to guess to pre-order inventory. Then the sales people push these packages as neccessity to sell cars. And because so many people buy off the lot - we don’t get a true picture of just how often they are giving in and just settling and buying the best compromise, When the truth is they really don’t want half that crap.
Vacuum wipers were something else. The school buses that I rode to school–one was on a 1939 GMC chassis and the other was on a 1946 Chevrolet chassis had vacuum wipers that would barely move when the bus was traveling at a constant speed and would freeze on the windshield when the driver accelerated. However, the wipers would really move quickly when the acclerator was released. On rainy days, we really jerked along as the driver would let up on the accelerator to make the wipers move. My guess is that there was no vacuum booster section on the fuel pump. My 1950 Chevrolet pick-up had no vacuum booster on the fuel pump. The cars I had with vacuum wipers did have a vacuum booster on the fuel pump, so the wipers worked reasonably well. I used to think that it would have cost less to put electric wipers on the vehicles in the first place rather than have to have a more complicated fuel pump, but perhaps in the day of generators instead of alternators, a bigger generator may have been needed if the car was to be equipped with electric wipers.
The best stripped car IMHO was the King Midget, originally manufactured in Athens, Ohio. It had a hand crank operated windshield wiper. Electric starting was an option; the standard equipment was a recoil starter. The early King Midgets had a 1 cylinder Wisconsin air-cooled engine.