Re: 2002 Corolla

Your helpless chick routine is getting really old. Read the owner's manual.

I don't think it's a helpless chick routine; she just objects to cars being designed by nannies which is perfectly consistent with her views on other matters. Of course these same nannies don't consider that anyone would buy a used car which, horror of horrors, doesn't come with a user manual. For that, unlike with most other hard goods, you can't just d/l it from the mfg's site; you have to fork over the big (and I do mean BIG) bucks. Now if the nannies wanted to improve matters they'd insist that the mfg's make the manuals d/l for free.

Then again it probably wouldn't help matters. How many people actually read the user manual for anything? The joke about your VCR showing a flashing 12:00 didn't originate for no reason, nor did the RTFM acronym.

So given that the people won't read the manual doesn't it behoove the mfg to make the system as intuitive as possible? All this crap about DRL's and sensors just makes my eyes glaze over. Further if they made it optional (nannies are never going to do this) how many people do you think would turn the switch (or whatever control there is) to turn off DRL's and while they're at it airbags, and assorted ding dongs, buzzers, and chimes that annoy everyone except the nannies and the nanny-tolerant.

And it can't be all cars because my 2004 Scion doesn't have DRL's at all so shouldn't the sales literature for the 2002 Corolla describe the beauties and advantages of DRL's so we could all rush out and buy one? You wouldn't even need an owner's manual.

At least 90% of drivers are not competent enough to operate a spoon much less a motor vehicle. That's who the nanny features are made for.

Now, back to the owner's manual....she needs to read it. But like most usenet trash, she'll expend more time & effort whining about her questions than it takes to just get off her fat ass and get the manual out of the car.