VW automatic parking brake. etc

[damduck-egg]

You know what, I cannot remember for sure .

. Was actually still around till comparatively recently as the third owner had from 68 till around 2000, Mother even got all nostalgic and thought about buying it back again and we talked her out of it as a 50 year old car wasn't really suitable for an Octogenarian as everyday transport. Probably a reaction to becoming a Widow and wanting a link with the past. It then went to a small local Motor museum but that closed and the last I could track it was on an Auction for the contents of that.

Lot No 221 , Perhaps you can tell if it is 2 or 4 door from the photo . Its a bit detached from the description on page 17.

Just checked the DLVA and it hasn't been MOTd since 2011, I see I was wrong about the first reg it was 58 not 56.

G.Harman

G.Harman

[Tim Streater]

Probably the car having set-belt mounting points is what became mandatory in 1965. My new MiniTrav, 1966, had the mounts but no belts.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

ISTR one of the first UK cars fitted with all round seatbelt mounts was the Rover P6 2000.

[damduck-egg]

Sod it, help if i put the link in

[NY]

That looks like a 2-door. I can't see a horizontal chrome handle where a rear door would be, like the handle on the driver's door.

I wonder what happened to my mum's car UBL 242. The body rusted badly in the mid 70s so dad filled it with Plastic Padding and wire mesh, and then painted it (with a paint brush not a spray - yuk) with power-blue paint (it had been battleship grey). We sold it to the daughter of dad's secretary as her first car. No idea after that. It's not on the DVLA site so evidently it died before the cutoff date for inclusion on that. I wonder what the cutoff date is - ie how recently must a car last have been taxed to be included?

[Adrian]

The description says the chassis number starts FB...

B is 2-door.

[DJC]

the VW method :-)

>

[Dave Plowman (News)]

One think occurred to me. Who makes the injection for these cars? Unlikely to be VW. And the maker of it was likely as involved with writing the software as VW. And even if not, must have known what was going on.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Every auto I've had, I never used the handbrake. Park locks up the wheel pretty good anyway, even on a steep hill. I think I used one once, when I'd jacked it up and wanted to lock the back wheels. I'd be bloody annoyed if one came on without me pressing the button. I thought the electric handbrakes just saved space and effort, and provided a manually controlled button to switch it on and off?

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Why would you need to adjust a mirror to park? I leave my mirrors where they are and simply move my head to change the angle.

I had a Honda that liked to lock itself if I forgot. It once did it when my keys were inside!

[Brian-Gaff]

Well but is it really that illegal. On the face of it the companies could argue that the test is not representative of normal driving and if the boffins who made the rules could make a 2litre diesel meet the regs then they are open to try it.

No what is needed here is some gear that sits on the exhaust and has a set route over known speeds and other variables and can be shown to give a repeatable result to try to comply with. Look at the mpg claims and how much those in real life vary over time and usage. Personally I'd like all cars to not smell like rotten eggs or worse for their first five minutes of running the engine and us pedestrians have to breathe it in. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not boffins who make the rules. It's the law in certain US states.

This can be done on a rolling road too. The problem is the makers altering the software after the test conditions.

MPG depends on the driving conditions. A car which is stopped in a traffic jam is doing zero MPG if the engine is running. It's impossible to test for an overall MPG figure which would be right for all.

Snag is it may not be the stuff you can smell or see that does you the most damage.

[dennis]

That's because the cat is working correctly but the fuel is cheap stuff full of sulphur. It should be harder to get the stuff with sulphur in it because the duty is higher on it.

[Jim Thomas]

Not even possible if you want to see where the wheels are relative to the kerb when reverse parallel parking.

Its trivially easy to design it so it knows where the keys are and doesn't lock the keys inside.

[NY]

At the risk of sounding sanctimonious (and that's the last thing I am!) I have never understood how people manage to lock their keys in their house or their car.

Maybe I'm a bit OCD, but I got into the habit ages ago of my bunch of keys (house, both our cars) never leaving my side - it's always in the pocket of the trousers I'm wearing (*) apart from when the ignition key is in the car or the house key is locking/unlocking the font door. And I always take the keys with me and put them in my pocket when I get out of the car. I'm probably just paranoid, but I've never lost/mislaid (**) my keys in 30 years :-)

(*) And at night the trousers are next to my bed, so they're the first thing I'd grab in an emergency.

(**) It's more because my bad memory than for security reasons that I've got into this habit.

[Bob Eager]

There was an interesting variant of that at work this week.

It turns out loads of people leave their keys, specs, etc. on their desk all day. I always carry my keys, and I usually carry a monocle in case I need to read something.

So we had a major bomb hoax and they evacuated all buildings withing a

500 metre radius of the supposed epicentre (library, middle of campus). After an hour or so we were told we could go home for the day as it was likely to be hours. My car was stuck inside the zone, but I used a shortcut through a college (I know it well as I used to be in charge of it). Then I hopped on a bus home (free with my bus pass!). I could even read the timetable at the bus stop since I had the monocle.

(actually I can get into the house anyway as long as I can phone a family member or have my own phone - but that's another story).

One of our departmental staff was one of the 'officials' (i.e. she gets a hi-viz for the occasion) and was taking real pleasure in giving out the bad news. The following day I told her I was home having lunch in 35 minutes, depsite her telling me I couldn't use my car. Win!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's not possible on either of my cars to see the nearside kerb in the mirror regardless of where you put your head. But I'm not a giraffe.

I find the tilting feature on the newer of the two cars very useful. Wish I could fit it to the older one.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same here - except that I have a 'key rack' in the kitchen, well away from any outside door etc. I put all keys on that when I get in. Once into the habit, no more searching for keys.

[Jim Thomas]

I'd prefer a decent set of cameras that do a hell of a lot more, like let you see how close you are to cars in front of you as you pull into normal parking slots in big car parks and which allow you to see that there is no little kid or small animal behind the car when reversing, as well as showing you how close you are to the kerb, all in the one decent system that operates a lot more reliably and faster than tilting door mirrors.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You'd need some ultra HD camera and monitor to get close to the resolution of a mirror.

My tilting mirror has worked just fine for about 20 years. Willing to bet cameras and monitors won't.

And decent reversing sensors warn of kids etc behind the car with far less complication.