Quirky car details

Hurrache · 01-10-2021 11:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960307#Comment_117960307

I'm sure I had a Punto or Bravo, maybe even a Mk1 Octavia, that had one of those, that's going back some time.

magicbastarder · 01-10-2021 11:33am

getting back to the quirky car reg plates - about 30 years ago family friends living in derry had a car where the reg ended with 147. they got a letter from a company offering to buy the plate from them - £200, and that included the company sourcing and fitting a new plate for them, they wouldn't have to lift a finger.

easy money for them; their plate would have been sold on to a snooker enthusiast.

mikeecho · 01-10-2021 4:13pm

I've a BMW.. it apparently has some orange lights that flash on the corners of my car.

I still can't work out how they operate.. some kind of Easter egg feature.

The One Doctor · 01-10-2021 4:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963902#Comment_117963902

They're in case you need to double park at the airport or casino.

Some use them for telling people if they're turning left or right, but everyone assumes that a BMW/Audi driver is going to do whatever they want anyway.

Wishbone Ash · 01-10-2021 5:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117952684#Comment_117952684

That was standard in many cars up to the 1960's.

colm_mcm · 01-10-2021 10:49pm

The e39 BMW had a hole in the ashtray that was perfect for holding a Cornetto

magicbastarder · 01-10-2021 10:51pm

just one cornetto?

ofcork · 02-10-2021 7:38pm

Only thing with all my reg plates have had a 5 in them.

MrCostington · 04-10-2021 12:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117965593#Comment_117965593

Hard to tell from the pic, but is that not where the lighter goes?

cml387 · 04-10-2021 12:43pm

The original Morris 1100 had the switch for dipping headlights on the floor beside the clutch pedal.

colm_mcm · 04-10-2021 7:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974106#Comment_117974106

No it’s totally separate to the lighter. It’s a hole in the chrome piece

johnayo · 04-10-2021 7:52pm

My Alfasud back in the 80's. Jaysus, the rust was epic.🙃😌😤

passatman86 · 12-02-2022 11:14pm

The new manta "opel" emblem at the front lights up - looks led... That's fairly quirky

D3V!L · 12-02-2022 11:18pm

I once had a bike that had the same reg as my employee number for the company I was working for.

fancy pigeon · 14-02-2022 1:39pm

Plenty of cars with weird quirks, I'd say the easiest to write about is the Peugeot 607:

I had 3, and they were all different despite being in concurrent years (02-04) and yes, a few of the more interesting modules didn't interchange either!

The drivers side had the newer door switches, the passengers got the old button style switches. Driver only got the one touch window too, the peasants had to make do with standard electric windows

Most of the looms were detachable (no splicing needed)

If you locked the car with the key barrel it didn't deactivate the auto lights if you left them on. So you'd wake up to a dead pair of batteries. This didn't happen when locking the car with the button for the alarm as this deactivated auto lights

Auto lights and wipers working absolutely flawlessly otherwise

It had TPMS with was given the bin as it didn't work right

The mileage is tied to the ECU and not the speedo. So haha, inserting a 100k pair of clocks won't work on your 250k mile car

The oil temp also doubled up as the oil level indicator

It played a strange jingle when you pressed what was the horn button on other models (406 etc)

The crappy twist radio stalk to cycle through the stations rarely worked, but worked flawlessly for volume and manual tuning

It had heated rear seats

It had 2 batteries, one up front and the other in the boot. This was optional

The headrests were electrically operated

All the glass was UV protected. Which is lovely until you come to a toll booth with your e-flow tag!

It had a HUGE boot with a soft opening and (optional) soft close button, yet had no key tumbler should the unit fail

To remove a headlight, the unit had to go back towards the centre of the car

And as a weird twist, it was insanely easy to work on, as well as being shockingly well put together. This left it whisper quiet inside when moving

DoctorEdgeWild · 14-02-2022 1:47pm

5 cars currently:

1 doesn't start when hot (nightmare tracking down the problem, intermittent, long term)

1 has to go through 3 unlock/lock cycles every time you want to open the door

1 likes to overheat in London traffic only. (Birmingham, Manchester, etc., all fine, just London, like it knows)

1 has no problems whatsoever

The last one, which I keep wanting to move on, have put feck all money into, treat it like a work van, would sell it tomorrow, the absolute most reliable car I've ever owned. 😂

colm_mcm · 14-02-2022 2:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962436#Comment_117962436

That was the Octavia alright. Golf and Passat had them around that time too.

kirving · 14-02-2022 4:25pm

Not quirky, but a stupid software flaw.

1/ Have a BMW 3 Series (F30). If I stop the car when I'm on a phone call, the radio stay ons, connected to the call. So rather than just pick up my phone from the cup holder and continue the call, I have to unlock the phone, and fully turn off bluetooth before getting out of the car.

If I turn off the bluetooth audio from the phone app, it just swaps the audio, but leaves in connected to the car still. It drives me absolutely insane almost every day as I often take work conference calls on my way to the office.

2/ No mute/pause button. Say you're play a song on the phone over bluetooth and want to switch to radio. Can't pause the phone from a dedicated button, so you need to reach over and press the volume knob in. Then swap to radio - it's also muted. So you press the radio knob again. Radio comes on, but the phone then plays in the background too as it's still connected.

Volvo's parking ticket holder, and fold flat front passenger seat were fantastic.

L1011 · 14-02-2022 4:34pm

There's only two different numbers in the important bit of the VIN, which is annoying close to a million (993999 I think it is)

I gave back an old work van as I couldn't change to 1st/3rd/5th without changing radio stations, due to how small the gap between the gearstick and dash was.

RosieJoe · 15-02-2022 12:02pm

Skoda Kodiaq has a REST button, it can be pressed when the engine is no longer running and the heating has switched off. The REST button enables residual heat from the engine and cooling system to be blown into the cabin to continue to heat the interior of the car.

AMKC · 15-02-2022 9:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962292#Comment_117962292

My first car, a Citroen Xsara, had the horn button on the end of the headlight/indicator stalk. Subsequently, I got into the habit of leaning on the steering wheel with my elbow when reversing and looking back over my shoulder and steering with one hand. Which led me to inadvertently blasting the horn every time I reversed for the first couple of weeks when I got my next car.

My parents had a Citroen CX that had the horn like that too. It also had the hydrolic Citroen suspension.

I always liked the radio controls on my 03 Focus being on a dedicated stalk rather than the steering wheel, as you could use them no matter what position the wheel was in.

Renault had that long before Ford on the Renault 19, Laguna, Megane and every other Renault since.

Renault do it the best.

The Megane we had used to drive my Mother nuts. Someone would drive out in front of her and she would go to press the steering wheel to blow the horn but it was two small buttons on the steering wheel not the actual steering wheel itself. Why they went that way was beyond me but they fixed it in the midlife update.

The citroen fixed steering wheel was a brilliant idea. A pity it did not catch on. It kept the airbag in the optimum position in case of a crash.

The S-Max the Dad had came with a cool handbrake like something out of an airplane cockpit.

Gregor Samsa · 15-02-2022 10:19pm

The S-Max the Dad had came with a cool handbrake like something out of an airplane cockpit.

I’ve a 2010 S Max at the moment, and it has that handbrake. For some reason it feels more pleasant to use than the traditional lever. However, I mainly drive a Superb with an electronic handbrake, and I keep forgetting to either disengage or engage the manual handbrake in the S Max when I drive it.

Another feature the S Max has is two storage spaces under the floor of the rear passenger footwells. One contains the pump and pointless gloopy stuff in lieu of a spare wheel, I’ve the first aid kit in the other. There’s also a storage space under the floor in the boot, but it’s only accessible when the third row seats are raised.

The Superb (and I assume other Skodas) comes with two bendy plastic panels with Velcro on the bottom, that you can fix to the boot floor to hold boxes or packages in place. I’m going to get a second set for the S Max. My old Volvo V50 had a divider that you could raise up from the boot floor that had shopping bag hooks and an elastic strap to secure shipping. Very handy. The Superb has 4 hooks in the boot, and a system of elasticated cargo nets. The S Max has nothing to stop stuff rattling around the massive boot - I had to buy an accessory barrier (affectionately known as the “apple catcher”) to stop stuff just falling out of the boot if you park on a slope, as there’s no lip on the boot at all when you have the 3rd row seats folded away.

CianRyan · 15-02-2022 10:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951308#Comment_117951308

I'm late to the party but the bravo was probably less to do with snow but rather the dew point and high humidity.

Old plug leads can look fine but when inspected properly can be found like discharge through their shielding and earth through the head instead of through the plug. Actually very common on cars of that era.

The high humidity gave the voltage an easier path to arc versus drier air. The water vapour is conductive.