The Chocolate Fireguard as designed by Mercedes Benz

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Posted by CuP Alloys 1 on 26/04/2019 09:36:35:

PS If anyone wishes to share similar experiences, please email me. This might be worth taking up with Trading Standards, HSE and Avertising Standards Agency

There are some unadvertised benefits, like my old bosses Audi A3 12 or 13 plate without the Sat Nav option. Four of us went out on a trip with 3 sat Navs from different makers, none would acquire a satellite in the vehicle until you turned the ignition off or stood about 6 feet from the car. Not tried in a second A3 so can't comment further except Audi said there was nothing wrong with it.

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Reading this I am so happy to have a 25year old car with none of this technology, it is controlled by me. If something happens it is down to me.

I think many people will blame the car when something goes wrong or something happens instead of down to them for not being in control

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Since everyone seems to be having a moan. Can I complain about the ever increasing number of complete arseholes that don't use their handbrake when stopped at junctions and traffic lights, but keep their foot on the brake pedal. Thereby shining their head-level brake lights into my face!

[Brian Sweeting 2Participant @briansweeting2]

Posted by Mark Rand on 26/04/2019 22:48:50:

Since everyone seems to be having a moan. Can I complain about the ever increasing number of complete arseholes that don't use their handbrake when stopped at junctions and traffic lights, but keep their foot on the brake pedal. Thereby shining their head-level brake lights into my face!

Aaah, they must be the ones who haven't read the Highway Code then.

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Highway code, what's that? Oh yes, the book you study to pass your test then throw in the bin and forget.

Rather than having all these driving aids they should just play an audio book version of the code while the ignition is on.

I'm thinking of a package of similar electronic aids for some of my machines, might be worth developing and marketing. The basis for them is a recorded voice triggered three seconds after engaging the machine drive which says " I wouldn't do it like that if I were you"

In a similar vein a recording of my wife's voice saying "are you sure that's safe?" Would come on if using any face plate set up.

[Andrew EvansParticipant @andrewevans67134]

This thread could be summarised as "it's not like it was in my day"

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Mark Rand on 26/04/2019 22:48:50:

Since everyone seems to be having a moan. Can I complain about the ever increasing number of complete arseholes that don't use their handbrake when stopped at junctions and traffic lights, but keep their foot on the brake pedal. Thereby shining their head-level brake lights into my face!

Probably, like me, they have a car with an automatic brake that applies itself in creeping traffic and automatically releases when you touch the accelerator. They probably don't even know that the brake lights are on when they use this function. If it's any consolation , I don't use mine at night.

Rod

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Maybe I am too cynical, but am not sure that all these "assist" functions do improve road safety, since they discourage drivers from being aware of what is going on around them and thinking.

"The car will take care of that for me"

Like the one parked on the roof of the following one in the middle of a five car pile up in the fast lane of the M6?

Or the Merecedes that ploughed, at great speed, into the column of slow moving traffic ahead of it, shown recently on TV? He claimed that his brakes failed,

So did his eyes, by the look of the film! If he had been looking far enough ahead for his speed, he could have lifted off, possibly changed down and applied the parking brake to slow.

NO, that would have implied thought about what he was doing!

Twice, I have been nearly run off the road, by a driver who forgot that he was alongside another vehicle, and decided to change lanes!

I'm prejudiced, having passed a driving test where you had to halt a vehicle with an unsynchronised gear box using hand brake and gears!

Howard

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Tesla gave an interesting talk on their progress with autonomy a few days ago: (Skip the first hour of advertising) – It;s a long presentation.

I found their explanation of AI quite facsinating (starts about 1 hr 52 mins in)

Progress is a slow road in many things. particularly when the advertising and finance guys claim and demand promises with fudged wording to con the buyer. But do any of us really want to go back to hand cranking their cars, flooding it with manual choke and hammering on the B pillar to get that damned indicator arrow to come out?

The most annoyign aspect of auto headlights is when driving on Welsh roads at night with tight bends and the car sees the reflection off the chevrons and dips the headlights just when you need them most. ' cos it thinks its an oncoming car.

**LINK**

[Mike CrossfieldParticipant @mikecrossfield92481]

Posted by Mark Rand on 26/04/2019 22:48:50:

Since everyone seems to be having a moan. Can I complain about the ever increasing number of complete arseholes that don't use their handbrake when stopped at junctions and traffic lights, but keep their foot on the brake pedal. Thereby shining their head-level brake lights into my face!

I was taught to take the car out of gear and apply the hand brake if stationary for more than a few seconds, and regards it as sloppy and inconsiderate driving to hold the car on the footbrake. However you do see it quite a lot, particularly with young drivers. Maybe something to do with the way they are now taught? Another issue is that some modern cars (like my latest) have an “auto hold” or “hold assist” feature which keeps the brakes applied hydraulically when the car is braked to a stop, so no need to apply the parking brake in temporary stopping situations (these cars generally don’t have a conventional manual hand brake). The consequence is that the brake lights stay on, even though the driver does not have his foot on the brake. When I discovered this I found that I could over-ride the Autohold by applying the Electronic Parking Brake, thereby turning the lights off. Interestingly, from threads on motoring forums I belong to, quite a few users aren’t aware that Autohold leaves their brake lights on. This ought to be made clear in the Manual for the car, but it isn’t. I have it on good authority that the salesmen at some main dealers don’t know about this either.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I’m not sure Mercedes is a particularly good choice these days, well not if you want reliability.

**LINK**

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

The intelligent use of rear fog lights would be nice, if you can see the car behind you he can see you, there is no need to constantly dazzle them with your fog lights, they have a switch to turn them on and of as required, even better would be a sensor to turn them off when a vehicle is behind with lights on. Fog lights in rain are just to make life even more unpleasant for anyone behind. THINK

Mike

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

"even better would be a sensor to turn them off when a vehicle is behind with lights on. "

Yep, and he is so close his LED lasers are blinding you. Just like F1, driving is a dying art. Get rid of ALL the gizmos and make the driver think. Too many budding Hamblbums don't realise there aint no reset button in a car.

Regards Ian.

No, not a luddite but I don't need a light on the dash to tell me when to change gear.

[Steve NeighbourParticipant @steveneighbour43428]

Posted by Plasma on 26/04/2019 09:42:57:

"Still surprising to see folk driving in pitch black without their lights on, or conversely driving what looks like a stage light show when its dusk.

I put it down to the lack of bobbies on patrol."

 

Folk driving with their rear 'fog' light on weeks after they actually used it !

my other pet hate (there's too many to mention) driving on a motorway with the RH indicator on in lane 1 or 2 and they have no intention of moving to their right

 

Edited By Steve Neighbour on 27/04/2019 11:04:48

[Steve NeighbourParticipant @steveneighbour43428]

Posted by Vic on 27/04/2019 09:57:21:

I’m not sure Mercedes is a particularly good choice these days, well not if you want reliability.

**LINK**

I have to disagree (tempting fate maybe) I'm on my 2nd Mercedes (No 1 was a C class estate) I now have a E class estate and it is nothing less than superb, it it by far the best car I have driven, it is very economical, easily achieving 50+ mpg, (the best I have managed is 62.7 )

My local MB dealers service is second to none, and always go that extra mile to ensure I'm a 'happy customer' – maybe I'm just lucky, but for me (at the moment) there is no other car I would consider !!

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I used to think that front fog lights were lower down than the legal minimum for headlights and so using them when it's not foggy was illegal. Nowadays lots of cars turn on the appropriate fog light when turning a corner. I find this distracting when an oncoming car for some reason turns a light on and off. If using low mounted fog lights is illegal, then shouldn't the manufacturers be told to sort it out, or are our politicians completely powerless? On one of my cars if you turned the ignition off then the fog lights went off and didn't come back on next time the ignition came on, so the driver had to make a conscious decision to turn them on every time, seems sensible to me

see **LINK** clause 27

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Vics comment about reliability strikes a chord. For more than ten years I commuted daily between Darmstadt and Stuttgart (home of MB). There always seemed to be noticeably more Mercedes than any other car stopped at the side of the autobahn with their flashers on and an emergency triangle behind them.

Maybe this was because there are a large proportion of Mercedes on German roads, but somehow I don't think that was the reason.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by Mark Rand on 26/04/2019 22:48:50:

Since everyone seems to be having a moan. Can I complain about the ever increasing number of complete arseholes that don't use their handbrake when stopped at junctions and traffic lights, but keep their foot on the brake pedal. Thereby shining their head-level brake lights into my face!

I quite agree – I provide them with main beam headlamp power in their mirrors.

Like non-thinkers (or non-drivers) who don’t indicate when changing lanes. Oh, and those that cannot reverse into a parking space but expect to inconvenience other motorists when reversing, blind, into traffic to un-park themselves. (So many safety points – one can see over the bonnet of the adjacent vehicles before exiting the parking space, if they are reversed in; safer for children when opening doors when just parked; safer for lady drivers (and others) from attacks when re-entering their vehicles).

There are more and more enlightened companies who insist on vehicles being reversed into parking spaces in their car parks or on their sites.

Anyone any sensible comments about the rash of adverts for “self charging’ electric vehicles? The people that believe some of these adverts must be utter idiots – but of course, we know that (by definition) about 50% of the population are below average.

[J HancockParticipant @jhancock95746]

I think the rise in ownership of 'automatics' has a lot to do with the brake light problem and the automatic engine stop , at every stopping moment.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Reversing into a parking space was easy when i was younger…just that half turn arund in the seat, a single hand on the wheel and zip backwards. Nowadays it's a combination of stiff neck and back so no chance of twisting in the seat and if you do then the anti-whiplash headrest is in the way of vision. I just don't find it as easy with mirrors alone so freely admit i enjoy a car with a decent reversing camera and even self-park.

My wife was looking for a new car and 360deg view is a must for her. Bugbear with new cars is the rip-off extras if foolish enough to buy them.. how about jump leads from Jaguar at a mere £126? Or extra for a reduced section spare wheel and no room to put a real one?

pgk

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

Certainly true that these driver aids are not 100% reliable. I suspect that most of the complaints about them here are coming from technically-aware people who take driving seriously and can do better (although my Audi auto headlights and wipers do work pretty well, pretty much all the time. And I know how to override them if needed).

Regrettably, these driver aids are still more reliable and accurate than the average driver. Most drivers do not even realise how little they know, not just about their cars but also their driving ability.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by Steve Neighbour on 27/04/2019 11:11:37:

Posted by Vic on 27/04/2019 09:57:21:

I’m not sure Mercedes is a particularly good choice these days, well not if you want reliability.

**LINK**

I have to disagree (tempting fate maybe) I'm on my 2nd Mercedes (No 1 was a C class estate) I now have a E class estate and it is nothing less than superb, it it by far the best car I have driven, it is very economical, easily achieving 50+ mpg, (the best I have managed is 62.7 )

My local MB dealers service is second to none, and always go that extra mile to ensure I'm a 'happy customer' – maybe I'm just lucky, but for me (at the moment) there is no other car I would consider !!

Nobody wants to admit spending over the odds for a car that is unreliable, that’s why makes like Mercedes do very well in the JD power surveys where they simply ask owners what they think! Actual statistics though prove otherwise. It’s not just Mercedes though, none of the German brands do particularly well. Audi were rated the second most unreliable brand in 2013. The most reliable cars are without doubt Japanese and Korean brands that have reliability the Germans can only dream about.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

I drove a recovery truck for 15 years, and I took newish cars back to Mercedes dealers more than any other marque. All sorts of problems from probably trivial through to major mechanical failures. Joint second were Audi and BMW.

The last year I did that job, I recovered two Toyotas to a main dealer; one of those was for a clutch(at 100k miles so hardly unreasonable) and the other appeared to be an immobiliser fault. Both Korean manufacturers are almost as good.

French cars aren't particularly reliable, but they seem to be like a cat that's been run over; they manage to drag themselves back home to die

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Could it be (I suggest cautiously) that the general run of drivers of Mercs, Audis BMWs etc seem to be totally incapable of looking under the bonnet, or finding the toolkit (if any) or understanding any of the bits or warning lights etc? So the number of truck rescues for them is high. Whereas those of us with second-hand fiestas, skodas, etc, will have a go ourselves, first, and might not need a rescue truck?

Or in other words, some people are ashamed to have cars which need attention, while others are ashamed if they need attention by someone else.

Cheers, Tim

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

The jets in my carbs used to have waxstat units that mucked up the mixture when hot. I've fitted normal ones now. Take that technology!

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