Finding my 406 a little too 'Nanny State' ??

[Bailes1992]

So your driving down the motorway and it starts raining... So you stick the right hand stalk up one notch onto "Auto"....
I know I have put my windscreen wipers on Auto, I know this because I did it!
Yet the MFD seems to feel the need to SHOUT at me "AUTO WIPERS ACTIVATED"...

Now in order to put the Auto headlights on, you MUST press the button on the side of the inicator for an eternity! Therefore under no circumstances could you do it by accident... Yet the MFD still flipss out!

"SAM! SAM! SAM! What are you doing Sam... Why did you do that? You put Auto headlights on Sam! WHYYYYY? Ohh you put auto wipers on too? ARE YOU CRAZYYYY?"


Now yesterday I thought I'd give the brakes a shove and see what they could do... This resulted in the hazard lights comming on
Then when I got out the car, I opened the door and that MFD decided to tell me that I left the key in the ignition...

Is all this really neccesarry?

[highlander]

No.

But every other bloody car with a computer on board does this, to some degree (some American cars are even worse than this), and the French don't like to feel left out

[rwb]

I don't get a message when I turn the wipers on
I can't remember about the auto-lights because I have them set to manual.

[scotty73]

I don't get the wiper message either, and didn't even know about auto lights i'll try that now.

[Welly]

You wanna see my Volvo.......

If you drive off in a hurry with the intention of putting the seatbelt on 'on the go' it starts bleeping and TWO warning lights have a go at you.....if you ignore it the computer says "f*ck this" and sends *very loud* beeps through the stereo

Open the back doors to throw your jacket in or something and when you start the car the screen says (basically) "Someone's opened the back door but hasn't put their seat belt on".......then of course is the front seat - put something like a 2ltr carton of milk on the seat and it goes "Aha - someone's sitting there and they haven't put their seatbelt on"

Sam - it is what it is, they call it progress, I call it 'assuming everyone is thick'

I heard a rumour that Ford (along with some EU regulation) are going to make their cars go into limp mode if the screen wash gets low this is for your own 'safety' and will see you down at the dealers for a diagnosis ££££

[Bailes1992]

Mine defo tells me when I put the wipwers and headlights on!

Yeahh Welly my old mans T5 does thaf but I like it. Cant stand people who don't wear seatbelts.

[mjb]

If you're complaining about nannying, why are you letting the car operate the lights and wipers for you?

[DaiRees]

That's a bit odd, I just have the auto lights on all the time and I don't get any messages, the car decides when they're on and off, it's not always right but if I want them on when they don't want to be on I use the switch to turn them on and if I don't want them on when they want to be on I turn the switch to sidelights and live with that. Actually activiting & deactivating the auto is waht brings up the messages, but that's reserved for exceptional circumstances .

Auto wipers, notch one, no messages, no problem.

[sirwiggum]

My 406 wasn't too bad. The auto lights wouldn't come on in dusk, and it was amusing when they went on and off going under wide bridges

The American Accord isn't too bad either, just a noise if you leave the lights on and another if you leave the keys in.

[scotty73]

Tried my auto lights in the dark last night and got no response, the button on the stalk pushes in but it dont even feel like theres a spring in it like the one for the trip... i read in my handbook that the button activates the cruise control but it does sweet fa if you ask me, maybe someones changed the stalk or my car just aint equiped for either?

[sirwiggum]

The MFD should show an alert like "auto lights activated".

Does your car have a big black box on the windscreen behind the rearview mirror?

[scotty73]

The MFD should show an alert like "auto lights activated".

Does your car have a big black box on the windscreen behind the rearview mirror?

It does have a black box with what look like two sensors on it?

[grasmere59]

On mine you have to hold the button down untill you hear a "bong" noise then the MFD says "auto lights activated".The auto lights(when activated) will also switch on when the wipers have done about 6 sweeps of the windscreen.

[Bailes1992]

If you leave the wipers in auto position, should they just work again when you turn the car off and on? Mine I have to put the stalk back down to 0 and put it back onto Auto to reactivate them.

[sirwiggum]

My D9 I just left in 'auto' most of the time, they turned themselves off automatically.
Things like dusk driving when it is not quite night or heavy rain would I turn them on manually.