Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[Blueprint]

Europeans live in tiny spaces.  Few have a private garage let alone a detached house.

I am the only person I know that still changes oil and filter on a car and that is only once a year sometimes once every two years.  I only swap tires because I have lots of indoor garage space and a nice clean level smooth service for the jack.

Most people on my street don't even mow there own lawns or shovel their snow... I do tire swaps myself and some other things like electrical, filters and batteries but leave the dirty bits to the pros. I'm a diehard DIY'r at heart but I have to balance stuff with my time and reference hourly rate...

[Dante]

.

Did an F-150 the other day with electronic rear parking brake. There's a service mode you select in the gauge cluster menu - couldn't be simpler.

Right? If you're going to add something like that make it easy to put in service mode.

But not the Germans....let's make it more complex for no good reason.

Remember couple of things ....

#1 your car was a high-tech, special car at its time - probably Audi did not want to make it easy for the owner to change brakes on that car, or probably anything for that matter - I would fully expect most of the maintenance to be a PITA on that car
#2 the target audience for that car was not likely to be a DIY-er changing brakes on the street .... imagine well off Hans of that time doing a brake job in the parking lot - 0% probability ....
#3 as the EPB became more mainstream the self-service options became more accessible. Not sure if quite as accessible as a menu option on the IP, or even push/hold steps on the button itself, but on some of the newer Audi/VW products the 12V trick would work

[rrocket]

.

Did an F-150 the other day with electronic rear parking brake. There's a service mode you select in the gauge cluster menu - couldn't be simpler.

Right? If you're going to add something like that make it easy to put in service mode.

But not the Germans....let's make it more complex for no good reason.

Remember couple of things ....

#1 your car was a high-tech, special car at its time - probably Audi did not want to make it easy for the owner to change brakes on that car, or probably anything for that matter - I would fully expect most of the maintenance to be a PITA on that car
#2 the target audience for that car was not likely to be a DIY-er changing brakes on the street .... imagine well off Hans of that time doing a brake job in the parking lot - 0% probability ....
#3 as the EPB became more mainstream the self-service options became more accessible. Not sure if quite as accessible as a menu option on the IP, or even push/hold steps on the button itself, but on some of the newer Audi/VW products the 12V trick would work

Stupid and/or poor engineering is exactly that regardless of who's doing the work.

I've seen it again and again and again in German cars. And I've seen it at work for the molds that make German car parts.

As I'm fond of saying...if the Germans made a paperclip, it would have 6 moving parts.

[Fobroader]

.

Did an F-150 the other day with electronic rear parking brake. There's a service mode you select in the gauge cluster menu - couldn't be simpler.

Right? If you're going to add something like that make it easy to put in service mode.

But not the Germans....let's make it more complex for no good reason.

Remember couple of things ....

#1 your car was a high-tech, special car at its time - probably Audi did not want to make it easy for the owner to change brakes on that car, or probably anything for that matter - I would fully expect most of the maintenance to be a PITA on that car
#2 the target audience for that car was not likely to be a DIY-er changing brakes on the street .... imagine well off Hans of that time doing a brake job in the parking lot - 0% probability ....
#3 as the EPB became more mainstream the self-service options became more accessible. Not sure if quite as accessible as a menu option on the IP, or even push/hold steps on the button itself, but on some of the newer Audi/VW products the 12V trick would work

Stupid and/or poor engineering is exactly that regardless of who's doing the work.

I've seen it again and again and again in German cars. And I've seen it at work for the molds that make German car parts.

As I'm fond of saying...if the Germans made a paperclip, it would have 6 moving parts.

 

[Blueprint]

.

Did an F-150 the other day with electronic rear parking brake. There's a service mode you select in the gauge cluster menu - couldn't be simpler.

Right? If you're going to add something like that make it easy to put in service mode.

But not the Germans....let's make it more complex for no good reason.

Remember couple of things ....

#1 your car was a high-tech, special car at its time - probably Audi did not want to make it easy for the owner to change brakes on that car, or probably anything for that matter - I would fully expect most of the maintenance to be a PITA on that car
#2 the target audience for that car was not likely to be a DIY-er changing brakes on the street .... imagine well off Hans of that time doing a brake job in the parking lot - 0% probability ....
#3 as the EPB became more mainstream the self-service options became more accessible. Not sure if quite as accessible as a menu option on the IP, or even push/hold steps on the button itself, but on some of the newer Audi/VW products the 12V trick would work

Stupid and/or poor engineering is exactly that regardless of who's doing the work.

I've seen it again and again and again in German cars. And I've seen it at work for the molds that make German car parts.

As I'm fond of saying...if the Germans made a paperclip, it would have 6 moving parts.

Can't remember which classic-era American automotive journalist wrote this, but after solving a few issues on his 190SL, he decided to take apart the ashtray. He realized it had 25 parts. He sold the car.

[PJungnitsch]

Always said it must be something driven by German engineering training. Historically they can be masters at simple and effective if they have to be, but it's like a very low cred thing for a German engineer

[Blueprint]

Always said it must be something driven by German engineering training. Historically they can be masters at simple and effective if they have to be, but it's like a very low cred thing for a German engineer

[Blueprint]

This one ain't bad too:

[Dante]

.

Did an F-150 the other day with electronic rear parking brake. There's a service mode you select in the gauge cluster menu - couldn't be simpler.

Right? If you're going to add something like that make it easy to put in service mode.

But not the Germans....let's make it more complex for no good reason.

Remember couple of things ....

#1 your car was a high-tech, special car at its time - probably Audi did not want to make it easy for the owner to change brakes on that car, or probably anything for that matter - I would fully expect most of the maintenance to be a PITA on that car
#2 the target audience for that car was not likely to be a DIY-er changing brakes on the street .... imagine well off Hans of that time doing a brake job in the parking lot - 0% probability ....
#3 as the EPB became more mainstream the self-service options became more accessible. Not sure if quite as accessible as a menu option on the IP, or even push/hold steps on the button itself, but on some of the newer Audi/VW products the 12V trick would work

Stupid and/or poor engineering is exactly that regardless of who's doing the work.

I've seen it again and again and again in German cars. And I've seen it at work for the molds that make German car parts.

As I'm fond of saying...if the Germans made a paperclip, it would have 6 moving parts.

Can't remember which classic-era American automotive journalist wrote this, but after solving a few issues on his 190SL, he decided to take apart the ashtray. He realized it had 25 parts. He sold the car.

Ha, ha... That's nothing.... I recall a YT video of a guy who took apart the pop out cupholder in BMW E90 only to identify an exorbitant number of moving parts... Can't remember the number but it was significant...

[draghon]

Posted it for sale

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/winnipeg/2014-gmc-acadia-sle2/1663231198

[Gurgie]

Posted it for sale

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/winnipeg/2014-gmc-acadia-sle2/1663231198

Best of luck with the sale

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

[2JDM]

Posted it for sale

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/winnipeg/2014-gmc-acadia-sle2/1663231198

Good luck!

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Posted it for sale

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/winnipeg/2014-gmc-acadia-sle2/1663231198

Replacing it with anything?

[draghon]

Yep, ordered the replacement "awhile" ago. Finally got notification that it should be here around the end of the month. If the Acadia doesn't sell by then, it will get traded in.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Yep, ordered the replacement "awhile" ago. Finally got notification that it should be here around the end of the month. If the Acadia doesn't sell by then, it will get traded in.

Did you mention what you ordered, or do we get to guess?

[draghon]

It was mentioned in another thread a while ago. Its nothing special but if guys want to have some fun, feel free to throw out some guesses or dig through the old threads 

[Blueprint]

It was mentioned in another thread a while ago. Its nothing special but if guys want to have some fun, feel free to throw out some guesses or dig through the old threads 

Mazda CX-something or Subaru Crosstrek

[Fobroader]

Cadillac V8 super sedan thing?!?!?!

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[draghon]

Mazda CX-something or Subaru Crosstrek

No, but equally boring and arguably more practical

Cadillac V8 super sedan thing?!?!?!

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

I wish!

[Bubba]

Mazda CX-something or Subaru Crosstrek

No, but equally boring and arguably more practical

Honda CR-V?