jeh@ritcv.UUCP (Jim Heliotis) (05/01/85)
I just bought a Merk Lynx with a 4-speed. The easiest thing to read on
the dashboard is the SHIFT light!* I think it is telling me to shift too
soon -- the car rumbles if I 'obey' it. Maybe I just need to let the engine
get worked in?
I am interested to know what other people think of the car telling you when
to shift. Sounds like a poor man's automatic to me.
Jim Heliotis
{allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!jeh
rocksvax!ritcv!jeh
ritcv!jeh@Rochester
* The steering wheel hides half the speedometer (I'm 6'3")garys@hou2b.UUCP (#G.SEUBERT) (05/04/85)
I see the SHIFT light as not telling you WHEN to shift but telling you that, since you're not currently accelerating, you would get better mileage if you shifted up to the next gear. If you think it's telling you WHEN to shift and then, immediately after shifting up you start to accelerate, the car probably WILL start to balk. If I drive my Audi 5000S properly, the light seldom comes on. If I'm holding at level spped in (say) 4th gear for more than a few seconds, the light comes on to tell me I should shift. But that means I can save gas by shifting up to 5th PROVIDING I CONTINUE to hold level speed. Obviously, if I then decide to accelerate, I should downshift first. Gary Seubert - HOCC UNIX Support hou2b!garys
ugzannin@sunybcs.UUCP (Adrian Zannin) (05/05/85)
> I just bought a Merk Lynx with a 4-speed. The easiest thing to read on > the dashboard is the SHIFT light!* I think it is telling me to shift too > soon -- the car rumbles if I 'obey' it. Maybe I just need to let the engine > get worked in? > > I am interested to know what other people think of the car telling you when > to shift. Sounds like a poor man's automatic to me. > > Jim Heliotis Well, Jim, I don't have that car, but I have a 1980 Toyota Corrolla SR-5 with the 5-speed, and it has shift marks on the speedometer that are supposed to show you when to shift to get the best mileage. Well, I tried it and I had the same problem, so I started shifting when I though I should (by the sound of the engine) and I found myself shifting at least 10 miles an hour over what is recommended. Also, that shift light is probably no good on hills either. (I personally think that standard shift cars were meant to be red-lined anyway!)... -- Adrian Zannin ..{burdvax,rocksvax,bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksanne,watmath}!sunybcs!ugzannin BITNET: CS24173@SUNYABVA
thoth@tellab2.UUCP (Marcus Hall) (05/07/85)
This light was the first thing to go when I got my new car. The second was the interlock that prevented the car from starting unless the clutch was fully depressed. It may be safer for the general population to have cars idiot proofed (it that isn't a null concept), but having the car telling me what to do was a bit annoying. Now my car respects my judgement and we get along just fine. marcus hall
chris@scgvaxd.UUCP (Chris Yoder) (05/07/85)
[bug poison]
In the last two cars that I have owned there was a silly shift light.
In the first, a Honda 1300 FE, the shift light was actually relatively
reliable at telling you when to shift for milage, providing that you were
on level ground or going down hill. Going up hills and in any situation
where you wanted power I learned to ignore it completely. I actually found
that having the light there telling me to shift for milage if I really
didn't need to be in the gear that I was in kind of useful, even if I
normally ignored it because I could see the road about me.
I now own a VW Cabriolet, and it has a shift light in it that I wouldn't
listen to if my very life depended upon it, I still haven't figured out what
it's micro-chip is telling it to do!
The truely silly thing about this idiot light is that they are mostly
based on the current RPM's that the engine is pulling, and since both cars
in this example also have a tachometer in them, why not just put a mark on
the tachometer for those who care to pay attention? (I have always believed
that if you're going to drive, drive! I can't stand the thought of
operating a car with only 1/2 of your mind on the task at hand, that being
driving.) Oh well, at least in both cases the idiot light was extra, and
if you wanted to ignore it then that's easy enough to do.
-- Chris Yoder
UUCP --- {allegra|ihnp4}scgvaxd!engvax!chris
<Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get
you...>
{ The opinions here are representative of Huge Aircrash, not me and
*especially* not of my poor little keyboard. 8-)=
}
--
-- Chris Yoder
UUCP --- scgvaxd!engvax!chris
<Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get
you...>
{ The opinions here are representative of Huge Aircrash, not me and
*especially* not of my poor little keyboard. 8-)=
}ron@wjvax.UUCP (Ron Christian) (05/17/85)
> Well, Jim, I don't have that car, but I have a 1980 Toyota Corrolla SR-5 >with the 5-speed, and it has shift marks on the speedometer that are supposed >to show you when to shift to get the best mileage. > >[deleted...] > > Adrian Zannin Ummm, Volkswagon has had this feature for at least 15 years. I'm NOT recommending VW, just pointing out that this feature is not new. On our '70 (?) van, however, I *think* the marks indicated maximum RPM, (since back then gas was 28 cents a gallon :-)). Same for the 79 rabbit. I don't know about the newer cars. Oops, sorry, it's not a car, it's a Volkswagon. -- __ Ron Christian (Watkins-Johnson Co. San Jose, Calif.) {pesnta,twg,ios,qubix,turtlevax,tymix,vecpyr,certes}!wjvax!ron "What do you mean you backed it up the wrong direction???"
jayj@hpisla.UUCP (Jay Johannes) (05/22/85)
RE: shift lights When I test drove the early VW GTI, they had a shift light. It seemed to come on just when you got into the power bandwidth, so the best way to drive was by trying to keep the light on. By the time we bought our GTI, Volkswagen had disconnected the light.
ugzannin@sunybcs.UUCP (Adrian Zannin) (05/22/85)
> > Well, Jim, I don't have that car, but I have a 1980 Toyota Corrolla SR-5 > >with the 5-speed, and it has shift marks on the speedometer that are supposed > >to show you when to shift to get the best mileage. > > > >[deleted...] > > > > Adrian Zannin > > Ummm, Volkswagon has had this feature for at least 15 years. I'm NOT > recommending VW, just pointing out that this feature is not new. On > our '70 (?) van, however, I *think* the marks indicated maximum RPM, > (since back then gas was 28 cents a gallon :-)). Same for the 79 rabbit. > I don't know about the newer cars. etc... I am positive that the marks on the speedometer indicate the best speed to shift at with regard to gas mileage. I checked the car's owner's manual and it says that "...Toyota recommends shifting at the speeds indicated on the speedometer to obtain the best possible gas mileage..." -- Adrian Zannin ..{burdvax,rocksvax,bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksanne,watmath}!sunybcs!ugzannin BITNET: CS24173@SUNYABVA
loverso@sunybcs.UUCP (John Robert LoVerso) (05/22/85)
> I am positive that the marks on the speedometer indicate the best speed > to shift at with regard to gas mileage. I checked the car's owner's manual > -- > Adrian Zannin Obviously the interpretation of the marks depends on the car manufacturer. I previously owned a VW bug and the marks there clearly indicated maximum RPM for the gear (unless optimal speed for 2nd gear was 55mph). My 80 Honda Civic has the same type of marks (its a 5speed but only 1st and 2nd are given maximums, with 2nd being ~60 or something ridiculous like that). Recent Honda "economy" models have included a dummy light that tells you when to shift... (but, then thats how this whole topic started...) John -- John Robert LoVerso @ SUNY Buffalo (716-636-3004) LoVerso%Buffalo@CSNET-RELAY -or- ..!{watmath|rocksanne}!sunybcs!loverso
thoth@tellab3.UUCP (Marcus Hall) (05/23/85)
I just returned a survey form that GM is sending out to owners of manual transmission cars. It just wants to know if you have a car equipped with the ^SHIFT idiot light, and if so, do you use it. I checked the box that I ignore it (and additionally said that it was disconnected because it was annoying). I wounder what the results will be. It seems that most usenet people just ignore the light. Will they decide it isn't worth it? marcus hall ..!ihnp4!tellab1!tellab2!thoth p.s. The survey was about 4 questions long, most of which were kind of dumb (are you the primary driver of this car, etc.). A few days before, they had sent me a letter saying that they were going to be sending me a survey. I wounder how much they spend on postage for these surveys!