Random car annoyances

car-man

Will it ever change?

I've been a Peugeot and Nissan specialist since 1974 (now retired) and own a Peugeot 508 and a Renault Clio...the Clio still holds true to the French electrics thing, but the 508 has been amazing

djcla

The thing I hate most on modern cars is that they auto lock after a short period of time.  For instance I unlock it from the house ready to chuck kids in back by time I get to the car with  handsful it's locked itself.

IronGiant

How far away is it parked? must be a powerful remote
If I want it to stay unlocked for more than the 30 secs it takes to re-lock, I remote unlock, open either front door and close, car stays unlocked and I can take as long as I like.  A bit fiddly, but better than it accidentally unlocking in my pocket and staying that way.

djcla

@IronGiant Parked on drive so only 10m or so it just takes more than 30 seconds to get out the house normally..

IronGiant

I forget how long it takes to herd small children.  I open the car, sit in the drivers seat and wait for my teenagers.  Occasionally, I get out of the seat and shout into the house, when I said we'll leave at 10:00am, I didn't mean get up at 10:00am...

djcla

I bet they are capable of shutting front door behind them as well.  Rather than driving off only to come back to find it wide open.

AMc

Current annoyance is drivers with their full beams on in the morning.  I'm school running cross country about 8am and that's dark enough for the autolights to come on but not enough to need them to see or see their effect.  
This morning I saw 4 cars coming the other way with the high beams on - it's not blinding as it is at night but it's still irritating.
One of them is a fellow parent, but having tried to talk to her about other things in the school car park it's not worth the effort of explaining she's had her main beams on since June
Clearly some people never drive after dark!

djbsom

I had a brief 'chat' with a mum outside the grandkids school yesterday.
It's a bugbear of mine when parents park on the pavement outside the school gates rather than in the two car parks that are nearby. I understand it's 'easier' and most of them at least leave plenty of space to walk between car and wall. Yesterday, however, the lady pulled completely up onto the pavement right in front of myself and my two anklebiters leaving approx 18 inches to squeeze through and then opening her door right in front of anklebiter 1. The first time she noticed the kids were when I stopped the door opening further by hand. She looked at me surprised but said nothing. I said "this is a pavement, that's the road" and walked the kids into the school. Incident over I thought.
Fifteen minutes later I walked past the car again, still in the same spot. After I was twenty or so metres passed the car she got out and shouted "excuse me" so I walked back towards her. Screaming from the first word she informed me that everyone parks on the pavement, I'm blind, her husband is in another country, she's just trying to take her child to school nicely, she was late, she's trying to start a new life in another country but no one will let her and, best off all, i only had a go at her because she's foreign.
With a dozen or so parents smiling at me I said quietly that cars go on the road and people walk on the pavement and then I walked away with her still screaming.
Back at home I asked the police, via the 101 system, if they could do a sweep of the road to see if they can't crack down a little on the problem and mentioned the lady in particular. First question was - had she left room for a double buggy and did she have any wheels on the road?  No and no.
Right, we're going to pass this to the traffic wardens for them to target the school for a week and then  we're also going to visit the lady for a chat.
Luckily, after the outburst, I'd taken a pic of the car.

So,  today I would imagine this lady is going to regret being lazy yesterday. In fairness, the police officer sounded more concerned with her pulling the race card.
We shall see what occurs.