'Features' you could do without
Post Fiend
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 6,221
Likes: 6
From: Cow Town, CA
I've never had a bit of trouble with the tire pressure monitoring system. When the tire gets low on air, an icon on the dash lights up. How many ppl check the air in their tires on a regular basis? Prolly less than 10%. I dont check them as much as i should, but i have a buddy who had the system on his F150 and when we go off roading and he airs down his tires it goes off, kinda bugs.
Rolling door locks are, IMO a good idea as many ppl forget to lock their doors when driving. Car jackings occur on a regular basis today. Wouldnt do me any good, my windows are down before i get going.
Would you want your family members driving in a crappy area with the doors unlocked, especially at night? My family knows better and would just lock the doors...but i agree its a good idea
Would you like them appear as car-jacked victims on The World's Wildest Police Videos TV show? I love that show!
There is one scene where a guy being chased by the police wrecked his stolen pickup (a Chevy) on the freeway during rush hour. He got out, went to a Chrysler mini-van, opened the right front door and forced the other driver out. The fellow was than dragged along side his vehicle as his seat belt was still attached. I saw that, he ended up haveing to drive a few miles cuz his seat belt was on and then he tried to stop to get out and the car jacker was trying to keep the car going, it looked bad though.
Rolling door locks are, IMO a good idea as many ppl forget to lock their doors when driving. Car jackings occur on a regular basis today. Wouldnt do me any good, my windows are down before i get going.
Would you want your family members driving in a crappy area with the doors unlocked, especially at night? My family knows better and would just lock the doors...but i agree its a good idea
Would you like them appear as car-jacked victims on The World's Wildest Police Videos TV show? I love that show!
There is one scene where a guy being chased by the police wrecked his stolen pickup (a Chevy) on the freeway during rush hour. He got out, went to a Chrysler mini-van, opened the right front door and forced the other driver out. The fellow was than dragged along side his vehicle as his seat belt was still attached. I saw that, he ended up haveing to drive a few miles cuz his seat belt was on and then he tried to stop to get out and the car jacker was trying to keep the car going, it looked bad though.
For the USA rain sensing doesn't make, well, a lot of sense. I could see a case for them in some instances, but it would be rare.
Very rare!
Its probably a great thing for handicapped people who can't use their legs and have to use one hand for a hand controlled throttle/brake and the other to steer. One less thing to have to take your other hand off the wheel for.
Good point
All things considered though, I can think of more things I'd want on an older vehicle that doesn't have some nice features than features I'd give up on a newer truck:
1. My 67 F100 took corners like a barge. Even my 2004 Powerstroke handles better. My 70 Crew Cab does really well for a 3 ton truck....
2. Longer maintenance intervals and not worrying about tune-ups, or worse, having the vehicle run like crap when you change elevations because the carb needs to be rejetted.
This hasnt happened to me yet but it would suck!
3. Disc brakes on all 4 wheels beats drums/drums and disc/drums any day.
I agree but my Disc/drum combo will stop my truck on a dime.
4. TPMS can mean the difference between knowing before your tire goes completely flat and being able to get to a service shop, verses changing a tire on the side of a busy freeway.
that would be nice, but just one more thing to go bad and have to replace....
5. More comfortable seating, at least for me. Then buy some seats and put them in, i know i did.
6. Adjustable pedals. Anyone who has dealt with constantly having to readjust the seats each time your wife gets done using the vehicle can appreciate them. 1 button, 2 seconds and its back. Even better are memory pedals. the girl does NOT drive my cars!
7. Gas tank in the cab.... I always hated that. I love it! even more so now with all the gas thefs that are stabing gas tanks and draining them, good luck getting to mine!
8. More horsepower and torque, along with higher tow ratings. There are things you can do with a F150 now that an F250 couldn't do 25 years ago.
Again you can fix this problem with little effort...
9. Air bags. Safety is always a good thing. ok i will give you this one
10. Anti-lock brakes, especially for the rear tires, when unloaded can make a huge difference. This one too
11. Crumple zones. I'd rather my truck get totaled than lose my life. You are on a roll
12. Door impact beams. Again... safety. i dont think my 70 doors are going anywhere, but on newer cars are good.
The list goes one....
Doesn't mean I don't like older trucks. I loved my 67 F100, and I'm keeping a watch for the "right" 66 F100 project truck.
Very rare!
Its probably a great thing for handicapped people who can't use their legs and have to use one hand for a hand controlled throttle/brake and the other to steer. One less thing to have to take your other hand off the wheel for.
Good point
All things considered though, I can think of more things I'd want on an older vehicle that doesn't have some nice features than features I'd give up on a newer truck:
1. My 67 F100 took corners like a barge. Even my 2004 Powerstroke handles better. My 70 Crew Cab does really well for a 3 ton truck....
2. Longer maintenance intervals and not worrying about tune-ups, or worse, having the vehicle run like crap when you change elevations because the carb needs to be rejetted.
This hasnt happened to me yet but it would suck!
3. Disc brakes on all 4 wheels beats drums/drums and disc/drums any day.
I agree but my Disc/drum combo will stop my truck on a dime.
4. TPMS can mean the difference between knowing before your tire goes completely flat and being able to get to a service shop, verses changing a tire on the side of a busy freeway.
that would be nice, but just one more thing to go bad and have to replace....
5. More comfortable seating, at least for me. Then buy some seats and put them in, i know i did.
6. Adjustable pedals. Anyone who has dealt with constantly having to readjust the seats each time your wife gets done using the vehicle can appreciate them. 1 button, 2 seconds and its back. Even better are memory pedals. the girl does NOT drive my cars!
7. Gas tank in the cab.... I always hated that. I love it! even more so now with all the gas thefs that are stabing gas tanks and draining them, good luck getting to mine!
8. More horsepower and torque, along with higher tow ratings. There are things you can do with a F150 now that an F250 couldn't do 25 years ago.
Again you can fix this problem with little effort...
9. Air bags. Safety is always a good thing. ok i will give you this one
10. Anti-lock brakes, especially for the rear tires, when unloaded can make a huge difference. This one too
11. Crumple zones. I'd rather my truck get totaled than lose my life. You are on a roll
12. Door impact beams. Again... safety. i dont think my 70 doors are going anywhere, but on newer cars are good.
The list goes one....
Doesn't mean I don't like older trucks. I loved my 67 F100, and I'm keeping a watch for the "right" 66 F100 project truck.
Rain sensing wipers were first offered on...1955 Ford passenger cars. hmmm interesting
That's right, 1955.
Rolling door locks were first offered on 1967 T-Birds. When the car reached 7 MPH, the doors locked.
There was one thing that some pinhead at Ford forgot to consider. Having the car washed.
Back then, most cars came with white wall tires, and most car washes spun the tires while they were being sprayed with a hot solution to clean them.
Windows up, key in the ignition, spin the tires, the doors LOCKED. HAHAHAHAHA, that would be great i would sit at a car wash just watching people get the shaft!
It wasn't long before Ford sent out a "campaign" letter to dealers telling them to disconnect the damn thing. lol
1973/74: Seat belt interlock mandated by you know who. The seat belt had to be buckled before the car could be started. No scheiss. Lame
Peeps who didn't like/use the seat belts just buckled them, then sat on them. It wasn't long before that feature was disabled. not a good idea...
That's right, 1955.
Rolling door locks were first offered on 1967 T-Birds. When the car reached 7 MPH, the doors locked.
There was one thing that some pinhead at Ford forgot to consider. Having the car washed.
Back then, most cars came with white wall tires, and most car washes spun the tires while they were being sprayed with a hot solution to clean them.
Windows up, key in the ignition, spin the tires, the doors LOCKED. HAHAHAHAHA, that would be great i would sit at a car wash just watching people get the shaft!
It wasn't long before Ford sent out a "campaign" letter to dealers telling them to disconnect the damn thing. lol
1973/74: Seat belt interlock mandated by you know who. The seat belt had to be buckled before the car could be started. No scheiss. Lame
Peeps who didn't like/use the seat belts just buckled them, then sat on them. It wasn't long before that feature was disabled. not a good idea...
ok for my list:
AC
heat
power anything in the cab. (power breaks are great, so is power steering)
heated seats/cup holders.
any dummy light, give me a guage
any kind of smog control
the break to get the car out of park, i love that my 70 doesnt have that
engine management systems
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 1997
Posts: 23,165
Likes: 18
From: Enjoying the real world.
Its always funny to hear arguments about how a Commodore 64 is better than a 4-core Pentium 4, especially when some basic facts are presented wrong. Maybe they haven't had much experience with anything but Commodore 64, Ataris, Apple IIs and TRS-80s so that's all they have to go by. 
I like older trucks for various reasons, but to think that Ford hasn't learned how to make a better truck over the past 20, 30, 40 or 50 years is, I think, short sighted. They aren't the truck leader for nothing!
If technology is bad, and newer just means more things to break down... ride a horse!
I like older trucks for various reasons, but to think that Ford hasn't learned how to make a better truck over the past 20, 30, 40 or 50 years is, I think, short sighted. They aren't the truck leader for nothing!
If technology is bad, and newer just means more things to break down... ride a horse!
Thread Starter
|
Cargo Master
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,476
Likes: 224
From: Frequently frozen MN
FTE Ken wrote
Sure Ford has learned a lot, and so have the others. But, not every new idea is a good one. (How about those spark plugs that auto launch into space? )
I've read a lot of service chat relating to issues with the Tire Pressure Sensors. Don't know that they were Fords, but they do cause problems.
Seems that in some setups, they won't allow you to go anywhere if they don't see the TPS signal, or some such nonesense. On the RF systems, this system can be easily blocked. Also, a lot of the valve stem systems are fragile and spendy.
I'm also fairly skeptical about ESC because now your vehicle will modify basic handling based on whatever the sensors are reading. I hope that they never take the off switch out of that system. ( Soon to be mandatory)
Newer doesn't mean more to break down, but adding complexity means more things to break down. If you have 100 devices that each fail on average once /100 hours, your average failure rate is once an hour. If you up the number of devices to 200 without changing anything else, your failure rate is now once/30minutes.
Case in point is a Mercedes that I read about with a CAN bus system that managed everything. It had 2 proporities, so that the engine stuff was on its own. Unfortunately, a simple failure in the radio (or some other trivial device) clogged the network with errors. This eventually blocked the entire network, and it was apparently not a trivial process to get the vehicle running again.
(Actual report not an urban legend).
Just my .02
One more comment -- somewhat off topic. I agree that the Core 2 Duos or whatever are light years beyond the simple proceesors used in the C64. BUT MICROSOFT IS CONSTANTLY RELEASING NEW SOFTWARE TO COMPENSATE (Vista anyone?)
Cheers,
I like older trucks for various reasons, but to think that Ford hasn't learned how to make a better truck over the past 20, 30, 40 or 50 years is, I think, short sighted. They aren't the truck leader for nothing!
If technology is bad, and newer just means more things to break down... ride a horse!
If technology is bad, and newer just means more things to break down... ride a horse!
I've read a lot of service chat relating to issues with the Tire Pressure Sensors. Don't know that they were Fords, but they do cause problems.
Seems that in some setups, they won't allow you to go anywhere if they don't see the TPS signal, or some such nonesense. On the RF systems, this system can be easily blocked. Also, a lot of the valve stem systems are fragile and spendy.
I'm also fairly skeptical about ESC because now your vehicle will modify basic handling based on whatever the sensors are reading. I hope that they never take the off switch out of that system. ( Soon to be mandatory)
Newer doesn't mean more to break down, but adding complexity means more things to break down. If you have 100 devices that each fail on average once /100 hours, your average failure rate is once an hour. If you up the number of devices to 200 without changing anything else, your failure rate is now once/30minutes.
Case in point is a Mercedes that I read about with a CAN bus system that managed everything. It had 2 proporities, so that the engine stuff was on its own. Unfortunately, a simple failure in the radio (or some other trivial device) clogged the network with errors. This eventually blocked the entire network, and it was apparently not a trivial process to get the vehicle running again.
(Actual report not an urban legend).
Just my .02
One more comment -- somewhat off topic. I agree that the Core 2 Duos or whatever are light years beyond the simple proceesors used in the C64. BUT MICROSOFT IS CONSTANTLY RELEASING NEW SOFTWARE TO COMPENSATE (Vista anyone?)
Cheers,
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mikejski
1999 - 2016 Super Duty
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Jan 25, 2005 06:36 PM
