Two Annoying American Auto Manufacturers' Practices

[George7941]

Red rear turn signals. Sometimes you can only see one side of the car ahead of you and you are not sure if it is a turn signal or hazard light or pulsing brake lights. Also additional circuitry is needed at the turn signal switch to have one lamp function as turn and brake. All this easily avoided by having a separate amber lamp.
On American trucks the cabin air recirculate feature is only available if there is AC. My truck does not have AC and if I see a lot of dust up ahead I cannot engage recirculate to avoid dust coming into the cab. With my old 1982 Mazda pickup I could do that.

 

[CKN]

Slow Sunday topics........are the Blue Jays not playing??

 

[Hyundai Respecter]

Slow Sunday topics........are the Blue Jays not playing??

They played earlier and lost to the Orioles 8-3

(ps, I hate red turn signals and turn signals in the bumper)

 

[dishdude]

I'm just happy someone uses their turn signals at all, red or amber.

I'm shocked you found a 2016 (even in Canada) w/o A/C. The recirc feature is only used with A/C, the goal is to keep the cabin air as fresh as possible to prevent moisture build up. The reason old imports were offered with recirc is A/C was a port installed option.

 

[atikovi]

Nobody around here uses turn signals so who cares what color they are.

 

[DemoFly]

Two of my rules are the vehicle I buy has to be big enough to sleep in and it has to have amber turn signals.

Bought my MK7 Golf assuming it had ambers...and it doesn't.

 

[KCJeep]

It is not unique to domestics. My 21 Jetta had red rear turn signals, the 19s had amber they changed them after that. Presumably cost cutting at work.

I prefer ambers as well and I believe amber is mandated in Europe.

 

[k1xv]

This goes back in time, but I thought it was funny. My late father never owned a car with an automatic transmission until he had driven stick shifts for 40 years. Then, he bought a 1978 Oldsmobile diesel (!!!) with an automatic, and a super wide brake pedal that also covered where a clutch pedal would be. For the first two months of ownership, as he would approach a stop sign or light, he would reflexively try to push the "clutch pedal", which, of course, resulted in a sudden push of the power brake pedal, and a sudden short stop. He got so mad, he was going to saw off half his brake pedal with a hacksaw.

Later, he bought a 1987 Ford Taurus with a V6 and automatic transmission with an overdrive gear. When climbing a hill on an interstate, the car would downshift out of its overdrive. He did not understand that this was normal, and he thought the car was "under powered". To avoid this downshifting, he would depress the gas pedal less and less, until he was in the slow lane doing only around 40 mph with everyone else whizzing past him. It took a lot of convincing to get him to accept the downshift out of overdrive as normal, and to keep climbing the hill at normal speed.

 

[George7941]

I'm just happy someone uses their turn signals at all, red or amber.

I'm shocked you found a 2016 (even in Canada) w/o A/C. The recirc feature is only used with A/C, the goal is to keep the cabin air as fresh as possible to prevent moisture build up. The reason old imports were offered with recirc is A/C was a port installed option.

2006, not 2016

 

[JGmazda]

Nobody around here uses turn signals so who cares what color they are.

Tell me about it... Do they even come with a new car purchase these days? Or, are they an option? Even the high-end cars.... no turn signals.

 

[Deleted member 89374]

Red rear turn signals.

On American trucks the cabin air recirculate feature is only available if there is AC.

Here's your answer: https://hplu.be/fix-annoying-american-auto-manufacturer-practices.

 

[Number_35]

Slow Sunday topics........are the Blue Jays not playing??

Well, we know the Leafs aren't.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The recirc feature is only used with A/C, the goal is to keep the cabin air as fresh as possible to prevent moisture build up. The reason old imports were offered with recirc is A/C was a port installed option.

All 3 of my vehicles can recirculate with or without AC on. The two Nissan's were built in TN and the Toyota came from Japan.

 

[PimTac]

Buy something newer.

 

[UG_Passat]

Red rear turn signals. Sometimes you can only see one side of the car ahead of you and you are not sure if it is a turn signal or hazard light or pulsing brake lights. Also additional circuitry is needed at the turn signal switch to have one lamp function as turn and brake. All this easily avoided by having a separate amber lamp.
On American trucks the cabin air recirculate feature is only available if there is AC. My truck does not have AC and if I see a lot of dust up ahead I cannot engage recirculate to avoid dust coming into the cab. With my old 1982 Mazda pickup I could do that.

Plenty of German cars annoying convert their amber turn signals into red turn signals.

And now BMW LED's are imitating incadescent lights by ramping up the brightness in turn signals, as it appears not to reach full brightness, then off... It's BMW's way of competing against sequential turn signals of Audi.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Well, we know the Leafs aren't.

awesome

 

[TiGeo]

Two of my rules are the vehicle I buy has to be big enough to sleep in and it has to have amber turn signals.

Bought my MK7 Golf assuming it had ambers...and it doesn't.

Easy fix on MK7.

 

[Jetronic]

I'm just happy someone uses their turn signals at all, red or amber.

I'm shocked you found a 2016 (even in Canada) w/o A/C. The recirc feature is only used with A/C, the goal is to keep the cabin air as fresh as possible to prevent moisture build up. The reason old imports were offered with recirc is A/C was a port installed option.

Except cars in europe had recirc ages before AC was even an option.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

The US and Canada (which piggybacks on US rules) are virtually the only major countries that allow red rear turn signals. Amber is mandated in other industrialized countries.

VW/Audi/Porsche switched to red across all the car lines a while back for "corporate identity" and consistency in North America, but so did Mercedes-Benz. If I recall correctly, the feds had proposed that a vehicle could not get a 5–star safety rating without amber rear turn signals, but I don't know whether that was finally made a rule. Ford did put amber turn signals on the F-150 and heavier pickups recently, so maybe that was in response.

 

[PF52]

Last time this subject came up, I started keeping a mental list of non-American cars I saw with red turn signals.... Soon the list was as long as my arm.