Posted on 04/07/2005 9:38:19 AM PDT by SmithL
Do so, there are too many idiots that don't know how to do this. Male and female; remember that auto shop isn't even offered in most schools and drivers' ed doesn't cover it any more.
Congrats, you've won the "automotive obliviot" award for the day (grin).
Scan your instruments regularly. Not only can it save you money, it can save your life.
My low pressure warning keeps dinging until you turn off the engine and check the pressure. It goes off before the tire is flat and you usually have time to get help.
If that option helps you great. The feature can be an option that people can purchase and add on to their car.
The point here is a 'Public Citizen's Group' sued on behalf of citizens.
That is bullpucky.
NO. Daytime running lights are a BAD idea, if they use the headlight system. They actually cause more crashes and get bikers killed. (Google for Project Yehudi to see why.) If they run off the front amber parking lights, they're OK.
>>You know when my Dad forced me to read every single page of our car manual and then learn how to check and change the oil, change a tire, and check the fluids levels before I was even allowed to turn the engine on,
Two other dads and I taught about 20 H.S. sophomores at my son's school, a basic roadside safety and auto maintenance course, on a couple of Saturday mornings, a few years back.
It was amazing how clueless most of the kids were about this stuff, including many macho football player types. No idea where the jack, tools and spare lived, let alone how to deploy them effectively. No idea how to do basic fluids checks (and some were dangerously low). You get the idea.
We drive on a lot of 2 lane roads and it is very helpful to me to be able to see headlights in the daytime. Bikers and truckers need their own roads!!!!!!!
Among other things, Joan Claybrook (when she was head of NHTSA) is responsible for the "Objects In Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear" warning on passenger-side mirrors as well as the original regulations mandating non-deactivatable airbags. Because of the latter, she is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women and children.
She also mandated and funded the design of a front-engine, rear-steer motorcycle that had a conventional car seat on it with a seat belt. It was undrivable and many people told her so before she funded it; she wouldn't listen until it had crashed repeatedly in tests.
> That's $6,250,000 per life saved.
There are other savings. We've shredded a couple of
leaking tires that could have been patched and left
in service, but on this particular vehicle, on our
gravel roads, you can't tell the tire's flat until
serious damage is setting in (and they aren't even
run-flats).
Entirely apart from mpg savings.
I'd happily pay for such sensors on any future car buys.
I object to having it be mandatory.
Bikers and truckers pay more tax than you do for the roads. Also, the headlights will actually reduce the range at which you see the vehicle, if the background is bright. Like I said, DRLs that use the AMBER lights on the front of the car already (which is what most of them are now going to) are OK.
Go look up Project Yehudi. It's camouflage via emitted light.
The Low Tire indicator worked off the Anti-lock Brake System (ABS). The ABS sensors would detect if one tire on that end of the vehicle was rotating at a different speed.
The system only worked side-to-side. Changes in tire wear, brands or age would fault the system. Corrosion or build-up on the magnetic pickup or the cogged wheel would fault the system as well.
The Hummer H1 had the ability to actually tell you the exact psi per tire.
I want a car I can keep running without having a technician on retainer, something like My first car, a 51 Plymouth.
That's the motorcycle design I was referring to in my previous post. Motorcycle Magazine did a report on that "motorcycle". The "expert" riders at the DOT couldn't make the bike negotiate a simple figure eight maneuver, so the DoT hired, if memory serves, AMA racing champions Bart Markel and Cal Rayburn. They could do a fig.-8 on the abortion, but just. Someone needs to dig up that old issue of Motorcycle Mag. and put the article on the Internet as a perfect example of design by government bureaucrat and committees of "experts".
BTW, there is a similar story relating to the design of the WWII fighter plane, the Spitfire.
No problem with this mandate. I'll just bribe a local judge to declare it unconstitutional.
She's also responsible for the 85 mph speedometer.
It's on my wife's '03 Grand Prix. Very nice car, but I wouldn't call it a Luxury vehicle. It did save her from getting stuck on a trip --- nail in the tire and she was able to get to a service station before it went flat.
Personally, for $60, I'd rather have this be a standard feature than the fancy multi-disc CD players that seem to be standard today.
It would be a much more difficult to monitor every car owners weekly use of a tire gauge. It would require thousands and thousands of new federal workers.
On the other hand, it is much simpler and less expensive to mandate that car companies include a specific feature - a mechanism that is already in place; the feds already mandate and verify seat belts, airbags, 5 mph bumpers, emission controls, headlights, tail lights, dashboard padding and lord knows what else.
However, this plan has a major flaw. There is noting to suggest that the federal government will verify that a driver correct a low pressure indication. A car owner could just put a piece of tape over the indicator light.
So we may need thousands and thousands of new federal employees after all.
It's only a matter of time before the gub'ment requires ALL new vehicles to be stocked with condoms.
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