OT: "Mixed up the brake and accelerator"?!?

The most recent car I've ever driven with three on the tree was a '65 Dodge. My father didn't care for automatics but by '65 standard shift in a family sedan were hard to find. Most of the manuals were in the sportier offerings where floor shift were the thing.

I will have to say that with the shift on the column your girlfriend could snuggle up much better than with a floor shift, center console, and bucket seats.

The downside with bench seats and no seat belts is you could launch her back to the passenger side during spirited driving.

Many parking pawl problems come from parking someone in when he gets pissed enough to ram you car a few feet forward to get out of the parking space.

When I bouight a car just before Xmas from a private seller, I had pre arranged a quote with my insurance company. As the seller waited, I

The whole process took under an hour.

That doesn't matter: If you have paid and the transaction has taken place you are insured even if the database says you are not. Ypou may need to subsequently prove that to El fuzz, but you are insured.

....

then you are a total plonquer

Surely that is an upside?

And this is why the Bond Bug was never a success in the UK. Cheap 3 wheel car, low road tax, good fuel economy, any colour you liked as long as it was orange.

Should have impressed the girls. Except that the engine housing made a large 'hump' between the front seats. Hard to even reach the girl, let alone snuggle.

Was it an engine hump? Didn't they use the Hillman Imp rear engine and box?

My first car, a Renault 5 (first generation) had the side/headlights and dip/beam/flash on a *separate* stalk to the indicators on the same side. You moved the stalk up and down (not towards/away from you) to alternate between dipped and high beam or to flash the lights.

Getting used to a dip/beam control on the *same* stalk as the indicator in my next car took a little while; you use that aspect of a lights stalk far more than turning the side/headlights on and off which tends usually to be only at the beginning and end of a journey.

It also had the ignition switch on the left hand side of the steering column, whereas every other car I've driven has had it on the right.

I know that stalks are the same way round (and not a mirror-image) in a LHD car of the same model, but what about ignition switch? Is that the same or mirrored?

The other thing that can take some getting used to is the position of the horn - on some cars it's on the end of the indicator stalk, whereas on others it's on the steering wheel.

I saw a nice feature on a Fiat Uno that I hired while my car was having crash damage repaired (someone ran into the back of me at a roundabout - the old "I thought you were going to set off" collision). The hazard lights switch was a push button on the end of the wipers stalk, so within easy reach of the driver without taking his hands off the wheel. Most cars have it on the dashboard, a loooong way from the steering wheel. I suppose it's within reach of the passenger as well, but it means taking a hand (and your eyes) off the road to find it. On my old Peugeot 306, I could find it easily because it was low down: if the car was in fifth, I find the gear lever knob and then move two fingers up and right to the hazard switch - easy to do without looking. But on my new Pug and on my wife's Honda it's much higher and without any easy way of find it *easily* and *quickly* by touch without looking.

I'm surprised that VW (and other makes like Skoda and Seat which are owned by VW) still have the light switch (*) as a rotary control on the dashboard (between the steering column and the driver's door). Similarly for a Merdedes Sprinter van that I hired to do some furniture removal last year. Maybe it's a German thing, because AFAIK Mercedes are separate from VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat. I wonder what BMW do?

(*) Turn for side/headlight, pull out for rear foglights, maybe pull further for front foglight as well.

It was a conventionally mounted engine, driving the rear wheels via a prop shaft.

A hump that makes humping difficult ;-)

I remember there was a cut-out in the rear body panel below the bumper so you could see the differential as a prominent feature.

Of course. Now what on earth was I confusing it with?

I was trying to remember, because I'm sure you are right in that there

Ah...

It took me a while to find the high beams on my Geo. I was used to a button on the floor.

I guess it's logical.

I've driven equal amounts of both, so I suppose I'm just keeping the control method similar.

I thought you only had two states?

Why would I have that hand on the wheel? My right hand operates the wheel, my left hand operates the gears and the indicator.

It's further to move the lever.

Yeah, makes no sense to use just the one foot if you only ever drive automatics,

Yeah, I do too but have never owned an automatic, the automatics I drove a lot were the work cars.

Nope, 7 states and territorys.

Nope, they give you more silly rules to follow, and that makes you a worse driver. My friend took an IAM test. He follows every silly little law instead of actually thinking about his driving.

Oh dear god, you took advice from a pig!?

Accidents are not caused by arrogance, they are caused by incompetance. Not indicating, not looking, not reacting quickly enough.

Then that driver should f****ng well indicate.

Do they not know the green cross code? I have no intention of looking out for morons that want to become Darwin Awards. And they should buy a car instead of using pubic transport.

Anyone with a brain doesn't need to be taught that.

Agreed there - I indicate subconsciously. Why waste time thinking about if you need to indicate? I just do it as part of making a turn.

You mean the fast lane. Don't tell me the IAM have drummed that out of you?

The problem with the IAM is they think flashing lights is a warning. For everyone else it means "you go first". Doing something differently from every other driver makes you the danger on the road. I have even seen the police flash to let me go first.

You mean the speed limit was wrong?! My god no....

I have braked for a dog, a rabbit, and a bird. But never a human. They should know better.

He can probably do what is done in the carry on films - dip the thermometer in a cup of coffee.

Any garage that does the test in OCD format doesn't get my custom next year.

I've never had that happen, but then I park sensibly. I'd love to see someone try though - my towball is likely to do their vehicle a fair bit of damage!

SteveW

Ford and Vauxhall have that as well.

My previous car (Ford) had that, the current (Vauxhall) has push-buttons for fog lights.

SteveW

I was sitting in my pickup when a woman backed into it. I didn't even bother to get out to see how much damage she did to her car. A step bumper with a dropped hitch isn't something to mess with.