It depends on the options. If you have a light/rain sensor you will have Auto Wipers. if you don't, you'll have intermittent. Some models will have Auto Wipers as standard. Auto Wipers have the same stalk, only instead of the selector switch defining period of times, it selects how much the sensor needs to be activated by.
I miss them.
Thanks for that (and chrijr). Yes, that does seem like a retrograde step. I don't see much point in auto wipe anyway ( if you can't tell that your windscreen needs wiping, you probably shouldn't be on the road ), but to actually lose another feature just to create it does seem a bad idea. Luckily I'm a cheapo, so am not likely to be buying any top of the range cars. But it is something I'll look for in future, so I don't get caught out.
It's handy to be pre-warned about these things, otherwise you'll not realize until its too late.
For example, my wife's Touran doesn't have a spare wheel (or room for one). At the time I wasn't aware that some cars were being provided without a spare wheel (it was a fairly "new feature" at the time). Road tests that I'd read hadn't warned me. Luckily, I'd read up on forums while researching what car to buy, and so I knew, and could make an informed decision. it was clear that quite a few people had assumed there was a spare, and had been caught out.
I guess it depends on how much you like technology etc, but I can't find anything annoying about modern cars and auto wipers/lights/start stop et al, all work fine on my car.
I guess it depends on how much you like technology etc, but I can't find anything annoying about modern cars and auto wipers/lights/start stop et al, all work fine on my car.
Neither here. I drive around 40-50 '000 miles a year, and whilst I can go without...
Auto lights,
Auto wipers.
Start/Stop.
Heated seats.
Climate control.
Parking sensors.
Sat Nav
DAB
They really make driving far less stressful for me. The only now firm requirements for a car for me is a... central arm rest and adjustable steering column. Followed by Cruise control.
Auto stop-start worked fine and was completely logical in the cars I've used with it. The engine cuts out when the car is stationary with the h/b on, in neutral. Any other situation - clutch down, foot brake on, or h/b off, it restarted. So when you're poised ready to launch yourself into a gap in traffic you'd obviously be in gear clutch in ready to go and the engine would be running. Can't see the problem, although it may be possible to beat it it by not doing things properly like sitting in neutral with no brakes and revving the engine, maybe.
I have noticed lately that a lot of cars have brake lights that come on briefly whenever oncoming traffic looms into view, or for the most minor bends that have clear line of sight through them. Even on major A roads with NSL in place there'll be a flash or longer of brake lights and a reduction in speed from the car's maximum permitted speed of 54 (as in '50 will be plenty thanks Audrey') down to something closer to 46. After all safety is everything and we don't want these ludicrously powerful cars like a Corsa or a Yaris launching themselves into the hedge when the tyres lose traction with all that power & speed being forced through them on an almost straight road.
Auto stop-start worked fine and was completely logical in the cars I've used with it. The engine cuts out when the car is stationary with the h/b on, in neutral. Any other situation - clutch down, foot brake on, or h/b off, it restarted. So when you're poised ready to launch yourself into a gap in traffic you'd obviously be in gear clutch in ready to go and the engine would be running. Can't see the problem, although it may be possible to beat it it by not doing things properly like sitting in neutral with no brakes and revving the engine, maybe.
I have noticed lately that a lot of cars have brake lights that come on briefly whenever oncoming traffic looms into view, or for the most minor bends that have clear line of sight through them. Even on major A roads with NSL in place there'll be a flash or longer of brake lights and a reduction in speed from the car's maximum permitted speed of 54 (as in '50 will be plenty thanks Audrey') down to something closer to 46. After all safety is everything and we don't want these ludicrously powerful cars like a Corsa or a Yaris launching themselves into the hedge when the tyres lose traction with all that power & speed being forced through them on an almost straight road.
Many a true word spoken in jest
Although nothing fills me with trepidation more than the sight of a Nissan Micra!
Most likely confirmation bias on my part, but they seem to be the car that stays at 38 regardless of whether the speed limit is 30 or 60. They seem to be the car that waits at junctions until you are right on them before pulling out in front of you and they seem to be the car that manoeuvres first and indicates second or conversely, they have the indicator on for a mile before a junction, leaving you with no idea what they are doing...
Although nothing fills me with trepidation more than the sight of a Nissan Micra!
Most likely confirmation bias on my part, but they seem to be the car that stays at 38 regardless of whether the speed limit is 30 or 60. They seem to be the car that waits at junctions until you are right on them before pulling out in front of you and they seem to be the car that manoeuvres first and indicates second or conversely, they have the indicator on for a mile before a junction, leaving you with no idea what they are doing...
It's confirmation bias, it's confirmation bias, it's confirmation bias.... Is what I tell myself as well.
Sadly I think drivers are getting worse. In August I drove the during mid morning on the A40 from Brecon to Carmarthen and there were huge queues on traffic behind slow moving vehicles (either artics or Farm vehicles. Nobody (apart from myself) was willing to overtake these slower moving vehicles, even on empty straights which some go on for more than a mile! And because nobody would overtake - it made required me to make multiple overtaking manouevres!
There seems to be a gradually increasing line of thinking that any overtaking is bad on single lane carriageways, when it can be done quite safely. Yet it seems like a lot of people are quite happy travelling nose to tail at anything from 60-80 miles an hour on the motorway.
Neither here. I drive around 40-50 '000 miles a year, and whilst I can go without...
Auto lights,
Auto wipers.
Start/Stop.
Heated seats.
Climate control.
Parking sensors.
Sat Nav
DAB
They really make driving far less stressful for me. The only now firm requirements for a car for me is a... central arm rest and adjustable steering column. Followed by Cruise control.
My main requirements are four wheels and an engine that goes. (After an extensive cycling session for example, I'm so exhausted then pretty much anything that moves by itself is sheer luxury.)
But all that electronic stuff, invariably badly implemented, makes my stress levels go up, not down. (And fortunately I've never had anything on your list in my own car. I used to have A/C, very useful for driving around the Med in summer, but it stopped working three years ago.)
Auto windscreen wipers are pretty useless, yes, but mine anyway has manual as well, just dont have them on "Auto" if you dont like them!
There appears to be something of 50/50 split regarding the merits auto-wipers.
My car has them (never had them on any previous car) and they work perfectly; I leave the switch in auto and never even think about it.
It’s got several pre-set sensitivity levels but I very rarely need to alter it from the 1st level.
Auto-wipers cope very well with the odd times when the rain is quite light, but persistent; it will flick-on for 1 wipe at just the right time; manual wipers, even on the slowest ‘intermittent setting’ can sometimes be a pain when the precipitation is light.
With manual wipers, as we all know, It’s sometimes a case of switching the ‘intermittent wipe’ off altogether and ‘blipping’ the wiper to give 1-sweep as, and when, required.........which can get a bit annoying at times, especially on long journeys when the rain is stop/start and changing rapidly from light drizzle to heavy downpours at frequent intervals..
..... auto-wipers sorts it all out for you.......it does on my car anyway.
I’m swopping my car next month, and given some of the adverse comments on here, I may find I’m not as enamoured with auto-wipers as I am at the moment.
One annoying thing with modern cars, which won't be replaced anytime soon, is the idiot sat behind the steering wheel.
I was walking down the road and when crossing near to a junction, a speeding motorist decided to hang a left onto the road I was crossing at great speed, not indicating and nearly clipping me.
Maybe a good new feature that manufacturers should install is a quick quiz highway code test you have to past fully before the car will start. If you don't manage to answer the ten questions correctly, you can't start the car for another 30 minutes.
But, no doubt, somebody will find a way to disable it and even if not, answer the questions correctly and still drive like a moron.
One of the disadvantages of all these new fangled safety and driver aids is that it has made some drivers complacent in their driving habits, having the attitude 'the car will save me if I screw up'.
It also doesn't help that many pedestrians take their lives into their own hands when crossing the road. I'll stand by the edge of the road, looking left and right, for however long it takes, until I know it is absolutely safe to cross. This, of course, is getting more and more difficult these days, but also accounts for why I have never been hit by a vehicle in 50 years, as a pedestrian.
It also doesn't help that many pedestrians take their lives into their own hands when crossing the road. I'll stand by the edge of the road, looking left and right, for however long it takes, until I know it is absolutely safe to cross. This, of course, is getting more and more difficult these days, but also accounts for why I have never been hit by a vehicle in 50 years, as a pedestrian.
I too have never got knocked down, as a pedestrian. Do we get a medal?
The 'greenies' in Switzerland once attempted to push this through Parliament via a Referendum (Swiss have referendums on virtually everything!), but it never made it as far as that......once it was pointed out a vehicle kicks out more fumes on start up rather than less, so quickly got dropped among many red faces in the Greeny party. It still remains something of a national joke among Swiss.
As for cars fitted with this start/stop feature, my daughter-in-law has a new Audi with it and it's an absolute balls ache to drive. Needles to say it's all electronically controlled so once it goes wrong.....major expense. Also you can't just fit any old bog standard battery. It has to be one specifically designed for start/stop cars which of course comes at a higher price than 'normal' batteries.
For me traffic light countdown timers aren`t just for stopping the engine at the lights, in fact that`s of less importance to me than trying to conserve momentum (and save brake and transmission wear) whilst approaching the lights, i.e. whilst you`e still moving. There are other - albeit less significant - advantages, if you need to check your A to Z (yes I still swear by them rather than SatNavs) or whatever you know how long you`ve got to do it before the lights change to green.
Very true. Back then you could almost subconsciously tell a Ford from a Vauxhall from a Citroen etc. even if it was a model you'd never seen before. I could still tell you all the cars my neighbours had when I was growing up in the 80s but I couldn't tell you what any of my current ones drive now...and I'm looking out of the window.
I reckon that if someone is looking to pull off a bank job now the first thing they should do is rip all the badges off the getaway car.
Problem with the Golf is that there is no intermittent wipe option. You can have auto wipe or continuous wipe (at two speeds for the latter). So in light drizzle when continuous wipe is not needed you only have the auto option. Which as I posted earlier has a mind of it's own and doesn't actually seem to have been programmed by any human who has ever driven a car in his/her life!
Or you have to keep flicking the stalk down every so often imitating an intermittent wipe option.
What kind of idiot designs a car with no intermittent windscreen wiper........
Although the last Golf I had was "L" registered, so fairly old, and it's a long time since I've driven one, I thought it did have an intermittent setting. Or have they taken it off on later models?
My wife's Touran certainly still has that feature.
Having said that, although my car has intermittent wipe, if the intermittent frequency of wiping doesn't suit the actual rainfall rate, which is often the case, then I use the single flick of the lever, which works fine. It's not a problem.
Intermittent with variable speed is the best solution. It is rather ironic that the manufacturers don`t fit this very useful feature to many cars despite the fact it can`t be an expensive one to manufacture. Yet they do fit loads of stuff which manay people really aren`t that fussed about, or, as this thread proves, actively dislike !
Auto stop-start worked fine and was completely logical in the cars I've used with it. The engine cuts out when the car is stationary with the h/b on, in neutral. Any other situation - clutch down, foot brake on, or h/b off, it restarted. So when you're poised ready to launch yourself into a gap in traffic you'd obviously be in gear clutch in ready to go and the engine would be running. Can't see the problem, although it may be possible to beat it it by not doing things properly like sitting in neutral with no brakes and revving the engine, maybe.
I have noticed lately that a lot of cars have brake lights that come on briefly whenever oncoming traffic looms into view, or for the most minor bends that have clear line of sight through them. Even on major A roads with NSL in place there'll be a flash or longer of brake lights and a reduction in speed from the car's maximum permitted speed of 54 (as in '50 will be plenty thanks Audrey') down to something closer to 46. After all safety is everything and we don't want these ludicrously powerful cars like a Corsa or a Yaris launching themselves into the hedge when the tyres lose traction with all that power & speed being forced through them on an almost straight road.
There`s nothing wrong with a Toyota Yaris, my wife`s got one and I like it, particularly when we get to the filling station and have just got 50mpg out of it. It`s plenty fast enough and in fact probably about as fast as a 1970s 2.0 Capri, though you would have to rev it more. Not that I drive like that anymore, I`ve grown up now.
Because the intermittent mode is replaced by the auto sensing mode, providing the same function.
But auto sensing doesn`t always work though does it ? I find so anyway, and so do a few others on here. From personal experience variable speed intermittent is my preferred solution, and more reliable.
But auto sensing doesn`t always work though does it ? I find so anyway, and so do a few others on here. From personal experience variable speed intermittent is my preferred solution, and more reliable.
Auto sending works just as well as intermittent. Especially since it's more able to accurately match the rainfall and also rapid to quick increases or decreases well.
Comments
Thanks for that (and chrijr). Yes, that does seem like a retrograde step. I don't see much point in auto wipe anyway ( if you can't tell that your windscreen needs wiping, you probably shouldn't be on the road ), but to actually lose another feature just to create it does seem a bad idea. Luckily I'm a cheapo, so am not likely to be buying any top of the range cars. But it is something I'll look for in future, so I don't get caught out.
It's handy to be pre-warned about these things, otherwise you'll not realize until its too late.
For example, my wife's Touran doesn't have a spare wheel (or room for one). At the time I wasn't aware that some cars were being provided without a spare wheel (it was a fairly "new feature" at the time). Road tests that I'd read hadn't warned me. Luckily, I'd read up on forums while researching what car to buy, and so I knew, and could make an informed decision. it was clear that quite a few people had assumed there was a spare, and had been caught out.
Neither here. I drive around 40-50 '000 miles a year, and whilst I can go without...
Auto lights,
Auto wipers.
Start/Stop.
Heated seats.
Climate control.
Parking sensors.
Sat Nav
DAB
They really make driving far less stressful for me. The only now firm requirements for a car for me is a... central arm rest and adjustable steering column. Followed by Cruise control.
I have noticed lately that a lot of cars have brake lights that come on briefly whenever oncoming traffic looms into view, or for the most minor bends that have clear line of sight through them. Even on major A roads with NSL in place there'll be a flash or longer of brake lights and a reduction in speed from the car's maximum permitted speed of 54 (as in '50 will be plenty thanks Audrey') down to something closer to 46. After all safety is everything and we don't want these ludicrously powerful cars like a Corsa or a Yaris launching themselves into the hedge when the tyres lose traction with all that power & speed being forced through them on an almost straight road.
Many a true word spoken in jest
Although nothing fills me with trepidation more than the sight of a Nissan Micra!
Most likely confirmation bias on my part, but they seem to be the car that stays at 38 regardless of whether the speed limit is 30 or 60. They seem to be the car that waits at junctions until you are right on them before pulling out in front of you and they seem to be the car that manoeuvres first and indicates second or conversely, they have the indicator on for a mile before a junction, leaving you with no idea what they are doing...
It's confirmation bias, it's confirmation bias, it's confirmation bias.... Is what I tell myself as well.
Sadly I think drivers are getting worse. In August I drove the during mid morning on the A40 from Brecon to Carmarthen and there were huge queues on traffic behind slow moving vehicles (either artics or Farm vehicles. Nobody (apart from myself) was willing to overtake these slower moving vehicles, even on empty straights which some go on for more than a mile! And because nobody would overtake - it made required me to make multiple overtaking manouevres!
There seems to be a gradually increasing line of thinking that any overtaking is bad on single lane carriageways, when it can be done quite safely. Yet it seems like a lot of people are quite happy travelling nose to tail at anything from 60-80 miles an hour on the motorway.
But could just be confirmation basis...
But all that electronic stuff, invariably badly implemented, makes my stress levels go up, not down. (And fortunately I've never had anything on your list in my own car. I used to have A/C, very useful for driving around the Med in summer, but it stopped working three years ago.)
There appears to be something of 50/50 split regarding the merits auto-wipers.
My car has them (never had them on any previous car) and they work perfectly; I leave the switch in auto and never even think about it.
It’s got several pre-set sensitivity levels but I very rarely need to alter it from the 1st level.
Auto-wipers cope very well with the odd times when the rain is quite light, but persistent; it will flick-on for 1 wipe at just the right time; manual wipers, even on the slowest ‘intermittent setting’ can sometimes be a pain when the precipitation is light.
With manual wipers, as we all know, It’s sometimes a case of switching the ‘intermittent wipe’ off altogether and ‘blipping’ the wiper to give 1-sweep as, and when, required.........which can get a bit annoying at times, especially on long journeys when the rain is stop/start and changing rapidly from light drizzle to heavy downpours at frequent intervals..
..... auto-wipers sorts it all out for you.......it does on my car anyway.
I’m swopping my car next month, and given some of the adverse comments on here, I may find I’m not as enamoured with auto-wipers as I am at the moment.
I was walking down the road and when crossing near to a junction, a speeding motorist decided to hang a left onto the road I was crossing at great speed, not indicating and nearly clipping me.
Maybe a good new feature that manufacturers should install is a quick quiz highway code test you have to past fully before the car will start. If you don't manage to answer the ten questions correctly, you can't start the car for another 30 minutes.
But, no doubt, somebody will find a way to disable it and even if not, answer the questions correctly and still drive like a moron.
One of the disadvantages of all these new fangled safety and driver aids is that it has made some drivers complacent in their driving habits, having the attitude 'the car will save me if I screw up'.
It also doesn't help that many pedestrians take their lives into their own hands when crossing the road. I'll stand by the edge of the road, looking left and right, for however long it takes, until I know it is absolutely safe to cross. This, of course, is getting more and more difficult these days, but also accounts for why I have never been hit by a vehicle in 50 years, as a pedestrian.
I too have never got knocked down, as a pedestrian. Do we get a medal?
We might as a long upstanding citizen.
I think mattlamb is talking about *headlights*, not DRLs.
Sadly, that's true of so many drivers these days.
This, a billion times over, forever and ever.
For me traffic light countdown timers aren`t just for stopping the engine at the lights, in fact that`s of less importance to me than trying to conserve momentum (and save brake and transmission wear) whilst approaching the lights, i.e. whilst you`e still moving. There are other - albeit less significant - advantages, if you need to check your A to Z (yes I still swear by them rather than SatNavs) or whatever you know how long you`ve got to do it before the lights change to green.
True, and amusing (well a bit).......
What kind of idiot designs a car with no intermittent windscreen wiper........
Because the intermittent mode is replaced by the auto sensing mode, providing the same function.
Intermittent with variable speed is the best solution. It is rather ironic that the manufacturers don`t fit this very useful feature to many cars despite the fact it can`t be an expensive one to manufacture. Yet they do fit loads of stuff which manay people really aren`t that fussed about, or, as this thread proves, actively dislike !
Most inbuilt Satnavs have it's directions put up on to the speedo display (term escapes me at the moment).
There`s nothing wrong with a Toyota Yaris, my wife`s got one and I like it, particularly when we get to the filling station and have just got 50mpg out of it. It`s plenty fast enough and in fact probably about as fast as a 1970s 2.0 Capri, though you would have to rev it more. Not that I drive like that anymore, I`ve grown up now.
But auto sensing doesn`t always work though does it ? I find so anyway, and so do a few others on here. From personal experience variable speed intermittent is my preferred solution, and more reliable.
Auto sending works just as well as intermittent. Especially since it's more able to accurately match the rainfall and also rapid to quick increases or decreases well.