Dear Click and Clack,
I listen intently to your show and sense that, even though you talk about modern innovations like you understand them, like me you are really rather old school in many ways. Your discussion about modern innovations to be included in all new cars intrigued me. No one can disagree that the modern car is a master piece of engineering and innovation, the modern driver, not so much. The innovation I would like to see added to every car is a driver?s license that is more like a platinum credit card, hard to get.
The add-ons on my vehicle do include a set of 115 db air horns that will drown out the loudest thumping stereo and have made many a cell phone user lose the menacing device under the front seat. I often wonder how the party on the other end reacts. I do know that at times, a change of underwear should have been included in the glove box of that new Beemer.
Sincerely,
Dennis
Two items:
The first item EVERY car should have is a MPG readout. Having a car without one means there’s no feedback. Like a person with the rare condition of not being able to sense pain, you have no idea of what your driving habits are costing without one.
The second item is not a car item, but related. The gas pump nozzle all suffer from prostate dribble…nationwide, it’s got to amount to a million gallons a year. What’s needed is either some sort of teflon coating on the inside of the spout OR a valve at the end of the spout
After driving and having my son in passenger seat, I am opting for a button that claps him to seat and puts duck tape on his mouth.
I would like to see vent windows come back and place the high beam switch back on the floor.
Dear Tom and Ray,
My nine-year-old son, Xavier, has a great idea for a new feature that will help us backseat drivers stop using the imaginary passenger-side brake. He came up with this after nine years of listening to his mother yell “Brakes, I see brakes ahead,” to his highly annoyed father who apparently already had his foot on the brake.
In Xavier’s words: “Presenting the Anti-Backseat Driver-inator 3,000! A wire is attached to the break pedal so when pressure is put on the pedal, the wire turns on a switch that is wired to a large red light on the glove box door. The light would turn on when you hit the break to let your backseat driver know that your foot is on the break.”
I thought this was pretty clever. Not sure that car manufacturers would go for it, but it would make a great gag gift.
Thanks. Let us know what you think.
Lori and Xavier Piccone
Devon, PA
Stability control is a horrible idea. I may be worse than ABS. Both of those “featuures” take control from the driver, and both are useful only in extremely rare circumstances. Very few automobiles need stability control, and when they do it is driver error that got it there, and driver error can only be corrected by educating the driver. I am happy that I have not yet had stability control, and I hope that I will never have it.
I think that it would be better to remove some features that make it easier for drivers to forget that they are directing a large, heavy piece of transportation. Automatic transmissions allow drivers to go along without being aware of the engine speed,and they drink up more fuel. Power steering allows drivers to not be aware that they are changing the direction of a large piece of transportation. Stereos allow drivers to ignore what they are supposed to be doing; although it might be O.K. to have a radio if it only played recordings of someone pointing out that driving requires full-time attention.
How about a dashboard indicator that oil (not oil pressure) is low and it’s time to put more in. Maybe even a thermometer type gauge that shows the oil level going down like a gas gauge. This would be good for daughters away at college who don’t know that cars need oil, and also for experienced drivers whose cars suddenly start using a lot of oil due to a cracked head or something. Cracked head in the car, not the drivers. Or maybe that too. Couldn’t hurt. Well, actually that would hurt, either in the car or in the driver.
While we’re at it, make it easier to put oil in without getting your hands greasy or spilling some on the engine. Maybe even without popping the hood, so the daughter at college can do it in her school clothes.
An MPG display would be great. My driving habits changed a lot when I got a Prius showing the instantaneous MPG and the MPG history.
I drove a hybrid for the first time a few weeks ago, and I found the MPG read-out distracting. My eyes are supposed to be on the road, not on a dashboard read-out.
Most items on the dashboard, like gauges and warning lights, only take a quick glance to perceive. MPG read-outs aren’t quite the same. Maybe I would get used to the readout if I drove one constantly, but the Camry hybrid I drove had a small numerical read-out.
Forgive me, but when I read your post, it seems like some “daughters away at college” aren’t responsible enough to own a car. How does someone end up being given a car without a basic education on what it needs to keep running? I assume the car was a gift because when college students have to earn what they get, they take better care of it.
I’d like to see a variable brake light system that would give the drivers behind an idea of how hard the brakes are being pressed/how fast the car is stopping. This could be a “ring” of additional small lights around the exisiting brake light that would flash with a frequency and intensity proportional to the degree of braking. If someone applied the brakes with normal pressure, maybe no additional lights would be necessary, but if someone hit the brakes hard, the additional lights would flash quickly and brightly to alert the drivers behind that a quick stop was taking place.
I can’t believe I have a Car Talk login. I’ve really hit a new–uhhh–level. Love your show.
I propose windshield wipers that recess and disappear into the engine compartment when not in use. This would greatly improve aerodynamics on sunny days, and make it so that you could never get a parking ticket!
This thread is still running from August?
Cars such as the '68 -72 Corvette had disappearing wipers.
Hi Guys
Maybe I’m to much of an humanitarian but I think cars should be equipped with a hazard ahead light. I live out in the country were deer are every where and sometimes when I pass a critter in the road someone comes flying along from the other direction. I wish there has way to worn them before they hit what ever it was I just past. I know I would appreciated it. Maybe it could be a simple as a little light on the corner of the roof above the drivers side, when a button is pushed, the light would come on and then turn off on it’s own after about 30 seconds just long enough to let the critter to run away. Animals aren’t the only unexpected things in the road, like someone changing a tire or just the tire!
I know there are people that can’t handle a turn signal but for the rest of use I think this would be a good thing.
In case you are interested: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/anhistoric.html
It’s such a minor thing, and maybe on the newer cars(mine is a 2005 Ford Focus) already. It would be so nice if you didn’t have to put the key in the ignition and turn it to (what?) so you can turn on the radio or put the windows up and down. I can turn on the dome light and the front lights without a key. Is the manufacturer afraid I’ll run down the battery??? I promise I won’t do that. I just want to turn on the radio and fiddle with the windows without having to go dig in my purse for the key.
stability control