Things I don't miss on vehicles

[pentode]

Late 60s and early 70s Citroen DS had a crank starter in addition to the electric starter. The car, while ugly enough to make a freight train take a dirt road had a bunch of neat innovative technologies in it. It had headlights that turned with the wheels (like the Tucker, but both sets, not just a separate center light) , you could also retract either of the rear wheels, could change a tire without a jack plus with that feature you could retract the flat wheel and drive short distances without changing it. and had fully independent suspension and disk brakes in the mid 60s. Quite an engineering marvel for its time. Youtuber Car Wizard did a show on one, showing these features. Highly recommend it

AJ

Nooooooooooo!

Ugly? Don't you know the DS was a French play on words : D S, "déesse", as in goddess?

Ok, I admit it's not for everyone, but don't we wish car designers still had the balls of 60s French automakers? Who says a turn signal stalk shouldn't be on the floor? or come out of the roof?

Oh, and don't forget the 4-speed-on-the-tree. . (Not a joke)


Edit : Speaking of French automotive genius and points - my 1990 Renault has points, but uses a bypass transistor so the points don't spark, so they're basically not a wear item anymore. Still on original points at 190,000km

 

[oldgeek]

The lane assist in my wife’s Subaru will immediately try and force the car into a jersey barrier if it’s turned on when driving on the highway.

You just don't appreciate the car's desire to interact with barriers.

 

[pentode]

They're cool cars. Supposedly I came home from the hospital after being born in one. My dad had some interesting cars in the 1970s in California.

I checked out a very original and nice one in detail that was at the Stockton PnP in the late 2000s. Great ergonomics and funky styling. I doubt there's an easy was to recharge or service the high pressure nitrogen spheres in the trunk that provides the suspension damping. You could probably use hydraulics or maybe an on board air compressor to keep it functional.

Believe it or not, replacement spheres are plentiful and easy to find at pretty much every parts chain in France. And probably a big chunk of Europe too. There are a handful of other Citroens that used the same (or very similar) spheres, the BX, GS, CX, XM, Xantia, C5, and I'm probably forgetting others. Last time I checked they were about $50 a pop.

Edit: going into way too much French car nerd detail for an unrelated thread on a Ranger forum, the old cars had one sphere per corner. The later cars had one per corner plus one extra, or sometimes multiple extras to do varying degrees of active suspension. Also, the central valve used to manage all the hydraulics is referred to as the "octopus" for reasons that are easy to imagine.

 

[Snoranger]

. Also, the central valve used to manage all the hydraulics is referred to as the "octopus" for reasons that are easy to imagine.

Because they make miruhule boava out of it?
I can’t see that tasting good at all.