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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 10, 2015 9:00:19 GMT
right, THAT's why brits don't understand how we yanks can actually like automatics. ours are like flappy paddle shifters without the flappy paddles. Having driven yank cars, no, you aint got it right yet. The timing of the change, "hunting" between gears when going up hill, and thats why some of your cars have a "hold" switch to prevent that, the god damn awful gear ratio's, and a heck of a lot more... And the weight. Nope, you aint got it right yet. Come back when you do.... Somehow, I didn't think SD was going to agree. I really don't find pressing the little button on the end of the stick when pulling a trailer up a steep hill all that difficult.
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Post by OziRiS on Apr 10, 2015 9:18:11 GMT
Renault trucks are sworn over as being extremely reliable. So why cant they make cars as good as trucks?.. (and when I say trucks, I mean the heavyweight stuff I drive commercially...) Well, that's your opinion. I've heard plenty of truck drivers say that the last thing they want to drive - if they have a choise - is a Renault. They'll drive Volvo, MAN, Scania or even DAF if they have to, but Renault...? That's an absolute last resort for many of them. It's not necessarily that they have an affinity for Volvo or any other manufacturer. They'll quite literally say, "Give me anything but a Renault!" To be fair though, even the biggest Renault haters will admit that their trucks are better than their cars, but many of them will also finish that admission off with, "But it's still like *urine* and *feces*. *Urine* is slightly less disgusting, but if you had a choise, you'd rather not have to handle either." (*Urine*/*feces* - You know what words were actually used there...
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Post by Cybermortis on Apr 10, 2015 12:27:23 GMT
As most of us here i guess, i got a haynes manual for my car, and today it again saved me a minimum of 40 euro's labour charge by being able to self-diagnose that the power steering fluid was low. Instead of having to go to a mechanic and paying a lot, i just had to pour about 5 euros of liquid in a hole...not a bad trade-in. Even though about 50% of the manual is things i never will attempt myself, it's probally payed itself back several times over. So as a myth, is it always worth, for anyone, to buy haynes or similar extended guides to your car? It depends on how skilled you are, how willing you are to at least try to do the work yourself, how well you know your own limits and how much time you are or can spend. 90% of the time such a manual is going to be useless for most owners, who find it easier and more convenient to just take a car to a mechanic. That said, maybe they should (if they don't) make a 'lite' version of the full guide that shows owners things like how to change/check the oil and water levels, the location of the fuses and how to replace them and so on. Those are minor things that you need little or no real skill to deal with and could sort of (even if it is only for long enough to get the car to a mechanic) in a couple of minutes. As it is a lot of people tend to get put off using or attempting to use the manuals as soon as they clap eyes on the diagrams for the electrics. The manuals are, of course, a hold over to a time when there were fairly few mechanics around. So owning a car meant having to be willing to attempt to deal with problems yourself as much as possible. And, of course, mechanics themselves needed a guide as to how to fix issues on cars.
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Post by the light works on Apr 10, 2015 13:45:52 GMT
Now there I have a problem. Some bike mechanizing requires you have the engine running.... How for you do that if you cant put the stand down?... (Things like balancing the timing mechanism on a three-pot Kwak, etc....) Perhaps modern engine may differ, but, older ones you require to spin the starter wait for it to catch then pedal like fury to get the thing to run properly. Some required a little throttle to get them going...?... what sort of mechanicing would require you to have the bike on the side stand with the engine running and the transmission engaged? that seems kind of rough on both the bike and the mechanic.
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Post by the light works on Apr 10, 2015 13:53:12 GMT
right, THAT's why brits don't understand how we yanks can actually like automatics. ours are like flappy paddle shifters without the flappy paddles. Having driven yank cars, no, you aint got it right yet. The timing of the change, "hunting" between gears when going up hill, and thats why some of your cars have a "hold" switch to prevent that, the god damn awful gear ratio's, and a heck of a lot more... And the weight. Nope, you aint got it right yet. Come back when you do.... And for the record, we sell a LOT of flappy-paddle semi-auto's over here just because they are so good. Its not the absence of a third pedal we object to, its the car never changes gear when it should, wand then when it shouldnt. We prefer Manual, they do what we want them to do, and they aint that difficult when you get used to them...?... Perhaps when you drive UK roads you will see why your cars just dont work here. And some day Pakistan will do a moon shot... Oh, wait...... Strange thing is, they CAN do it. Renault trucks are sworn over as being extremely reliable. So why cant they make cars as good as trucks?.. (and when I say trucks, I mean the heavyweight stuff I drive commercially...) so you don't recall me mentioning that when I go up a hill in my work truck, I set the cruise control at 57 and let the truck do the rest? and if it's a steep hill, I engage tow mode? or when I was still running the flatbed on it, if I decided to pass, it was capable of hitting 4 shift points in the time it would take me to hit two? (drop two gears, spool up the turbo, grab one to launch, and return to high to sustain)
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 11, 2015 6:53:02 GMT
Now there I have a problem. Some bike mechanizing requires you have the engine running.... How for you do that if you cant put the stand down?... (Things like balancing the timing mechanism on a three-pot Kwak, etc....) Perhaps modern engine may differ, but, older ones you require to spin the starter wait for it to catch then pedal like fury to get the thing to run properly. Some required a little throttle to get them going...?... what sort of mechanicing would require you to have the bike on the side stand with the engine running and the transmission engaged? that seems kind of rough on both the bike and the mechanic. Good point... However, I know of one which wont allow either stand to be used. (Not even centre stand) The rider suspected flat spots on his chain, uneven wear, wanted to run the thing "at speed" to see how much vibration he was getting...
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 11, 2015 6:56:40 GMT
There I highlighted the bit where I acknowledged some vehicles have a hold.
Cultural differences folks, you Yanks love your automatics, we Brits love manual. Dont be all "h8ters" on me now?....
One last thing, there is a 1-in-10 (or 10% in decimal) hill I use every day. I have a less that large under 2ltr engine that hardly breaks stride in 5th doing 30 up that hill. Even with a weeks shopping for 5 and two of us in it.
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Post by the light works on Apr 11, 2015 7:18:27 GMT
There I highlighted the bit where I acknowledged some vehicles have a hold. Cultural differences folks, you Yanks love your automatics, we Brits love manual. Dont be all "h8ters" on me now?.... One last thing, there is a 1-in-10 (or 10% in decimal) hill I use every day. I have a less that large under 2ltr engine that hardly breaks stride in 5th doing 30 up that hill. Even with a weeks shopping for 5 and two of us in it. it's not a hold. some have an overdrive disabler, and some just ask for more aggressive shift points.
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 11, 2015 13:08:33 GMT
Cultural differences folks, you Yanks love your automatics, we Brits love manual. Dont be all "h8ters" on me now?.... it's not a hold. some have an overdrive disabler, and some just ask for more aggressive shift points. We don't love or hate either type of transmission. It depends on the vehicle. I can't imagine my Jeep with anything other than a manual, but I sure wouldn't want one on our mini-van. My wife's Excursion has one of those overdrive inhibit buttons. The owners manual says it just keeps the transmission from going into overdrive but it seems to also change the shift point logic when it's engaged.
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Post by the light works on Apr 11, 2015 13:38:31 GMT
it's not a hold. some have an overdrive disabler, and some just ask for more aggressive shift points. We don't love or hate either type of transmission. It depends on the vehicle. I can't imagine my Jeep with anything other than a manual, but I sure wouldn't want one on our mini-van. My wife's Excursion has one of those overdrive inhibit buttons. The owners manual says it just keeps the transmission from going into overdrive but it seems to also change the shift point logic when it's engaged. mine will downshift sooner on upgrades, and will downshift for engine braking rather than to keep from lugging the engine when braking; when in tow mode. edit: only complaint I have about it is when it drops to first to go slow up a steep driveway, it sometimes hits it kind of hard. haven't thought of trying tow mode for that.
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