But new cars do need to have them fitted, mine has a setting buried somewhere in the menus that lets you switch them off, boy racers have discovered you can alter the LED brightness from 9% to 100% by use of an OBDII cable.
Does it work?
Yes
Mine does!
As does mine. I've never used the "handbrake" on my car in over four years driving, except once to check that it would work for an emergency stop.
No, it's CRAP. At least it is on our Honda CR-V (with manual transmission). Whenever you stop on a slight slope, initially using the footbrake, then apply the handbrake and release the footbrake, the car rolls a few inches and then comes to an abrupt lurching stop. There seems to be no way to avoid this; all you can do is release the footbrake gently so the car rolls slowly and doesn't hit the end-stop so violently.
I've reported it to the Honda garage where we bought the car, and they have checked it and found it to be "within spec". They say it's a side-effect of having hill-start assist to prevent the car rolling back for people who haven't mastered a hill start (which is a requirement of passing the driving test!).
I'm very surprised that this amount of play in the handbrake mechanism is regarded as acceptable and that Honda are happy to put their name and their reputation on the line.
Every other car I've driven (over the past 35 years) has had no play in the handbrake: if you come to a halt on the footbrake, apply the handbrake and release the footbrake, the car stays put and doesn't move. I'm assuming that the car is in neutral or the clutch is pressed so that the transmission doesn't act as a brake or (if the engine is running) make the car lurch forward when you let the clutch up.
The climate control on my ancient BMW in auto mode starts with the fan just idling on a cold start. Once the coolant gets warm enough, it ramps up the fan speed to heat the cabin to the set temperature as quickly as possible. As it approaches that temperature, it ramps down to a normal quiet speed. And once at temperature, it opens the cold air vents to the face, if that's what you want. If you select the AC, it does much the same to cool the car. It works so well I very rarely touch it.
You need to drive in the SE. You'll forget where the dipswitch is.
I had a couple of Volvo 240s (long before hill start assist), and they had exactly this behaviour. I assumed that, one you took your foot off the brake pedal, and you were held only on the rear brake, the suspension wound up.
It was only ever a problem trying to position the towball under the caravan hitch whilst going uphill.
Chris
My Renault Laguna behaves similarly. I just leave the Climate Control in 'Auto', and it does what it needs to do.
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