50 replies to this topic

[sonikk4]

 

If I thought they'd listen I would. I can't be the only one who thinks cars are now designed and marketed to appeal to 5 year olds.
 
You get dazzled by ridiculously bright headlights even on dipped beam because roads aren't, and never were, perfectly flat. Front indicators are near impossible to see at night because they're built in to the headlights. High level brake lights are directly in your eyeline so you get blinded in queuing traffic...
 
... it's Friday and sunny outside too 

While we are having a moan what I hate is the cars that have DRL's and when an indicator is turned on the DRL that side turns off, looks stupid in my opinion, as do the led indicators on the rear of certain cars that light up one by one to form a line (best way of describing it lol)

 

 

Audi have the sequential illuminating rear indicator lights on the new range of cars. Must have got type approval unless they found it in the bottom of a cornflakes packet.

[tiger99]

No, they have just done what the same VAG did with the Passat with the plastic fuel tank all those years ago, and put it through TUV, an organisation who are somewhat lax. I know, I have worked with them in another field.

If you will cheat on plastic fuel tanks and exhaust emissions, you will surely be just as likely to cheat on lighting?

[sonikk4]

PROOF!!! You cannot go round saying what you like without the proof to back it up. (Yes the emissions was a caught with your pants down time) However as to the rear indicator lights then you tell me and show me how they did not get these cars legal for driving on UK roads.

 

Oh and VAG were not the only manufacturer to cheat with their emissions. However i digress. Best you nip down to Audi and tell them they are breaking the law. Oh and as for TUV being lax, you only had to go through German scrap yards to see cars with minor corrosion that would have passed an MOT in the UK. I saw countless Fords and VW's that would need very minor welding to pass a UK MOT and in some cases no welding at all.

 

And yes i lived in Germany for 3 years and saw this with my own eyes. The TUV test was an utter pig to pass as a few of my german friends would attest to at the time.

[tiger99]

I understand that the TUV test was a pig. They would needlessly fail windscreens due to very minor delamination at a corner. But TUV, as I was referring to them, are a large private company who also do lots of type approval work in many fields as well as being a standards setting organisation like BSI and in those areas area they are not held in high regard. (The other German standards body, DIN, is also mediocre for other reasons, starting with it being largely a trade association. Fortunately their stuff has mostly been replaced by ISO standards.)

The fact that a private company sets the standard for the equivalent of the MOT is somewhat disconcerting.

The problem is that in theory if TUV type approve a car (in reality many of the tests are done by the manufacturer and they just rubber stamp it) it can then be sold legally in any EU country. That is all that happens in the normal course of events. They only needed to pass off these lights as complying with their self-developed and somewhat changeable standards for them to appear here, and it is illegal to stop their import. Road legality is a different matter. Type approval may not guarantee that, no more than the MOT or even IVA guaranteeing that a vehicle is legal.

It is all stupid. Fortunately in other non-automotive fields standards are set by ISO/IEC and applied by a multitude of independent test houses, including parts of TUV in the UK, who are overseen by the national standards body (BSI) and there is no wriggle room at all. You actually get the same results, doing the same test anywhere because there is no incestuous relationship between standards body and test house.

But I would go nowhere near a TUV approved nuclear reactor....

[olly33]

If I thought they'd listen I would. I can't be the only one who thinks cars are now designed and marketed to appeal to 5 year olds.
 
You get dazzled by ridiculously bright headlights even on dipped beam because roads aren't, and never were, perfectly flat. Front indicators are near impossible to see at night because they're built in to the headlights. High level brake lights are directly in your eyeline so you get blinded in queuing traffic...
 
... it's Friday and sunny outside too 

While we are having a moan what I hate is the cars that have DRL's and when an indicator is turned on the DRL that side turns off, looks stupid in my opinion, as do the led indicators on the rear of certain cars that light up one by one to form a line (best way of describing it lol)

I see audi and vw use these indicators as standard on some models now.

The blinding I don't like is the drivers who fit hid bulbs into standard headlights which in turn reflect the light everywhere as the headlight is not made for them with chrome reflectors all the way round.

Anyway the mini has now passed for another year.

[CityEPete]

I believe that those are illegal. Imports from the USA?

Not at all, optional extra on many UK VAG group cars now.