Quirky car details

Since we are talking about 666 stuff,

The auld fella bought a Polo in 2002

02WW4666,

Traded that in for a Fiesta in 2005

05WW2666,

Got a facelift Fiesta in 2006,

06WW388, nothing significant about that but always remember the deal, think he traded in the 05 for the 06 for a €1400 cost to change iirc. God be with the days!

My Glanza is 98d79676, had a Celica at the same time 02d79276, not exactly my landline number but still similar.

I had a blue Ford Sierra and I parked behind another blue one one day, then noticed the reg was exactly one digit off from mine, both must have been fleet cars.

Assuming the OP meant to include the actual design of the car, as opposed to the paperwork, I had a '96 Merc C class (W202) and the 'handbrake' as actually operated by a foot pedal to put on, and a pull lever beside the steering wheel to remove. My W123 has the dash mounter lever but it does both functions.

Does anyone watch Doug DeMuro's review videos? He goes into great detail of the 'quirks and features' of each car he reviews!

Have a 07 W203 (one of the last) and the handbrake setup is still the same, foot pedal to set, pull tab by side of steering wheel to release.

Dunno if it qualifies as quirky, but had a 96 Brava 1.6SX which was perfectly fine in all respects, except if it snowed. And I mean literally 1 flake on the bonnet. On a cold start, it would instantly flood the engine on ignition (spark plugs dripping with fuel -flooded). Never did it with colder weather but no snow. Dealer never managed to sort the problem out (4 trips/attempts), I ended trading it in.

Lots of cars have them now, but you might need to check around the boot for it.

Renault 4 had a few quirks.

• Rear view Mirror on the dash
• Handbreak similar to the Mercs mentioned above (handle only, not the pedal)
• Gearstick sticks out of the dash
• Different wheelbase on either side

MkV Golf had a bottle opener in the centre console. Presumably, in case you wanted to get started before you got to the party.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's that?

Saab used the chime from an airplane call button as the general car notification/warning chime, in tribute to its aeronautical roots.

They also had 'Night panel' to dim all non essential interior lighting, also a throwback to their aviation roots. Compare that now to the nightclub interiors of Mercs and others. Safety out the window for showroom wow factor.

Ah so that's what that was for. Having owned two Vectra B's for a span of about 5 years I knew it was there but never dawned on me what it was for or never thought too much about it.

horizontal speedo on my vauxhall viva SL

That pic of an old speedometer makes me wonder if with modern digital displays you could recreate classic speedometers of yesteryear. The Austin thermometer , the Citroen rotating drum,etc.

Or what about the third mini visor above the rear view mirror? That was a groundbreaking car for interior (perceived) quality.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.