How long to find out your car did this?

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My wife just found our Oldsmobile had a trunk release button, we've only had the car two years.
It took eight years for my father to realise his car had a dome light for the back seat.
Anyone discovered a feature on their car that they didn't know about until they had owned it for some time?.

Claud.
 
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No, because I read the owners manual.
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Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
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I like to think I do too, but I was foiled by a fuel cap that was linked to the central locking system and sent me crazy looking for the fuel cap release button!
And soon after I got the Scirocco I was foiled by it having separate washer bottles for the front and rear screens - the rear bottle hidden behind a trim panel in the boot (trunk for you guys
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)
 
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Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
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Real men don't ask for directions, admit they don't know why their car doesn't work, and NEVER read the instruction manual!.
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Claud.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
laugh.gif



The Owner's Manual for my 2011 Town and County is 560 pages long.

I'm still waiting for the Cliff's Notes version of it.
 
I have two Outlander Sports and the higher end model has the push button start and I have yet to sit down and finger
the key fob remote in the glove box to start it when the battery in the fob fails. I really need to look it over.
 
Still have to go to the manual to figure out how to reset the OCM on the X and Scion. Seems that there is no standard procedure
 
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A lot of first time MGB owners didn't know it had TWO 6 volt batteries. They only put water in one. Many were ex VDub owners,
the bug had ONE battery under the rear seat.
 
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Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
laugh.gif



The Owner's Manual for my 2011 Town and County is 560 pages long.

I'm still waiting for the Cliff's Notes version of it.


My Mercedes has a 400 page owner's manual and a separate 234 page manual on how to use the navigation/phone/audio system. I flipped through every page to see what the options were. Covers a few options I don't even have so you don't really have to read the whole thing. You just need to read the heading to know that it can do it and if you want to know exactly how to do it, you read the detailed instructions. Like how to get the passenger side mirror to dip down when going into reverse so you can see the back tire.

A trunk release button is pretty standard, had that on all the cars I owned, even those made in the '80's. The Mercedes also has a power trunk closer, but I guess it's an option that not all owners know about. I saw one lady closing the trunk of her car and it had the two red buttons, but she closed it manually. I wanted to go tell her to just press the button but didn't.
 
I had my Phaeton a year before I realized there was a microswitch INSIDE the trunk emblem. Press the emblem and the trunklid motors open.
 
Originally Posted By: Claud
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
laugh.gif



Real men don't ask for directions, admit they don't know why their car doesn't work, and NEVER read the instruction manual!.
smile.gif


Claud.


X10!

except maybe the car owners manual to find out which fuse it is?
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
A lot of first time MGB owners didn't know it had TWO 6 volt batteries. They only put water in one. Many were ex VDub owners,
the bug had ONE battery under the rear seat.


I knew is because my dad had an MG B when I was a kid.

Twin SU carbs can make a noise that will scar a 7 year old boys mind for the rest of his life - compelling him to wear eau d'octane and carry at least 5 car parts/consumables on him at any one time.

Rust in eyes
Several different greases under fingernails
Scarred knuckles/cut fingers
Brake dust
Ad infinitum.

And when surveyed, all of them absolutely loved it!
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Olas
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
A lot of first time MGB owners didn't know it had TWO 6 volt batteries. They only put water in one. Many were ex VDub owners,
the bug had ONE battery under the rear seat.


I knew is because my dad had an MG B when I was a kid.

Twin SU carbs can make a noise that will scar a 7 year old boys mind for the rest of his life - compelling him to wear eau d'octane and carry at least 5 car parts/consumables on him at any one time.

Rust in eyes
Several different greases under fingernails
Scarred knuckles/cut fingers
Brake dust
Ad infinitum.

And when surveyed, all of them absolutely loved it!
smile.gif



As an owner of many LBC's over the years I know exactly what you mean. If you did not carry a tool kit, and spares, shame on you. I loved it back in the 60's when we drivers would all give a wave or headlight flash when meeting each other on the road.
 
I remember finding the swing vent button on my Dad's 626 after I had driven it for few weeks.

So cool!
Then after a couple years the muffler got a hole in it and you could hear it cut the spark on WO upshifts. I guess to smooth and quicken the shifts.
 
I know today's cars are a lot more standardized.
Check out the dash on this Citroen DS - notice most controls are unmarked (or, the ones that are marked are using French):
http://car--reviews.com/single/citroen-ds-19/citroen-ds-19-21.html (2048x1536)

Then, when it came here, it was Federalized, disabling or changing some controls.

Left turn signal: push downward; knob springs back to middle.
Cancelling the turn signal: pull it towards driver. Or, push upward just enough to stop it blinking left but not enough to start it blinking right.

Try to figure out how to turn the interior heater fan on. That knob actually pulls out. Everything else that's the size of interior heater fan knob is something that rotates, not pulls out. It's too small to be a pull-out knob. So, you freeze, and can't see out the front windshield, until you figure that one out.

At least the cigarette lighter was easy to figure out.
Two knobs to the right of the manual choke.
One knob right was the manual windshield washer pump. Pump too hard and you blew the rubber hose off the back of the pump, getting the compartment wet and necessitating a reacharound by your thin-armed kid (me) to reattach.

I think Doug DeMuro would have a coronary reviewing one.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
laugh.gif


Yup. Me too.
The internet has also made it easy to get older manuals on used vehicles.

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
No, because I read the owners manual.
laugh.gif



The Owner's Manual for my 2011 Town and County is 560 pages long.

I'm still waiting for the Cliff's Notes version of it.

So?
Knowing all the functions and features of your vehicle is worth a few hours of reading, is it not?
 
After 10 years I discovered there is a sunglasses pocket under the steering wheel of her Rav4. It's not visible from the seat, you have to crawl under to see it. It's not very convenient either but she's been using it since I discovered it.
 
Drove my truck for almost a week before I noticed it had factory remote start. Not sure how I missed it but I did.
 
Years ago I purchased a 1986 (I think) Hyundai Excel very cheap to use for commuting into inner NYC (the idea was to have a car that you didn't worry about because our cars were regularly vandalized)...After several months I realized one day that the air coming from the vent was very cold...I found out that I had A/C by accidently pushing in the button with the snowflake symbol.
 
Took me a month to realize my Sonata has a TPMS display. It's a base model so I did t think it would.

No surprises with my Jeep. It was a government vehicle so it's so base model, it doesn't even have rear speakers (it has the holes for them though?).
 
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