Yaris, Scion xD, Honda Fit - no water temp gauge

"One" is singular. "They" is plural.

One should reap what he sows.

(Just saw this post over a week late...)

I'm sorry, but which Toyota would that be that has an annoying upshift light? Seems that's more of an 80's piece of crap domestic brand kind of thing.

Toyota MDT in MO

I don't know about your memory getting bad, because I have yet to see one either. Of course I didn't drive in the 80's, but have seen many an 80-up between working at home and being in the dealer for so long. It would be difficult to substantiate short of a well kept owner's manual or an actual model still up and running. They've been long gone from salty snowy MO for some time now.

Toyota MDT in MO

I don't know about your memory getting bad, because I have yet to see one either. Of course I didn't drive in the 80's, but have seen many an 80-up between working at home and being in the dealer for so long. It would be difficult to substantiate short of a well kept owner's manual or an actual model still up and running. They've been long gone from salty snowy MO for some time now.

Toyota MDT in MO

********** It's good to know that my memory wasn't THAT bad! An upshift light is something that would have been pointed out in the New Car Features, and since I am not a fan of such lights, I thought I would have remembered it. The poster must have been thinking about his VW or something.

Welcome back!

God you're dumb.

I've already given you two instances, one by a COMPLETE NON-TECHNICAL driver (my wife) where a gauge saved an engine.

And in the other case where I (an engineer) was able to detect a failed filter by abnormal (but still technically in-spec) pressure behavior.

Debate over, proof presented, no question remaining.

Weird. Here it seems like you're supporting the argument I've been making all along.

and then in another post, you write:

maintain their cars, can suddenly see the gauges and know what to think about them.

got on Daddy's computer come bombing into a newsgroup where (Lloyd notwithstanding...) we've all had pretty informative, intelligent, and rational conversations for years... and presume to tell us that we don't have a clue.

I'm so confused.

nate

I would add voltage and (instead of "or") current and warning lights for low oil level, low coolant level, and low tire pressure (which is being implemented already).

But Nate says people are dumbasses who can't halfway maintain their cars.

Now he says those same dumbasses can suddenly understand and use gauges?

Nate's the dumbass.

And you expect that the car buying and car using public at large--who are not engineers, and who can barely find their way to the bathroom--would benefit from such a gauge.

Would buy such a gauge.

You're an ignorant asshole. That's all there is to it. You show it every time you open your mouth.

Maybe if they were expected to understand what those gauges mean, they'd start to understand the necessity of regular oil changes, coolant flushes, etc?

Why, because I insist on proper gauges in my own cars and won't let anyone near them that doesn't at least know enough to check for out of range or anomalous gauge readings? That seems like simple common sense to me.

nate

No--insisting that cars be built with such gauges is idiotic.

I'm not insisting that they be built with them. I'm just stating that they'd better be damn appealing - more so than most new cars - if the manufacturer expects me to buy them, and then go to the time and expense of mounting gauges in a brand new car.

nate

and the so-called "idiot light" would have served exactly the same purpose!

so you say. but if you'd used a decent filter in the first place, with the correct change interval, that wouldn't be an issue.

what kind of "engineer" are you? we used to have some guys run about our place only barely smarter than the 10lb hammers they carried - they called themselves "engineers" too.

I gotta come to Nate's defense here.

As I stated earlier, everyone should know the four basic functions to trouble free driving;

1. Fuel Supply
2. Engine Temperature
3. Oil Pressure
4. Electrical System Status

It should be one of the basic requirements to get behind the wheel.

It's just that simple...

JT

what are you going to do with that? normal operation is controlled by the fully automatic thermostat. all you need to know is whether it overheats. and that's a maintenance issue more than a driver monitoring issue.

see above.

see above.

I'm dealing in the real world here.

People don't know the basic functions. And you can't make them know. You can't make knowing those functions be required for them to get a driver's license.

Given that, we must find a way to accommodate those people. Or change the law.

These are the same types as people who own computers for the sake of owning computers. They love to fiddle and measure clock speeds and broadband speeds and know the cpu temperature and how it measures on benchmarks, and then fiddle some more to see if they can beat their benchmarks.

You don't want those people making strategical decisions on how to deploy a technology infrastructure within a corporation.

Same with the cars: you don't want the engineers who have to know the temperature at the top of the piston ("just in case, to avoid failure") to be involved in managing the money pump that is an auto manufacturer.

But since you are one of three people who cares like this, the real world says manufacturers wouldn't care about you and your wants even if they knew about you.

I'm talking real world here.

you'd certainly want to know in the r&d phase to see whether the cheapo pistons you're trying to use will melt at w.o.t. but once you've determined that relative to design life, then it's completely over. all attention then turns to q.c. and cost management.