bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

yep auto lights on/off have been around forever, was just commenting generally about auto-most things making it much more pleasant. and the glad i don't have the "sci-fi pod" for auto high beams

mmarshall

In my admittedly limited experience, those old torpedo-shaped sensors on the upper-dash, with the photo-eyes, were worthless. I had one in the big Buick I owned in college, and, from my memory, that thing actually worked only once during the entire time I owned it.....even when I was on rural or unlit roads (without street lights) that would have interfered with the sensor. I remember hearing a loud click, and the headlights dimmed....only to click them back on high-beams again before the opposing car actually passed by.



I haven't sampled an automatic dimmer, at night, on a newer vehicle (for those few that have them)...but they must be more reliable than the ones I grew up with.

oldcajun

The auto dimmer on the RX350 works very well. Apparently they finally got the technology right.
Steve

pbm317

Auto High Beams are pretty remarkable how effective they are now, and dim at the right instances.

Subaru's EyeSight system has a feature I wish every car had. If the car in front of you has driven away, and you don't (aka you're looking down at your phone ) it'll give you a slight chirp to get your attention. It'll also lessen the throttle input if it reads that there is still an object in front of you, to help you from inadvertently rear ending someone that you might think is no longer ahead of you.

mjeds

IMO one of the best features of modern cars is auto-headlights.. while most cars have them, the GM design is the best IMO.. The auto headlight switch is self centering, so it is always in auto mode, if you turn the lights off, the next time you key cycle the car it is back in auto mode.

while most vehicles have auto headlight now, a lot of people turn them off manually, with Toyotas the off is below auto setting, so turning off the lights disabled auto headlights, and since a lot if not all newer cars have eliminated dash clusters during the day, and decent DRL brightness, a lot of people never realize their headlights (therefore their running and taillights) are not active at night.. I usually see a dozen or more cars with no head/tail lights every night coming home from work, and most don't realize that the lights are not on because their dash is lit up.

while not a big issue in the city with street lights, I drive a dark no street light back road part of the way home and it is very disconcerting to have someone on your *** with no headlights, or come up on someone from a side road and merge with no headlights.

Aron9000

I see the same thing all the time as well, people rolling around with their headlights off. As for the GM feature, its great in all their cars produced in the last 10 years or so. Before that, there was no way to freaking turn off your headlights if the car was running and it was dark. Very annoying feature IMO, especially for cars with flip up headlights like the Corvette or Trans Am. Granted it was fairly easy to rewire your headlights to include an "off" position, but WTF GM, you ever think maybe there would be a time you want to turn off your headlights at night? In the Trans Am or Corvette's case, running down the drag strip, your et is going to be lower with the headlights flipped up.

Another cool, but maybe dated feature on my old Cadillacs(1991 Brougham and 1995 Fleetwood), is that if you pressed and held two buttons on the climate control panel, the car would read out your fault codes. No need to buy a scanner, car would just read them out for you, you looked up the codes on the internet, fixed the problem, disconnect the battery, bam, everything is working great now.

Of course cars are now more complex, but they could still display on the center screen what the fault codes are, along with the pages from the factory service manual on how to repair the car. No reason at all why they couldn't display the good old decision tree found in paper manuals(or make the decision tree interactive), your car's electronic systems now days are sophisticated enough to walk you through how to repair the car. Making scan tools brand specific or requiring a license from the manufacturer is nothing but a greedy *** money grab IMO.

mmarshall

A number of military installations ask that people turn down (or off) the headlights, with the engines running, when stopping at the gate for ID checks. It can be distracting (or even blinding) to the MPs and security people at the gate.

mjeds

Chryslers will still show the codes by doing the Chrysler "key dance" it's a sequence of on-off-on-off-on without starting the car, works with the push button start on Dodge/Chryslers as well.

as for the GM light thing, I've own 19 GM cars since 1978 and don't ever recall having any of them with that issue, (not being able to turn off the head lights), I know on some models with DRL's they would come on automatically if the headlights were off and the car was running, but you could turn them off by setting the parking brake (or just clicking it one click and not actually engaging it) I never had a Corvette in that time frame, but I had a '78 Trans Am, '82 Camaro, '89 Camaro, '93 Impala SS, '96 Silverado, '00 Silverado, '03 Impala SS, '10 Avalanche, and a '12 Camaro and was always able to turn off the headlights, and turn off the DRL's in the Silverado's by applying the parking brake,

Aron9000

^ If I remember right, applying the parking brake trick only worked when you started the car. IE if the car was running and lights on, pulling the parking brake made no difference. Shut the car off, then turn it on again and the lights would not automatically turn back on. On my Camaro(a 1999) I did the light mod, which consisted of pulling the dash pad off, snipping a wire and resoudering it to where you cut out the light sensor in the dash. Granted no more auto headlights, but off on the dash **** meant off. Of course it was very easy to break the cheap(and if the car was old) very brittle dash pad, it was held on with velcro.

I put up with such GM design gaffes and quality BS because I liked the power of the LS1 V8, the styling and the interior ergonomics(much more comfortable than a Mustang of the day). I don't know why somebody would've bought a new Cavalier or Malibu back in the 90's/00's, because it had the same crap quality with none of the redeeming design/styling features, handling, or power.


Getting back on topic, the way Tesla does over the air software updates is pretty cool IMO. No need to go to the dealer, you don't have to pay for them. Your car pops up that it has a software update on the center screen. You click accept the next time you are going to have the car parked for an hour or two, it automatically updates the software, maybe you get an easier to use menu on some functions, it improves some of the car's autonomous driving systems, updates your navigation maps, etc

mmarshall

Apparently it (once) worked on some Toyota models, because I can remember Toyota dealerships, in the new-car orientations they gave for new customers, refering them to that little trick if they wanted to, say, go through the gate of a military base and comply wth the headlights-off rule.

Actually, the 7Gen Malibu, from 2008-2012, (and its Saturn Aura twin, which was briefly in production before Saturn folded) was superbly-done, inside and out....many consider it the best Malibu of modern times. It was probably my second choice when I bought my Buick Verano. Its only noticeable gitches were a marked lack of rear headroom and a sometimes quirky-shifting 6-speed automatic.

Toys4RJill

Cavalier was a better car back from a feature and styling angle than the Japan stuff. HP, features, and styling where in GMs corner across the board. Very likely it rode better too. Reliability was very poor as well. The last gen Cavalier has a Z24 model with a supercharger option I think. Previous models has multiple engine options as well. For the Japan models, they had the fuel efficiency and most important was the reliability, but the cars were not the best. Functional yes, but not the best for features and options.

Before you say the last gen Cavalier was a total POS, in Japan it was sold as a Toyota Cavalier for a brief period of time.

Not a big fan of this. So much can go wrong. Look at how slow cell phones get with the constant updating.

Aron9000

About the only thing the Cavalier had going for it was more horsepower(like 20-30 more with the optional Quad 4) vs the basic stuff from Japan(Civic, Corolla). And you could always buy sportier/faster stuff like the Integra GS-R, Prelude, Celica, etc if you really did care about hp and performance. Really the Cavalier sold on price, people bought them, used them up by 100-150k, and junked them, I haven't seen a Cavalier on the road in months, still see 90's Civics, Corollas, etc around every day. As for features, you could get power windows, locks, sunroofs, all that crap on any of the Japanese cars, the Civic had a much more advanced chassis with double wishbone suspension. Any of the Japanese cars of that time had much nicer interiors, better seats, didn't rattle/squeak on the test drive.

As for the Toyota Cavalier, the Japanese market completely rejected it, I think it being sold in Japan was part of the Geo Prism rebadge deal. It was kind of weird times in the 80's/90's for the big 3, they were making their own crap small cars(Neon, Cavalier, Escort), then they were importing Japanese and Korean small cars like the Kia Pride(Ford Festiva), Corolla(Geo Prism), Isuzu Impulse(Geo Storm), etc. Toyota and GM were competing against each other in the same showrooms(Cavalier vs Geo/Chevy Prism), the whole arrangement was kind of weird.

mmarshall

Fixed the typo for you.

The Prizm was sold first under the Geo nameplate, and then under Chevy, when GM folded the Geo nameplate. It was, of course, a rebadged Corolla 4-door sedan....with some difference in the dash/controls set-up.

You're correct on the basic deal. Chevy/Geo shops essentially got a rebadged Corolla, while the Japanese market got (Ugh!) a rebadged Chevy Cavalier...the latest (at that time) in a LONG string of Chevrolet crap-small cars going all the way back to the early-60s Corvair, and Ralph Nader's famous write-up. Of course, times finally changed for Chevy's small cars, and today's Cruze and Sonic are very reputable products.


At the time, we also saw a similar deal between Honda/Acura and Isuzu. Isuzu got the Honda Civic to sell in its home Japanese market as the I-Mark sedan/coupe, while, in return, Honda got the Isuzu Rodeo and Trooper to sell as the Honda Passport and Acura SLX SUVs. Later, of course, Honda developed its own SUVs...the CR-V and Pilot.


.......and don't forget the (later) Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix rebadge-twins, which were virtually identical except for the Pontiac split-grille and some Pontiac styling-touches on the steering wheel and dash. Both, of course, came from the Corolla platform/drivetrain.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

let's keep the focus on 'newer' cars as the thread title states. thanks.

mmarshall

What general time-frame would you recommend, then? 5 years? 10? 20? 30?