bring back the foot switch!!

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted By: tinmanSC
I have one of these on my 1973 Mercury Comet. It's a metal cap that you hit with your left foot to turn on the hi-beams. I don't really see the advantage. I'd rather do it with my hand on the steering column.


I had a 73 comet straight 6cyl 4 dr in high school...mine had the chrome bare foot covering the gas pedal and the mini chrome bare foot on the dimmer switch...good times.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
While we're at it, bring back the foot starter button too!

;-)

Also, bring back that thing that you press when you want some control over your driving... what's it called... a yeah, the clutch pedal.

Seems to be a dying breed.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
My God. I guess I'm really getting old, it never even crossed my mind that there are drivers out there who have never even SEEN a dimmer switch.

I'm one of them, I guess. I've been driving 30+ years, and I didn't even know a foot-operated high beam switch existed.

 

[TTK]

Yeah, bring it back. The dimmer in the turn signal stalk is all the fault of Road&Track.

 

[TallPaul]

And front wheel drive was the fault of lower production costs and catering to fussy folks who didn't like a driveshaft tunnel down the middle of the passenger compartment.

 

[meep]

Originally Posted By: goodtimes
Instant lawsuits claiming foot switch caused unattended(my term for it) acceleration.

LOL. Or unintentional illumination... Toyota will issue a recall and congress will issue an investigation .

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
+ + + + +x10,000,000,000,000,000

Putting the dimmer switch on the floor made more sense than on the stalk, even with manual transmissions. Seriously, have you EVER needed to dim your lights during a shift? And while cruising a lightly travelled rural road where I'm constantly needing to flick from bright to low to bright to low as cars approach, tapping my left toe is just SO much easier and more logical than taking my fingers off the wheel (or worse having to reposition my hand on the wheel on a curve) to do the same task while my left foot isn't doing anything at all.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that not only is the foot switch better, the stalk switch is pretty STUPID when you get right down to it. The stalk is over-worked already. On some vehicles, its routine to accidentally flash the brights and pulse the wipers when all you're trying to do is turn left.

This is what I'm talking about. Your hands are on the wheel.

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
My God. I guess I'm really getting old, it never even crossed my mind that there are drivers out there who have never even SEEN a dimmer switch.

I'm one of them, I guess. I've been driving 30+ years, and I didn't even know a foot-operated high beam switch existed.

Yes. It's like asking a 24 year-old to help tune the carburetor... Remember fresh air vents in the firewall? Highly, highly effective before A/C. LOADS of air volume rushing at your feet!!

Originally Posted By: Burt
or a hand crank for the window. I had to explain to my daughter's friend what was for.

My kids want my mom's civic. they'd never seen crank windows or manual locks. they love the idea of having complete control of their own window and door. Funny.

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
I've never seen a foot operated high beam switch. It sounds more cumbersome than the switch on the steering column.

Magnum explains it well above. No, there's nothing wrong with the stalk, aside from unintentional blinking or other mishaps... but in my experience the toe was quicker!! Hands on the wheel, focusing on steering, it was easier to multitask with that unused left foot. tap. tap. tap-tap. I'm [only] 37. Having driven both, the toe switch was fast--- easily just as quick as the stalk, perhaps more so (I was quicker with the toe?).

I think the only application I wouldn't want it is for the round-the-corner flash one might do at night, on twisty mountain roads. It's not really practiced much in the U.S., if I understand it. It's the double-flash you might offer into a blind & narrow mountain curve at night, if you suspect there may be oncoming traffic.... to let them know there is oncoming traffic (you). It's done before you ever see the car. tap tap tap tap at every corner, when rowing gears, would get old.

 

[Craig in Canada]

I'd rather not have any more "critical" vehicle components exposed to salt. In the case of a foot dimmer switch this area would get bathed with brine and sand from a driver's boots all winter. And that assumes that the owner actually cleans that up when spring arrives - 50% of the people I know can't be bothered.

I'm sure this would have no effect on the long term health of the switch and the extra holes in the body would be a welcome addition. Yes, that was sarcasm

I remember the foot switch but they were gone before I started driving...

 

[Pop_Rivit]

I remember those well. There was a good reason why they were done away with.

If you're in the snow/salt belt the switch was prone to rusting from the salt and snow on your shoe. If you didn't use the high beam switch for a long period of time (over the summer for instance) it was questionable if it would work when you needed high beams again in the fall.

Add to that the tendency of floor mats to get placed on top of them, or worse yet to creep up so the lip of the mat wouldn't allow the switch to be pressed when you needed to turn the high beams off.

I'll stick with having the controls at my fingertips rather than stomping around with my left foot when I need to turn the high beams off because a car has surprised me at the crest of a hill.

It's one of the many automotive designs of the past to which I bid good riddance.

 

[sciphi]

Foot switch? I've only heard of those in automotive legends, and have never seen one. Then again, I'm a twentysomething whose oldest car was an 1989 Olds with GM's horrible stalk-mounted high beam switch. I still hate the one on my Buick since it makes quick flashes very hard.

 

[Spazdog]

No thanks.

I like the flash-to-pass momentary on function by pulling back on the turn-signal stalk (high beam is applied by pushing forward)

Let's say you are on a two lane back country road. A careless driver is eating a burrito while texting and is running straight at you. I would rather have the highbeams at my fingertips than flail around at the floorboard with my foot while simultaneously trying to activate the headlights with my left hand. (Sounding the horn is unlikely to help in this instance because of the speed and the direction of the sound waves.)

My left foot is quick enough for the task from years of riding motorcycles, but my clutch hand is every bit as fast.

 

[ffhdriver]

You folks complaining about salt corroded switches are remembering how they used to be mounted. Surely they could be mounted inside now days. The floor mounted swich on my '70 Olds failed the second day I had the car. The replacement lasted the next 7 years. I liked the floor mounting.

 

[Samilcar]

My first car was a '73 AMC Hornet and had the floor mounted dimmer switch. It's one of the few things I miss from that car. Much easier to use when you're traveling on long stretches of highway at night and have to keep turning the brights on and off.

 

[goodtimes]

Never having heard of, seen, or used, they, the youngsters, do know the foot switch dimmer isn't as good as the modern. It can't be as good.

When I drive my wife's e320, the lower left stalk is for turn signals, different from my car. I never know what the other stalks do or where the high beams are without some retraining. It's bad for the glass when the wipers are used on a dry dirty windshield, which I do all the time.

 

[rslifkin]

^ Hard to beat my grandmother's 88 Jaguar XJ6 for odd control placement. Took me quite a while to find the horn button on the end of the turn signal stalk.

 

[Jim 5]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
The more I think about it, the more I realize that not only is the foot switch better, the stalk switch is pretty STUPID when you get right down to it. The stalk is over-worked already. On some vehicles, its routine to accidentally flash the brights and pulse the wipers when all you're trying to do is turn left.



That's the truth. We have a minivan, a 3/4 tow vehicle and a four door car. All of them have the high beams (in the case of our minivan the headlight on/off and the rear wiper controls also) and wiper controls on the steering column. All 3 work differently. Every time I try to do something like turn on the lights in my wife's van, I either activate the front or rear wipers. It would be good if these things were standardized a little more.

 

[440Magnum]

My 1949, 1966, and 1969 cars all have their original floor dimmers, in perfect working order. By contrast, I've had to replace THREE multifunction stalk switches on the newer cars we've had. At a cost of $50-100 just for the stinking part, I might add!

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: meep
Now that 80+% of US cars are automatics, I want the left-toe highbeam switch back!!


+ + + + +x10,000,000,000,000,000

. Seriously, have you EVER needed to dim your lights during a shift?


Never.

Also, your worried about your hand not being free due to shifting??? What's your left foot doing????

What is: Working the Clutch!

Ding Ding Ding Ding, We have a winner!!!!!

No, the point is you never need to take your FOOT off the clutch to work the dimmer. Never. In allmy years of driving manual trans cars with floor dimmers it never happened.

 

[Michael_P]

I remember when I switched from a foot switch to column switch. I kept getting my left foot caught up in the steering wheel. I figured it out after a year.

 

[Dupree]

ah the floor dimmer, I do admit It seemed a better way. I still have one it my old ford and dodge

 

[bmwjohn]

well I hope you don't SEE the dimmer switch since that means you are looking at the floor! lol.
seriously, the column switch is sooo much better, esp. for a temporary high beam like a 30 second flash as you start into curve to get a better view, etc. My first car - ever - was a new BMW 2002 in 1969 and the flasher stick was one of many things so much better than the GM products the family drove (radials-Michelin xas, was another)and then adding 7" H-4 halogen headlights - Bosch, then Cibie, etc.