DescentBB

You know engineers, they love to change things, even those things we've been used to for decades. I can just hear them in their little design meetings: "Our car will be so smart, it'll do everything for the driver. We'll make it so easy to drive, everything will just be intuitive".

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/incredibl ... 00325.html

What’s that huge button marked (P) right below the shifter?

Ran on windows 8?

Duper wrote:Ran on windows 8?

BMW's user research showed that drivers didn't use the "Park" position, so they removed it

Spidey wrote:What’s that huge button marked (P) right below the shifter?

I think that's the electrically activated parking "brake", not the "park" position for the transmission. There's no "park" position indicator on the tranny shifter knob. All automatics I've driven had a park position for the shifter.

Well, then just jam it up against another car…like they do here.

Don't know how to put it in Park?

RTFM.

Parking is something that is so ingrained into every drivers consciousness that having to read the ★■◆●ing manual means the engineers did something wrong. I'll read the manual to find out how to program the built in stereo system or customize the dual comfort zone heating and cooling systems or whatever. But driving the damn thing? Should be turn the damn key, shift the damn gear, hit the damn gas. Then when I get there its hit the damn brake, shift into park, and turn the damn thing off.

Sounds like I would hate that. Applying and reducing brake pressure is more or less how I control my car at very low speeds, such as fast food drive through's.

Avder wrote:Sounds like I would hate that. Applying and reducing brake pressure is more or less how I control my car at very low speeds, such as fast food drive through's.

You got a pedal for that...

If your car moves forward when you let off the brake, you have the idle set to high.

So, what did we learn? If you get a BMW get manual trans....

Maybe they did this bit of control stupidity just so people would actually HAVE read their manuals to operate their car for once. Sadistic engineers.

Avder wrote:Parking is something that is so ingrained into every drivers consciousness that having to read the ★■◆●ing manual means the engineers did something wrong. I'll read the manual to find out how to program the built in stereo system or customize the dual comfort zone heating and cooling systems or whatever. But driving the damn thing? Should be turn the damn key, shift the damn gear, hit the damn gas. Then when I get there its hit the damn brake, shift into park, and turn the damn thing off.

If you buy a new car, you should always read the manual. Blaming them for messing up your way of driving is like blaming microsoft when they went from a MSDOS shell to windows 95.

"It's not working the way I'm used to! It's their fault!"

We deal with people like you all the time in the autobody repair business.

I've got to admit. Cars are what I do for a living. And I drive hundreds of different types every month. But I climbed into a BMW last week and it took me a few minutes just to figure out the gear selector on it. Typical german over engineering. They are always the most difficult cars to work on.

Apparently they've never heard of K.I.S.S.

CUDA, are you a car thief?

No I manage the collision center for a dealership group that has 19 locations and 23 car lines.

CUDA wrote:I've got to admit. Cars are what I do for a living. And I drive hundreds of different types every month. But I climbed into a BMW last week and it took me a few minutes just to figure out the gear selector on it. Typical german over engineering. They are always the most difficult cars to work on.

Apparently they've never heard of K.I.S.S.

Oh I dunno.. It seems fairly straight-forward to me.

Spidey wrote:If your car moves forward when you let off the brake, you have the idle set to high.

Then every single automatic transmission automobile I have ever driven has had its idle set too high, because in every single automatic transmission automobile I have ever driven the way to creep forward at a very low speed is to slowly let off the brake pedal rather than apply any pressure on the accelerator.

As far as I understand, that's by design in automatic vehicles. It definitely helps when you're stopped on an incline.

That's it exactly TG. It's supposed to help mitigate any kind of roll-back, so the driver doesn't have to left-foot brake.

Ferno wrote:That's it exactly TG. It's supposed to help mitigate any kind of roll-back, so the driver doesn't have to left-foot brake.

Yeah... those lazy automatic drivers. Here us manual people have to use a little bit of coordination and timing to handle hills without rollback. I can start my car up a hill with pretty close to no rollback these days.

HEY, GUYZ HOW DO I BE PUTTIN IT IN "DRIVE"??????

snoopy wrote:

Ferno wrote:That's it exactly TG. It's supposed to help mitigate any kind of roll-back, so the driver doesn't have to left-foot brake.

Yeah... those lazy automatic drivers. Here us manual people have to use a little bit of coordination and timing to handle hills without rollback. I can start my car up a hill with pretty close to no rollback these days.

See, I could still be using a stone tablet and chisel to write with too, but we have these lovely things called "computers" these days.

Fixed:

Top Gun wrote:See, I could be riding a bike without training wheels, but training wheels are so much better.

How about you all just let the car drive for you?

I'd be fine with that, honestly. I mean, if I'm out on a track somewhere, of course I'd want full control over my gears, but for running around suburbia, why the hell would I feel the need to bother with that? It's hard enough getting from point A to point B without being stuck in traffic as-is.

Haha, That's true. Traffic would become a non-issue if cars actually drove themselves through town. Try this next time your in traffic. Slow down, no matter how thick traffic is, and give yourself at least 2-300 feet between the car in front of you. Everytime a car swaps into your lane, let them and continue making room for more. Guarantee within 10 minutes traffic will be flowing freely again

EDIT: You have to pick which lane to do this in strategically.

I challenge everyone here to try and drive an old 1960's manual tranny car that has an old, worn out, three-on-the-tree shifter on the steering column. That was one of my first cars, a Mercury Comet, and it was a nightmare to drive. If you didn't move the shifter in an exact "H" pattern, in other words, got sloppy, in a hurry, and did a kind of "S" pattern instead, the worn bushings would invariably jamb the shifter into neutral and lock out the mechanism, requiring the driver to get out of the car, open the hood and yank up on the mechanism to get it realigned. Not so good when driving on the freeway.

Isaac wrote:HEY, GUYZ HOW DO I BE PUTTIN IT IN "DRIVE"??????

Who'd of ever thought they'd put ape hangers in a truck.

STANDARDS or lack thereof in the age of technology.

I'm going to buy a horse and ride it with motorcycle protective gear. Chicks love horses and dudes with motorcycle gear.

You do know which side of a horse you normally get on from don't you? Another standard left over from the war horse and wearing swords times.

from the back?



or does horse ride bike?
http://i.minus.com/i4E32MiH4Go4i.gif


I know what i'd like to ride...



...that plastic horse, if that stupid failed actress would scram.

tunnelcat wrote:You do know which side of a horse you normally get on from don't you? Another standard left over from the war horse and wearing swords times.

You know that's the first time I've heard this, though it makes complete sense in retrospect.