Yaris, Scion xD, Honda Fit - no water temp gauge

Of course he is dead wrong. About pretty much everything. These
dipsticks that got on Daddy's computer come bombing into a newsgroup
where (Lloyd notwithstanding...) we've all had pretty informative,
intelligent, and rational conversations for years... and presume to tell
us that we don't have a clue.


Weep, Earth. These are the leaders of your future.

 

Weird. Here it seems like you're supporting the argument I've been
making all along.

and then in another post, you write:

I'm so confused.

nate

 

I would add voltage and (instead of "or") current and warning lights for low
oil level, low coolant level, and low tire pressure (which is being
implemented already).

 

But Nate says people are dumbasses who can't halfway maintain their cars.

Now he says those same dumbasses can suddenly understand and use gauges?

Nate's the dumbass.

 

And you expect that the car buying and car using public at large--who
are not engineers, and who can barely find their way to the
bathroom--would benefit from such a gauge.

Would buy such a gauge.

You're an ignorant asshole. That's all there is to it. You show it
every time you open your mouth.

 

Maybe if they were expected to understand what those gauges mean, they'd
start to understand the necessity of regular oil changes, coolant
flushes, etc?

Why, because I insist on proper gauges in my own cars and won't let
anyone near them that doesn't at least know enough to check for out of
range or anomalous gauge readings? That seems like simple common sense
to me.

nate

 

Why, because I insist on proper gauges in my own cars and won't let
anyone near them that doesn't at least know enough to check for out of
range or anomalous gauge readings? That seems like simple common sense
to me.[/QUOTE]

No--insisting that cars be built with such gauges is idiotic.

 

No--insisting that cars be built with such gauges is idiotic.
[/QUOTE]

I'm not insisting that they be built with them. I'm just stating that
they'd better be damn appealing - more so than most new cars - if the
manufacturer expects me to buy them, and then go to the time and expense
of mounting gauges in a brand new car.

nate

 

the labor of removal and fitting is the same on both sides of the
equation - it therefore cancels out. there is no labor for re-work if
simply replacing the motor, so the cost /saving/ matters.

 

and the so-called "idiot light" would have served exactly the same purpose!

so you say. but if you'd used a decent filter in the first place, with
the correct change interval, that wouldn't be an issue.

what kind of "engineer" are you? we used to have some guys run about
our place only barely smarter than the 10lb hammers they carried - they
called themselves "engineers" too.

 

er, mr "engineer", all vehicles have instrumentation up the wazoo in
design and testing stages. and if it's done right, you can take them
off again because you can be certain of the spec and the statistical
failure rate. if you /haven't/ done this homework otoh, then, sure, you
might need more gauges and dials. but that presumes two big dumb things
no proficient designer would get wrong:

1. the operator cares. as a honda driver, i'm confident i have
nothing to worry about unless /i/ **** up. i therefore don't /need/ any
more instrumentation and i don't care to have it. if i want to check
oil pressure, i do what it says in the service manual - connect a
pressure gauge to the pressure switch outlet and measure it! with a
/real/ pressure gauge!

2. that the dealer network won't mind dealing with "false positive"
service bookings from the idiots that think their temp gauge isn't quite
in the right position every five minutes.

 

jim beam wrote:

Ah, that explains your position then. You actually believe that Honda
engineers are so superior that your vehicle will continue to run
indefinitely with absolutely no faults whatsoever?

Sadly, this belief does seem to be prevalent among owners of certain
vehicle brands, especially Honda and Toyota. This probably explains why
I see lots of *newer* Hondas and Toyotas on the roads, but very few
older ones, despite the fact that for the most part they are fairly
decent vehicles.

nate

 

absolutely not. but the point is, almost nothing comes out of the blue.
and the rare things that do are statistically insignificant. it's
utterly stupid to argue that all cars should carry extensive
instrumentation for the one in a million times it might be useful. and
that's assuming the driver of that one in a million car would pay attention.

for good reason!!!!!

eh? where the heck do you live???

 

Heh... The only "new" car that I bought back in '61, a VW beetle had a
little foot lever to activate the "reserve" gas tank. No gage.

OTOH, I still managed to run out of gas on occasion anyway. Yep, the
basic four gages should be standard in every car AND everyone should be
aware of how they work. Still, some will still complain...

JT

 

I gotta come to Nate's defense here.

As I stated earlier, everyone should know the four basic functions to
trouble free driving;

1. Fuel Supply
2. Engine Temperature
3. Oil Pressure
4. Electrical System Status

It should be one of the basic requirements to get behind the wheel.

It's just that simple...

JT

 

what are you going to do with that? normal operation is controlled by
the fully automatic thermostat. all you need to know is whether it
overheats. and that's a maintenance issue more than a driver monitoring
issue.

see above.

see above.

 

If that's "all you need to know" I am guessing that a) you don't keep
your cars very long, in the grand scheme of things and b) you carry a
AAA card.

Some of us like to know about *impending* failures before a tow truck is
necessary. It seems somehow more convenient.

nate

 

some of you may need it because you drive shit cars and you don't
maintain them properly. i otoh drive honda. and when i have a car with
306k on the clock, that runs perfectly, and looks set to run another
300k, i read all this inane bleating and wonder how you guys ever get up
in the mornings.

 

I'm dealing in the real world here.

People don't know the basic functions. And you can't make them know.
You can't make knowing those functions be required for them to get a
driver's license.

Given that, we must find a way to accommodate those people. Or change
the law.

 

some of you may need it because you drive shit cars and you don't
maintain them properly. i otoh drive honda. and when i have a car with
306k on the clock, that runs perfectly, and looks set to run another
300k, i read all this inane bleating and wonder how you guys ever get up
in the mornings.[/QUOTE]

These are the same types as people who own computers for the sake of
owning computers. They love to fiddle and measure clock speeds and
broadband speeds and know the cpu temperature and how it measures on
benchmarks, and then fiddle some more to see if they can beat their
benchmarks.

You don't want those people making strategical decisions on how to
deploy a technology infrastructure within a corporation.

Same with the cars: you don't want the engineers who have to know the
temperature at the top of the piston ("just in case, to avoid failure")
to be involved in managing the money pump that is an auto manufacturer.