Iāve come to value a hood that canāt be opened without access to the inside of the car when a buddy returned to find his radiator missing. Turns out they were a hard to find part and someone went shopping on his car.
Access to fuel door? No thanks, Iāll take a locking gas cap/door. No one stealing fuel or vandalizing my car by dumping stuff in there.
All my electric locks have very convenient levers to manually lock/unlock the doors right by the opening mechanism.
Needing to break a window to get out is likely to be as rare as being hit by space debris or lightning. Iām not losing sleep over itā¦just the ability to control all the windows from the driverās seat is worth it- especially if there are kids involvedā¦inhibit button engaged!
Very true, it is always a fun time when your 4 yo grandson rolls the rear window down while it is raining and you canāt do a thing about it but plead with him to roll it back upā¦
Yup!
Are TV remote controls necessary?
Obviously not, but I doubt if most people would want to go back to the days before remote controls. Similarly, A/C in oneās home is not actually a necessity, but few people would want to live without it. People lived w/o central heat until the 20th Century, but it is an accepted part of modern life in developed nations (with The UK being among the last to accept it).
Bringing this back to automotive themes, when Chrysler was the first to introduce hydraulic brakes on āpopularly-pricedā cars, there was a propaganda campaign (possibly financed by GM and/or Ford) telling people about the ādangersā of anything other than mechanical brakes.
When automatic transmissions began to become popular in the early ā50s, there were those who claimed that driversā left legs would atrophy from lack of use.
When the unitized body/chassis was introduced, some people claimed that these cars were less safe than those with a conventional frame.
The bottom line is that every modern convenience or technical advance has met opposition, and in many cases that opposition was simply wrong-headed.
Almost all the materials used in modern car interiors have flame retardants in them for obvious reasons. All the fabrics in the seats, carpet and headliner are treated or made with them. The plastic dash parts are mostly PVC which is flame retardant plastic. That being said, with enough heat, anything will burn. Thatās why they call it a retardant and not flame proof Some plastics are self-sustaining once they get going enough to generate the heat necessary to keep going.
Unfortunately, I have seen a car fully engulfed with the doors closed and windows rolled up. Maybe it started in the engine compartment and spread to the rest of the car. The occupants were all standing off to the side watching their car burn to the groundā¦Fire truck showed up to douse the ashesā¦
