Habious

So, does this mean that if the car goes in the water (I don't really know how this happens...but it seems to happen OFTEN) and the electrical system shorts out...the door handles do not, will not, and will NEVER function?

If you're in a severe car accident and the battery gets knocked from it's mount...same question.

Fesler

This is great we do this to guys in our shop all the time, put them in to push a car around and then pull the battery, they take forever to figure it out.

They have a pull cable for a reason and its funny that no one ever figures them out. You would think they would show you from the dealership.

I8ABMR

I agree. It shouldnt be designed where you can even get yourself into this situation in the first place

oohpapi44

iTrader: (1)

Happened to me when I borrowed my brothers S Class.... Worst call I had to make in years..... ugh....

I8ABMR

Imagine that happening in AZ in the Summer. Its like 150 to 160 deg in the car and the car is dead. I would have to put my sun shade o the back side of my elbow and start to try to break the glass with my elbow.

Lil4X

Back in the '50's and '60's manufacturers took perverse pride in hiding the gas filler and hood release. There were Cadillacs and Buicks that required you to pry the hood ornament upward to release the hood latch. I had a project car, a '47 Cadillac in which you hinged the left taillight upward to reveal the gas filler. My uncle had a similar arrangement on his '52 model - press the "reflector" and the taillight that capped the left rear fin popped upward. E voilà!

'57 Chevy's had their filler built into the trim on the left tailfin too, and dozens of later makes and models concealed the filler behind the hinged license plate under the rear bumper. That led to a lot of spilled gas, but all the majors hid their filler necks in this low position. My vote for the worst locations goes to the latter, down low behind the license plate you always got dirt on your sleeves or sliced your knuckles trying to access the filler.

Worse, there were designs that seemed out to kill human beings. The unloved Pinto in which that rear-mounted filler would shear off from the tank in a collision, turning the vehicle into a fireball was perhaps the best remembered. Ford did the same thing with the early series Mustangs, dropping the gas tank into a hole in the floor of the trunk, making the top of the tank your trunk floor. OK until you dropped something heavy and sharp in there . . . like the jack. Then you had a fuel tank that slopped gas into your trunk. Pray that your taillights didn't spark.

I discovered my '67 Mustang had a unique feature for people who locked themselves out of their cars. After a heated argument with my fiancee at a roadside diner, I discovered in my anger I'd locked my keys in the car. Without even thinking about it, I opened the hood, yanked out the dipstick, bent it about 45 degrees about 8" from the tip and jammed it between the front and rear window gasket and under the lock plunger. Straightening the dipstick, I wondered how many young car thieves I'd just trained in the art of boosting a Mustang while my significant other and I drew a good crowd as we exchanged blistering words. Shortly thereafter automakers moved the hood release indoors, and I, well I was single again.

One final bit of mechanical idiocy was visited on the big Chryslers of the mid-70's. The hood release was a nylon cable in a plastic sleeve that ran from the underdash area up to the latch forward of the radiator. The thought was to provide a cable that would never require lubrication, but they forgot one thing. Fire. A co-worker treated himself to a beautiful new Chrysler with every possible option and having owned it for two hours, experienced an underhood fire on the freeway (caused by the iffy fuel injection system leaking). The first casualty was that nylon cable - it softened and burned through almost immediately and even though the fire department was on scene within minutes, the car was a total loss because the firefighters had to cut their way to the scene of the fire - through the hood.

I don't know why automakers were once so competitive in hiding release levers, filler caps, and other critical items, but it seemed to be a point of pride. A friend's '58 Edsel (an outstanding car, plagued by miserable market placement) couldn't just have a gear lever like everyone else. Chrysler had a pod of pushbuttons on the dash to the left of the wheel, so Edsel had to go them one better. The center of the steering wheel contained the requisite five pushbuttons, becoming the bane of every parking valet in town, as the middle of the horn button was the LAST place you'd look for a transmission selector. It got you prime parking spots as most valets just let the car sit where you drove it up - they couldn't figure out how to move it.

OH 97SC300

That is hilarious! Yeah, you would think the dude would know a bit about his car (release).

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

But he's not the owner. Looks like he was just an employee somewhere this car was being worked on. lol

It's a bad design, like someone else said, you shouldn't have a situation like this. What if your in an accident, battery doesn't work and you cant reach down to pull the lever cuz your injured. That could be a really bad situation if you really need to get out of that car to be treated or to save you from a car fire.

chiks

Fake.

so get in the car and all is ok and suddenly while you work, the battery dies?

Fool me once, shame on me.

chiks

Worst ever was a Daewoo with a stick shift.
I took it out for a ride and got stuck in a "no exit road".
Could not find how to put the car in 'R' on the stick shift.
After 20 minutes, the owner came looking for me and he showed me how.

You have to pull the damn metal sleeve on the stick shift and it shift to 'R'

eyecon7

iTrader: (2)

Thats a Z06! definitely not a Zr1

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

wow LOL @ the interior of that Daewoo!!

Reminds me of a U-Haul truck!