I think everyones first drive should be behind the wheel of a John Deere. but thats just me! :cowboy:

seriously thought, you should have to learn to drive a fully manual vehicle before you are allowed to drive one with all the bells and whistles.

another reason we should be building german high speed mag lev trains. we would save more lives and live with far less stress. no ultra bright headlights or rear foggers screwing up your day. simply board the train, order up a starbucks coffee, grab a USA today or Wall Street Journal and enjoy the USA, the 300 MPH German Mag Lev way!!

I got no problem with automatic headlights. There are too many clueless morons around here who don't turn on their headlights on rainy or foggy days. Just because it's day time doesn't mean you dont have to use your lights!

Well....
I cannot stand people who live with their high beams on all the time. It seems that in the SDL the backlight and rear view mirror are set up just to reflect any moron's high beams into your eyes.

I want to get a nice high powered light and mount it under the back bumper. I would turn it on when a moron rides up behind me with their brights on. I have no problem with flashing to pass and I will get over as soon as possible if somebody flashes me, but the idiots who run all the time with the high beams on drive me nuts. I knew a guy (Ex-wife's friend's husband) who did that. He had no idea he could TURN THEM OFF!! I guess the car came from the dealer with the brights on annd he never figured out how to flip the turn signal stalk to switch them off!:eek:

Now as for fog lights. I drive with my fogs on when I am in deer country. The fogs on the SDL throw enough light onto the road shoulders that I can see potential venison steaks on the side of the road. I find the MB factory fogs do not blind oncoming cars either. I do not use my brights unless I am on a pitch dark road with no traffic.

I will flash you to pass you or to warn oncoming cars of speed traps, etc...

isn't that it. a while back, it was raining pretty good. while rolling up on a stop light, I noticed a newer dark grey colored 740 or 750 BMW in the left lane with his lights OFF. I rolled up in the 560, honked and rolled down my window. guy rolls down his window. I yell, "Your lights are OFF". he replies, "My lights are off?" I said, "Yes, your lights are off, it's RAINING". he looks at me as if I am crazy for saying anything and then drives off. and people wonder why their insurance rates continue to climb......

Heh. There's automatic headlights (light sensing, daytime running), and then there's automatic high-beams (I'm sure they're light sensing too).

It's really a shame that it's so hard to push a button, turn a knob, or flip a switch nowadays. Sure, computers are great, but so is simplicity! I'll keep my older Benz :)

I have another theory . . . baby boomers with loss of night vision accuity. Sure, there are plenty of youngsters out there with their aftermarket, impropery aimed bi-xenons . . . but just think of all those aging eyeballs out there who need that extra 30-50 feet of roadway illumination to keep things focused.

Are you talking about me. Actually I adjust my own lights the way I want them so I can see fine.

Amen. Stick them behind the wheel of a '63 Ford pickup with three on the tree and manual steering. If they can manage to drive that, they can drive pretty much anything.

Recently, a friend's daughter and her hubby were looking to get a decent used vehicle as a second car. Daughter was raised in Wyoming driving pickups and definitely knows how to drive stick. Their initial choice was an '02 VW Jetta TDI. At first I was quite proud of my adopted "niece" for picking not only a decent car with excellent fuel mileage but a diesel as well - but then I found out it was an automatic - the one thing you DO NOT want in a used VW is one of their crappy auto trannies! When I asked why they were considering an automatic, she informed me that hubby didn't know how to drive a manual!!!:eek:

In my generation (I'm 26) about 65% of people can't drive a stick. Of that 65% I'd say 90% of that are the women. I've come to accept the fact that I'd have to teach any girl I get serious about how to drive a stick shift... I've tought 5 girls since high school. A few years back I was seeing a gril, and she was driving a crappy honda (go figure) but I was shocked when I got in and it was a stick. She admitted to the car bing kinda crappy, but she turned down a newer Civic, because she will only drive a stick! Man, I was in Love!

or a 220D with three on the tree. thats also hard. now add a broken right arm.:eek:

that was my Dad for about two months.

i drove that car, it was difficult, but then again i was about 12 when i drove it.

High beams drive me nuts.


OTOH my truck has fully automatic lights and I think they are great. I just leave the switch in auto and let the computer turn them on; can't complain it seems to work really well. Also you can never forget to leave your lights on since it shuts them off automaticly.

thats what the Benz buzzer is for.

Chevy doesn't need a buzzer, the truck handles it.:D

Perhaps that explains the opposite problem I've noticed, becoming much more frequent of late - people driving down a street at night without ANY lights on whatsoever!

Perhaps this scenario - they also have a vehicle with completely automatic lights and are used to letting the vehicle do all the work - it's no longer part of their muscle memory to turn on the lights. Then, when they drive an older/different second vehicle on occasion, it doesn't even cross their mind that they need to turn on the headlights and blithely drive off - until/unless they come to a section of road with no ambient lighting/streetlights and wonder why suddenly they can't see a d####d thing!:rolleyes: