OT Mandatory speed limiters on UK cars from 2022

[NY]

My mum's 1960-registered Morris Minor had a heater when she bought it second-hand in 1967. But I'm not sure whether it was fitted as standard, or was an optional extra - or was something that was fitted later - like the flashing indicators that replaced the trafficators (semaphore arms with orange bulbs). I remember the trafficators still worked for a few years in conjunction with the flashing indicators, until first one arm and then the other jammed, burnt out the solenoid and stopped working.

Some cars had windscreen wipers which slowed down and stopped as you went up (or was it down) a hill, because they were driven off the vacuum in the inlet manifold.

I bet a lot of young drivers would be horrified to learn that you had to wind the windows down with a handle, rather than electric motor, or that you had to repeatedly pump a rubber bulb or knob on the dashboard to wash the windscreen. I hadn't realised that windscreen washers (rubber bulb type) were actually optional on some cars.

Or that a lot of cars until the late 60s / early 70s didn't have synchromesh on first gear (and maybe second). Or that some cars had a slot in the front bumper to fit a bayonet end on the wheelbrace to turn the engine over if the battery was (almost) flat. I presume no cars with transverse engines ever had starting handles because the end of the crankshaft would be behind one of the wheels!

Going back to rear foglights, what is the rule about having one or two lights? A lot of cars nowadays only have one light on the offside. Some of my earlier cars (2x VW Golf, 2x Peugeot 306) had red "glass" and an empty space for a bulb on the nearside, but no bulb was fitted (so I fitted one). On my latest car (Peugeot 308), the clusters include only a reversing light on the nearside and only a foglight on the offside. Trying to reverse with only one light is difficult, so I put my foglight on as well to light up the offside so I can see the walls/hedges/gateposts on *both* sides of the car at night.

Is the single foglight just penny-pinching, or do some countries actually have rules which say that you must *not* have two rear foglights? And if so, why, given that foglights serve the same purpose in fog as tail lights do in non-fog: as well as showing that your car is there, they allow cars behind you to see the width of your car to judge how far away they are from you.

[nightjar]

My experience too. It is like a reversing camera; you don't know how useful it is until you get one and you really miss it if you drive a car without.

[Tim Streater]

We had a 1954 Zephyr Zodiac which had wipers as you describe. But it also had electrically operated screen washer - button on the steering column.

[alan_m]

My first car came with a factory fitted foot operated squishy bulb windscreen washer. It was usually solid with ice on a winter's morning :)

[Ian Jackson]

In message [e-mail]>, Tim Streater [e-mail] writes

My 1954 Ford Prefect had vacuum wipers. They slowed and stopped when going up hill - but then I found there was a knack to prevent them stopping altogether. No washers though. It also had semaphore 'trafficators'. These tended to stick, and did need bit of regular cleaning and lubrication to ensure a consistent snap action. Originally the headlights had two full beams, but on dip there was a dipped beam only on the nearside, while the offside suicidal showed only its dim internal 6 watt sidelight. This was not a fault. [I soon rectified this suicidal 'feature'.] The heater was an add-on unit, tapped into the engine's flexible rubber hoses and mounted in front of the front passenger's knees. The gears were 3-speed and reverse. There was no synchromesh on first, but I soon learned to double-declutch (something that I still perform) and reverse. And it had a starting handle.

[Bob Eager]

And foglights.

And parking lights.

And reversing lights.

[Roland Perry]

If these aftermarket limiters are set to 70mph, it's of little use for me, as there are very few 70mph roads that I use other than for one-off long distance trips.

My car has a cruise control (which I never use, for much the same reason, being able to "cruise" is an almost unobtainable luxury), but not a limiter.

[Roland Perry]

They still need the revenue stream to operate the camera networks.

I remember when Nottingham's Ring Road got one of the first SPECS systems. The local police were apoplectic because people slowed down so much it didn't generate enough income to pay for itself.

[Alex]

Roland Perry [e-mail]> wrote

They aren't aftermarket, they are built in.

They aren't set to a fixed speed, they use the speed limit.

it's of little use for

The best ones allow you to specify the distance to the car in front of you that it cruises at.

but

[Tim+]

Talking of gadgets you never knew you needed, my latest car has auto-dipping headlights. Almost makes driving at night a joy!

Tim

[nightjar]

These days, cars read the speed limit signs, although that is a bit later tech than I have.

My speed limiter is part of the cruise control system. When in cruise control mode, it uses radar to reduce the speed if you are catching vehicles up. It returns to the set cruise speed if you pull out around them.

[Ian Jackson]

Not only do I do the obvious, and dip when there are oncoming motor vehicles (when I guess auto-dipping headlights usually work), I also dip for cyclists (when they probably won't dip reliably) and pedestrians (when they almost certainly won't ever dip). How do you deal with these situations?

[nightjar]

They also dip when coming up behind another vehicle.

You manually select dipped headlights, although I would normally be driving on dipped lights in a built up area, which is where you are most likely to meet pedestrians and cyclists.

[Tim Streater]

These should be banned as they never dip in time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I used to remove the engine cover in my CA2 for heating

[Chris J Dixon]

How hard does it slam on the anchors if someone cuts in sharply?

Chris

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I don't know much about the idea, but it should not affect acceleration to get you out of trouble just speed limits I think. My question is how will it know what to set to? Speeding is a big problem in residential streets but I'd also say that if it does come to pass, then people will have to learn about how to cope with in its limitations. Brian

[nothanks]

My headlights detect pedestrians and cyclists (as well as cars) and adjust the beams to form a dark block that tracks the object while the rest of the beam stays at full. The lights have gazillions of LEDs with moveable mirrors, apparently. It's an excellent system but watching the lights do their thing was a little distracting at first and always entertains passengers who haven't seen it before.

Back to limiters - the car has one as part of the cruise control system but, while I use cruise all the time (including to help with regen braking/charging when needing to slow down), I don't use the limiter because it has to be set manually. If it automagically, and reliably, set the correct limit then it might be useful at times but I can imagine problems overtaking, and it also feels like a big brother intervention.

[Fredxx]

The revenue stream has been directed at the Treasury for quite a while, during the reign of Gordon Brown if I recall correctly.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think mine has one too. I think I tried it once. didn't like it much. Foot down, nothing happens.

With cruise, which I routinely use for speed limits, it's foot off, nothing happens. Foot down works to override it

I can only see it (limiter) being useful in congestion where you are using the right foot a lot, and don't want to accidentally exceed a limit. IME in congestion that is never a risk.

What is far more useful is a satnav that warns you when you are in a limit you didn't know you were in.

These days I don't deliberately exceed speed limits very often - and never in towns